Environmental Activism

By Thomas Dahlheimer

I am an indigenous peoples rights activist who initiated and am spearheading the local, national and international movement to change the faulty-translation and profane name of Minnesota's "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota Indigenous name Wakan, which when translated into English means Spirit or Great Spirit.

In April 2003, I established a non-prophet organization to help me change this river's derogatory name. My organization's name is Rum River Name Change Organization, Inc.. I, along with the other members of this organization, have established an environmental committee that is in the process of establishing an environmental movement with a mission to help clean up this beautiful but badly named river.

Russell Means, an internationally renowned American indigenous activist, sent me the following Nov. 04, 2003 letter of support. "To Whom it may Concern: I hereby support the movement to change the derogatory name of a Minnesota River, the White Man named Rum River. In my language, "Wakan" is Holy. I support the effort to return this Minnesota River to its rightful name Holy Water. Perhaps it will quit being polluted as well.

Note: The Dakota word wakan often means holy or sacred, however, the traditional Dakota name for their Great Spirit is Wakan - the Great Wakan. And this is the correct translation for the Dakota's name for the "Rum River".

David Gonzales, an Indigenous American environmental activist wrote an article and then managed to get it published in Minnesota's best selling state-wide daily newspaper. It promoted the formation of a group of American indigenous environmental activists who would canoe from Mille Lacs Lake down the badly named "Rum River" to its confluence with the Mississippi River. And do so, in an effort to change the dominant culture's collective attitude toward the rivers in particular and water in general. In his article he presented his groups plan to take a canoe journey down the Wakan Wakpa (Rum River) to its confluence with the Mississippi River and while doing so, stop along the way and set up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations along the river as "environmental schools" to promote American indigenous peoples' environmental awareness.

In his article, David Gonzales wrote: "The environmental crisis necessitates that we speak for the rivers and water as a place to care for, make safe, and enjoy."

The environmental crisis also necessitates that the Rum River Name Change Organization's envisioned Wakan Wakpa (Rum River) environmental movement becomes manifest and that it too speaks for the Wakan Wakpa, as well as for other bodies of water, as places to care for, make safe, and enjoy.

If this envisioned environmental movement becomes manifest, its activists, in an attempt to change the collective attitude, will canoe from Mille Lacs Lake down the Wakan Wakpa to the sacred two-rivers area where the Wakan Wakpa meets with the Mississippi River in Anoka, Minnesota.

And during this canoe journey, these environmental activists will come in contact with riverside communities, and this will symbolize their theme that the Wakan Wakpa, and all other rivers, are sacred arteries for life.

And they will set up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations located along the Wakan Wakpa as environmental schools to promote public awareness.

And they will make use of Indigenous American language to change attitudes. During their canoe journey they will be promoting respect for the sacred traditional Dakota Indigenous name for their Great Spirit Wakan as well as for their sacred name for the "Rum River" Wakan.

In the late 1700s, white men took the sacred Dakota name for the "Rum River" Wakan, and then, by way of a "punning translation", translated the sacred Dakota name for the "Rum River" Wakan to mean an alcohol spirit, the alcohol spirit rum. They then, unfortunately, named the river "Rum". By doing so, the sacred Dakota name for the river was desecrated. And because the Dakota name Wakan is the traditional Dakota name for their Great Spirit, the "Rum River" name, therefore, indirectly desecrates the traditional Dakota name for their Great Spirit. And what makes the white men's naming the river "Rum" even worse is the fact that...at the time when the river was named "Rum", Rum was bringing misery and ruin to many of the Indians.

The Rum River Name Change Organization's environmental activists who will be canoeing down the Wakan Wakpa will be promoting the effort to revert the name of the "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota name Wakan. And they will, by means of promoting respect for the sacred Dakota name for the "Rum River", attempt to change the collective attitude, so that our nation's cultural mainstream people become eco-conscientious protectors of the Great Spirit's rivers and other bodies of water. And as these environmental activists search for a way to change attitudes toward rivers and water - and of course the earth - American Indigenous language will become more and more important to them, hence they will become more diligent in their mission to revert the badly named "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota name Wakan.

Near Summertown, Tennessee there is a large and very successful youth of the 1960s hippie countercultural commune with a world-view around the word wakan. This hippie countercultural commune's founder and leader is Stephen Gaskin. Gaskin was a Green Party candidate for President in the year 2000. And in the 1960's, another leader of the hippie countercultural revolution, who occasionally met and spoke with Stephen Gaskin, visited me in Wahkon, Minnesota , the headquarter of the Rum River Name Change Organization. His name is Richard Carter. And he is now an bi-nationally known environmentalist and one of the Governor of Arizona's top environmental advisers.

Note: The word wakan is sometimes spelled wahkon, as it is in respect to a city located on the south shore of Mille Lacs Lake - Wahkon, Minnesota.

At the 1983 Tekakwitha Conference, a conference that represented over one hundred tribes, I was interviewed by the conference's keynote speaker (Matthew Fox). Matthew Fox is an internationally know environmentalist. And during that interview, I spoke to Fox about my "world-view around the word wakan/wahkon" mission. And during that interview, Matthew Fox told me that he would like for me to keep in touch with him, so as to keep him informed about the progress of my "world view around the word wakan/wahkan" mission. And after sending a letter to Matthew Fox, wherein I informed him about my movement to change the profane name of the "Rum River", he sent me a letter of support for my effort to change the river's name.

And the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans has also given its support for the effort to change this river's derogatory name.

And Tom Wisner, a nationally renowned singer, song writer and environmentalist made the movement to regain the sacred Dakota name for the badly named "Rum River" the centerpiece of his 2005 Winter Solstice radio broadcast, a two hour show that was broadcasted on the internet. Mr. Wisner is known nationally for his song "Chesapeake Born". "Chesapeake Born" became the title song for the 1986 National Geographic Special on the Bay region. Wisner's classroom techniques were filmed by Washington-area NBC-TV and other stations, and he received national, state, and local awards for excellence in teaching. He was given citations by two governors and was named a major figure in land-conservation work by President Reagan's Commission on the Out-of-Doors.

I am hoping that the envisioned Wakan Wakpa environmental movement will soon become manifest and that its participants will then fulfill our environmental committee's initial mission, by canoeing from Mille Lac Lake down the Wakan Wakpa to its confluence with the Mississippi River; and in the process stopping along the way and setting up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations as "environmental schools" to promote indigenous peoples' environmental awareness.

And I am also hoping that there will soon be a formation of a group of Indigenous America environmental activists, who will then canoe from Mille Lacs Lake down Wakan Wakpa to its confluence with the Mississippi River, and in the process also stopping along the way and setting up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations as "environmental schools" to promote indigenous peoples' environmental awareness.