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About 75 American Indians and supporters marched to the Capitol from Indian Mounds Park, holding banners with phrases such as “take down the Fort,” a reference to Fort Snelling, which they said played a key role in abuses of the original Minnesotans.
Others carried scaffolding with 38 nooses in remembrance of the 38 Dakota men executed in Mankato by order of President Abraham Lincoln, on Dec. 26, 1862, after an uprising.
“We tried to encourage (sesquicentennial organizers) to use this year for truth-telling,” said Gustavus Adolphus scholar Waziyatawin Angela Wilson. She said Minnesota leaders “refused and wanted to continue with their birthday celebration and not let truth-telling get in the way.”
On Saturday, the Dakota protesters briefly stalled the Statehood Wagon Train near Fort Snelling. Police removed several protesters from the path of the wagon train, which had left Cannon Falls a week earlier on a 101-mile trip to the Capitol. Police kept the two groups separated as it arrived Sunday.
In speeches launching Statehood Week on Sunday afternoon, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as well as Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar and other officials, acknowledged the Dakota people. Pawlenty reminded the crowd he declared May American Indian Month in Minnesota.
“We’re committed to telling all the stories of Minnesota as a state — both the failures and tragedies as well as the successes,” Sesquicentennial Commission executive director Jane Leonard said in response to the Dakota concerns.
The politicians also spoke to the state’s character and future.
Klobuchar said “despite the cold, the snow and the wind-swept prairie — despite all that, we’ve always believed that anything is possible ... that with hard work, education and good values we can make tomorrow better than today.”
President James Buchanan signed legislation May 11, 1858 that made Minnesota the 32nd state in the Union. Events have been held around the state tied to the state’s sesquicentennial. More events will be held throughout the summer.
