Thomas Dahlheimer


On March 21, 2015, Indian Country Today Media Network, the world's largest Indian news source, published an article by Melvin Lee Houston (Dakota), entitled: An open letter to the Dakota Oyate. There are two selective comments to the article. The first comment is mine.

In the article, Mr. Houston describes the Dakota Oyate's (people's) political and geographic divisions forced upon them by colonization.

"The church, the settlers and the cavalry divided us into 'good' Indians and 'bad' Indians. The 'bad' Indians were those that wanted to keep their Dakota culture, language and lifeways. The 'good' Indians [loyalists] were those that were willing to give up their Dakota identity, adopt Christianity and assimilate."

"The term loyalist became known again in modern times as a result of the lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by Sheldon Wolfchild and other descendants of the loyal Mdewakantons." [It claimed land and revenues from three Dakota communities in Minnesota.]

"They did not understand the full consequences of identifying as a loyalist or what the term meant historically."

"They are telling the story of our resistance and claiming it as their own. They've been misrepresenting and misinterpreting it for too long."

My ICTMN comment reads: I agree with Mr. Houston's position on this topic. The two lawsuits filed by Sheldon Wolfchild have caused a lot of division and suffering among the Dakota Oyate. I am a white activist who works with Leonard Wabasha, the hereditary chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate and cultural resources director for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. I am working to help the Dakota Oyate to regain their sacred Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland in Minnesota. I believe that Wolfchild has been "misrepresenting and misinterpreting" Dakota culture and history for quite a while. For over a decade I have been protesting his radical distortions of Dakota Oyate history. Chief Leonard Wabasha has an interpretive sign at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. On it he states: "My people are the Mdewakanton Oyate. Mdewakanton means the People of Spirit Lake. Today that lake is known as Mille Lacs. This landscape is sacred to the Mdewakanton Oyate because one Otokaheys Woyakapi (creation story) says we were created here. It is especially pleasing for me to come here and walk these trails, because about 1718 the first Chief Wapahasa was born here, at the headwaters of the Spirit River. I am the eighth in this line of hereditary chiefs." In a youtube.com video Wolfchild says that there is no Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate creation story at Mille Lacs Lake and that his people's creation story is at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. A band of the Iowa tribe lived at this confluence until 1685. For hundreds of years before the 1600s the Dakota Oyate lived at their Mille Lacs Lake homeland and believed it was the place of their origin. I believe that Wolfchild and his close associates are stealing the Dakota Oyate's sacred site history at Mille Lacs and other places and moving it to the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers in order to gain leverage to accomplish their active goals in the area.

Related articles:

Regaining the Dakota Oyate's Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland

The Coldwater Spring Deception