Veterans Gerald Thompson, Lincoln DeMarrias, Dayton Seaboy and John Twostars, from Sisseton, S.D., present flags Saturday at the opening ceremony of the Dakota Homecoming event at Lake Park in Winona. They are members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Vietnams Veterans Association, a non-profit organization that participates in parades, powwows and meetings on and off the reservation. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News)

"American Indian leaders at Great Dakota Gathering tell of struggles," (06/03/2007) By Janelle McDonald, Winona Daily News

Winona, Minn. - Growing up on the Santee Indian Reservation in northeastern Nebraska, Roger Trudell remembers days of husking corn with his grandfather as a young boy and working for area farmers as a teenager.

“Back in them days, the farmers didn’t have the equipment they have now,” said Trudell, the reservation tribal chairman.

Trudell, 59, has lived his life on the reservation, with the exception of three years in the Army and two in Omaha, Neb. He was in Winona on Saturday for the Dakota Gathering, an annual event for Dakota Indians from across the Midwest to reunite on their ancestral land.

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"Dakota Homecoming June 2 & 3," (05/27/2007) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post

The time is near when Winona will again welcome home the Dakota Indians who lived in the shade of Wapasha’s Cap long before white settlers set foot on American soil. June 2 and 3, 2007 will be the Fourth Annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming, a time when Winonans and Dakotas alike reflect on the pain, the healing and the understanding that shapes the relationship we have with each other today. For the Dakota Indians who travel from as far away as Canada, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota, it is a bittersweet homecoming, marred by the ancestral memory of the days when this land was taken from their people and they were shuttled off to remote reservations in desolate places. But each year since the Dakota Homecoming’s inception, these Native Americans have returned to Winona with their hands extended in a gesture of peace. With them they bring a culture steeped in tradition and deeply spiritual beliefs, and they invite Winona’s non-Indian inhabitants to know them better, to understand who they are, to join them in a celebration of forgiveness and solidarity. The Dakota Homecoming Originated as the brainchild of the Diversity Foundation and Winona city officials, groups that later gave rise to the Winona Dakota Unity Alliance.

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"Crow Creek: The Forgotten People," Video, (11/2006) By Diversity Foundation and HBC, winner of an International Videographer Award.

"Bridges of Hope" are coming from schools and churches and businesses and city leaders in Winona & across southern Minnesota, with the story of the Dakota people inspiring all who hear it, help reconcile & want to help make it right.......Winona's Hiawatha Broadband Communications and the Diversity Foundation Inc have recently documented some of the conditions & outreach efforts in a production called “Crow Creek: The Forgotten People.” Crow Creek is a reservation in Central South Dakota where many of the Dakotas, once living in pre-european Minnesota, were once sent & exciled in 1863.

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"Santee youth reconnecting to Winona roots with new venture," (11/26/2006) By Sarah Elmquist, Winona Post

Kenny Derby, Sonny Red Owl, Kameron Runnels and Santee Elder Roger Trudell checked out Southeastern Technical College last week during a Winona visit. Not pictured is Elvis Laplant. The four young men are working toward attending college in Winona, with the help and collaboration of the Diversity Foundation.

WINONA, Minn. - The years that follow will change their lives. They will return home with experiences and connections that many of their elders never had the opportunity to make.

They will be leaders. They are leaders.

The four young men from the Santee Nation in South Dakota visited Winona last week to tour Winona State University, St. Mary’s University, Southeastern Technical College and Cotter High School.

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"Otakuye Hdihunipi- The Third Annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming," (06/16/2006) By Ernestine Chasing Hawk, Journal Editor, Dakotah Journal

WINONA, Minn. - In the land where the “waters reflect the sky,” citizens of Winona, Minnesota welcomed back the indigenous Dakota Oyate who once inhabited this lush green island city situated along the banks of the Mississippi.

The Otakuye Hdihunipi or Third Annual Great Dakota Gratings and Homecoming on Wapasha Prairie on June 3 and 4 was an experience like no other where Wasicun (Caucasian) and Dakota worshipped, danced, feasted, shared stories and played together for two days along the shores of beautiful Lake Winona.

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"More Dakota attend homecoming," (06/07/2006) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post

WINONA, Minn. – Hundreds of them came, and signs hung everywhere to greet them saying, “Welcome home, Dakotas.”

From solemn sunrise spiritual services to the thundering drum of joyous powwows, the weekend was filled with the sights, sounds, and memories of the Dakota nation coming home to a place many call sacred.

Organizers said as word of this event spread throughout the Indian nations of the Midwest and Canada, more and more have made it a priority to come over the past three years.

This year, said Diversity Foundation’s Lyle Rustad, some 400 or more Native Americans came to town to see this place they heard had opened its arms to their culture, their history.

At the wacipis, or powwows, Saturday and Sunday, throngs of people of European decent rose to the beat of the drums and joined the dance in the celebration circle. “We are all related,” emcee Danny Seaboy told the crowd. “We come from different places, but we are all human beings, and we are related.”

In the learning tent, visitors were able to read books, see displays and hear stories about the Dakota nation and the history of Native Americans told from their memories, not ours. It was a time not of admonishment, but understanding for those willing to listen.

The sly maneuvering of the Moccasin Games, something akin to an elaborate shell and pea game, captivated large crowds who stood for hours to watch teams from the United states and Canada outfox each other in a battle of wits.

Later, after one of the game carpets sat empty, a mixture of local boys and girls reenacted their own version of the game, with an elder teaching them the rules from a chair nearby. “The kids will remember this,” he said. “It’s good for them to share this with us, to grow up understanding something about us. It is something our ancestors didn’t have,” he said.


"Hdihunipi- The Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming
Event Honoring American Indians set for this weekend," (06/02/2006) By Kari Knutson, Winona Daily News

WINONA, Minn. – The songs may be unfamiliar and the names hard to pronounce, but a sense of home is universal.

It’s that sense of commonality that will be celebrated at the third annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming on Saturday and Sunday at Lake Park.

The even was begun as reconciliation for the Dakota American Indians who called Winona home until the European settlers and the United States military forced them out. Many Dakota members attend the homecoming every year.

The homecoming had been in the planning process for years and is sponsored by the city of Winona, The Diversity Foundation, and the Winona Dakota Unity Alliance.

Diversity Foundation Chairman Edward Lohnes Jr. is a descendent of Dakota Chief Waanatan and an enrolled member of Spirit LakeDakota Nation.

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"Hdihunipi: Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming this weekend at Lake Park", (5/31/2006) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post

WINONA, Minn. - While Winona, or Wapasha’s Prairie, is the ancestral home of only some of the Native American people who will converge on Lake Park this weekend, for many others it is a symbolic homecoming of mind and spirit just the same.

From sunrise to sundown, Lake Park will host opportunities for reconciliation, for understanding, for celebrating, and all visitors need do is come with an open mind to experience it.

Saturday and Sunday, East Lake Winona will be the site of the 3rd Annual Hdihunipi, the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming at Wapasha Prairie.

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"Prairie Island Indian Community Pledges $125,000 to Diversity Foundation - Tribe will donate $25,000 each year until 2010," (05/30/06)

Welch, Minn. – The Prairie Island Indian Community recently presented the Diversity Foundation of Winona, Minn. with a $25,000 donation. This amount serves as the first of five donations to the Diversity Foundation to help preserve the cultural heritage of the Dakota Nations. In total, Prairie Island will donate $125,000 to the organization.

The donated funds are earmarked for the promotion, recognition, and salvation of the cultural heritage of Dakota Indian Nations. Prairie Island Tribal Council Treasurer Alan Childs II said that Prairie Island is excited to be a part of the positive things the Diversity Foundation does. Childs stated, “This donation serves as a way for us to help other Dakota Nations – preserving the future for all Dakota Communities”

The Diversity Foundation is committed to bridging the gap between people caused by cultural and ethnic differences. The foundation does this by producing educational films and hosting events that raise awareness, promote multicultural education and teach intercultural communication. “This partnership is an important beginning of many great things to come,” Lyle Rustad, executive director for the Diversity Foundation said. “Our prayers have been answered – this donation is an opportunity we have been dreaming about.”

Donations like the one made to the Diversity Foundation are important to the Prairie Island Indian Community because for many years their culture was suppressed and tribal members were forced to assimilate. Many tribal members who remember this time particularly recognize the importance of teaching and protecting the Dakota culture.

Sharing our native culture with our youth and the local community is very important to our tribe,” said Prairie Island Tribal Council President Audrey Bennett. “We’re happy to be able to support the Diversity Foundation’s efforts to promote cultural awareness and understanding.”

Since 1994, the Prairie Island Indian Community has donated more than $12 million to many Indian and non-Indian causes. The Prairie Island Indian Community is a federally recognized Indian Nation, located 35 minutes southeast of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi River. The Prairie Island Indian Community owns and operates Treasure Island Resort & Casino.


"Churches start drive to send aid to S.D. Native Americans," (05/11/2006) Tri-County Record, Minn.

Rushford, Minn. – Lyle Rustad, once of Rushford has worked with Native American causes and needs most of his life. His Diversity Foundation, Inc., and a conversation with Jim Hoiness has led to a local campaign to improve life for residents of the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota.

Starting next week contributed items and cash will be loaded until a semi-trailer truck delivers the gifts to South Dakota later in the month.

Everyone is invited to help, and local churches are leading the effort. “It’s a rural Rushford and Peterson (and Lanesboro) church project to put some needed items out there.” Hoiness, who visited the reservation with Rustad, said,

“What struck me visiting with two public health nurses – there are lots of needs for children. Sometimes more than one family lives in a home, sometimes children are sleeping on the floor. We talked to the tribal chief and his wife. She gave us a tour; a very intelligent lady who knows what’s needed.”


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Read editorial written by Rev. Susan Li, "Share with others what God shares with us"


"Reclaiming Spirit Lake Dakotas' past bolsters their future
Conferenceaims to preserve language and history," (04/12/2006) By Jerry L. Carter, Dakota Journal

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