Initiating A Movement At Mille Lacs To Set Colonized/Subjugated Native Peoples Free
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
Indian Country Media Network (ICMN), the world's largest Native news source, recently posted a 240 word comment of
mine on a June 28, 2017, article by columnist Steven Newcomb (Shawnee / Lenape). The article is entitled The Mind of the White Man is the Origin of US Federal
Indian ‘Law’.
Mr. Newcomb is on the cutting edge of the global movement to set indigenous peoples
free from their subjugated state of existence. The indigenous peoples' subjugated state of existence is still being imposed on them by the
White Man's implementation of a colonial, and early post-colonial, international legal construct known as the Doctrine of
Discovery (DoD). Newcomb is one of the world's most renowned experts on the DoD and its
impact on indigenous peoples.
ICMN generally posts one or two comments on its articles. My comment on this article by Newcomb is the second comment of
two comments posted. It presents a statement from a Mille Lacs Messenger newspaper letter by Sue Layback about the DoD, as well as
some information from my online article
Fighting Racism Against Natives In Mille Lacs County, MN. This article's title, a link to it and a map highlighting
Mille Lacs County is posted here on the Mendota
Mdewakanton Dakota Community's Facebook site. ICMN has posted several of my Mille Lacs Messenger letters on articles by
Newcomb.
Over two decades ago, I prophesied that the Mille Lacs area would eventually be where the activists on the cutting edge of
the global movement to set indigenous peoples free from their subjugated state of existence would be centered, and that from
this area these activists would be successful at accomplishing this goal. Today, I believe, even more so than in the past, that
this prophesy of mine will be fulfilled.
My comment on Newcomb's June 28, 2017, ICMN article reads:
There is one Lakota/Dakota creation story that says the people sprang into existence “about the lakes at the head of
the Rum (Wakan) River.” These lakes are located in the Mille Lacs area of Minnesota. Many years ago, I prophesied that the
exiled Dakota people would return to Mille Lacs and regain a portion of this sacred traditional/ancestral homeland of theirs.
Not long after the publication of my Mille Lacs area newspaper letter about the Doctrine of Discovery two other related Mille Lacs
Messenger letters were published. They were written by prominent residents of the Mille Lacs area. A statement in one of
the letters reads:
"Last fall at the [Evangelical Lutheran Church] churchwide assembly in New Orleans, and this spring at
our local assembly, resolutions were passed repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. This doctrine was a force
that pervaded this country and Europe, paving the way for mass entry into this land and the removal of Native
peoples with little regard for their rights as human beings. The honest remorse-filled rejection, at last, of
this doctrine of thought and action, is long overdue. I am grateful to be part of it. Repudiating the doctrine of
discovery is just one step in the journey towards healing and reconciliation, but a vital one.”
“May we here at Mille Lacs enter into similar dialogue. May we find ways to acknowledge our brokenness and the
forces that have led us into divisiveness. It can be done."
I can be reached at: Wahkonrainbow@gmail