By Jim Graham
Yes, we SHOULD look in depth at the history of Ft. Snelling. And then pray no one ever comes to “Re-Develop” us, our culture, and our children.
Another advocate of unrevised history recently said, “What I learned from that experience with the state-hired historians, is that their information is hugely biased and not to be trusted, particularly when it comes to delineating the history of a mostly vanquished people who lived entirely in an oral tradition.”
At an open house to receive “Public Input” a United States Park Service representative was quite aggressive in his assertion that their was NO history of the Cold Water Springs. (The sacred area near Minnehaha Falls that was violated during the routing of the Light Rail Transit and rerouting of Hiawatha Avenue in spite of disagreement and protest.) area having any documented religious significance for the Mdewakanton Dakota people.
When I challenged this with the idea that there certainly was in the oral tradition of the elders of the Mdewakanton, he flatly stated that if there was not “Written documentation it doesn”'t matter”. I asked if he understood that oral histories particularly around religious and cultural important facts are often more reliable than “written histories” and have been documented to be so in research that was “written down”. Also since this oral history was “Written down” by people describing Mdewakanton culture what he meant by not documented. I assume by his derisive manner he meant by “Accepted” writers.
Of course it could be that he was not that stupid after all, and was simply a bureaucrat covering for the Park Service inappropriately attempting to deny “Rights” of the Mdewakanton people. An attempt at “Institutional Cultural Genocide”. After all that same 1803 Louisiana Purchase Treaty that guaranteed that all indigenous people of the area would become United States Citizens under the Constitution of the United States with their property rights fully guaranteed and protected ALSO specifically guaranteed their religious beliefs and practices.
Isn”'t it amazing how parts of the United States bureaucracy make claims that the documents that a few Indian people signed under the threat of the killing of their families have legal weight and at the same time ignore that same type of document freely signed by our United States government. Amazing but not too funny. It should shame every citizen of the United States.
Please, those of you who have not, please Google and read the 1803 Louisiana Treaty and the 1805 Pike Treaty. If it is not vitally important for the property rights of land owners in Minneapolis, it is vital as a matter of justice. The TRUE “Cradle of Minnesota” for white Minnesotans is in those documents.
The real cradle of Minnesota is in the creation story and religion of the Mdewakanton Dakota People. When the Mdewakanton signed that first treaty allowing Whites to build that Military Post on their hollowed ground they welcomed the serpent into their grandchildren”'s beds. They opened their doors to the Angels of Death that would eventually destroy generations of their children. Though protected as “Citizens of the United States”, and only signing away “Sovereignty” and NOT “Property Rights” as stipulated in the 1803 Treaty, they opened the first door to evil that would become the genocide of their own people. AND that is documented in “written” history, as well as the oral traditions of the Mdewakanton people.
The “Cradle of Minnesota” is a bloody one, because it entailed the killing of the children who already slept there.
Thank you Nick Coleman for your commentary. Though it falls short of the significance of Fort Snelling as an attraction of world wide significance. After all, only about 50 or 60 years later another crazy person used the treatment of Mdewakanton people, as well as the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks, as his models for solving the “Jew” problem in Europe. His name was Hitler, by the way.
Part of that interesting “HISTORY” also includes offering first $50.00 and finally $200.00 for the head of any Sioux found in Minnesota. An amount that would be thousands of dollars in today”'s dollars. A great “founding father” named Ramsey (our own Hitler) lead that effort. Some might think, “well, they were just Indians,” but those who do so do not consider that those with the bounty on their head (those men, women and children) were United States citizens who were guaranteed all rights under the Constitution of the United States.
That history should also include the fact that white people were also being protected by a large number of Mdewakanton people. Protected by the very people who the settlers had come to rob and steal from and protected by a people who were being starved to death as they were being robbed by those same white settlers.
History would show that under clause 3 of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase Treaty with France, as well as Clause 3 of the 1805 Pike”'s Treaty the Mdewakanton Dakota (Sioux) people have “Land Rights” to every piece of property in the City of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Especially, when the two documents are looked at together. If pursued into Federal Court that claim would cloud the title of EVERY piece of property and home in Minneapolis with just the filing of a “Lis Pendens”. That is NOT speculation. It was the opinion of a lawyer for a Minnesota title company when he was showed the the language of the two treaties.
Now that is some interesting history that could become a present issue.
Oh, and do NOT forget that great historical thing that also existed under the guns at Fort Snelling. Just the largest “Concentration Camp” in the history of the United States where our own “Heroes” performed acts of genocide on a people.
That is why I laugh sometimes (better than crying) at the politicians idea of the “Plans” to re-develop Ft. Snelling. Redevelop by white developers that is. It is a bit like having the Nazi party re-develop Auschwitz for a tourist trap that extols the virtue of Hitler.
I believe the word is “SHAME”. That word is unknown to politicians of course, but it is an emotion that should be felt by them. If there was any shame in Minnesota, Ramsey, that Criminal against humanity, should be stripped from ANY honors in this State. But he will not be, After all he was a leader in the “Birth” of Minnesota and Minneapolis.
Yes, we SHOULD look in depth at the history of Ft. Snelling. And then pray no one ever comes to “Re-Develop” us, our culture, and our children.
