Mdewakanton Rights Activist Initiatives

Mdewakanton Rights Activist InitiativesBy Thomas Dahlheimer

I am a Mdewakanton Dakota rights activist with several Mille Lacs Lake area initiatives. The Mille Lacs Lake area is the sacred ancestral homeland of the Mdewakanton Dakota people. In this booklet I present information about the Mdewakanton Dakota heritage in the Mille Lacs Lake area as well as detailed information about my activist initiatives.

The original sacred homeland of the ancient Mdewakanton Dakota people is located in North Central Minnesota in an area near present day Mille Lacs Lake. One of their many villages was located at or near the confluence of the currently named Rum River and Lake Mille Lacs, with other Dakota villages dispersed throughout the area.

The Mdewakanton (mdé ‘lake’ + wakan ‘sacred’ + ton ‘village’), known as the ‘sacred lake village’ people, are one of the four subdivisions of the “Santee Sioux”. The other three subdivisions of the “Santee Sioux” are the Wakpekutes, Wahpetons and Sissetons. Santee or Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the “Sioux” or Dakota nation.

The Mdewakanton are considered in the oral tradition, one of the most ancient divisions of the Dakota Nation or Ocetisakowin ‘Seven Council Fires’. In time, the Dakota Nation divided into three groups, the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota, each moving in different directions, but still maintaining close ties to one another. The sacred lake (Mille Lacs) figures prominently in Dakota/Lakota/Nakota creation stories. The lake is considered sacred because the original Dakota people, who later divided into three groups as well as seven closely related tribes – including the Mdewakanton, Wakpekute, Wahpeton, Sisseton, Yankton, Yantonai and Teton tribes – merged from it as human beings into this world.

On the Kathio Landmark Trail located in Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, Leonard E. Wabasha, a member of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community and employee of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community Cultural Resource Department, has an interpretive sign. On his interpretive sign, Mr. Wabasha is quoted as saying: “My people are the Mdewakanton Oyate. Mdewakanton means the People of Spirit Lake. Today that lake is known as Mille Lacs. This landscape is sacred to the Mdewakanton Oyate because one Otokaheys Woyakapi (creation story) says we were created here. It is especially pleasing for me to come here and walk these trails, because about 1718 the first Chief Wapahasa was born here, at the headwaters of the Spirit River. I am the eighth in this line of hereditary chiefs.”

On his interpretive sign, Mr. Wabasha used the term “Spirit River” instead of the dominate culture’s profane and derogatory name for the river “Rum”. I believe that when he used the term “Spirit River” instead of “Rum River” while in the process of making his statement for a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign he was showing due respect for his people’s heritage in the Mille Lacs Lake area. And I also believe that the Mdewakanton Oyate have just recently entered into a very important stage in the evolution of their culture. And the reason why I believe this is because there is currently an international movement to revert the profane and derogatory name of the “Rum” River back to its ancient and sacred Dakota name (Wakan), translated as Spirit. This movement is being guided by the Minnesota DNR and supported by two Mdewakanton Dakota Communities, Joe Day, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council as well as President of the U.S. Governors’ Interstate Indian Council, several national and internationally renowned American Indian activists, the Minnesota Historical Society’s Indian Advisory Committee, , Mike Jaros (a Minnesota State Legislator), the United Nation’s Secretariat of the Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues, Archbishop Harry Flynn, Bishop John Kinney, and by many other organizations and prominent individuals.

An open letter to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park planners:

Dear park planners,

Greetings from Wahkon, Minnesota, where the headquarters of the international movement to revert the profane and derogatory name of the “Rum” River back to its sacred Dakota name (Wakan) are located.

It is a wonderful thing you are doing at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. The Mdewakanton Oyate must appreciate how you are revitalizing their appreciation of their heritage on the headwaters of the beautiful but badly named “Rum” River.

I am also on a mission to revitalize the Mdewakanton Oyate’s appreciation of their heritage on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. And I am doing this, primarily, by spearheading an international movement to revert the “Rum” River’s current profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Dakota name (Wakan) or to as least its correct interpretation (Spirit).

As you probably know, there is a long standing and well documented derogatory history associated with how the “Rum” River is thought to have received its current name; and that it is because of this derogatory history that a lot of people believe that white explorers performed a “punning” and “perverted” translation for the ancient and sacred Dakota name for the “Rum” River, commonly thought to be (Wakan). And it is also commonly thought that they did so, by taking the ancient and sacred Dakota name for this river (Wakan), translated Spirit, and then incorrectly translated it to mean an alcohol spirit, the alcohol spirit rum; and that they then unfortunately used their faulty translation name “rum” to name this sacred Dakota river with the profane and derogatory name “Rum”.

According to historical documents found in the book, “Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origins and Historical Significances” by Warren Upham, published by the Minnesota Historical Society, 1969 (reprint of 1920)…in the late 1700’s, white men gave the “Rum” River its current name by way of a “punning translation” that “perverted the ancient Sioux name Wakan”. Note: The name “Sioux” is a misnomer.

A few historians believe that the ancient Dakota Indian root-word name for the “Rum” River was Wakan and that it had either one pretext or more than one pretext. Hence, one author of a book about Minnesota geographic place names wrote that the Dakota Indian name for the “Rum” River is Mdo-te-mni-wakan, translated as Mouth (of river)+ water + sacred. However, the present-day Mdewakanton Dakota people believe that their ancestors full “name” for the river was Wakan, therefore they call it Wakan.

In 2002, I established a non-profit organization to help change this river’s profane and derogatory name. My non-prophet organization’s name is Rum River Name Change Organization, Inc.. And I have also created a Web site to help change this river’s derogatory name. My Web site is located at:

http://www.towahkon.org.While reading the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, I was pleased when I discovered that both the sacred Dakota name for Mille Lacs Lake (Wakan) as well as the positive history associated with how this lake received its Mille Lacs name were displayed on one of the trail’s interpretive signs. But I was disappointed when I discovered that the ancient and sacred Dakota name for the river that runs through Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, the river that “white explorers” unfortunately named “Rum”, was not displayed on any of the trails interpretive signs; and that neither was the negative or derogatory history associated with how this river received its current profane and derogatory name. I find it appalling that all up and down the Wakan/”Rum” River there are Historical Markers that present the derogatory history as to how this river received its current profane name, but nowhere on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs is it presented. (To view two signs click (1.)

http://www.towahkon.org/AnokaSign.html and (2.) http://www.towahkon.org/SpiritRiver.htmlI believe that the negative or derogatory history associated with how the “Rum” River is thought to have received its current name should have been displayed on at least one of the trail’s interpretive signs, and that it should have been displayed in order to show due respect to trail visitors (especially Dakota trail visitors) expecting to receive both the positive as well as the negative history when reading the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs about the history of the Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, a park located in the Dakota people’s sacred ancestral homeland.

It seems to me that you should add another Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, an interpretive sign that would both mention the ancient and sacred Dakota “name” for the “Rum” River (Wakan) as well as the negative or derogatory history associated with how the river is thought to have received its current profane and derogatory name. And it also seems to me that you should display on a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign that there is an international movement to change this river’s profane name.

I believe that if you would have initially displayed both the derogatory history associated with how the “Rum” River is thought to have received its current name, as well as displayed information about the international movement to change this river’s profane and derogatory name, on at least one of the trail’s interpretive signs, all of the Mdewakanton Dakota Communities, as well as a lot more other American Indian communities, American Indian organizations, internationally renowned America Indian activists, Minnesota legislators, human rights organizations, multicultural organizations, religious leaders and other prominent people might have already given their support for the effort to change this river’s profane and derogatory name.

Therefore, I believe that if you would have initially displayed the derogatory history associated with how the “Rum” River is thought to have received its current name, the river’s name might have already been changed. And, consequently, a source of racial antagonism might have also been eliminated. By not presenting the derogatory history about how the “Rum” River is thought to have received its current name on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs, I believe that you park planners who approved the displaying of the present interpretive signs avoided attracting controversy and activism. And by not presenting information about the movement to change the “Rum” River’s name on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs, I believe that you further avoided attracting controversy and activism. But in doing so, I believe that you also put a stumbling block in the way of the international movement to change the “Rum” River’s name.

Therefore, I believe that both the Upper Sioux Mdewakanton Community and the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community as well as organizations and concerned citizens who want the “Rum” River’s current profane and derogatory name changed are being hurt by your neglect to display interpretive sign information about this negative aspect of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park history.

Leonard E. Wabasha, a prominent member of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community and employee of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community Cultural Resource Department, supports the effort to change the “Rum” River’s profane and derogatory name. And Jim Anderson, the Cultural Chair and Historian for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community, not only supports the effort to change the name, he has also helped me to gain support for the effort to change the river’s profane name, including the support of the internationally renowned American Indian activist Clyde Bellecourt. And Christina Morris, Field Representative of Midwest Office for Historical Preservation wrote: “We recognize the historic and cultural significance of the Wakan River to the peoples of Minnesota, and we commend you in your research of its history, and your efforts to revitalize the Mdewakanton Dakota Community by raising awareness of their heritage.”

About activism at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park’s Kathio Landmark Trail

The Kathio Landmark Trail is becoming an increasingly active location for both Mdewakanton activists as well as Mdewakanton rights activists who are on a mission to rectify a number of injustices being perpetrated against the Mdewakanton Oyate in their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

(1.) On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, (activist) Tim Blue, the Education Director at Eci Nompa Woonspe in Morton, Minnesota is quoted as saying: “The name of this place should be Isanti (E-sawn-tay`) State Park, because that is correct, whereas Kathio is incorrect. Isan means ‘Knife’ and Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota nation.”

(2.) In an article titled: Call it ‘Spirit’, an article published in the July 14, 2004 edition of Mille Lacs County’s official newspaper, the Mille Lacs Messenger, a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign statement was quoted in order to inform the Mille Lacs public about what a prominent member of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community and employee of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community Cultural Resource Department (Leonard E. Wabasha) is quoted as saying. In this quote Mr. Wabasha referred to the badly named Rum River as “Spirit” River instead of its current derogatory and profane name (Rum). I view Mr. Wabasha’s interpretive sign term ‘Spirit’ River as a Mdewakanton (activist) statement. This is another example of why I believe that Kathio Landmark Trail is becoming an increasingly active location for activists to both express their grievances as well as offer you park planners solutions to these problems. Note: The mentioned above article titled “Call it ‘Spirit'” can be found at

http://www.towahkon.org/Spirit.html .(3.) On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, a statement is displayed that deals with a controversy between archaeologists, you park planners, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the Mdewakanton Dakota . A controversy associated with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition that tells a gruesome account about why and how the Mdewakanton Dakota left their sacred Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland; an account that some archaeologists and yourselves are describing as probably incorrect. Therefore, the Kathio Landmark Trail is a location where a controversy between the Mdewakanton Dakota and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is being addressed by (activists) archaeologists and yourselves.

(4.) And there is my Mdewakanton rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that displays the sacred Dakota name for the river that runs through Mille Lacs Kathio State Park.

(5.) And there is my Mdewakanton rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that displays the derogatory history associated with how the “Rum” River is thought to have received its current profane name.

(6.) And there is my Mdewakanton rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that displays information about the international movement to revert the “Rum” River’s profane name back to its sacred Dakota name.

(7.) And there is my Mdewakanton rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that would inform its readers that the name “Nadouesioux”, a name displayed on a Kathio Landmark Trial interpretive sign, was a derogatory name for the ancient Dakota people.

(8.) And there is my Mdewakanton rights (activist) initiative to influence you to remove a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign with incorrect historical information on it, information that misinforms its readers, by stating that the Dakota left their Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland on their own free will. And in respect to this activist initiative of mine, I not only ask you to remove this interpretive sign but also ask you to add an interpretive sign that would inform its readers that the Dakota were “forced” or “pressured” to leave their sacred ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs Lake area.
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C. D. Floro, the editor of the Sisseton-Wahpeton “Sioux” Tribe’s Lake Traverse Reservation newspaper, a newspaper named Sota, recently gave his support for the effort to change the name of the “Rum” River to Wakan River, and he also published my latest Open Letter To The Oyate in the Sota. In this letter there is a link to this booklet. My Open Letter To The Oyate can be at:

http://www.towahkon.org/Spirit.html .Lake Traverse Reservation is located in South Dakota and is home to 10,840 Sisseton-Wahpeton “Sioux” (Dakota) people. The Sisseton-Wahpeton “Sioux” Tribe is composed of descendants of the Isanti people. Isan means ‘Knife’ and Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota nation. Mille Lacs Lake, the lake that the Wakan/”Rum” River flows out of, is considered sacred because, according to one creation story, the Dakota people emerged from it as human beings into this world.
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The following information came from a website about the history of the Flandreau Santee “Sioux” Tribe. This tribe is comprised primarily of descendents of “Mdewakantonwan”, a member of the Isanti division of the Great Dakota Nation, and refer to themselves as Dakota, which means friend or ally. The Flandreau Santee Dakota “Indian” Reservation is 2,500 acres of land located along and near the Big “Sioux” (Dakota) River in Moody County, South Dakota.”

“In 1656, the Dakotas were living near Mille Lacs, in five villages numbering about 5,000 people. It is possible the Tetons and Yanktons had at this point already begun migrating west, although Hennepin found them above the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi River in 1680. In 1701, they were at Lake Traverse. The Yankton and Yantonai left Mille Lacs at about this time. In the battle of Kathio, which was suppose to have occurred about 1750, the Santee were defeated by the Chippewa; the Mdewakanton band settled at the Falls of St. Anthony in 1760. The departure of the various bands of Sioux from the Mille Lacs area began a transition from a woodlands culture to a culture on the fringes of the Great Plains.”

“By 1800, after a hundred and fifty years of sporadic contact with Europeans, the material culture of the Santee Sioux had been substantially altered. They were now using steel weapons and tools, brass and metal cookware, European cloth and blankets. While their religious and social organization was largely unchanged at the time. They had begun a stage of transition into a new culture with their expulsion from their traditional homeland around Mille Lacs.
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The sacred lake (Wakan/Mille Lacs) figures prominently in the Dakota Nation’s creation stories. This lake is considered sacred because the Dakota, who divided into seven closely related tribes, including the Mdewakanton, Wakpekute, Wahpeton, Yantonai, Sisseton, Yankton and Teton Tribes, merged from it as human beings into this world.

I recognize the historic and sacred cultural significance of the Wakan River to the seven tribes of the Dakota Nation, tribes located within a four state area, including Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska.

I am on a sacred mission to help revitalize all of the Dakota Nation’s tribes – by raising awareness of the their sacred heritage on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

Around 1750, a band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, now known as the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, violently forced – with the help of the white man’s gun powder – the Dakota from their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan River. And after forcing the Dakota from their sacred homeland the Lake Superior Ojibwe band took up residence in the Mille Lacs area, where they remain to this present day. When the Dakota were forced from their homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan River all of the Dakota Nation’s tribes lost a sacred connection and relationship with their heritage in the Mille Lacs area. I am trying to recover the Dakota Nation’s sacred connection and relationship with it original ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs area.

I am hoping and praying that in the near future there will be a big Dakota Nation reunion pow wow held on the sacred land surrounding the mouth of the Wakan River, or, in other words, on Mdoteminiwakan, the Dakota name for this sacred land. And I am also hoping and praying that there will be annual Dakota Nation pow pows held on this same sacred land.
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Mille Lacs Kathio State Park’s name should be changed:

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign there are the words: “The park name is steeped in plenty of history. ‘Mille Lacs,’ a French term used by early explorers and fur traders, means ‘1,000 lakes,’ and referred to the region. The word ‘Kathio’ has a more dubious pedigree. Well-known explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur duLhut collectively referred to the area as ‘Izatys,’ a name the Mdewakanton Dakota people gave themselves. Sieur du Lhut’s poor handwriting caused a wrong translation of the word ‘Izatys’. The ‘Iz’ was transcribed as a K, and further error caused the name to be Kathio, a word that translates to nothing. ‘Kathio’ became a name so attached to the area that the park bears that name today.”

And on another Kathio Landmark Trial interpretive sign the following statement is displayed. “Izatys was DuLhut’s phonetic spelling of a Dakota word that was also recorded as Issatis, Isanti, and Santee. These spellings of the same term referred to a collection of villages along Ogechie Lake, Shakopee Lake and Lake Onamia…”

I believe that in order to show due respect for the Dakota people, Mille Lac “Kathio” State Park planners should find a legislator or legislators who would craft and sponsor a state bill to change the park’s name to a spelling and pronunciation of the Dakota people’s choosing. Note: On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, Tim Blue, the Education Director at Eci Nompa Woonspe in Morton, Minnesota is quoted as saying: “The name of this place should be Isanti (E-sawn-tay`) State Park, because that is correct, whereas Kathio is incorrect. Isan means ‘Knife’ and Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota nation”. Note: A petition to change the name of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park can be found at

http://www.towahkon.org/KathioToIsanti.html.An interpretive sign should state that the name “Nadouesioux” is a derogatory name.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, there is information displayed that informs its readers that: “In 1679 duLhut planted the flag of France at a place he described as ‘the great village of the Nadouesioux, called Izatys’.” The name Nadouesioux is a derogatory name. Therefore, I believe that when this derogatory name was presented on an interpretive sign, park planners should have also presented a statement that mentioned that Nadouesioux is a derogatory name. And I believe that they should have also explained, on that interpretive sign, why it is a derogatory name. This injustice could be rectified, if park planners would make a new interpretive sign with this new information on it and then display it on the Kathio Landmark Trail.

The Web site reference source where I learned that the name Nadouesioux is a derogatory name can be found at:

http://www.whiteculturestudy.us/history.html. On this Web site there are the words: “The name ‘Sioux’ was given to all Dakota bands in what is now known as the Mille Lacs area by the French. These fur-trappers and mapmakers corrupted the name ‘Nadowessi,’ or ‘Natawesiwak,’ from the now more northern Chippewa, who referred to the Sioux as enemies. The word which means ‘enemy’ or ‘snake,’ became ‘Sioux’ when the French added the plural form (‘oux’) [and] the first part was dropped.”Another reference source can be found at

http://www.spiritpath.aaanativearts.com/article654.html. On this reference source Web site, a Web site titled: “Where did the Blackfoot Sioux live in the 1700-1800s?” there are the words: “‘Sioux’ is the name given this tribe by the US Govt, who got it from a bastardized version from the French, who shortened the Algonquin compound, nadowe (‘snake’) plus siu (‘little’), spelled Nadouéssioux, by which a neighboring tribe, the Ojibwa or the Ottawa, referred to the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people. This term was meant as an insult, but today the Federal Government of the United States has applied this name to represent this entire group of Siouan people.”Another reference source can be found at

http://www.mnisose.org/profiles/santee.htm. On this reference source Web site there are the words: “The Santee Sioux are members of the Great Sioux Nation. The people of the Sioux Nation refer to themselves as Dakota or Lakota which means friend or ally. The United States government took the word Sioux from (Nadowesioux), which comes from a Chippewa (Ojibway) word which means little snake or enemy. The French traders and trappers who worked with the Chippewa (Ojibway) people shortened the word to Sioux.”An interpretive sign should state that the Dakota were forced to leave their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland.

On a Kathio Landmark Trial interpretive sign there is misinformation displayed where in park planners imply that there may have been a little Ojibwe pressure put on the Dakota to leave their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River, but not a lot of Ojibwe pressure as some historians claim. And then park planners went even further with their misinformation propaganda and displayed radical misinformation on this interpretive sign by imply that even if there was a little Ojibwe pressure put on the Dakota to leave their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland they all would have never-the-less eventually left without any Ojibwe and/or white European pressure at all. Or, in other words, park planners imply on a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign that the Dakota left their Mille Lacs Lake area homeland on their own free will. And on a combined Minnesota Highway Department and Minnesota Historical Society plaque located near the mouth of the Wakan/”Rum” River there is a presentation of a radically different historical account as to why and how the Dakota left their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland.

On the combined Minnesota Highway Department and Minnesota Historical Society plaque there are the words: “In this vicinity stood the great Sioux village of “Isatys” where Duluth planted the French arms of July 2, 1679. The settlement was visited by Father Hennepin in 1680. About 1750 the Chippewa moving westward from lake Superior captured the village, and by this decisive battle drove the Sioux permanently into southern Minnesota.

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition tells of a mid-1700s battle between the Band’s Lake Superior ancestors and the Dakota who lived in the Mille Lacs Lake area at the time. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition also tells that, by the end of this battle, their Lake Superior ancestors had violently forced the Dakota from their Mille Lacs Lake area homeland; and that that is how they took possession of the Mille Lacs Lake area land that they now live on.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign there are the words: “Historic records of the late 1700s show that the inhabitants of this region to be the Ojibwe rather than Dakota. Why the change? Most historians agree that the Mdewakanton Dakota moved out of this area around 1750. There are different stories as to how this came about. The Ojibwe oral tradition tells of a massive, three-day battle in about 1745. In this story, the Ojibwe forces defeated the Mdewakanton Dakota in what has become known as the “Battle of Kathio”. This decisive victory is said to have pushed the Mdewakanton Dakota from this, their homeland, forever. Dakota oral history does not address such a battle. University of Minnesota archaeologists report that after years of study no evidence has been uncovered at any of the Kathio village sites that would substantiate the claim that a large battle took place here. They contend that although there may have been small scale skirmishes between the two nations. The Mdewakanton Dakota were a population already in transition by the mid-1700s. Moving more and more permanently to the proximity of trading posts to the south and prairies to the southwest.”

I find it hard to believe that when archaeologists and park planners wrote and displayed the above statement on an interpretive sign that they did not believe that the main reason why some of the Dakota were in transition by the mid-1700s was because of problems they were having with the Ojibwe, including violet attacks or “skirmishes” as well as concerns about future terrorist attacks by the Ojibwe, who wanted their land for themselves and did not have a moral problem acquiring gun power from the white “settlers” in order to gain an advantage over the Dakota.

In the above mentioned Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign statement, University of Minnesota archaeologists and park planners seem to be covering up the truth in order to hinder the Dakota from ever being able to reclaim their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. Park planners conveniently failed to mention in the above statement that the Ojibwe were forced out of their homeland on the East coast by white European colonialists and that that was why the Ojibwe were in Dakota territory causing the Dakota problems. It does not matter if there was a large battle or small skirmishes, the Ojibwe were where they should not have been and they were there because they were forced out of their East coast homeland.

And the archaeologists and park planners also failed to mention the historical evidence that indicates that it was the strategy of the white European colonialist to use the tribes that they forced out of their homelands to forces other tribes out of their homelands as they moved westward. And their convenient presumption that because some Dakota had left the region they therefore would not ever have returned to their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland and that the Dakota who were still living in their sacred homeland would have soon moved away from their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland without any further pressure from the Ojibwe and Europeans is appalling.

“As Europeans settled the East coast, they displaced eastern tribes who then migrated west to get away from the White civilization, and they, in their turn, displaced weaker local tribes they encountered, and pushed many of those tribes farther west as they took over their homelands or the original tribes left voluntarily as living conditions became crowded and territories shrunk.” Reference:

http://www.aaanativearts.com/article654.htmlWhile migrating west, a displaced Eastern Band of the Ojibwe Tribe, now known as the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, displaced, with the help of the white man’s gun powder, a local tribe, the Mdewakanton Dakota, also known as the Isanti or Santee people.

Minnesota DNR information:
“The upper river valley has one of the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in Minnesota. The area is rich with Indian history, dating back to more than 3000 years ago. Burial mounds, ricing pits, copper tools and other artifacts have been found throughout the area. Early White/Indian intervention played an important role in the settlement of the area by white men. The French, instigated fights between the Ojibwe and Dakota so as to ally themselves with the Ojibwe. Furs were the early push for settlement in the area, and later efforts turned towards lumbering, which quickly established settlement throughout the area.” Reference:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/canoeing/rumriver/index.htmlAnd on a Web site open to the public, the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton state their historical perspective on this subject. The following two quotes present the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton perspective on why their ancestors left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the “Rum” River around 1750. (1.) “Long ago, the Mdewakanton Dakota lived around Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Around 1750, our ancestors were displaced by another nation, the Anishinnabe, and they relocated throughout the southern portion of the state.” (2.) “This was not the last time the Mdewakantons would be forced into a new home. Treaties in 1851 and 1858 resulted in nearly 7,000 Dakota people being moved onto a narrow reservation along the Minnesota River.”
Reference:

http://www.jackpotjunction.com/culture/past.htmlThe Mdewakanton Dakota are one of the four subdivisions of the Santee or Isanti people. However, the original name for all four subdivisions was Mdewakanton, and this name is sometimes used to refers to all four of the Santee or Isanti Bands.

On Nebraska’s Santee Tribe Web site where is an article with the heading SANTEE SIOUX AGENCY 1918. In the article, this former Minnesota Dakota (Santee) Band states that: “The Santee’s defeat by the Chippewas at the Battle of Kathio in the late 1700s forced them to move to the southern half of the state which would bring them into close contact and eventually conflict with the white settlers. From that point on, survival for the Santee Tribe would become a daily struggle. Reference:

http://www.santeedakota.org/points_of_interest.htmAnd the Flandearu Santee Sioux Tribe states on a website about their history that the “Santee Sioux” bands “had begun a stage of transition into a new culture with their expulsion from their traditional homeland around Mille Lacs.

Nowhere on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs is it mentioned that the Dakota were “displaced” or “forced” from their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. Nor is it mentioned on any of the trail’s interpretive signs that the Dakota were “pressured” by hostile Ojibwe migrating into their central Minnesota territory to leave their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. Here again, I fine it appalling that some more of the negative or derogatory history of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park is not mentioned on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs.

Therefore, it seems to me that once again park planners are attempting to avoid controversy and activism by covering up some more negative or derogatory history associated with Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. But by attempting to avoid controversy and activism they, I believe, have been putting a stumbling block in the way of a righteous movement aimed at rectifying (not covering up) injustices being perpetrated against the Dakota Nation in the Mille Lacs Lake area.

The impression that I receive when reading an interpretive sign on the Kathio Landmark Trail is that the Dakota simply moved on their own free will, without any pressure from white explorers/setters or any other tribe or band, to a different location. But according to the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community, the Flandearu Santee Sioux Tribe, the Santee Tribe of Nebraska and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe that is not how the ancient Mille Lacs Lake area Dakota left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

Therefore, I believe that the interpretive signs on the Kathio Landmark Trail do not, in respect to this subject, give an accurate and respectable historical account as to why and how the ancient Mille Lacs Lake area Dakota left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. And I believe that this is another injustice that park planners are committing against the Dakota people.

I do not trust white Euro-American historians to give accurate historical descriptions about what happened in a particular area if a truthful description could cause the people of the dominate culture to have to make restitution justice to American Indians for what happened, as is the case (I believe) with the Kathio Landark Trail interpretive sign “history” about of the Mille Lacs Lake area. If the Dakota simply moved on their own free will and without any pressure from white explorers/setters or any other tribe or band to a different location then they would not be able to justifiably reclaim any rights to their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. Therefore, I believe that this could be the real reason why University of Minnesota archaeologists and park planners have presented a different historical account than that of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community, the Flandearu Santee Sioux Tribe and the Santee Tribe of Nebraska when it comes to answering the question as to why and how the ancient Mille Lacs area Dakota left their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

In a Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe book about the Band’s heritage, titled: “Against the Tide of American History: The Story of the Mille Lacs Anishinabe, there are the words: “As is true of all the Anishinabe or Chippewa who live in Minnesota, the history of the Mille Lacs people reaches back into ancient times and other settings in the eastern part of the United States where their ancestors lived before they came into the forest and lake country of eastern and northern Minnesota.” “The Anishinabe oral tradition tells “of a great migration of the Anishinabe from the east to their present location near the Great Lakes.

And the following statement can also be found in the Mille Lacs Band’s book about their heritage: “‘The Dakota,’ according to Warren, ‘occupied the lake (Mille Lacs Lake) at two large villages, one being located at Cormorant Point (Nay-Ah-Shing Point) and the other at the outlet of the lake. A few miles below this last village, they (the Dakota) possessed another considerable village on a smaller lake, connected with Mille Lacs by a portion of the Rum River which runs though it. These villages consisted mostly of earthen wigwams…’. At Nay-ah-shing the Chippewa attacked and destroyed the Dakota village. A few survivors escaped to the next village at the outlet of the Rum River. At this village, the Chippewa warriors threw bags of gunpowder into the smoke holes of the earth lodges. They exploded killing those inside. The few who escaped from this village moved to the last village on the smaller lake. Here the Chippewa also drove them out. The last of the Spirit Lake Dakota escaped south down the Rum River in their canoes.” “After 1750, the Mille Lacs region became a permanent homeland for many Chippewa families.”

Rev. Sequoyah Ade, an internationally regarded essayist and Indigenist political commentator, wrote:

“Throughout the 500-plus years of European colonial presence in the Americas, the practice of heaping indignities upon those displaced has served only to solidify the resolve of those so imposed. By naming this sacred body of water the “Rum” River, Europeans sought to extinguish the ancestral ties these Aboriginal people have with the land, their ancestors and the spirit world. Evidence of this practice has shown itself time and time again throughout the Americas and is now facing international pressure in an effort to correct the sins of the present by recognizing and addressing the history of this nation. I fully support the effort to rename this special body of water in respect for the people who belong to the river. We will win.”

Evidence indicates that in the mid-1700’s, there was a successful conspiracy committed by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, together with the white European ( French) “settlers”, to drive the Dakota from their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River. And that after they were violently forced from their sacred homeland, another indignity was laid on them by white men who performed a “perverted” and “punning” translation for the sacred Dakota name for the “Rum” River, and did so, by translating the sacred Dakota name for the river, Wakan, translated as Spirit, to the alcohol spirit “Rum”. And after seven years of there being an international movement to change this river’s profane and derogatory name, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the County Commissioners of the “Rum” River corridor still have not given their support for the effort to change this river’s profane name. Therefore, I believe that their lack of support is another indignity being committed against the Dakota people.

And I believe that the reason why the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe have not yet given their support for the effort to rename the “Rum” River is because the movement to change the name is revitalizing the Dakota people’s appreciation of their heritage in the Mille Lacs area; and therefore the Mille Lacs Band is concerned that if this revitalizing effort continues because of the growing support base for the effort to rename the river, the Dakota’ people’s increasing appreciation of their heritage in the Mille Lacs area could cause the Dakota to return to their sacred ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs Lake area; and do so, by (the first step) making frequent pilgrimages to their sacred ancestral homeland to have pow wows, participate in spiritual ceremonies etc.; and that because of this concern, the Mille Lacs Band Assembly has not yet given its support for the effort to change this river’s profane and derogatory name.

When Don Wedll, the long range planner for the Mille Lacs Band Of Ojibwe, gave me feedback in respect to what prominent members of the Mille Lacs Band thought of my effort to revert the “Rum” River’s profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Dakota name, I found out that they were opposed; and that the reason why was because, as they stated, “It is ours now”.

A Mille Lacs Messenger letter to the editor of mine presents some Dakota/Ojibwe discussion about the effort to regain the sacred Dakota name for the Wakan/”Rum” River. It can be found at

http://www.towahkon.org/reconcile.htmlMany members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe do not like my effort to revitalize the Dakota people’s appreciation of their heritage in the Mille Lacs area. And as previously mentioned it seems to me that the reason why, is because they selfishly want all of the Mille Lacs Lake region for themselves. But there are some members of the Mille Lacs Band who support all of my Mille Lacs area Dakota rights activist initiatives.

Restitution Justice:

If the Dakota were “displaced”, “forced”, “driven”, “pushed”, “pressured” or “expelled” by hostile Ojibwe to leave their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River, then they should be able to justifiably reclaim at least part of their sacred ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs Lake region. Therefore, I believe that this is probably why the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs do not present the correct history about why and how the Dakota left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, it is stated that there is no archaeological evidence that indicates that the Dakota were violently forced out of the Mille Lacs Lake area. But what are the changes of finding such evidence? Very little I suspect. And it is also stated on an interpretive sign that there is no Dakota oral account of such a battle. But if, in the past, the Dakota would have announced to the public an account of the “Battle of Kathio” and then asked for restitution justice they would have been mocked. And this would have hurt them. Hence they probably decided not to give an oral account of this battle in their public discourse with non-Indians. And it seems to me that the Nebraska Santee (Dakota) Tribe, since 1918 at least, have claimed that the Dakota were forces out of the Mille Lacs Lake area during the “Battle Of Kathio”. And even if there never was a “Battle of Kathio”, the Dakota were never-the-less pressured to leave their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

If park planners would acknowledge on a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign that the Dakota were forced or pressured to leave the Mille Lacs area by the Ojibwe, and that the Ojibwe were pushed into the Dakota’s sacred Mille Lacs area homeland by white European “explorers”/“setters”, it would help to heal the Dakota people’s wounds. And if park planners would do this the Dakota would be more likely to try to reclaim at least a part of their sacred ancestral homeland at the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

And if the Dakota were to ask for the right to return to their sacred ancestral homeland…or, in other words, to Mille Lacs Lake and the land surrounding this sacred lake and its outlet river, the sacred land/lake/river that the Ojibwe stole from them, the stolen land/lake/river that the white man’s government later purchased from the Ojibwe, giving the Ojibwe a reservation on a part of it… their request would have even more validity because of the fact that they have a “creation story” associated with Mille Lacs Lake. And because the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe claim that their ancestors used the white man’s gun powder to help them violently force the Dakota out of their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River this also would give added validity to their request for the right to return to their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/”Rum” River.

I am trying to rectify injustices being perpetrated against the Dakota in the Mille Lacs Lake area so that the Dakota, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and all other people who live in the Mille Lacs Lake area can live in peace and harmony with each other. But park planners neglect to display some negative aspects of the history of the Mille Lacs “Kathio” State Park on any interpretive signs is making my efforts to do so more difficult. And I hope that this injustice will be rectified in the near future.
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I also hope to influence the three pastors of Sacred Heart Church, a Roman Catholic Church located in Wahkon Minnesota, to ask for permission to offer Dakota orientated Christian religious services at Mille Lacs “Kathio” State Park. And if they can get permission to do so, I would then ask them to invite Dakota Christians to participate in these religions services. Mille Lacs “Kathio” State Park is a great place, and so is its “Kathio” Landmark Trail. This letter is meant to help make the park, and especially its “Kathio” Landmark Trail, a better place to visit.
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In a November 27, 2002 Mille Lacs Messenger letter to the editor of mine, titled: RECOGNITION INITIATIVE, I asked that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe show due respect for the Dakota people by:

(1.) Supporting the effort to revert the “Rum” River’s profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Dakota name.

(2.) Make a public apology to the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate for what their ancestors did to them during the “Battle of Kathio”.

(3.) Give up their non-removable federally granted status that they gained by fighting against the Mdewakanton Oyate and other Dakota people in the 1862 Dakota uprising against the radically abusive mid-1800s whites.

(4.) Sponsor and welcome the Dakota people to a Mille Lacs area reconciliatory Pow Wow.

(5.) Offer the Dakota people land for both a museum and shrine.

My REGONITION INITIATIVE letter to the editor can be found at:

http://www.towahkon.org/Mdewakanton.html
_____________________________________________________About a Wahkon, Minnesota Mdewakanton rights activist initiative:

The City of Wahkon, Minnesota, a city located on the south end of Mille Lacs Lake, was named after the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake (Wahkon), sometimes spelled Wakan. But unfortunately, Wahkon, Minnesota’s so-called “Wahkon Inn”, a bar and liquor store, has advertising tee shirts and sweaters that demean the real meaning of Wahkon, translated as Sacred or Spirit. And do so… by a display on them that presents an advertising “joke”, a “joke” that was produced by the owner of “Wahkon Inn” performing a punning and desecrating translation for the city’s sacred name, the sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name for Mille Lacs Lake.

This occurred by the owner of this bar and liquor store changing the real meaning of Wahkon (Spirit) to “walk on”. And she then displayed these profane words on her bar and liquor store’s tee shirts and sweaters. And then she took these profane words “walk on” and combined them with the word “in”, and did so by performing a pun on the last word in “Wahkon Inn’s” name (Inn). Hence the word “Inn” in “Wahkon Inn” was changed so that it was, in a joking way, suppose to mean “in”.

Therefore, according to this bar and liquor store owner “Wahkon Inn” is, in a “joking” way, suppose to mean “walk on in”. And on ’Wahkon Inn’s” tee shirts and sweaters there is an image of a gold mining prospector walking into this bar and liquor store with a display of the words “Wahkon Inn”, meaning “walk on in” to describe what the gold miner is doing (he is walking into the so-called “Wahkon Inn”) and then below that image and descriptive words there is a display of that same image of the gold miner, but he is now pictured drunk and crawling out of the bar. And then the owner of this bar and liquor store displayed on these tee shirts and sweaters the words describing this despicable scene that radically desecrates the sacred name for the city as well as the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake with the words “and crawl on out”. Hence, the so-called “Wahkon Inn” is using the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake to promote alcohol abuse.

The image of a gold miner on these tee shirts and sweaters is the same image that is found on a big advertising sign located on the front of the “Wahkon Inn”. And this advertising sign with the image of a gold minor walking, in a “joking” way, changes the real meaning of Wahkon (Spirit) to mean “walk on”. Therefore this advertising sign on the “Wahkon Inn” also demeans or desecrates the sacred name for this city as well as the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake. And then when this advertising image of a gold miner is used on “Wahkon Inn’s” advertising tee shirts and sweaters it is use as a lead-in to an advertising “joke” that even further desecrates both the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake as well as the sacred name for this city.

On October 16, 2001, I received the following letter from Archbishop Harry Flynn. In this letter Archbishop Flynn gave his support for my effort to inform and then influence the City of Wahkon to stop demeaning the real meaning of the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake.

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

October 16, 2001
Mr. Thomas Dahlheimer
485 West Broadway Street
Wahkon, MN 56386

Dear Mr. Dahlheimer

Thank you for your letter of early October in which you described your efforts regarding the Wahkon Inn. I agree with you that efforts to advertise this establishment through tee shirts and sweaters that demean the real meaning of Wahkon are at very least distasteful. I am sure that your work to engage the public through educational efforts will be helpful. It does seem appropriate for the Tribal Council to take a stand in this regard since it is their culture and their language that is being demeaned. I encourage you to continue working with them and applaud your request of them to assist the members of Sacred Heart Church to come to a greater understanding and appreciation of their culture.

With best wishes in Christ,

Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn, D.D. Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

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About a moral responsibility to show due respect for Mdewakanton sensitivities in the City of Wahkon, Minnesota, a city named after the sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake (Wahkon).

A previous pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minnesota (Father Ray Steffes) and I, came to believe that because Sacred Heart Church is located in a city named after the Mdewakanton’s sacred name for Mille Lacs Lake (Wahkon) that, therefore, there were Mdewakanton sensitivities that Sacred Heart Church parishioners should be aware of and show due respect toward, and that this would include the development and practice of special morals and ethics associated with these sensitivities.

And I believe that Sacred Heart Church parishioners and all the residents of Wahkon, Minnesota, especially including the City Council of Wahkon, should be brought to an understanding of what these special Mdewakanton sensitivities, morals and ethics are. And I hope that in the near future some Mdewakanton’s will come to Wahkon, Minnesota to help get this message across so that their sacred Mdewakanton name for Mille Lacs Lake will be appropriately respected in the City of Wahkon, Minnesota.

About my Sacred Heart Church Mdewakanton rights activist initiatives:

In respect to Wahkon, Minnesota’s special Mdewakanton sensitivities associated with the moral responsibility to show due respect for this city’s sacred Mdewakanton name, I have been inspired to develop a number of Sacred Heart Church Mdewakanton rights activist initiatives. I hope to influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to bring revolutionary changes to Wahkon, Minnesota’s Sacred Heart Church. Revolutionary changes that will help deliver the indigenous people of the Americas from my Roman Catholic Church’s (and other mainline Christian churches’) radical oppression, repression and suppression of their cultures and sacred ways. These Sacred Heart Church Mdewakanton rights activist initiatives are presented in the following open letter to Father Dave Gallus, one of Wahkon, Minnesota’s Sacred Heart Church pastors.

Dear Father Dave,

I am in the process of trying to persuade some of my relatives, friends and activist acquaintances to form into an activist group that would then stage protests against injustices being perpetrated against “Indians” (Natives) at Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minnesota.

If this envisioned activist group becomes manifest, we will be gathering near Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minnesota in order to protest against our (your and my) Roman Catholic Church’s participation in a genocide being perpetrated against both American Indians as well as other indigenous people throughout the Western hemisphere. A genocide that, I believe, the vast majority of Sacred Heart Church Parishioners are complicit in, including yourself and the other two pastors of Sacred Heart Church.

If this envisioned activist group becomes manifest, we will be standing with protest signs near Sacred Heart Church before, during, and after weekend Masses. Some of these protest signs will be similar to the protest signs displayed on the Web site

www.hiddenfromhistory.org. And we will also be displaying signs that protest against both the racist name of the Knights of Columbus as well as the 1493 Papal Bull Inter Caetera. This Papal Bull established Christian dominion and subjugation of non-Christian peoples and their lands. And “Inter Caetera” has not yet been revoked.Because of “Inter Caetera”, the indigenous peoples of the Western hemisphere and their homelands are still being dominated and subjugated by the descendents of white European immigrants.

References: Can be found at

http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotarights,htmlProtesting against the racist name of the Knights of Columbus
Colonial Pirate Christopher Columbus
Protest Against Columbus Day Parade
Calling For Abolition of Columbus Day

References:
Protesting against the 1493 Papal Bull Inter Caetera
Appeal To The Vatican To Revoke Papal Bull Inter Catera
Two Papal Bulls Call For European Domination Of The Americas
World Conference On Racism – Declare Two Papal Bulls As Instigating Racism In The Americas
International Indian Treaty Council Declares Two Papal Bulls Call For European Domination Of The Americas
Listen To Recorded Lecture On Racist Papal Bulls scroll down to LECTURE SERIES (listen to first lecture)
Mexica Movement
Pope Alexander VI Stole The Indigenous People Of The Americas Land And Gave IT To The King Of Spain
Indigenous summit at Bear Butte asks Pope for help
Combating White Racism
Catholic Diocesan newspaper letter to the editor

This Papal Bull (Inter Caetra) instigated, sanctioned and still promotes the ongoing genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas. In addition, we will be holding protest signs that protest the use of a chemical weapon of warfare in the ongoing genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas, it being an alcoholic beverage (wine), located on Sacred Heart Church’s alter during Masses.

References: Can be found at

http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotarights.htmlProtesting Against Wine On Sacred Heart Church’s Alter In Wahkon, Minnesota
Stopping The Alcohol Abuse Epidemic
State Bill To Ban Alcohol Sells Near Sacred “Indian” Sites – Articles Calling For An Alcohol Free Mille Lacs County
Mendota Mdewakanton Letter Discribing Alcohol As A Poison
“Indian” Web Site Article Titled: Stopping The Alcohol Abuse Epidemic
Colonial Lagacy Of Subordination Of Aboriginal People Contributes To The Alcohol Abuse Epidemic (see pages 20 – 22)

Protesting the Papal Bull Inter Caeters:

Both Kevin Annett, the leader of the Canadian movement to expose and then put an end to the genocide being perpetrated against the aboriginal people of Canada as well as the Board of Directors and Advisory Board for the American Indian Genocide Museum, a group of American Indian activists who are leading the movement in our nation to expose and then put an end to the genocide being perpetrated against the aboriginal people of our nation, have both given their support for the effort to rename the “Rum” River. And both Kevin Annett as well as the Board of Directors and Advisory Board for the American Indian Genocide Museum believe that the Papal Bull Inter Caetera instigated, sanctioned and still promotes the ongoing genocide against the indigenous people of the Western hemisphere, and I also believe this to be true.

Kevin Annett, the American Indian Genocide Museum and twenty-three organizations at the 2006 Summit of Indigenous Nations at Bear Butte have stated that they want Pope Benedict XVI to formally revoke the 1493 Papal Bull Inter Caetera, and I also want the Pope to revoke this Papal Bull. And I also want him to come to Wahkon, Minnesota to formally revoke the Papal Bull Inter Caetera in the presence of both international renowned Indigenous activists of the Western Hemisphere as well as internationally renowned Indigenous activists located in other areas of the world where this Roman Catholic Papal Bull is still hurting Indigenous People.

A delegation of indigenous people of the Americas, a delegation that went to Vatican City in order to ask the Pope to revoke the Inter Ceatera Bull of May 4, 1493, were received at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

And in a statement presented on their Web site

http://bullsburning.itgo.com/Index.htm, they wrote, when referring to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: “This is where we have been sending our ‘Appeal to the Vatican.’ We met with a Monsignor under the President of the Council. He assured us we were on the track, and that the Council was an important player along with the Secretariat of State. The issue of the revocation of the Bull “Inter Caetera” has now been submitted to a commission at the Secretariat of State. This is a victory indicating for the first time that the Vatican will be seriously considering this issue. Hopefully, it will not be “studied to death”!The following two statements were made by the indigenous people’s delegation to the Vatican.

(1.) “The recent rehabilitation of Galileo and a papal statement condemning Christian complicity in the Jewish Holocaust warrants a few questions that have remained unanswered for many descendants of those who endured, resisted and survived European dominion for over the past 500 years: What has the Roman Catholic hierarchy had to say about the 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 indigenous inhabitants of the Western hemisphere who had perished by the end of the 16th century?; What have they had to say about the probable 100,000,000 native peoples who were ‘eliminated’ in the course of Europe’s ongoing ‘civilization’ of the Western hemisphere”?

(2.) “The answers to these questions have been touched upon in recent papal statements and in the Pope’s New Year’s 2000 message for peace when he writes that, ‘There is no true peace without fairness, truth, justice and solidarity.’ ‘Fairness,’ ‘truth,’ ‘justice’ and ‘solidarity’ means overturning the laws of an inherently corrupt system based on Christian dominion that continues to drain the spirit of all peoples. The Vatican has acknowledged, in theory, its respect for and the equality among the many religious traditions of the earth, so where’s the beef? in order to promote a culture of peace! There will never be any hope for “true peace” until this degree is repudiated.

Protesting the alcoholic beverage (wine) located in Wahkon, Minnesota’s Sacred Heart Church:

Almost every day, I see alcoholic drunkard American Indians from the Isle reservation going to both the Isle and Wahkon liquor stores to pick up more alcoholic beverages to keep their health destroying alcoholic binges going. Over the last thirty years, I have witnessed many alcohol abuse related deaths of local American Indians. Why can these American Indians go to Isle or Wahkon and buy alcoholic beverages but not cocaine, heroin, meth, or even marijuana?

Answer: There are liquor stores in Isle and Wahkon where alcoholic drunkard American Indians can buy alcoholic beverages because the prohibition of alcohol laws came to an end and they have not yet been reestablished. And I believe that the primary reason why they came to an end and have not yet been reestablished is because our church was opposed to prohibition (it was the only church to oppose prohibition) and it still believes in and promotes the legalization of alcohol throughout our nation, where a multitude of American Indians are suffering from a – largely Catholic influenced – genocidal alcohol abuse health epidemic. Note: Two published Mille Lacs Messenger letters to the editor of mine about this issue, along with information about a state bill to protect Sacred Native American sites by criminalizing bars and liquor stores near them, can be found at:

http://www.towahkon.org/anti-alcohol.htmlOur church was opposed to prohibition, a stance that influenced a lot of people to brake the prohibition laws, which in turn caused legislators to repeal prohibition. Hence we now have liquor stores in Isle and Wahkon.
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Reference – History of Prohibition:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.htmQuotes from History of Prohibition:

(1.) “Speaking in behalf of Blaine (a U.S. Republican Presidential candidate) at a New York City rally, Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard denounced the Democrats as the party of ‘Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion’.”

(2.) “Every successful temperance movement of the last century has been merely the instrument-the machinery and equipment through which the fundamental principles of the Christian religion have expressed themselves in terms of life and action.”

(3.) The fundamental principles of the Christian religion, with the exception of Roman Catholic “Christian” fundamental principles…”damned not only rum, but all of the ‘kindred vices, profaneness and gambling’ and beseeched members to ‘discourage…by… example and influence, every kind of…..immorality’.”

(4.) “Largely middle class, rural, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant comprised the temperance movement and they confronted the urban and industrial communities head-on.

(5.) “Calling itself ‘The Protestant church in action’, the Anti-Saloon League concentrated single-mindedly and evangelically on the cause of temperance…”

(6.) “The focus of the League’s indictments included not simply alcohol, but the saloon itself, as the purveyor of spirits. The myriad League publications denounced the saloon for ‘annually sending thousands of our youths to destruction, for corrupting politics, dissipating workmen’s wages, leading astray 60,000 girls each year into lives of immorality and banishing children from school’.”

(7.) The League stated: “Liquor is responsible for 19% of the divorces, 25% of the poverty, 25% of the insanity, 37% of the pauperism, 45% of child desertion, and 50%
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I am a Catholic social activist who is spearheading an international movement to revert the profane and derogatory name of Minnesota’s “Rum” River back to its sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name (Wakan).