Learn More

Below are listed some resources for learning more about Dakota people, about US-Indian relations nationally and in Minnesota, and about specific sites highlighted in the Bdote Memory Map. Too many of the links are outdated. The work to research and update to current working resources is underway. Please keep in mind that history is created from specific cultural perspectives. Many of the primary resources that present Dakota history and identity, and US-Indian relations, are based on assumptions that not only arise from non-Dakota perspective, but actively exclude any indigenous perspective. Challenging these assumptions is much more than a matter of political correctness; it is a requirement for any accurate understanding of our past. For instance, the origin of the Dakota War has often been presented as an incident in which Dakota youth killed a farm family, an event that somehow sparked a violent territory-wide conflict that necessitated the punishment of all Dakota people. Such a portrayal, illogical though it may be, makes sense from a specific cultural perspective; and only from that perspective. In using any historical resource, it is important to question the perspective from which the resource is created, and how that perspective shapes the presentation of facts. These resources are only a beginning, an initial supplement to the introductory information in this site. Sources with a Dakota point of view are rare. Most of these resources express information from a dominant culture point of view. For example, “This region was acquired by the U.S. government by treaty in 1805.” The word “acquired” is clearly not chosen by a Dakota writer.

General Resources

Background information on Bdote Memory Map sites:

Coldwater Springs

Coldwater Hearing

On Feb 23, 2009, a open house was held at the bureau of mines in Minneapolis. Several Dakota speak about the future of Coldwater Spring and ask that the state and the national parks service return the 27-acre site to the Dakota people.

Fort Snelling

Web Resources

Publications

  • Fort Snelling Concentration Camp Dakota Prisoners, 1862-63 The American Indian Quarterly – Volume 28, Number 1&2, Winter/Spring 2004, pp. 170-174
  • Fort Snelling from its foundation to the present time UM TC Wilson Library (976.8 M66c v.8 )
  • Historic Ft Snelling Chronicles UM TC Magrath Gov Pub (State Docs) (MN 8060 HC ) (ST PAUL CAMPUS)

Minnehaha Falls and Creek

Minnesota River

Mississippi River

Pike Island

St. Anthony Falls

Web Pages

Books available through Minneapolis Public Libraries

  • Saint Anthony Falls rediscovered, the architectural heritage of Minneapolis’s St. Anthony Falls historical district. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Riverfront Development Coordination Board, 1980.
  • Hansen, Marcus Lee. Old Fort Snelling, 1892-1938. Minneapolis, Ross & Haines, 1958.
  • Kane, Lucile M. The falls of St. Anthony: the waterfall that built Minneapolis. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1987.
  • Stevens, John Harrington. Personal recollections of Minnesota and its people: and early history of Minneapolis. Minneapolis: [Tribune Job Ptg. Co.], 1890.
  • Zellie, Carole. Geographic features and landscape change at Saint Anthony Falls. St. Paul, Minn.: Landscape Research, [1989].

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