#The Upper Sioux Agency State Park

[xtruss]

Native Tribe To Get Back Land 160 Years After Largest Mass Hanging In US History

Upper Sioux Agency state park in Minnesota, where bodies of those killed after US-Dakota war are buried, to be transferred

— Associated Press | Sunday 3 September, 2023

The Upper Sioux Agency State Park near Granite Falls, Minnesota. Photograph: Trisha Ahmed/AP

Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.

The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history.

“It’s a place of holocaust. Our people starved to death there,” said Kevin Jensvold, chairman of the Upper Sioux Community, a small tribe with about 550 members just outside the park.

The Upper Sioux Agency state park in south-western Minnesota spans a little more than 2 sq miles (about 5 sq km) and includes the ruins of a federal complex where officers withheld supplies from Dakota people, leading to starvation and deaths.

Decades of tension exploded into the US-Dakota war of 1862 between settler-colonists and a faction of Dakota people, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. After the US won the war, the government hanged more people than in any other execution in the nation. A memorial honors the 38 Dakota men killed in Mankato, 110 miles (177km) from the park.

Jensvold said he has spent 18 years asking the state to return the park to his tribe. He began when a tribal elder told him it was unjust Dakota people at the time needed to pay a state fee for each visit to the graves of their ancestors there.

Native American tribe in Maine buys back Island taken 160 years ago! The Passamaquoddy’s purchase of Pine Island for $355,000 is the latest in a series of successful ‘land back’ campaigns for indigenous people in the US. Pine Island. Photograph: Courtesy the writer, Alice Hutton. Friday 4 June, 2021

Lawmakers finally authorized the transfer this year when Democrats took control of the house, senate and governor’s office for the first time in nearly a decade, said State Senator Mary Kunesh, a Democrat and descendant of the Standing Rock Nation.

Tribes speaking out about injustices have helped more people understand how lands were taken and treaties were often not upheld, Kunesh said, adding that people seem more interested now in “doing the right thing and getting lands back to tribes”.

But the transfer also would mean fewer tourists and less money for the nearby town of Granite Falls, said Mayor Dave Smiglewski. He and other opponents say recreational land and historic sites should be publicly owned, not given to a few people, though lawmakers set aside funding for the state to buy land to replace losses in the transfer.

The park is dotted with hiking trails, campsites, picnic tables, fishing access, snowmobiling and horseback riding routes and tall grasses with wildflowers that dance in hot summer winds.

“People that want to make things right with history’s injustices are compelled often to support action like this without thinking about other ramifications,” Smiglewski said. “A number, if not a majority, of state parks have similar sacred meaning to Indigenous tribes. So where would it stop?”

In recent years, some tribes in the US, Canada and Australia have gotten their rights to ancestral lands restored with the growth of the Land Back movement, which seeks to return lands to Indigenous people.

‘It’s a powerful feeling’: the Indigenous American tribe helping to bring back buffalo 🦬! Matt Krupnick in Wolakota Buffalo Range, South Dakota. Sunday 20 February, 2022. The Wolakota Buffalo Range in South Dakota has swelled to 750 bison with a goal of reaching 1,200. Photograph: Matt Krupnick

A National Park has never been transferred from the US government to a tribal nation, but a handful are Co-managed with Tribes, including Grand Portage National Nonument in northern Minnesota, Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona and Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles of the National Park Service said.

This will be the first time Minnesota transfers a state park to a Native American community, said Ann Pierce, director of Minnesota State Parks and trails at the natural resources department.

Minnesota’s transfer, expected to take years to finish, is tucked into several large bills covering several issues. The bills allocate more than $6m to facilitate the transfer by 2033. The money can be used to buy land with recreational opportunities and pay for appraisals, road and bridge demolition and other engineering.

Chris Swedzinski and Gary Dahms, the Republican lawmakers representing the portion of the state encompassing the park, declined through their aides to comment about their stances on the transfer.

— The Guardian USA

[minnesotafollower]

State of Minnesota Transferring State Park to Dakota Tribe

The State of Minnesota is now engaged in transferring the Upper Sioux Agency State Park in the southwestern part of the State to a Dakota Indian Tribe that was involved in its tragic history.[1] Historical Background The Treaty of Traverse Des Sioux of 1851 moved the Dakota Indians from Iowa and Minnesota to a reservation 20 miles wide in southwestern Minnesota along the Minnesota River Valley.…

[porterdavis]

This is just part of the history that right-wing America doesn't want its children to learn about.

Their version of US history makes Disney look radical.

[nando161mando]

Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history

[umbralwaves]

It is the site of starvation and death of Dakota people during the summer of 1862 when the government did not provide food promised to the Dakota tribe by a treaty. 

[projectourworld]

Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history.

Upper Sioux Agency state park in Minnesota, where bodies of those killed after US-Dakota war are buried, to be transferred. Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back. The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history.

Courtesy: Associated Press 2023 / Guardian Newspaper US / Picture: The Upper Sioux Agency state park near Granite Falls, Minnesota. Photograph: Trisha Ahmed/AP #sacred #indigenous #rights #dakota #tribe

[protoslacker]

Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back.

[jinsai-ish]

Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history | Minnesota | The Guardian

Just to balance the news a little bit.

[native-blog-deutsch]

Tribe bekommt ein Stück Minnesota zurück, mehr als ein Jahrhundert nachdem die Vorfahren dort gestorben sind

Originalartikel In den goldenen Prärien und gewundenen Flüssen eines Staatsparks in Minnesota befinden sich auch die geheimen Grabstätten der Dakota, die starben, als die Vereinigten Staaten vor mehr als einem Jahrhundert die Verträge mit den amerikanischen Ureinwohnern nicht einhielten. Jetzt bekommen ihre Nachkommen das Land zurück. Der Staat unternimmt den seltenen Schritt, den Park mit einer belasteten Geschichte an einen Dakota-Stamm zu übertragen, um die Ereignisse wiedergutzumachen, die zu einem Krieg und der größten Massenhinrichtung in der Geschichte der USA führten. "Es ist ein Ort des Holocausts. Unser Volk ist dort verhungert", sagt Kevin Jensvold, Vorsitzender der Upper Sioux Community, eines kleinen Stammes mit etwa 550 Mitgliedern in der Nähe des Parks. Der Upper Sioux Agency State Park im Südwesten von Minnesota erstreckt sich über etwas mehr als 2 Quadratmeilen (etwa 5 Quadratkilometer) und umfasst die Ruinen eines Bundeskomplexes, in dem Beamte dem Volk der Dakota Vorräte vorenthielten, was zu Hunger und Tod führte. Nach jahrzehntelangen Spannungen kam es 1862 zum US-Dakota-Krieg zwischen Siedlern und einer Fraktion der Dakota, so die Minnesota Historical Society. Nachdem die USA den Krieg gewonnen hatten, hängte die Regierung mehr Menschen auf als bei jeder anderen Hinrichtung im Land. Ein Denkmal ehrt die 38 Dakota-Männer, die in Mankato, 110 Meilen (177 Kilometer) vom Park entfernt, getötet wurden. Jensvold sagte, er habe 18 Jahre lang den Staat gebeten, den Park an seinen Stamm zurückzugeben. Er begann damit, als ein Stammesältester ihm sagte, dass es ungerecht sei, dass die Dakota damals für jeden Besuch der Gräber ihrer Vorfahren eine staatliche Gebühr zahlen mussten. Als die Demokraten in diesem Jahr zum ersten Mal seit fast einem Jahrzehnt die Kontrolle über das Repräsentantenhaus, den Senat und das Gouverneursamt übernahmen, genehmigte der Gesetzgeber schließlich die Übertragung, sagte Senatorin Mary Kunesh, eine Demokratin und Nachfahrin der Standing Rock Nation. Stämme, die sich über Ungerechtigkeiten geäußert haben, haben dazu beigetragen, dass mehr Menschen verstehen, wie Land entzogen und Verträge oft nicht eingehalten wurden, sagte Kunesh und fügte hinzu, dass die Menschen jetzt mehr daran interessiert zu sein scheinen, "das Richtige zu tun und den Stämmen ihr Land zurückzugeben". Aber die Übertragung würde auch weniger Touristen und weniger Geld für die nahe gelegene Stadt Granite Falls bedeuten, sagte Bürgermeister Dave Smiglewski. Er und andere Gegner sagen, dass Erholungsland und historische Stätten in öffentlichem Besitz sein sollten und nicht an einige wenige Leute vergeben werden sollten. Der Gesetzgeber hat jedoch Mittel für den Staat vorgesehen, um Land zu kaufen, das die Verluste durch die Übertragung ersetzt. Der Park ist übersät mit Wanderwegen, Campingplätzen, Picknicktischen, Angelplätzen, Schneemobil- und Reitrouten und hohen Gräsern mit Wildblumen, die im heißen Sommerwind tanzen. "Menschen, die die Ungerechtigkeiten der Geschichte wiedergutmachen wollen, sind oft gezwungen, Aktionen wie diese zu unterstützen, ohne über andere Konsequenzen nachzudenken", sagt Smiglewski. "Viele, wenn nicht sogar die meisten, staatlichen Parks haben eine ähnliche heilige Bedeutung für indigene Stämme. Wo würde es also aufhören?" In den letzten Jahren haben einige Stämme in den USA, Kanada und Australien mit dem Wachstum der Land-Back-Bewegung, die versucht, indigenen Völkern ihr Land zurückzugeben, ihre Rechte auf ihr angestammtes Land zurückerhalten. Noch nie wurde ein Nationalpark von der US-Regierung an ein indigenes Volk übertragen, aber einige werden gemeinsam mit den Stämmen verwaltet, darunter das Grand Portage National Monument im Norden Minnesotas, das Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona und der Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, so Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles vom National Park Service.

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[morosestferret]

Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history | Minnesota | The Guardian

[sarkos]

The state is taking the rare step of transferring the park with a fraught history back to a Dakota tribe, trying to make amends for events that led to a war and the largest mass hanging in US history. “It’s a place of holocaust. Our people starved to death there,” said Kevin Jensvold, chairman of the Upper Sioux Community, a small tribe with about 550 members just outside the park. The Upper Sioux Agency state park in south-western Minnesota spans a little more than 2 sq miles (about 5 sq km) and includes the ruins of a federal complex where officers withheld supplies from Dakota people, leading to starvation and deaths. Decades of tension exploded into the US-Dakota war of 1862 between settler-colonists and a faction of Dakota people, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. After the US won the war, the government hanged more people than in any other execution in the nation. A memorial honors the 38 Dakota men killed in Mankato, 110 miles (177km) from the park. Jensvold said he has spent 18 years asking the state to return the park to his tribe. He began when a tribal elder told him it was unjust Dakota people at the time needed to pay a state fee for each visit to the graves of their ancestors there.

Native tribe to get back land 160 years after largest mass hanging in US history | Minnesota | The Guardian