On September 17, 2008 - the editor of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Nation's on-line newspaper published the following "Letter to the Oyate" of mine. This Dakota nation is a 12,000 member nation. A link to my article "Dakota Creation Stories" was published with the letter.

NOTE:  Griff Wigley, Project Leader, Minnesota Sesquicentennial Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering (SACNAP), is mentioned in this letter. He did not like this letter and wrote on SACNAP, in response to this letter and a comment of mine on SACNAP:  " As I said to you that day at Coldwater, it doesn't matter to me right now whether there are one, two, or many Dakota creation stories. Everyone agrees about the importance/sacredness of the B'dote and Coldwater areas. That's all that matters, so leave it at that."

The truth is, it is NOT "all that matters", it is very important that the importance that the Dakota place on their Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) traditional/ancestral homeland is not being demeaned, AT ANY TIME, and that the Dakota's Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) creation story is not being denied, AT ANY TIME, by Dakota activists or any one else for political gain. 

Check out my article The Coldwater Spring Deception for more information on this topic.

Letter to the Oyate

Greetings from the small town of Wahkon, Minnesota. I initiated and am spearheading the movement to change the name of Minnesota’s Rum River back to its sacred Dakota name, Wakan. On September 5th, I participated in a Dakota gathering at the sacred Coldwater Springs site. Where a small group of Dakota activists launched the reclamation of this sacred site. Jim Anderson, an organizer of the event, and I met at the gathering and had a good conversation. But unfortunately, during Chris Mato Nunpa’s press conference presentation, Mato Nunpa made a bold faced lie. He said the "Sesquicentennial Commission will not admit genocide." (ref.)

During the gathering, I asked Griff Wigley, Project Leader for the Sesquicentennial Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering, if he heard what Mato Nunpa said about the Sesquicentennial Commission. Wigley said that he did and that it was Mato Nunpa's "speed" and that it made his presentation "sound good". I then told Wigley that Mato Nunpa has also been lying to hurt me and my work. A few months ago, the Sesquicentennial Commission admitted that Minnesota committed a genocide against the Dakota people during its early history. (ref.)

I believe that Mato Nunpa lies and distorts the Dakota people’s history in Minnesota in order to gain leverage to accomplish his and Jim Anderson’s activist goals in the Mendota area. Anderson is the historian for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community. A few months ago, after showing Mato Nunpa evidence of what I believe he is doing, he became very angry with me and insulted me as well as told Jim Anderson to quit working with me, and do so, because I believe and publicly teach (in contradiction to what he teaches) that there are not only two Mendota area Dakota creation stories, but also a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota creation story.

Leonard Wabasha, a Mdewakanton Dakota hereditary chief, has publicly acknowledged that there is a Mille Lacs Lake Dakota creation story. (ref.)

And Wilhelm Meya, an anthropologists who works with the Lakota, wrote: “The sacred lake (Mille Lacs) figures prominently in Lakota/Dakota creation stories. The lake is considered sacred because the Dakota people emerged from it as human beings into this world. You may want to look up the story itself in some of the Dakota mythology collections." (ref.)

By denying that there is a Mille Lacs Lake Dakota creation story, I believe that Mato Nunpa is demeaning the importance that the Dakota people attribute to their Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland.

Not long ago, Anderson told the mayor of Anoka that the Mille Lacs Lake Dakota creation story is “one” of the Dakota’s creation stories. However, because of Mato Nunpa, Anderson no longer works with me, nor does he publicly tell people that there is a Mille Lacs Lake Dakota creation story.

Mato Nunpa’s lies are hindering me from accomplishing the goals that the Great Spirit has given me to accomplish in the Dakota’s sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral/traditional homeland.

More about this topic can be found at: http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/875739

Thomas Dahlheimer Director of Rum River Name Change Organization.