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June 2014 Spirit of Phillips

Written by editor on 08 June 2014

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Frank Reflections: “Land of the Free” and “Freedom of Speech” predates white settlers arrival”' Who Knew?

Written by editor on 08 June 2014

By Frank Erickson

I find Dakota Nation history, since the arrival of the white Europeans, to be still so raw, current and painful, while others will see it as the distant past.

A quick hit 90 second “Minnesota History Moment” on PBS radio, had a man from Fong du Lac, talk about being put in an Indian boarding school in the 1960”'s as a little boy. At night before going to sleep, he said one boy would start crying, and then the boy in the next bed would start crying, until the whole room was crying; Broken-hearted from being separated from their families. As a white man, who grew up in Minnesota having everything I needed and being very wealthy, it is so hard to hear such accounts. Dominate cultures, without even realizing it, can break and crush the outsiders.

The white man calls it the “land of the free,” and has taken credit for that freedom, but everything was free around here before Whites arrived, and Natives never called it “land of the free,” I just was.

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The Great Bdote

Written by editor on 08 June 2014

By Peter Molenaar

To the near southeast of this part of the world lies the vista of the Minnesota and Mississippi river valleys. The span of this bdote (a place where two waters come together) is central to our indigenous spirituality. Presently, the Mendota (bdote) Bridge is a convenient way to cross over.

It is also known that Franklin Avenue rests upon an ancient path from the Mississippi to lakes west of here. One may follow this path beyond its ending (and back through time some 35,000 years) to the foothills of the Altai Mountains of Central Asia. You will find there a place where the Sapien people encountered the Neanderthal.

The Sapiens, late arrivals that they were, wisely chose to offer gifts. As it happened, a young woman named Tanya was brought forward. Indeed, she did embrace her destiny.

The dwelling of initial procreation was entered through an archway of Mammoth tusks. The domed framework of skeletal remains glowed magically in the light of flickering fire.