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Chris LaBeau hangs a marine corps flag next to Native American and American flags in Lake Park in Winona friday in preparation for the Dakota Homecoming events this weekend. LaBeau, an Ojibwa from Bararaga, Mich., travels the midwest during the summer with his business Hawk Enterprises. He has attended the Dakota Homecoming in Winona since it started four years ago. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News)
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"Great Dakota Gathering seeks to unite native, current Winona residents," (06/02/2007) By Amber Dulek, Winona Daily News
Most family reunions aren’t open to the public.
But Ed Lohnes’s is.
The son of Dakota and Ojibwe parents, Lohnes said the fourth annual Great Dakota Gathering this weekend is about continuing to share American Indian culture and history with Winona residents.
“It’s not just for the Dakota people, it’s for everybody that attends,” Lohnes said. “We call it a gathering and a homecoming rather than a pow-wow, because it’s more about education.”
The Mdewakanton band of Dakota (Sioux) Indians lived below Winona’s bluffs on Wapasha’s Prairie for generations before European settlers arrived in the 1850s. After more than a century of war, exile, broken treaties and racism, their descendents were spread out onto about a dozen remaining reservations in Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
As a kid in Blaine, Minn., Lohnes didn’t realize things were different for him.
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Veterans Gerald Thompson, Lincoln DeMarrias, Dayton Seaboy and John Twostars, from Sisseton, S.D., present flags Saturday at the opening ceremony of the Dakota Homecoming event at Lake Park in Winona. They are members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Vietnams Veterans Association, a non-profit organization that participates in parades, powwows and meetings on and off the reservation. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News)
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"American Indian leaders at Great Dakota Gathering tell of struggles," (06/03/2007) By Janelle McDonald, Winona Daily News
Winona, Minn. - Growing up on the Santee Indian Reservation in northeastern Nebraska, Roger Trudell remembers days of husking corn with his grandfather as a young boy and working for area farmers as a teenager.
“Back in them days, the farmers didn’t have the equipment they have now,” said Trudell, the reservation tribal chairman.
Trudell, 59, has lived his life on the reservation, with the exception of three years in the Army and two in Omaha, Neb. He was in Winona on Saturday for the Dakota Gathering, an annual event for Dakota Indians from across the Midwest to reunite on their ancestral land.
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" Dakota Homecoming June 2 & 3," (05/27/2007) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
The time is near when Winona will again welcome home the Dakota Indians who lived in the shade of Wapasha’s Cap long before white settlers set foot on American soil. June 2 and 3, 2007 will be the Fourth Annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming, a time when Winonans and Dakotas alike reflect on the pain, the healing and the understanding that shapes the relationship we have with each other today. For the Dakota Indians who travel from as far away as Canada, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota, it is a bittersweet homecoming, marred by the ancestral memory of the days when this land was taken from their people and they were shuttled off to remote reservations in desolate places. But each year since the Dakota Homecoming’s inception, these Native Americans have returned to Winona with their hands extended in a gesture of peace. With them they bring a culture steeped in tradition and deeply spiritual beliefs, and they invite Winona’s non-Indian inhabitants to know them better, to understand who they are, to join them in a celebration of forgiveness and solidarity. The Dakota Homecoming Originated as the brainchild of the Diversity Foundation and Winona city officials, groups that later gave rise to the Winona Dakota Unity Alliance.
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"Crow Creek: The Forgotten People," Video, (11/2006) By Diversity Foundation and HBC, winner of an International Videographer Award.
"Bridges of Hope" are coming from schools and churches and businesses and city leaders in Winona & across southern Minnesota, with the story of the Dakota people inspiring all who hear it, help reconcile & want to help make it right.......Winona's Hiawatha Broadband Communications and the Diversity Foundation Inc have recently documented some of the conditions & outreach efforts in a production called “Crow Creek: The Forgotten People.” Crow Creek is a reservation in Central South Dakota where many of the Dakotas, once living in pre-european Minnesota, were once sent & exciled in 1863.
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" Santee youth reconnecting to Winona roots with new venture," (11/26/2006) By Sarah Elmquist, Winona Post
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Kenny Derby, Sonny Red Owl, Kameron Runnels and Santee Elder Roger Trudell checked out Southeastern Technical College last week during a Winona visit. Not pictured is Elvis Laplant. The four young men are working toward attending college in Winona, with the help and collaboration of the Diversity Foundation.
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WINONA, Minn. - The years that follow will change their lives. They will return home with experiences and connections that many of their elders never had the opportunity to make.
They will be leaders. They are leaders.
The four young men from the Santee Nation in South Dakota visited Winona last week to tour Winona State University, St. Mary’s University, Southeastern Technical College and Cotter High School.
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"Otakuye Hdihunipi- The Third Annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming," (06/16/2006) By Ernestine Chasing Hawk, Journal Editor, Dakotah Journal
WINONA, Minn. - In the land where the “waters reflect the sky,” citizens of Winona, Minnesota welcomed back the indigenous Dakota Oyate who once inhabited this lush green island city situated along the banks of the Mississippi.
The Otakuye Hdihunipi or Third Annual Great Dakota Gratings and Homecoming on Wapasha Prairie on June 3 and 4 was an experience like no other where Wasicun (Caucasian) and Dakota worshipped, danced, feasted, shared stories and played together for two days along the shores of beautiful Lake Winona.
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"More Dakota attend homecoming," (06/07/2006) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
WINONA, Minn. – Hundreds of them came, and signs hung everywhere to greet them saying, “Welcome home, Dakotas.”
From solemn sunrise spiritual services to the thundering drum of joyous powwows, the weekend was filled with the sights, sounds, and memories of the Dakota nation coming home to a place many call sacred.
Organizers said as word of this event spread throughout the Indian nations of the Midwest and Canada, more and more have made it a priority to come over the past three years.
This year, said Diversity Foundation’s Lyle Rustad, some 400 or more Native Americans came to town to see this place they heard had opened its arms to their culture, their history.
At the wacipis, or powwows, Saturday and Sunday, throngs of people of European decent rose to the beat of the drums and joined the dance in the celebration circle. “We are all related,” emcee Danny Seaboy told the crowd. “We come from different places, but we are all human beings, and we are related.”
In the learning tent, visitors were able to read books, see displays and hear stories about the Dakota nation and the history of Native Americans told from their memories, not ours. It was a time not of admonishment, but understanding for those willing to listen.
The sly maneuvering of the Moccasin Games, something akin to an elaborate shell and pea game, captivated large crowds who stood for hours to watch teams from the United states and Canada outfox each other in a battle of wits.
Later, after one of the game carpets sat empty, a mixture of local boys and girls reenacted their own version of the game, with an elder teaching them the rules from a chair nearby. “The kids will remember this,” he said. “It’s good for them to share this with us, to grow up understanding something about us. It is something our ancestors didn’t have,” he said.
"Hdihunipi- The Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming
Event Honoring American Indians set for this weekend," (06/02/2006) By Kari Knutson, Winona Daily News
WINONA, Minn. – The songs may be unfamiliar and the names hard to pronounce, but a sense of home is universal.
It’s that sense of commonality that will be celebrated at the third annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming on Saturday and Sunday at Lake Park.
The even was begun as reconciliation for the Dakota American Indians who called Winona home until the European settlers and the United States military forced them out. Many Dakota members attend the homecoming every year.
The homecoming had been in the planning process for years and is sponsored by the city of Winona, The Diversity Foundation, and the Winona Dakota Unity Alliance.
Diversity Foundation Chairman Edward Lohnes Jr. is a descendent of Dakota Chief Waanatan and an enrolled member of Spirit LakeDakota Nation.
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"Hdihunipi: Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming this weekend at Lake Park", (5/31/2006) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
 WINONA, Minn. - While Winona, or Wapasha’s Prairie, is the ancestral home of only some of the Native American people who will converge on Lake Park this weekend, for many others it is a symbolic homecoming of mind and spirit just the same.
From sunrise to sundown, Lake Park will host opportunities for reconciliation, for understanding, for celebrating, and all visitors need do is come with an open mind to experience it.
Saturday and Sunday, East Lake Winona will be the site of the 3rd Annual Hdihunipi, the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming at Wapasha Prairie.
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"Prairie Island Indian Community Pledges $125,000 to Diversity Foundation - Tribe will donate $25,000 each year until 2010," (05/30/06)
Welch, Minn. – The Prairie Island Indian Community recently presented the Diversity Foundation of Winona, Minn. with a $25,000 donation. This amount serves as the first of five donations to the Diversity Foundation to help preserve the cultural heritage of the Dakota Nations. In total, Prairie Island will donate $125,000 to the organization.
The donated funds are earmarked for the promotion, recognition, and salvation of the cultural heritage of Dakota Indian Nations. Prairie Island Tribal Council Treasurer Alan Childs II said that Prairie Island is excited to be a part of the positive things the Diversity Foundation does. Childs stated, “This donation serves as a way for us to help other Dakota Nations – preserving the future for all Dakota Communities”
The Diversity Foundation is committed to bridging the gap between people caused by cultural and ethnic differences. The foundation does this by producing educational films and hosting events that raise awareness, promote multicultural education and teach intercultural communication. “This partnership is an important beginning of many great things to come,” Lyle Rustad, executive director for the Diversity Foundation said. “Our prayers have been answered – this donation is an opportunity we have been dreaming about.”
Donations like the one made to the Diversity Foundation are important to the Prairie Island Indian Community because for many years their culture was suppressed and tribal members were forced to assimilate. Many tribal members who remember this time particularly recognize the importance of teaching and protecting the Dakota culture.
Sharing our native culture with our youth and the local community is very important to our tribe,” said Prairie Island Tribal Council President Audrey Bennett. “We’re happy to be able to support the Diversity Foundation’s efforts to promote cultural awareness and understanding.”
Since 1994, the Prairie Island Indian Community has donated more than $12 million to many Indian and non-Indian causes. The Prairie Island Indian Community is a federally recognized Indian Nation, located 35 minutes southeast of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi River. The Prairie Island Indian Community owns and operates Treasure Island Resort & Casino.
"Churches start drive to send aid to S.D. Native Americans," (05/11/2006) Tri-County Record, Minn.
Rushford, Minn. – Lyle Rustad, once of Rushford has worked with Native American causes and needs most of his life. His Diversity Foundation, Inc., and a conversation with Jim Hoiness has led to a local campaign to improve life for residents of the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota.
Starting next week contributed items and cash will be loaded until a semi-trailer truck delivers the gifts to South Dakota later in the month.
Everyone is invited to help, and local churches are leading the effort. “It’s a rural Rushford and Peterson (and Lanesboro) church project to put some needed items out there.” Hoiness, who visited the reservation with Rustad, said,
“What struck me visiting with two public health nurses – there are lots of needs for children. Sometimes more than one family lives in a home, sometimes children are sleeping on the floor. We talked to the tribal chief and his wife. She gave us a tour; a very intelligent lady who knows what’s needed.”
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Read editorial written by Rev. Susan Li, "Share with others what God shares with us"
"Reclaiming Spirit Lake Dakotas' past bolsters their future
Conferenceaims to preserve language and history," (04/12/2006) By Jerry L. Carter, Dakota Journal
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| Oliver Gourd shares his stories at a conference at Cankdeska Cikana Community College |
FORT TOTTEN, N.D. – Oliver Gourd was taken away from his family at age 7, he was forced to attend a Catholic boarding school, in St. Michael, where his long hair was cut short and he was forbidden to speak his own language.
I saw a lot of terrible things,” said Gourd, 62, a member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation. “If you spoke your own language the sisters would make you eat soap.”
Gourd was one of about 75 people who attended a two-day conference Friday and Saturday, March 31 and April 1, to help preserve and teach Spirit Lake Dakota students their own culture. Gourd teaches young students the Dakota language and history because much of it was denied to him.
The event was hosted by faculty, staff and administrators of the Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College, on the Spirit Lake Reservation. The conference brought together Indian experts to lead discussions with community members on creating a cultural learning center and issues of cultural competence.
The children are hungry for their culture,” Gourd said. “They come into the classroom excited and ask me, ‘Mr. Gourd what are we going to learn today?’”
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"Dirt gets new home in preparation for park, Dakota Homecoming," (03/08/2006) By Brian Voerding, Winona Daily Times
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| The city of Winona's work on Unity Park, a section of Lake Park that will become the gathering place for the annual Dakota Homecoming, began this week. Construction crews are filling in the circular area just west of Winona Health with soil to prevent flooding. (Photo by James A. Bowey of the Winona Daily News) |
Sometimes, moving aids homecoming.
The city of Winona began relocating soil this week to the east end of Lake Park in preparation for the construction of Unity Park, designed to honor the Dakota Indians who originally occupied this area before they were forced out in 1853 by the military and white settlers.
When completed, the circular park will be used as the central gathering place for the Dakota Homecoming weekend, which organizers hope to make an annual event.
The park is located east of Lake Winona near Winona Health and will eventually include gardens with grasses and vegetation native to Minnesota. It won’t be ready this year, said City Manager Eric Sorensen.
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"Winonans send furniture, clothes to Crow Creek Dakota," (03/05/2006) By Jerry L. Carter, Winona Daily Times
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From right to left: Diane Big Eagle, Crow Creek, Tom Gierok, Winona, Jon Kruse, Winona, and Marcella Big Eagle, Crow Creek, unload chairs at the Elders Center on the Crow Creek Dakota Reservation Feb. 22.
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FORT THOMPSON, S.D. — Despite having a college degree and being willing and able to work, Lisa Rockwood, 40, a member of the Crow Creek Dakota Reservation, can’t find a job that pays enough to make ends meet.
“I’m more than willing to work, but I can’t get more than minimum wage,” Rockwood said. “The nearest job is 27 miles away. Getting minimum wage only pays for gas. It’s not worth it. It feels like they don’t want us to work.”
Crow Creek is the poorest reservation in the nation; more than 97 percent of the 3,000 residents are unemployed, according to tribal officials. Crow Creek lies mostly in Buffalo County, S.D., the nation’s poorest county according to U.S. Census data. Single women head more than 30 percent of the homes, and the median household income is less than $13,000 a year. In nearby Jerauld County, similar in size and population, 6 percent of households are headed by women, the median household income is more than $30,000, and the unemployment rate hovers around 3 percent.
The tribe’s conditions prompted city officials from Winona, members from the Winona/Dakota Unity Alliance and Lyle Rustad, director of the St. Cloud, Minn.-based Diversity Foundation to collect and deliver clothing, furniture and appliances last week.
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"Delegation from Winona and Rochester visit Flandreau," (02/03/2006) By Carol Robertson, Dakota Journal
 FLANDREAU — The leaders of Winona, Minnesota's Diversity Foundation, Kiwanis Club, Winona/Dakota Unity Alliance (Lower Sioux, Upper Sioux, and Flandreau) made another visit to the Dakota Tribes the week of January 22.
The group visited the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska before coming to Flandreau and went on to visit with the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate.
Their stop included meeting with the FSST executive committee, elders at the Grace Moore Senior Citizens and the Gordon Weston Post Indian Veterans.
Lyle Rustad, Diversity Foundation Director, spoke on the subject of the Crow Creek Holiday Outreach Project 2005 which his foundation contributed to. He said the Crow Creek elders expressed to him the need for more assistance, and more long range solutions, not only during the holidays, but year around.
Rustad decided that after the delivery trucks had left the Crow Creek Reservation and headed back to Winona, he would stay another night.
His overnight stay proved to be fruitful. Rustad observed and discussed the concerns and conditions of the reservation with Crow Creek Tribal Chairman, Duane Big Eagle, other council members and elders.
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"Trying to Heal the Lingering Pain of the US/Dakota War of 1862," (12/30/2005) By Michael E. Randall, Dakota Journal
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This last holiday season, diversity foundation, with local groups collected clothes and furnishings to donate to the Crow Creek Reservation, at Fort Thompson, SD. Here, Lower Sioux's Bob Larsen helping unload his truck & trailer at Crow Creek.
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FORT THOMPSON – Recently on the Crow Creek Reservation at Fort Thompson, Dakota, Lakota and non-native people helped each other in a big way, assisted by a boost from the Diversity Foundation of Minnesota, an organization which attempts to improve inter-cultural understanding and heal past wounds. The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the cities of Winona and Rochester, Minnesota, Minnesota also partnered in the effort.
Identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as the poorest country in the United States, Buffalo County is part of the Crow Creek Reservation, home to perhaps 3,000 people. Most are Dakota descendants of the Santee people driven from Minnesota by whites in 1863 after the war of August 1862.
When Diversity Foundation Executive Director Lyle Rustad called Crow creek to ask what people need, Marcella Big Eagle, Director of Elderly Nutrition Programs on the reservation, said, “We need whatever you can bring.” As a result, on December 20 and 21st, several trucks full of toys, clothing, furniture, mattresses, bedding and other donated items rolled up to the door of the Golden Age Center at Fort Thompson.
"Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming June 4, 5
Exhibits, ceremonies to be held in Lake Park," (06/01/2005) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
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| Famed hoop dancer Jackie Bird will perform at the Dakota Homecoming. |
There will be a drumbeat sounding in Winona this weekend, a drumbeat of change, and Winonans are invited to be a part of it.
The sounds will be coming from Lake Park, where members of the Dakota Indian nation will return for the second time in 150 years to share their story and open their hearts with the culture that replaced them on this sacred Indian land.
The event is called Hdihunipi – to the Dakota it means they are returning home, but this homecoming is with a purpose. Although they were forced from this land, exiled to reservations and stripped of their culture by this society over a century ago, the Dakota come back with their hands extended in a gesture of peace. The Great Dakota Gathering June 4 and 5 is about unity, about healing, about building bridges, because they believe Mitakuye Owasin – we are all related – and while we cannot change the past, we can certainly change the future.
Building on the Dakota Homecoming that took place last year, leaders, entertainers and artisans from Dakota communities across the Midwest will travel to Winona for a weekend of activities designed to embrace their culture and embrace those who want to learn more about it.
Traditional peace pipe ceremonies, nationally known dancers, historic Native American games and a living history encampment will give those who join the festivities a glimpse of the proud heritage the Dakota hold in their hearts.
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"Traces of the Dakota," (06/01/2005) By Frances Edstrom, Editor, Winona Post
At the Dakota gathering last year, John and I were drawn not to the fry cakes but to the book stall, where John bought a Dakota grammar and a Dakota dictionary. I chose a beautiful book by Mary Henderson Eastman called simply Dahkotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux. Then it started to rain, we paid quickly, the clerk covered the books with tarps, and we hurried home.
Mary Henderson married Seth Eastman, a gifted artist who had graduated from West Point. In 1841, at the age of 23, Mary moved with Captain Eastman and their three children to Fort Snelling. Seth’s watercolors illustrate her book.
As I began Mary Eastman’s book, the Indian names I had been surrounded by for nearly forty years jumped off the pages at me. Of course I knew that Wapasha, or Wabasha, was the name of a Dakota chief whose band lived in the area around Winona, and whose descendant, Wabasha VII, was visiting Winona that very weekend for the Homecoming. Perhaps I had read at one time that his name translated to The Leaf. I had heard those Dakota referred to as the Mndewankantons. I knew that Winona meant firstborn daughter.
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"Dakota Gathering," (06/01/2005) By William Flesch, President, Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance, Winona Daily News
The second annual Great Dakota Gathering will happen at East Lake Park, Winona, the weekend of June 4-5. Both days are filled with events designed to promote understanding of the people who formerly occupied the Winona area and their rich cultural heritage.
At 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Ambrose Little Ghost, a Dakota spiritual leader from Spirit Lake, N.D., will preside at the traditional Pipe Ceremony. Those attending will be invited to join in the smoking of the peace pipe as it is passed around the circle.
Last year's Truth Telling session was meaningful to those who attended. The genuine heartfelt exchanges echoed across the Dakota reservations to the extent that a followup Truth and Understanding event will be offered Saturday morning to provide truth-telling opportunities for other Dakota elders and leaders. The event is a time for the Dakota people to share with European Americans their stories and in the telling allow for the healing of generations to begin. Rather than the formal acknowledgements and apologies from federal, state and local political and church leaders as occurred last year, responses will be invited from those who gather to listen.
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"Dakota bring second homecoming to Winona," (06/03/2005) By Brady Averill, Winona Daily News
Winona, at one time home to the Dakota American Indians, has recently become an annual reunion spot for them.
More than 100 years after the United States government removed the Dakota people from the Winona area, they will return again for the second Dakota Homecoming.
It kicks off Saturday at Lake Winona and ends Sunday.
The Winona Dakota Unity Alliance, Diversity Foundation, Dacota Pathology and the Winona Community Foundation are sponsoring the event.
The Dakota Homecoming is an opportunity for reconciliation and peace, and to remember the atrocities done to the Dakota people, said Ray Dretske, a member of the Winona Dakota Unity Alliance.
"What we wanted to do is welcome them back home," he said.
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"A gift fit for a chief," (06/04/2005) By Chris Hubbuch, Winona Daily News.
Bill Multhaup shifted in his chair, worried that he had made a mistake.
Across the table sat Leonard Wabasha, a future hereditary chief and the direct descendent of Wapasha III, whose Dakota people were forced in 1853 from the land that would become Winona and onto reservations to the west.
On the table was the pipe — two feet long and made of dark walnut — Multhaup had carved with the idea of presenting it to Leonard's father, Ernest Wabasha — the hereditary Dakota chief — at the second Hdihunipi, the Dakota homecoming gathering on the shore of Lake Winona. It would be a gesture of reconciliation, a peace offering to the descendent of those who lost their homeland.
When Wabasha heard that someone wanted to present his father with a pipe, he assumed it was an Indian. But here sat Multhaup, a washichun — a white man.
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"Sharing a culture," (06/05/2005) Laura Gossman, Winona Daily News
Brothers Danny and Dave Seaboy came from Sisseton, S.D., to visit their ancestral homeland and celebrate the second annual Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming at Lake Winona in Lake Park on Saturday.
Danny teaches kindergarten through eighth-grade students about the Dakota language and culture at a school in Sisseton.
While in Winona, Danny, his brother and their families along with other Dakota taught Winonans and each other what it means to be Dakota.
"There are many things I don't want my children or grandchildren to know, because I want them to hold on to their culture," Danny Seaboy said. "The Dakota have had hard times, but our humor has helped us survive."
On the other hand, Dave Seaboy said "(The Dakota youth) need to learn the other people's ways, too."
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"Unity Feast draws 700 to second annual event," (06/08/2005) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
Last weekend marked a Great Dakota Homecoming indeed, with dozens of Dakota Indians being greeted by hundreds of Winonans who came to the shores of Lake Winona to welcome them home.
According to Ed Lohnes, of the Diversity Foundation, who helped orchestrate the gathering, about 700 people ate at the Unity Feast alone, with several hundred staying for the nationally acclaimed entertainment Saturday evening.
Sunday afternoon, dancers resplendent in traditional garb stepped and whirled to the sounds of a drum circle, later joined by onlookers of every ethnicity. A color guard of Dakota men who served in the armed forces led the way with the flags of the Dakota nation, the United States and the military units they fought in for this country.
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"Wabasha Grand Marshal of Steamboat Days parade" (06/15/2005) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
Two weeks ago Winonans shared a part in Dakota Indian culture, and now they have been invited to share in part of ours.
Future Hereditary Chief Leonard Wabasha, descendant of the Dakota chiefs who lived here 150 years ago, will be the Grand Marshall for the Steamboat Days Parade Sunday, an honor that is a first both for Winona and Wabasha, and took him quite by surprise.
Continuing to nourish the seeds of understanding cultivated by the Dakota Homecoming, festival organizers wanted to honor and pay tribute to the Wabasha family and the Dakota Nation.
Hereditary Chief Ernie Wabasha’s health is poor, making traveling difficult, and the responsibility passed to his son to accept or decline the invitation. “As his son, to support him, I will appear in his place,” Leonard Wabasha said Tuesday.
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Click here for links to 2004 Winona/Dakota Reconciliation Gathering
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