DRAFT APOLOGY RESOLUTION

MINNESOTA APOLOGY FOR THE EXPLOTATION OF NATIVE AMERCANS

To acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the Government of Minnesota regarding Minnesota Indian tribes and offer an apology on behalf of the State of Minnesota to not only Minnesota Dakota and Ojibwe Native Peoples but also to the Dakota Native People who were unjustly forced out of Minnesota.

Whereas the ancestors of the Dakota Native Peoples inhabited the land of present-day Minnesota for at least a thousand years before the arrival of peoples of European descent, and Whereas Minnesota's Ojibwe arrived a short time before the arrival of the peoples of European descent;

Whereas the Dakota Native Peoples have for a long time honored, protected, and stewarded this land we cherish;

Whereas Minnesota Dakota and Ojibwe Native Peoples are spiritual peoples with a deep and abiding belief in the Creator, and for at least a millennium Minnesota Dakota people, as well as for over a couple hundred years Minnesota Ojibwe people have maintained a powerful spiritual connection to this land, as is evidenced by their customs and legends;

Whereas the arrival of Europeans in the land now called Minnesota opened a new chapter in the history of Minnesota Dakota and Ojibwe Native Peoples;

Whereas, the arrival of the Roman Catholic French colonizers in the now called Mille Lacs traditional/ancestral homeland of the Dakota people was the beginning of the papal insigated and sanctioned theft of the Dakota people's sacred ancestral homeland, a theft that was later finalized by the colonial Frenchmen's deceptive and very abusive use of a newly arrived band of Ojibwe (now known as the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) to violently force the Dakota people from their "Mille Lacs" ancestral homeland.

Whereas, this stolen land became a part of the State of Minnesota; and Whereas the Ojibwe band that violently forced the Dakota people from their sacred "Mille Lacs" ancestral homeland were given - first by French colonizers and later by Minnesota state and U. S. federal governments, stolen Dakota land to both live on as well as to have special treaty rights to.

Whereas, the ancient "Mille Lacs" Dakota people's sacred Mde Wakan (Spirit Lake) or (Great Spirit Lake) was given a French name (Mille Lacs); and Whereas their sacred river, the river that they called by their sacred name for their sacred lake (Wakan) was given the derogatory and profane punning-translation name (Rum), a alcoholic beverage spirit that, associated with health problems, caused ruin and misery for many of the Dakota people; and Whereas rum was also used to help steal the Dakota people's "Mille Lacs"/Wakan ancestral homeland.

Whereas, a band of Ojibwe gave one of their derogatory names for the Dakota people to a Minnesota river, a name which was later correctly translated by white men and was then used to name the river with the derogatory name Snake. An Ojibwe word for snake is Kanebec, and according to information found on the Minnesota DNR Web site: "Snake River gets its name from the Ojibwe word Kanabec, or snake, naming it after their enemies, the Dakota, who lived upriver, and who they later displaced."

Whereas, Minnesota governmental officials gave other derogatory and, in some cases, also profane names to geographic sites. Such as Redskin Lake, Savage Lake, East Savage Lake, Cut Foot Sioux, Little Cut Foot Sioux, Sioux River, Sioux Lake, Little Sioux River, Indian Sioux River, Devil Track Lake and Devil Track River. In respect to the last two names on this list, the Ojibwe name for the Great Spirit, (Manido), a name that the Ojibwe gave to the first part of their name for a lake and river, (Manido bimadagakowini zibi) was mistranslated by white men to mean Devil. And then the white men's faulty translation name (Devil) was used to name the lake and river, the lake was [unfortunately] named Devil Track Lake and the river was [unfortunately] named Devil Track River. The name Sioux was given to the Dakota people by colonial Frenchmen. It is an abbreviation of a past derogatory Ojibwe name for the Dakota people (Nadouesioux), a term of hatred, meaning snakes or enemies. Therefore, Minnesota geographic sites named Sioux are also sites with derogatory names.

Whereas, the Dakota people's annexation from their "Mille Lacs" ancestral homeland during the - Roman Catholic French colonizers' sponsored - Ojibwe/Dakota historic "Battle of Kathio" in the late 1700s forced the Dakota people to move to the southern half of the state which would bring them into close contact and eventually conflict with the white settlers. From that point on, survival for the Dakota people would become a daily struggle. A struggle that would eventually cause the "Dakota conflict of 1862" to occur.

Whereas, after this conflict (war), Minnesota governmental authorities asked President Lincoln to order the immediate execution of all 303 Dakota males found guilty. He offered the following compromise to the politicians of Minnesota: They would pare the list of those to be hung down to 39. In return, Lincoln promised to kill or remove every Dakota from the state. Most of our state's Dakota people were forced from here, exiled to reservations in different states and stripped of their culture by the [predominately] Christian Euro-American society over a century ago.

Whereas, the policies of the State of Minnesota toward Minnesota Indian tribes and the breaking of covenants with these Indian tribes have contributed to the severe social ills and economic troubles in many Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Montana Native communities today;

Whereas, Minnesota Native Peoples are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: Now, therefore, be it resolved by the State of Minnesota to

(1.) apologize for years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies regarding Minnesota Indian tribes;

(2.) apologize on behalf of the people of Minnesota to all the Native people who have been harmed by the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by the citizens of the State of Minnesota;

(3.) expresses its regret for the ramifications of former offenses and its commitment to build on the positive relationships of the past and present to move toward a brighter future where all the people of Minnesota live reconciled as brothers and sisters, and harmoniously steward and protect this land together;

(4.) acknowledge the root cause of the subjugation and exploitation of Minnesota Indian tribes, as being the papal bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera); wherein, Pope Alexander IV directed colonial European nations to go to the Americas and "subjugate the barbaric people and their lands, and bring them to the faith".

(5.) acknowledge that this papal bull (Inter Caetera) was used to formulate colonial European international law, a law that was later, both, incorporated into United States law as well as used to influence American citizens, including Minnesota citizens, to conform to a unified white racist or white supremacist and religious sectarian proselytizing mindset that was, and still is, the root cause of the subjugation and exploitation of Minnesota Indian tribes as well as all other U.S. Indian tribes.

(4.) acknowledge the offenses of Minnesota citizens against Indian tribes in the history of our state in order to bring healing to this land by providing a proper foundation for reconciliation between the State of Minnesota and the Indian tribes that have been subjugated and exploited by Minnesota citizens; and

(5.) commends other state governments that have begun reconciliation efforts with Indian tribes located in their boundaries and encourages all state governments similarly to work toward reconciling relationships with Indian tribes within their boundaries.