Posts Tagged ‘fort snelling’
What”'s in a Name?
By Peter Molenaar 13,000 years ago the great glacier, which had covered these parts for many thousands of years, began to recede. Giant ice boulders left among the drift created the holes which became our lakes. One such lake would come to be called Mde Maka Ska. The people migrated northward with the receding ice. Those who remained in this neighborhood began to alter the landscape with the repeated use of fire. Forest undergrowth was reduced. Pockets of prairie and oak savannah were expanded. Buffalo befriended the curious deer. Time passed”¦ In 1803, the United States purchased “ownership” of this area from France. In 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike acquired from the Dakota the site which would become Fort Snelling. In 1817, the then Secretary of War, one John C. Calhoun, sent in an army to survey the surroundings. Having located Mde Maka Ska, the troops decided to call her “Lake Calhoun”. (more…)
“Liberty and justice for all” demands history of all
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. (more…)
Endorsements of Minnesota as “Exceedingly Bracing” and “ An Asylum for Invalids,” Inspired Hopes to Cure Tuberculosis
By Sue Hunter Weir Now that winter is almost over and it”'s still a little too soon for us to start worrying about mosquitoes and humidity, we can take a short break from complaining about the weather. Complaining about the weather is part and parcel of living in Minnesota, but that wasn”'t always the case. There was a time when Minnesota”'s weather was considered one of the state”'s major attractions. After visiting Fort Snelling in the 1820s, President Zachary Taylor, endorsed our “exceedingly bracing” weather and wrote that the area was “probably the healthiest in the nation.” Four decades later, civic boosters wrote pamphlets encouraging people from the East Coast and Europe to move here because of our invigorating weather. Minnesota was, they claimed, an “asylum for invalids,” the perfect place to recover from tuberculosis. Cemetery”'s first burial was due to death from tuberculosis: a disease without cure [...]
