A man shoots an imaginary bow and arrow from the roof of Historic Fort Snelling's tower during the Dakota Truth-Telling Gathering in St. Paul last Thursday. Evan Frost | MPR News

For the first time, Dakota people whose ancestors were exiled from Minnesota 154 years ago met last week at Fort Snelling. It was just below the fort, where women, children, and the elderly were put onto steamboats and sent down the Mississippi, up the Missouri, then to the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota.

Eventually, families that survived went to the Dakotas, to Montana, to Canada and elsewhere. Some of their descendants returned there for a four-day conference called Dakhota Wowicakhe Woyakapi Omniciye, or Dakota Truth-telling Gathering. The meeting ended on Sunday.

As the families met, many hugged and wept, sharing their histories. "The argument that this space was put here to keep Dakota and Ojibwe people at peace, that's not actually the way we view this history," said Kate Beane, a Dakota historian who works for the Minnesota Historical Society.

"The way we view this history is that this fort was put here to pave the way for European settlement," she said. "It is a symbol of colonization, of imperialism, of years of unjust negotiations and dealings with our community. Two of our warriors were hanged right over here, outside of the round tower. .. So sometimes if you hear 38 plus two, those were the two. They were kept in prison here, and that's where their lives ended, for us to live."

Gallery

Sage is burned in ceremony before attendees enter Historic Fort Snelling last Thursday. Evan Frost | MPR News

Attendees of the Dakota Truth-Telling Gathering, including members of the Santee Sioux Nation who traveled from Nebraska, enter Historic Fort Snelling in St. Paul on Thursday, May 4. During the winter of 1862-63, the area that is now Fort Snelling State Park was used as a concentration camp for the Dakota people before they were exiled from Minnesota, to places such as Santee, Neb. Evan Frost | MPR News

Melvin Lee Houston speaks about his desire for a more transparent history about the killing, abuse, confinement and exile of Dakota people by the U.S. government. Evan Frost | MPR News

A teepee sits inside Historic Fort Snelling during the Dakota Truth-Telling Gathering in St. Paul on Thursday, May 4. Evan Frost | MPR News

The Dakota Exile Healing Ride
Our Ancestors are not forgotten. Throughout Indian Country there has been many stories told of the atrocities that occurred to the Indian Nations in America. American Indian history is American history, by telling our stories of our ancestors we begin to mend, “the hoop.” When we ride the lands we do learn our history, learn our stories, and do this through ceremonies on these rides.
https://www.dakotaexileride.org