Letter to the editor:
Published in the Mille Lacs Messenger
Nov. 27, 2002

RECOGNITION INITIATIVE

by Thomas Dahlheimer

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe want all non-"Indians" of Mille Lacs County as well as all non-Mille Lacs Band "Indians" of Mille Lacs County, including Mdewakanton Dakota "Indians" living in Mille Lacs County, to support their self acclaimed sovereign treaty rights within the contested 61,000-acre reservation.

The Band wants this after they originally gained possession of this land by showing no respect for the sovereign rights of the Mdewakanton Dakota, the original "Indians" of the Mille Lacs area. The ancestors of the present-day Mille Lacs Band took the 61,000 acres by force. They stole it from the Mdewakanton Dakota. Under these circumstances I do not understand how the Mille Lacs Band can justify this desire of theirs.

Before I'll support the Band's sovereign rights treaty claim to the 61,000 acres, the Band will have to support my proposals to rectify the present-day Mille Lacs area injustices being committed against the Mdewakanton Dakota. They will have to 1) support my movement to revert the "Rum" River's present derogatory name back to its Mdewakanton Dakota name, Wakan, 2) make a public apology to the Mdewakantons for what their ancestors did to them, 3) give up their non-removable federally granted status that they gained by fighting against the Mdewakantons and other Minnesota Dakota Indians in the 1862 Dakota Sioux uprising, 4) sponsor and welcome the Mdewakantons to a Mille Lacs area reconciliatory powwow, and 5) give the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate (people) land for both a museum and a shrine.

In respect to the Band's admitted serious problems with alcohol abuse, it seems to me that the best interest of the band would be served if they would support the name change of the "Rum" River. It would help boost their self-esteem and empower them to resist the abusive use of alcohol.

After a member of the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Council, Dale Childs, talked with the tribal chairmen of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community, Stanley Crooks, about the "Rum" River name change issue, I was asked to write a letter to the county commissioners of the four counties wherein the river is located to express why the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community would like to see the name of the "Rum" River reverted back to its Mdewakanton Dakota name, Wakan. I then wrote the letter and they approved of its contents.

The board of directors of a national intertribal Native American organization representing more than 300 tribes have also expressed support for the name change after reading newspaper articles including statements I've made. But I am still waiting for the Mille Lacs Band to come out in public support of the name change of the "Rum" River.