Introduction:
The following article was published in the Aitkin Independent Age, the Aitkin
County newspaper. The editor of the newspaper [Ann Schwartz] wrote the article. I [Thomas Dahlheimer]
thank Ann Schwartz for writing and publishing this article.
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Wednesday , March 12, 2008 Aitkin Independent Age
Man wants Rum River name change
Thomas Dahlheimer, Wahkon, is leading a movement to change the name of the Rum River back to a
sacred Dakota name of the Wahkon which he spells Wakan.
"I am spearheading the local, national and international movement to change the profane name
of the Rum River back to its sacred Dakota name Wakan," said Dahlheimer in a press release.
"Leonard Wabasha, a hereditary chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and manager of the
Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community Cultural Resource Department, is an advisor of mine
and has given his approval of the work that the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community and
I are doing to change the name of the Rum River back to its sacred Dakota name, " said
Dahlheimer.
The group wants to establish an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance and a Mille Lacs Area Dakota
Unity Alliance. They contend that name of the river goes back to when the Dakota (Sioux)
Indians controlled Mille Lacs Lake and the surrounding area. The Chippewa/Ojibwe drove
them out and took over the lake area.
"In recent years, there has been a rise of indigenous movements in the Americas, " he
said. "these are rights-driven groups that organize themselves in order to achieve
self-determination and the preservation of culture for their people."
For more info, cantact Dahlheimer at Box 24, Wahkon, MN 56386 or Wahkon@scicable.com
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Commentary by Tom Dahlheimer
It seems to me that in the article Ann Schwartz implies that the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota
Community (MMDC), me and Leonard Wabasha contend that the Chippewa/Ojibwe drove the ancient Dakota
out of their Mille Lacs Lake area homeland and took over the lake area. This is not what I believe,
nor do I believe that the MMDC and Leonard Wabasha believe this to be true.
In my press release information, the information I sent Ann Schwartz, I wrote: When applying UN
information - information associated with two 15th century papal bulls which instructed the colonists
to invade the Americas, drive indigenous tribes from their homelands and then occupy them - to our
local area...a radically different history, different from what most of us Minnesota folks were
taught on the subject about what happened to the ancient Mille Lacs Lake area Dakota, is revealed.
This different and true history informs us that the Dakota people who had been living in the
Mille Lacs Lake area for centuries before white colonists and a band of Ojibwe arrived...were
driven from their homeland in a joint assault by the area's white colonists and a band of Ojibwe.
There is a myth that the editors of newspapers in the Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed
keep perpetuating, and do so, in order to (at least in some editor's cases)
cover up the guilt/injustices of their fellow
white raced people who tricked (with the help of alcohol) the Ojibwe to wage war against the ancient
Mille Lacs Lake area Dakota and then drive them (with the help of their colonists gun powder and guns)
from their Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed homeland. In the display above article, it seems
to me that Ann Schwartz states that it is the contention of this "group" [the MMDC, me, and
Leonard Wabasha] that the Ojibwe, after driving the Dakota from their Mille Lacs Lake area
homeland, "took over the lake area". I believe that the Ojibwe did NOT
take over the lake area, and that it was the white people who (eventually) took over
the lake area and that they then gave the band of Ojibwe who helped them drive the Dakota out of
their sacred homeland some special rights to a section of their newly aquired land.
Minnesota's DNR website presents information about this topic. "Early White/Indian intervention
played an important role in the settlement of the area by white men. The French, instigated
fights between the Ojibwe and Dakota so as to ally themselves with the Ojibwe." The white colonists
tricked and used a band of Ojibwe to drive the Dakota from their Wakan/"Rum" River
Watershed homeland. More information about this topic can be found in my on-line article:
Regaining The Dakota's
Mille Lacs Ancestral Homeland. Native on-line news outlets have been finding
this article of mine and publishing it on their news websites. I've sent it to county newspapers
in the form of a letter to the editor. However, county newspapers which are
distributed in the Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed have not yet published it. I believe that
they should expose the ancient guilt/injustices of the white colonists who invaded and occupied this
area so that we can accept responsibility and then work to redeem our white race for what it did
to the Dakota and a band of Ojibwe in this central Minnesota area.