Article about the movement to change the profane name of the Rum River.
Published in the Anoka County Union May 14, 2004

Meandering for a change in the Rum River's 'profane' name

by Thomas Dahlheimer

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Front page:
Inside This Edition

Displayed here (in the Anoka County Union) is a small picture of the Rum River in Anoka, Minnesota with Tom Dahlheimer in the foreground.

Quietly and sacredly as he contends his quest is itself, Tom Dahlheimer - from what once he said was a modest tarpaper shack in Wahkon, Minn. - sends out e-mails to individuals and organizations throughout the state and country. Dahlheimer plainly and simply wants the name of the Rum River which flows through Anoka, changed to "Wahkon." See page 18A for story and photo.

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Page 18A:

Displayed here (in the Anoka County Union newspaper) is a six by six inch picture of the Rum River in Anoka, Minnesota with Tom Dahlheimer in the foreground.
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Below the above mentioned picture there are the words:

Tom Dahlheimer, who wants the name of the Rum River changed to "Wahkon", stands atop the Main Street bridge in Anoka, which interestingly enough, when rendered into less musical English, he said, "was said to mean on both sides, and to this day the name is by no means inappropriate, as the town is growing up and extending on either side of the beautiful but badly named river."

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Meandering for a change in the Rum River's 'profane' name

Tom Dahlheimer, of simple means, tackles issue of Multiculturalism

By L. A. Jones,
Union editor

Quietly and sacredly as he contends his quest is itself, Tom Dahlheimer - from what once he said was a tarpaper shack in Wahkon, Minn. - sends out e-mails to individuals and organizations throughout the state and the country.

Dahlheimer plainly and simply wants the name of the Rum River which flows through Anoka, changed to "Wahkon."

"Mde - te - Mini - wakan," according to Dahlheimer and numerous historians, was the name the Sioux originally gave to the river, which translated means mouth (of river), plus water, plus scared (or spirit).

Added note: After doing furture research Thomas Dahlheimer discovered that the orginal and current "Sioux" (Dakota) name for the Rum River is Wakan, which translates into English as Spirit or Great Spirit. Mde - te - Mini - wakan is the Dakota name for mouth of the Rum River. Some historian would see the name Mde - te - Mini - wakan on old maps near the mouth of the river and mistakenly think it was the Dakota's name for the river.

"The alcohol spirit, rum, is a radically different king of spirit than the spirit associated with the Sioux name." Dahlheimer said.

When Europeans came to the Americas, the homelands of the Naive Americans, they bought rum and other alcoholic beverages with them, according to Dahlheimer's mission. And at the time, the Native Americans had no cultural controls in place for their usage. Hence, because of alcohol abuse, things for the Native Americans moved into degradation and multitudes of premature deaths. And this situation was made even worse by the Europeans' frequent use of alcohol in ruthless genocidal attacks. Alcohol was given to the Indians in order to kill, subdue, or cheat them, he cites.

Interesting enough, Anoka, when rendered into less musical English, "was said to mean on both sides, and to this day the name is by no means inappropriate, as the town is growing up and extending on either side of the beautiful but badly named river," Dahlheimer said.

Historian after historian back Dahlheimer's contentions about what he has contended since 1997 is both an inappropriate "punning" and "perverted" name for the river.

Among the historians is none other than Vickie Wendel, program manager for the Anoka County Historical Society, who was quoted and informed the public in a document that "in a 1868 St. Paul Daily Pioneer article, the Rum River name is listed, along with some other geographic names, as profane.'

"The 'profane name' was already in use by some in 1861, as was the animosity toward the native people of Minnesota, a St. Paul newspaper reported."

Much of Dahlheimer's quest to change the Rum is also based on information contained on historical markers up and down the river from Mille Lacs Lake to the Mississippi.

One of these markers is at Peninsula Point Two Rivers Historical Park in Anoka. The historical marker credits the naming of the Rum River from a "faulty translation."

Another quotation from the Rum River historical marker located between Milaca and Onamia states that the Rum River name is thought to be a mistranslation.

Published in the "Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origins and Historic Significances," Warren Upham says that the Rum River is incompatible with the Sioux name (Wakan), because "rum brought misery and ruin...to many of the Indians."

Because the Rum River winds through four different Minnesota counties, according to Dahlheimer, the process by which the name of the river needs to be changed has to begin at each of the four county levels with public hearings and approval before being submitted, reviewed and approved by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Then, an application would have to be made for a federal geographic change, according to Dahlheimer.

About 40 names of natural resources in Minnesota have been changed since 1982, according to Glen Yankel, supervisor of hydrographics at the Minnesota Department of Naural Resources (DNR). Two requests are pending.

Additionally, in 1995, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to remove uses of the word "squaw" which some American Indians consider a vulgar term for vagina. Leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) persuaded the Legislature to change 19 place names that included the word, Dahlheimer said.

While it may be a tough row to accomplish, the man who acknowledges to have only a tiny portion of Native American blood within him and only a community college education is still carrying on his quest after moving to what he called a tarpaper shack in Wahkon after experiencing the counter culture revolution of the 1960s in San Francisco.

Until just several years ago, Dahlheimer lived in his modest shack with no electricity and no access to the internet. Through much research, reading and writing and now the Worldwide Web and e-mails, Dahlheimer's quest has taken on a new dimension. And he is gaining support from throughout Minnesota and the rest of the country.

Among his numerous supporters are Russell Means, internationally known American Indian activist, the Minnesota Historical Society Indian Advisory Committee, National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans, Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Director Joe Day, Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and ST. Paul, 30 pastors of Christian churches located within the Rum River area, and both the Upper Sioux, a community of Mdewakanton Sioux, and the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community.

It was about seven years ago, Dahlheimer said, that he initiated correspondence with the Minnesota DNR, and since that time more and more organizations and individuals are seeing what kind of significant contribution of changing the name of the Rum River to "Wahkon" would mean to the multicultural movement, including the United Nations.

L. A. Jones is at: editor.anokaunion@ecminc.com

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The alcohol spirit, rum, is a radically different kind of spirit than the spirit associated with the Sioux name.

- Tom Dahlheimer...Wahkon resident...Attempting to get the name of the Rum River changed.

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The following Rum River Name Change Organization mission statement was also published along with the article:

The Mission
We believe the restoration of the river's original name would help uplift the Indian community, which has been historically plagued by alcohol. When Europeans came to the Americas, the home lands of Native Americans, they brought rum and other alcoholic beverages with them. And at the time, the Natives had no cultural controls in place for their usage. Hence, because of alcohol abuse, things moved into degradation and multitudes of premature deaths. And this situation was made even worse by the White's frequent use of alcohol in ruthless genocidal attacks, alcohol was given to the Indians in order to kill, subdue, or cheat them. We believe that by drawing attention to the Rum River name change issue 'white guilt' will increase, because of a heightened awareness of the catastrophic consequences caused by white settlers introducing and selling alcohol to Native Americans; and that this increase of 'white guilt' will, in a lot of ways, cause white Euro-Americans to offer all Native Americans their long overdue restitution justice. Especially when it comes to making amends to help the Native Americans to free themselves from the plague of alcoholism. We believe that, by reverting the derogatory name of the Rum River back to its original Native American name Wahkon, we would be honoring the importance of spirituality for American Indians. We believe that the Rum River name has become like a joke - an antagonistic joke that's very antagonistic, and that by changing the river's name we would be putting an end to a source of racial antagonism.