Mille Lacs County Times
November 23, 2006
A Man's crusade to change Rum River name.

By Stacey Wiedewitsch
Mille Lacs County Times

Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer is on a mission.

"I initiated and am spearheading the movement to revert the Rum River's derogatory
name back to its Mdewakanton Dakota Indian name Wakpa Wakan or Spirit River,"
said Dahlheimer, the director of Rum River Name Change Organization.

Dahlheimer, a 60-year-old resident of Wahkon, is responsible for the continual barrage of letters to the cities and counties in the Rum River basin. His most recent letter made it to Milaca City Council where the city council heard his request Thursday, Nov. 16.

After a brief discussion from the Milaca City Council members and a presentation by Dahlheimer, the council decided to take no action.

He has sent letters about his quest internationally. The United Nations and the Vatican have both received his request.

At age 35, he was reading a book in the Anoka Library about the word "wakan" when he first became aware the word "Rum" as in the river, was a profane usage.

"I was trying to raise awareness of the word 'wakan' and what it means to family values and environmentalism."

He has been on his seven-year mission to change the name of the Rum River to its original Dakota Indian name of Wakpa Wakan or Spirit River, ever since.

The river comes out of Lake Mille Lacs and winds its way south 145 miles before reaching the Mississippi River in the city of Anoka.

Lake Mille Lacs was originally named Mde Wakan, or Spirit River by the Dakotas.

A sign at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Rum river tells one side of the translation error.

"In November of 1767, Jonathan Carver stopped at The Point. He is credited with naming the Rum River from a faulty translation of the Dakota language meaning Spirit River which flowed out of Spirit Lake or Mille Lacs."

Joseph Nicollet, an early American map maker, is also credited in naming the river. On his map Nicollet listed the river as both Iskode Wabo and Rum River. Iskode Wabo is more exactly translated to "Fire water."

Note: Iskode Wabo is the profane name that the Ojibwe gave to the Dakotas "Wakpa Wakan" or "Spirit River".

Wilhelm K. Meya, Indiana University Professor of American Indian studies, wrote a letter to Dahlheimer on what may have happened during translation.

"I believe any translator would have no problem understanding that 'wakan' did not mean spirit as in alcohol," Meya wrote.

"Lake Mille Lacs figures prominently in Dakota creation stories. The Dakota people emerged from the lake as human beings.

"Dakotas often constructed river names by modification of the word mni, water."

"The wakan modifier was used to describe alcohol when it was first introduced to the Indians, referring to it as mni-wakan (water + incomprehensible).

"Clearly the lake was not associated with the alcohol connotation of wakan."

A quotation from the Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origins and historic Significances, author Warren Upham states, "The Rum River name is the white men's version of the ancient Sioux (Dakota) name Wakan.

Note: In a book published by the Minnesota Historical Society Upham wrote: The Rum River name is "the white men's perversion of the ancient Sioux name Wakan".

"The Rum River name is incompatible with its sacred Dakota name Wakan because rum brought misery to many of the Indians."

"It is demoralizing to us to have to explain why a place is named after the same things that helped to steal our land and language," said Dahlheimer.

(Correction: It was Jim Anderson, the historian and cultural chairman for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community who made this statement.)

"Both the Vatican and the United Nations have received letters from me. A United Nations Secretary gave his support, and the Vatican said they would look at the proposal."

Support is also given by State Rep. Mike Jaros, DFL Duluth, a 30-year veteran representative.

Jarso is currently redrafting the bill that would change the name of the Rum River and the names on about 12 other features of the state that are considered offensive to someone.

"It's a good idea to not offend anybody," Jaros said.

"The least we can do is accommodate the first Americans by not using offensive names."

On the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources web site, the cultural information available to the public clearly states the importance of the upper river valley.

"It has one of the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in Minnesota," reads the information.

"The area is rich with Indian history."

On that same DNR web site the department lists reasons why the naming process is so powerful. The article is authored by Greg Breining.

"Good names are like that, they may describe a place's shape, tell of the people who settled it, who shaped it and who fought for it," writes Breining.

"Some names would give meaning to the land except that they were so mangled in translation.

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"The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe have no major concerns about the current name of the Rum River." - Kurt Kelk Indian commissioner of natural resources at Mille Lacs Lake

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"Some interpretations were mistakes. Not so for the name for the river that flows out of Lake Mille Lacs. Traders put a pun with the name of the spirituous liquor that caused such misery and destruction during the fur trade."

"The Ojibwa drove the Dakota out of their villages on and around Mille Lacs in 1745," said Dahlheimer.

"The Rum River thereafter became a disputed area between the Indian tribes."

The Ojibwe tribe and the Dakotas were at war. The Ojibwe won and ran the Dakota off the Lake Mille Lacs area in mid-1700s. The Dakotas then made their homes on reservations around the Minnesota River, where they still are today.

Comment: Most of my presentation to the Milaca City Council was about the history of the Dakota people, from the perspective of a United Nations world conference against racism document, which I believe presents the true history of the U.S..

I spoke about a 1493 papal bull that says that the indigenous people of the Americas are an inferior race and therefore do not have a right to own any land. I also spoke about a Minnesota DNR web site statement about the French sponsored Ojibwe-Dakota Mille Lacs battle which drove the Dakota from their sacred Mille Lacs area homeland." A quote from the DNR web site reads: "Early White/Indian intervention played an important role in the settlement of the area by white men. The French, instigated fights between the Ojibwe and Dakota so as to ally themselves with the Ojibwe."

Like many tribes, the Ojibwe left the East Coast to get away from the White civilization and when the westward moving Europeans found the Ojibwe living next to the Mille Lacs Dakota, who had lived there for at least a thousand years, they allied themselves with the Ojibwe who were new to the area and had no long term sacred ties to the Mille Lacs land, and did so, in order use the Ojibwe to force the Dakota from their sacred Mille Lacs homeland. When DuLuth planted the French flag in the Dakotas Mille Lacs homeland he, in accordance with European law based on a 1493 papal bull, claimed the Dakotas land now belonged to France. The reason why the French wanted to force the Dakota from their Mille Lacs homeland was because Europeans sought to extinguish the ancestral ties that local tribes have with the land, their ancestors and the spirit world. Evidence of this practice has shown itself time and time again throughout the Americas and is now facing international pressure in an effort to correct the sins of the present by recognizing and addressing the history of the Americas.

Kurt Kelk the current Indian commissioner of natural resources at Mille Lacs Lake was asked about the Ojbwe opinion on the name change of a river that is now on their land. "The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe have no major concerns about the current name of the Rum River."

"If the name was changed, it would be erasing a part of history, not fixing the problem."

Comment: If the river's name is changed all of the new history books as well as all of the new historical markers located along the river could present information about why the river's profane name was changed from Rum back to its sacred name Wakan, and by doing so, no part of history would be erased, only a derogatory and profane name that is offensive to the Dakotas would be erased. And this would "fix the problem", the offensive profane name problem. Don Wedll, a former commissioner of natural resources at Mille Lacs lake and current long range planner for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe signed a petition in support of the effort to change the Rum River name. And other prominent members of the Mille Lacs Band support the effort to change the river's name.

Legal process

The renaming process is a long and daunting foe.

According to the law, the renaming process comes under the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Department.

"There is an ongoing request for name changes, " said Glen Yakel, the DNR advisor that is helping Dahlheimer with the approvals.

"Most of the proposals I help with are passed. However, I have never worked on a proposal with six counties concerned.

"First we have to gain the approval of all the boards through public meetings. Then win a majority vote from the four counties in contact with the Rum and a separate vote from the two counties on the West Rum."

The city of Cambridge has already given its support by naming a nature area the Spirit River Nature Area instead of the Rum River Nature Area.

"I can not say that we were in support of the name change for the river," said Stoney Hiljus, Cambridge's city administrator. "but we wanted to at least recognize the Native American of his area.

"The city has not faced the issue of changing the river's name yet. We will face that issue in December."

Princeton and Anoka have been sent the request as well.

"The Princeton City Council met Nov. 15," said Mark Karnowski, Princeton's city administrator.

"They decided to draft a resolution against the name change."

Anoka drafted a letter to Dahlheimer in September confirming the city's stand of no action taken.

"I respect Dahlheimer's issue." said Tim Crookshank, Anoka's city administrator, "but as it is Minnesota's right to make name changes, it doesn't make sense for Anoka to get involved yet."

Jim Anderson, the cultural chairman of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community, wrote a letter of support to the Rum River Name Change Organization. In his letter he strongly adds his support to the cause.

"I believe that renaming the river to 'Wakpa Wakan' or 'Spirit River' is a great stride in mending the circle that we share with all four colors of men," said Anderson.

Dahlheimer believes strongly in his pursuit. There are several mission statements that guide him on his quest.

"We believe that the restoration of the river's original name would help uplift the Indian community, which has been historically plagued by alcohol," he said.

"By reverting the derogatory name back to the name 'Wakan' we would be honoring the importance of spirituality for American Indians."

"We believe the Rum River name has become an antagonistic joke and by changing the river's name we would be putting an end to a source of antagonism."