GRANITE FALLS, Minn. (AP) — Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.
The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in U.S. history.
Decades of tension exploded into the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 between settler-colonists and a faction of Dakota people, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. After the U.S. won the war, the government hanged more people than in any other execution in the nation. A memorial honors the 38 Dakota men killed in Mankato, 110 miles from the park.
Tribes speaking out about injustices have helped more people understand how lands were taken and treaties were often not upheld, Kunesh said, adding that people seem more interested now in “doing the right thing and getting lands back to tribes.” “People that want to make things right with history’s injustices are compelled often to support action like this without thinking about other ramifications,” Smiglewski said. “A number, if not a majority, of state parks have similar sacred meaning to Indigenous tribes. So where would it stop?”
This will be the first time Minnesota transfers a state park to a Native American community, said Ann Pierce, director of Minnesota State Parks and Trails at the Department of Natural Resources.
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Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died thereGolden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the U.S. failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago
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Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died thereGolden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the U.S. failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago.
Read more »
Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died thereGolden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the U.S. failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago.
Read more »
Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died thereGolden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the U.S. failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago.
Read more »
Minnesota tribe getting piece of back after ancestors died thereThe state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in U.S. history.
Read more »