|
DESPITE
our people being here for centuries, we have never been in a
reservation situation. We have remained a Dakota Community despite
the
following:
1. The assimilation of two hundred years.
2. The failure of the ratification of the Treaty of 1841, which
would have
made the valley of the Minnesota River an Indian Territory much
like Oklahoma
became.
3. The failure of the purchase of lands for the Mendota People
by the U.S.
Government despite the purchase of four other pieces of land that
became the
present Dakota Communities in Minnesota.
We filed for recognition as a federally recognized tribe and have
acquired
federal tax-exempt non-profit status as a Dakota Community. Our
mission
statement is the protection and preservation of the Dakota culture
and
language. It is our dream to establish heath facilities for our
people,
establish a learning center for all people, re-establish our language
for our
community and our descendants, and establish cultural ties that
will not
wither.
Our petition for recognition has regrettably been slowed by struggles
against
the development of our ancestral lands and the resting places
of our
ancestors. As a result of Department of Justice mediation, a two-day
testimony session was established which brought forth testimony
from many
elders from Indian Nations. Dakota, Ojibwe, and people from other
nations
historically bound to this area came to testify. The most important
part of
this testimony was largely ignored resulting in the Minnesota
Department of
Transportation's decision to eliminate the Four Sacred Grandfather
Oaks along
the proposed site of the reroute of State Highway 55 in South
Minneapolis.
We have renewed our efforts to gain federal recognition and the
regrettable
loss of the trees has given us more time to do this. We no longer
have our
spiritual encampment to support and our efforts can be aimed at
the
recognition petition.
See
Public Web Works' site to view story and video of felling
of the Four Sacred Oaks.
|
