We Are Still Here: Minnesota is a Dakota Place
with Dr. Gwen Westerman (Sisseton Dakota)
7 p.m. TONIGHT
Minnesota History Center
FREE.
Chaska, Mankato, Wabasha, Shakopee, Winona. Minnesota is a Dakota place. The language of the Dakota people marks this land, the Dakota homeland of Mni Sota Makoce, as it has for generations. Join Dakota artist, poet and scholar Gwen Westerman as she shares her perspective on the modern Dakota people and their special place in Minnesota on the eve of the sesquecentennial of the tragic and transformative U.S.-Dakota War.
The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 marked a major turning point in the long history of the Dakota people. It is only one small part of the story of a people who belong to the Oceti Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires of Dakota, Nakota and Lakota, one of the largest and most influential cultural alliances in the history of North America. They adapted to the presence of European and American newcomers by making them kin. They refused to accept the violation of treaties by corrupt U.S. officials. They survived being divided and scattered across thousands of miles by war, internment and removal. They endured having their children taken from their homes, and resisted over a century of attempts to forbid them the language and the spirituality at the core of their way of life. They are still here. Discover how the U.S.-Dakota War was neither a beginning, nor an ending, for the Dakota Oyate [people] in this place we call Minnesota.
Dr. Westerman serves as the Director of the Native American Literature Symposium, is the recipient of several prestigious grants, and has published widely on contemporary American Indian literature. She is a poet and artist and has published her poetry in “Yellow Medicine Review,” “Water-Stone Review,” and other journals; she has also displayed her quilts in many venues. Gwen Westerman is an English professor at Minnesota State University-Mankato specializing in multi-cultural and Native American literature.