by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
I recently met with Kathy Langer, the Director of the Saint Cloud Diocesan Social Concerns Committee and a member of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. We had a wonderful meeting. The Bishop of Saint Cloud Diocese, John Kinney, had asked her to meet with me so that we could get to know each other and also so that I could inform her – face to face – as to what I want Bishop Kinney to do to help me accomplish the goals of my Indigenous Peoples rights activist initiatives.
After our meeting, Kathy Langer’s mission was to then meet with Bishop Kinney to inform him as to what I want him to do. During our meeting she asked me to send her a written presentation of my requests for the bishop. I did what she requested and she recently informed me that she will be meeting with Bishop Kinney in about two or three weeks to present my requests to him. I gave Kathy Langer two of my requests and sent the rest of my requests by mail to Bishop John Kinney.
A lists of the thinks that I would like Bishop John Kinney to do is presented below.
(1.) I would like Bishop John Kinney to take the lead and be the first bishop of a diocese in the United States of America to write and send a letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking that he, both, publicly revoke the 15th Century Papal Bull [Inter Caetera] as well as create an official document wherein the Holy Roman Catholic Church states that Indigenous Peoples have the same human rights as all other peoples. Rights endowed by the Creator, including the right to have absolute root ownership of land, the right to full independent sovereign nations status, and the religious freedom right to fully reestablish their traditional religions within their sacred traditional and ancestral homelands.
(I also sent the following reference links to the bishop:)
Restoring The Fundamental Human Rights Of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.towahkon.org/Indigenousrights.html
Independent Indigenous Sovereign Nations
http://thomas-dahlheimer.blogspot.com/2008/12/independent- indigenous-sovereign_4100.html
Indigenous Peoples Rights
http://thomas-dahlheimer.blogspot.com/2008/12/indigenous-peoples-rights.html
Mdewakanton Activist Initiatives
http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotarights.html
An excerpt from my article Mdewakanton Activist Initiatives: "I also want the Pope to revoke this Papal Bull. And I also want him to come to Wahkon, Minnesota to formally revoke [Inter Caetera], and do so in the presence of, both, international renowned Indigenous activists of the Western Hemisphere and internationally renowned Indigenous activists located in other areas of the world where this Roman Catholic Papal Bull is still hurting indigenous peoples."
United Nations Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples
I would also like Bishop Kinney to ask the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) to pass a resolution which would present the USCCB’s public support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and also call on the United States Government to vote for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Precedent:
New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops have called on the government to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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(2.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to write and send a letter to the Minnesota state government asking that it petition the federal government of the United States of America to designate some of the Dakota people’s Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed traditional and ancestral homeland – Mille Lacs Kathio State Park- as land where they can have independent sovereign nation status and rights.
Regaining The Dakota’s Mille Lacs Ancestral Homeland
http://www.towahkon.org/Regaining.html
History of the Dakota people in Minnesota
http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotahistory.html
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(3.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to write and send a letters to all of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota tribal governments apologizing for the Roman Catholic Church’s 15th Century papal bulls that were influential in respect to the forced removal of the last remaining members of the Dakota (Sioux) Nation within its sacred Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland, where there is a Dakota/Lakota/Nakota (Dakota-Sioux) creation story. And in the letter, I would also like for him to state his desire and mission (hopefully it’s his desire and mission) to help the Dakota people to regain a part of their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area traditional and ancestral homeland.
Mdewakanton Rights Activist Initiatives
http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotarights.html
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(4.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to write and send a letter to the Minnesota state government wherein he would ask that a truth and reconciliation commission be established – to seek to uncover facts and distinguish truth from lies associated with the tragic side of Minnesota history and acknowledge within a Minnesota Apology Resolution the pain, loss and suffering of Native Americans associated with the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission’s website statement: "Yet we remain either unaware of or unable to look at our own history and acknowledge the painful wounds of ethnocide and genocide right here in Minnesota. We have a very hard time acknowledging that the pain remains and that it has affected much of our history thru to the present day."
U.S. and states should establish Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/791464
Minnesota Apology Resolution
http://www.towahkon.org/apologyresolution.html
Euro-American Christians have not repented
http://isanti-chisagocountystar.com/read/detail/38763.html?category_id=62&search_ filter=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=%E2%8A%82_type=&town_id=15
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(5.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to write and send letters to the pastors of Catholic Churches located along the Wakpa Wakan (Rum River) corridor within Saint Cloud Diocese. Including Catholic Churches located in Princeton, Milaca, Onamia and Vineland. And I would also like for him to write and send a letter to the pastors of Wahkon, Minnesota’s Sacred Heart Church, a church located within the Dakota’s Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed homeland.
In these letters, I would like for him to encourage the pastors to support the effort to change the name of the Rum River back to its sacred Dakota name, speak to their parishioners about the Rum River name-change movement, start up social concerns commissions that will help people to understand that the Dakota people consider the Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed to be a part of their sacred traditional and ancestral homeland and that they are beginning to return to it, and that there are ethical and moral issues associated with Dakota sensitivities that parishioners and other people living and visiting within this sacred Dakota ancestral homeland should know about and show respect toward.
Ask these pastors to write and send letters to the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota tribal councils and invite them and representatives of theirs to come to their churches to educate parishioners about their cultures and spiritualities. Encourage the pastors to establish cross-cultural education programs and provide blend spirituality services. Help influence the city councils, organizations and ministers of Protestant churches and all people living within their areas of the state to support the efforts to change the name of the Rum River, help influence city councils to establish unity alliances, such as an Princeton-Dakota Unity Alliance, Milaca-Dakota Unity Alliance, etc., alliances that will be somewhat modeled after the successful Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance.
History of the Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance
http://www.towahkon.org/alliance.html
Canoe expedition connects Dakota youth with past http://isanticountynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3744&Itemid=27
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(6.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to write and send letters to all of the pastors of Saint Cloud Diocese parishes that have Knights of Columbus chapters in them, and in the letters, ask them to discontinue their parishes’ KC chapters because of the organizations extremely racist name.
Genocidal Maniac Christopher Columbus
http://www.towahkon.org/ColGenocide.html
Video of mine – Protesting The Racist Name Of The Knights Of Columbus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHAkWV6xd_Y
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(7.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to write and send me a letter wherein he would express his support for my efforts to establish Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed dry counties, and express especial social justice concerns related to the counties within Saint Cloud Diocese. In the letter, I would also like for him to support my Catholic social activist work to use my Rum River name-change movement to bring back prohibition. During prohibition there was a national movement to change the name of the Rum River – because rum (an alcohol beverage) was considered to be a very additive and harmfull to society substance. And in respect to this topic, I would also like for him to write and send Pope Benedict XVI a letter wherein he would ask him to stop the use of alcohol (wine) in the sacrament of the Eucharist within Saint Cloud Diocese and world wide.
Solving The Alcohol Abuse Epidemic
http://www.towahkon.org/sae.html
Criminalize Alcohol Near Sacred Native Sites
http://www.towahkon.org/anti-alcohol.html
National Prohibition Party’s interest in Rum River name-change movement
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indigenous_peoples_literature/message/25427
Dakota Human Rights Violations In Anoka, Minnesota
http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotahumanrights.html
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(8.)
I would also like Bishop Kinney to address the Minnesota Catholic Conference and ask the conference to publicly support the passage of the bill to change our state’s geographic place names that are derogatory and offensive to Native Americans.
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H2503.0.html&session=ls85
http://www.towahkon.org/StateBill.html
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More news:
I recently met with a pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon. It was a great meeting. Reverend Greg Poser and I had an hour long conversation. Rev. Poser told me that the Crosier Community of Onamia, a community of 31 priests and brothers, is going to write and present an apology letter (come March) to the aboriginal people of the Mille Lacs area. It was originally going to be an apology letter to the Mille Lacs Ojibwe. However, during our conversation Rev. Poster said the Crosiers could including a statement wherein they would give their support for the effort to change the name of the Rum River back to its sacred Dakota name as well as their support for the effort to change the name of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park to Mille Lacs Isanti State Park.
We also discussed a lot of other related issues. I think our conversation will begin to bring a lot of positive changes to Sacred Heart Church, the city if Wahkon, the Mille Lacs area and the whole Wakan River Watershed.
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In respect to my meeting with Reverend Greg Poser, Sue Lyback-Dahl, a member of the Mille Lacs Human Rights Commission, wrote: “Wow, Tom. This is significant. Highly significant. THANK YOU for your leadership, diligence and devotion to what I believe is the pursuit of truth. There is such power in "story" and "naming"… it is important that such be done with utmost care and with commitment to the Spirit of Love and Connection…that which is named by many names, but is One over all….
God/Spirit/Wakan Be With You!”
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