By Thomas Dahlheimer,

Griff Wigley is the Project Leader, Minnesota Sesquicentennial Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering (SACNAP). He has a Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission guided Native American Minnesota blog site. He displayed a blog on his site, titled: "My Problem with Thomas Dahlheimer's open letter to the Oyate." We were corresponding with comments in response to this blog. He continues to not post the following comments of mine. 

Click letter to the Oyate to read my letter to the Oyate. In my letter to the Oyate I displayed a link to a longer presentation of the letter, tilted Dakota Creation Stories.

My un-posted comments to Wigley and his blog readers:

…..You wrote: "I already explained my position re: the Sesqui statement on genocide. I was glad to see it on their web site and I think it's significant that it's still there. But it falls far short of a public acknowledgment that Chris and others would like to see.

Never-the-less, the Sesquicentennial Commission did admitted genocide.

You wrote: "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.

Your comment "it's all that matters" is getting me angry now. Who are you to say, "that's all that matters". Have you been working to rectify injustices being committed against the Dakota within their Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland for over a decade? There is a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota creation story, and not only two Mendota area Dakota creation stories. Christ Mato Nunpa and Jim Anderson used the Coldwater Springs gathering to spread their lies that misinform people about where all of the Dakota creation stories are located. It is important that people know that there is a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota creation story, and not just two Mendota area Dakota creation stories. This is a common practice of theirs. And you post their lies on your blog.

You wrote: "I asked you to explain your obsession with the creation stories and your explanation then didn't really make sense to me. But your letter's inclusion of your statement that you believe you've been given it as a goal from the Great Spirit *does* explain it. I think you're very misguided and mistaken… and that continuing in this way really hurts your cause of getting the Rum River renamed.

I do not care very much what you think! I do not have an obsession with creation stories. Chris Mato Nunpa and Jim Anderson have an obsession with the Mendota area, including the two Mendota area creation stories… and do so, to the extent that they will not publicly acknowledge that there is also a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota creation story. This is an injustice that I am trying to rectify.

Maybe you do not know that Native creation stories add to the importance Natives tribes place on sacred sites of theirs.

In response to my letter to the Oyate submission, the editor of the Sota Iyaye wrote: "Great". He did not have a problem with my belief and statement about the Great Spirit. It's you who are very misguided and mistaken…and your insulting comments could be hurting my movement to change the name of the Rum River.

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Comments by Dakota Indians:

Jeff wrote:

I grew up by the Rum River and never knew it's significance as a kid. I have since become re-connected with my deceased Dakota fathers' side of the family. I have learned a lot about what was important to our ancestors. The Mille Lacs area creation story is paramount to our ancestral identity as is the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers story. They are all wakan. The name "Rum" should definitely be dropped and changed to something more appropriate. Wakan or Spirit River, for instance.

Seems to me that claiming any ancestral rights to land in the vicinity of the Twin Cities metropolitan area spells M-O-N-E-Y. This may be why the individuals you mention seem to be disregarding the Dakota creation story of Mille Lacs Lake. Or it may be to avoid confusing wasicu who do not understand these things but with the intent of gaining rights to lands near the Twin Cities in lieu of rights to the Wakan River.

Jeff's Uncle wrote:

In all my travels amongst the people I personally have never heard it said that Mendota was credited with being the 'Center' of Dakota origins. Mendota was given this particular spelling and pronunciation by the American Fur Company who established a fur trading post there and the word itself comes from the Dakota word 'mdote' meaning where 'one river joins another or meets another' (the St Peters River now called the Minnesota R., and the Miss. R.) Ft. Snelling was established by the American gov't near that location to claim, protect, and establish their influence in the region. The natives of Mendota are called Mdewakantons for a reason. When working amongst my Lakotah brothers even they referred to their place of origins as 'Spirit Lake'. More can be said of the above issue but will let this suffice for now.

The Dakota's name for Mille Lacs Lake is Mde Wakan. When translated Mde means Lake, and when Wakan is translated it means Spirit. When translated into English Mde Wakan means Spirit Lake.  When translated into English Mdewakanton means people born of the waters of Spirit Lake.

It has been the tradition of Minnesota to distort the true history of Minnesota in order to cover up the atrocities it has committed against MN's Natives, and Wigley is doing a good job in keeping the tradition of covering up the truth going. He does not want the people of Minnesota to know about what happened in the Mille Lacs Lake area, therefore, he likes the way some leading Dakota activists are distorting the Dakota's history and therefore helps them promote their lies, and by doing so, distracts attention away from the Mille Lacs Lake area and the atrocities white people committed against the Dakotas within their sacred Mille Lacs Lake traditional/ancestral homeland.

For several months Wigley had not blogged anything about the bill to change Minnesota's derogatory geographic place names, including the derogatory Rum River name. Nor did he blog anything about the local (MN), national (U.S.A.) and international movement to change the faulty-translation and profane name of the Rum River back to its sacred Dakota name [Wakan]. Nor did he blog anything about the history of the Dakota people in their sacred Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland, where they had lived for nearly a thousand years. Nor did he blog anything about the Dakota's Mille Lacs Lake creation story. Nor did he blog anything about how the Dakota were violently forced from their sacred Mille Lacs Lake and Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed ancestral homeland. Nor did he blog anything about how Duluth, while following the edicts of his King and Pope, set up France's Coat of Arms in the Dakota's main Mille Lacs Lake area village and claimed all of the Dakota's Minnesota land for France. Land that was later transferred over to Britain by way of papal bull sanctioned international European colonial law , and even later, by way of following the same racist process or law, to the U.S.A.. Nor did he blog anything about the many Dakota rights activist initiative in the area, including the petition to change the derogatory name of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. Nor did blog anything about the movement to regain the Dakota's Mille Lacs ancestral homeland . Nor did he blog anything about the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council's Draft resolution to change MN's derogatory names. Nor did he blog anything about the related Minnesota Apology Resoltution . Nor did he blog anything about the Dakota activist initiatives in Anoka, Minnesota, a city located at the confluence of the Wakan (Rum) and Mississippi rivers. And when he was forced to add a blog about the Mille Lacs Lake area it was deceptive and hateful, his way of discrediting the Dakota's and my activist work within the Dakota's sacred Mille Lacs Lake and Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed ancestral homeland.

More information about this topic can be viewed and read by clicking

(1.) http://www.towahkon.org/Dakotahistory.html

(2.) http://newsfornatives.com/blog/2008/02/16/mdewakanton-rights-activist-initiatives/

(3.) http://www.towahkon.org/alliance.html

(4.) http://www.towahkon.org/Changeknights.html

(5.) http://republicoflakota.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18&sid=3c1461761b6dbdc2f0facadfbae1fb

(6.) http://www.towahkon.org/summary.html