WINONA, MINN: Flute music played by Bryan Akipa, Sisseton/Wahpeton artist, reverberated on the wind, calling Dakota Sioux families home to Winona, Minn. for a healing reconciliation in late June. For many the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming “HDIHUNIPI”, meaning “they are returning back home” in Dakota language, held on the shores of east Lake Winona, in sight of Sugar Loaf, (formerly Wabasha’s Cap) was a first. The event was hosted by the City of Winona and the Diversity Foundation and it took years of planning and visits to the Dakota Tribes in South Dakota to finalize the historic sharing of pain and forgiveness between government officials and the Dakota people. The painful truth of what the Dakota people experienced during the Dakota War (Dakota Uprising), and for years to come, flower from the mouths of elders as smoke trailed upward from a distant camp fire, burning since the sunrise ceremony, conducted by the Dakota Spiritual Leaders. The master of ceremony explained the purpose of the meeting.
“This is the truth of the feelings of people and this is what really happened, going from when they loaded the Dakotas on the steam boat, brought them down the Mississippi River and up the Missouri River to the Crow Creek Reservation,” Dave Seaboy said. He shared a story told to him by an elder woman that can’t be found in history books, yet it happened. Not all Dakota Indians went by boat, a group of them were marched on foot, to Fort Thompson (Crow Creek). Spoiled meat was part of the menu and elder men, exhausted from the walk were killed by the soldiers because it was easier to dispose of them than to help them make the journey. A Veteran’s group from the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe participated in a special flag raising at the beginning of the day.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Gordon Weston Post Veterans’ Honor Guard carried the Eagle Staff, representing the 38 Warriors that were hung during the Dakota Uprising, and they also carried many other flags. Dakota people consider them to be Warriors lost in the Dakota War (Dakota Uprising) and recalled chilling recollections of the Warriors holding hands and praying as they awaited death. It was followed by personal testimony from Dakota elders that evoked emotions from the truth tellers and those who heard the stories.
“I want the spirit of the Wapasha to acknowledge that this is the beginning of something good,” Danny Seaboy said. “But I ask myself, is it true this time? Is it with their heart this time? Is with their mind this time? I want to thank the Wapasha family and the spirits that are watching us and I want to also send my voice to them in thankfulness that this is taking place.....please go tell everybody in your community, we are on a symbolic journey to return home.”
“Today, this weekend, we are planting a garden, how that garden grows is how it is going to be tended by all of us individually and what we harvest,” descendant of a Dakota Chief, Leonard Wabasha said. He told others that the reconciliation must come from within, between yourself and yourself, to your neighbor and the people in the outlying communities and the Dakota people. When the truth-telling session finished the government officials responded with heart felt apologies.
“We weren&”t the U.S. military in 1862, but we are here where other people were before us to understand, and that, I think, is the beginning,” Eric Sorenson, Winona city manager said. He said their great hope was to make it an equal exchange of knowledge and experience between the city of Winona and the Dakota people, that will foster an annual gathering between them. The mayor of Winona extended a hand of friendship and asked for forgiveness.
“I represent the people in our city today, and I also want to represent those from the past, and on behalf of all of us, I can say to the speakers that I have listened, I am hurt, and I am truly ashamed of the injustices that were inflicted on the Dakota Nation,” Winona Mayor Jerry Miller said. It was a healing moment that was repeated by other government officials and representatives of senators, congressman, state representatives, Bishop Harrington, Winona Diocese, and representatives from the Episcopal and Presbyterian and Lutheran Churches.
