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Hereditary Dakota Chief Ernest Wabasha VII receives a hand-crafted "peace-pipe" from Jackie Bird at a ceremony at the 2005 Winona/Dakota Gathering. The pipe was carved and given by Winona resident Bill Multhaup, who made it as a gesture of reconciliation.
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Winona's Bill Multhaup and his son, Jim, presented a hand-made ceremonial pipe, to Leonard Wabasha, on behalf of the Wabasha family. The pipe will be used at future Winona/Dakota Reconciliation Events and Gatherings.
"The Tear," A poem written by by Bill Multhaup for the Dakota people.
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STORIES COVERING THE 2005 EVENT:
"Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming June 4, 5 - Exhibits, ceremonies to be held in Lake Park," (06/01/2005) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
"Traces of the Dakota," (06/01/2005) By Frances Edstrom, Editor, Winona Post
"Dakota Gathering," (06/01/2005) By William Flesch, President, Winona-Dakota Unity Alliance, Winona Daily News
"Dakota bring second homecoming to Winona," (06/03/2005) By Brady Averill, Winona Daily News
"A gift fit for a chief," (06/04/2005) By Chris Hubbuch, Winona Daily News.
"Sharing a culture," (06/05/2005) Laura Gossman, Winona Daily News
"Unity Feast draws 700 to second annual event," (06/08/2005) By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
Wabasha Grand Marshal of Steamboat Days parade
Future Hereditary Chief Leonard Wabasha will stand in for Chief Ernie Wabasha, who is in ill health
By Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
(06/15/2005)
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.
To read entire story, click here "Wabasha Grand Marshal of Steamboat Days parade"
Click here for links to 2004 Winona/Dakota Reconciliation Gathering
HOMECOMING PHOTO GALLERY COMING SOON.
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UPDATE: This year's gathering will be held June 2-3, 2007. Click here for Dakota Homecoming website, click on 2007 Gathering for list of events..
For the fourth consecutive year, the Dakotah people will return home to the majestic valley of the city now called Winona, just like they used to do every year before white settlers forced them from the land they once called home.
At a gathering, June 3-4, 2006, on the shores of East Lake Winona, they danced, sang, feasted, celebrated, mourned, prayed, honored, remembered and most importantly they continued sharing stories and their cultures in hope of healing the wounds of the past.
The first significant interaction and healing between the residents of Winona and the decendents of Dakota people, from across the midwest and Canada, whom used to occupy the area, began June 26, 2004. This unique gathering was first hosted by the City of Winona, after Diversity Foundation leaders arranged and inspired the event.
The events' huge first three year success helped to boost the upcoming 2007 Dakota Homecoming, where more events are already being planned by the recently organized Winona/Dakota Unity Alliance.
The event was named the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming -- "OTAKUYE HDIHUNIPI," Dakota words meaning, "All Relatives Have Come Home." The reconciliation and homecoming was organized to educate and pay tribute to our pre-European history and to honor elders and descendants across the Dakota Nation.
The first three year events have included:
° Living History Encampment
° Canadian-American Moccasin Tournament
° Reconciliation Ceremonies
° Pipe and Sacred Ceremonies
° Unity Feasts
° Storytelling
° Dancing
° Drumming
° Singing
° Authentic Native American Crafts
° Featuring the Flandreau Dakota Honor Guards Veterans
° Internationally acclaimed Dakota Musician & Hoop Dancer Jackie Bird
° Bryan Akipa, National recording Artist (Flutest & Flutemaker)
° Book signing by Mark Dietrich, recently published "Chiefs Wapahasha - Three Generations of Dakotah Leadership 1740 - 1876"
For updated Events, Schedules & other Homecoming Info click here: www.dakotahomecoming.org
BACKGROUND:
Initially, the Diversity Foundation was invited by the City of Winona, (Mayor Jerry Miller, City Manager Eric Sorensen and City Councilman Tim Breza) to organize and incorporate its Wapasha Prairie Educational Documentary into Winona/Dakota Homecoming and Gathering events held on June 26 and 27, 2004.
Over the past several years, DF has also been researching, interviewing, and filming the the Wapasha's Prairie/Dakota educational documentary and interactive CD ROM. Diversity and the City of Winona plan to utilize the 1-hour historic Documentary as an educational curriculum for Winona and other Minnesota schools, libraries and Historical Societies. The documetary and educational series is planned to be featured on National PBS stations and the Canadian Aboriginal TV Network.
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| Wapasha III |
Both the Documentary and WP Homecoming will be paying tribute and honoring the descendents of its pre-European Dakotah residents: Chiefs' Wapasha I, II, & III and their Dakota people lived, hunted and fished these areas up until the 1851 treaties were signed, and ratified, in 1853, forcing Chief Wabasha III and his Dakotah people to remote reservations in western Minnesota. As Europeans arrived, "Wapasha Prairie" was renamed "Winona," which means first born female in the Dakota language. The city was named in honor of Chief Wabasha's oldest daughter. Many of these early Wapasha families and other Dakotah burial grounds, from this pre-European era, were left behind along these banks of the Mississippi River and many are still scattered unknowingly about the area.
It is the hopes and prayers of our Diversity Foundation, the City of Winona and many of the direct descendents of these early Wabasha Chiefs, that the Wapasha Prairie/Dakota Homecoming & Gathering will begin the process of healing, reconciliation and understanding between our current Native and non-native descendents. DF and the City of Winona have assemblesd an outstanding group of community leaders to serve on its Dakota/Winona homecoming and reconciliation committee. For updated Events, Schedules & other Homecoming Info click here: www.dakotahomecoming.org
DF helped coordinate, with much from others, Wapasha Prairie's "First Annual" Canadian-American Dakota Moccasin Tournament during this homecoming and gathering. It has been said that moccasin games are one of the oldest shell and sporting games known to man. Its genesis goes back hundreds of years, with some of the Dakota elders claiming it was originally played between some Dakota and Ojibwe Warriors as a peaceful alternative to years of violence and war. The WP First Annual Can-Am Moccasin Tourney featured US and Canadian Dakota/Native American teams competing for National Pride and Tournament Money and other Prizes.
In modern times, the US government and Bureau of Indian Affairs prohibited the Game from being played by American Indian Tribes claiming it was gambling and therefore illegal. The Canadian Indian Reserves were not restricted to this degree and were allowed to continue playing the sport. It is only in recent years that the sport has seen a resurgence among the Dakota Nations, especially those here in the US.
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| Chief Wapasha II |
Another event being planned for the future would be a LaCrosse Exhibition Game possibly at Winona State University Stadium. The sport of LaCrosse was once played year around by hundreds of Dakota band members here at Wapasha Prairie. It has been said these matches would sometimes extend from Wapasha Prairie south along Mississippi River (on top of ice in winter) thru the village of Dakota on down to LaCrosse, Wisconsin. (This City was actually named after this sport).
These games would be played by young and old and sometimes go on for days and weeks, often getting very physical with injuries being quite common. In fact Chief Wapasha II was hit by a stick and lost an eye playing LaCrosse as a youth.
Other WP Homecoming events included in the past: a 2-day "demonstrative" Powwow/Wacipi as part of this Dakota Gathering. Danny Seaboy, from the SWST reservation, served as the gathering's main announcer and emcee. It was a more Traditional event with Dakota/Native American dancing and ceremonies with four Native drum groups invited, along with several (Native and Non-Native) Veterans Honor/Color Guard Units also participating. There will also be a variety of other entertainment and performances featured, including Dakota/Native American Storytellers, Comedians, Musicians, hoop dancers, crafters and other artists.
Our Homecoming Vendor Coordinator, Rod Steiner is also a descendent of the Dakota Chiefs Wapasha. Steiner was raised on the Santee Dakota Reservation in Nebraska, where he continues to maintain his enrollment to the present.
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| Wabasha family at Winona State University Pow Wow in 1999, the first Wabasha family visit back to Winona (formerly called Wapasha Prairie) since Chief Wapasha III and his band were forced to leave here in the 1850s. |
A Winona businessman donated a Wapasha Prairie/Dakota Monument dedicated on the location of the new Unity Park, at the base of historic landmark, Sugar Loaf, once known as Wapasha's Cap, in honor of the early Chiefs Wapasha. It is inticipated that the park will be completed in 2006.
Hundreds of descendents from other Dakota Chiefs and Native American families from across Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Canada were in attendence. Representatives from other neighboring Tribal Nations have been attending these educational and entertainment events. It is our goal that these Wapasha Prairie Homecoming and Gathering events will help bring a new found awareness and appreciation for Native, European and other Non-Native Cultures.
The Truth and Reconciliation Ceremonies were held with Dakota descendents and elders together with local, state & national government and church clergy and/or represenatives. This was a good beginning to better cultural understanding and continuted reconciliation efforts.
Diversity Foundation, with the City of Winona, together with representatives of the Dakota Nation, have begun to develop and promote other educational and exchang programs, including developing a Dakota/Native American Scholarship funds that we invision will be endowed and presented annually to deserving youth to attend one of Winona's three colleges -- Winona State University, St. Mary's University, or Southeast Technical College.
These events, are just part of an ongoing program to bring real change and education to Dakota Native America Reservations. In addition, DF, in the past, arranged delegations of Winona city, church and community leaders to travel and begin exchange visits with various Dakota Reservations across the midwest. The first exchange trip in 2004, included over 20 visitors, traveling to three Dakota reservation in a four day good will trip. It is our goal and vision that the Dakota Homecoming in Winona and other events have begun and will continue to create new understanding, friendships and partnerships between Native and non-Native people.
Dakota Homecoming
set to begin at lake
(June 23, 2004)
By Cynthya Porter
...Today, no one involved with the reconciliation efforts believes they can turn back the hands of time and change what has been done. But City Manager Eric Sorensen, Mayor Jerry Miller and Councilman Tim Breza have led an effort that will be akin to atoning for the sins of the father, welcoming the Dakota back to a land that is sacred to them and extending their collective hands in a gesture of apology and peace.
Ed Lohnes, CEO of the Diversity Foundation and a Dakota Indian, said Native Americans returning for the homecoming and reconciliation ceremonies do not expect the City of Winona to pick up and leave, giving the land back to the Dakota. They, too, know that the hands of time cannot be turned back, he said, so their gaze is fixed on the future. Native Americans have begun the process of restoring their own culture within tribes, he said, relearning the language, retelling the stories of their ancestors, rebuilding the pride that defined this people. It is a start, Lohnes said, and leaders in Native American communities are hopeful.
Having a community like Winona embrace them and their culture, Lohnes said, is an important part of the process of healing, too. There are not many communities in the entire country that have made the efforts at reconciliation that Winona has, he said, and even though Winona cannot change much that happened to the Dakota people, just their effort changes plenty for tomorrow.
(Click here to read the whole sptory in the June 23, 2004, Winona Post)
A dream to come true
(April 14, 2004)
 By Glenn Wasicuna
“...the sound of the horses’ hooves on rock, moving slowly, sideways down the heavily wooded steep hill is still sharp, each side making a different sound, the smell of the perspiring horses against the leather leggings and the heavy wool cloth of the warriors pungent. What was so eerie about this scene was the stillness, like they were floating down the side of the hill toward each other...”
This is part of a dream I had as a young man when walking through a valley, these two factions descending toward each other, and I remember very vividly that these two groups of warriors were going to fight. There was determination on the faces of these men. I looked to both sides as they slowly advanced down the steep incline. On my right was a warrior with an eagle feather fastened straight up between two huge braids of thick black hair. There were others, but I couldn’t see them. On my left was a soldier dressed in blue with a sword sheath hanging diagonally across himself and his horse. There were also others with him but I couldn’t see them. Throughout all of this I remembered being detached completely. I felt no connection between the two groups. Just that these two groups were intent on fighting each other. My overwhelming feeling was “...NO...” I don’t want them to fight.
On the morning of March 29, 2004, Leonard Wabasha and I were driving on Highway 61 heading south for Winona from Red Wing. The river bluffs continued for miles and being on the passenger side I almost had to look straight up to see the STEEP HILL the ROCKS and the TREES. Around the halfway point I commented to Hepan (Dakota for second male in a family), “I don’t know what I’m looking out for, and I keep expecting to see something.” To which he replied, “I know what you mean.” We were on our way for a scheduled meeting at the Winona City Council building with others to further plan this summer’s homecoming celebration that will bring Dakota people back to the land of their ancestors. What I was feeling that morning during the drive were my ancestors to my right slowly inching their way down the bluffs not to fight but to greet a fellow Dakota who has come back to the homelands. The soldiers to my left weren’t there because the water was there...mni wiconi...the water of life...
Glenn Wasicuna, Wambdi Wapaha, (Eagle Staff) is a Dakota from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in southwestern Manitoba, Canada.
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Wabasha returns to ancestral home
City to reestablish relationship with Dakota tribe
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| Leonard Wabasha, above, a descendant of Chief Wapasha II, right, returned to Winona recently at the invitation of the city. |
By Cynthya Porter
Before he ever stepped foot in Winona, Leonard Wabasha had seen it in his dreams, a mysterious land of rugged beauty that lurked behind his thoughts even as a teen. On his first visit to Winona a couple of years ago, Wabasha’s dreams found their name: Winona.
“I remember in my teens having dreams about a place with white rocks,” he said. “That place is here, it’s Sugar Loaf, Wapasha’s Cap.”
Wabasha is a direct descendant of the Indian chiefs who gave Winona the name Wapasha’s Prairie long before white settlers ever climbed off boats 150 years ago. His father, Ernie, is Chief Wabasha VII, and someday Leonard is destined to be Chief Wabasha VIII.
(Click here to read full March 17, 2004, Winona Post story)
Unity Riders promote peace
Ceremonial Dakota riders hope presence will encourage reconciliation
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| The Unity Riders promote peace and reconciliation between the Dakota people and other cultures. |
Over the past several years, the Diversity Foundation has had the priviledge and honor to have met and worked with some of these Dakota Unity Riders from across the US and Canada. The Unity Riders (as a group) were first organized in Canada over 10 years ago in an effort to ride their horses as a way to reconnect with their dispersed Dakota relatives across several provinces in Canada. They also used these "Unity" Journeys as a way to raise money and awareness for diabetes victims and other charitable causes affecting both their own Indigenous Reserves as well as the Non-Native populations in Canada. They later extended this to include their Dakota relatives south of the border in the United States. Ever since the US-Dakota Conflict in 1862, the Dakota people have had to endure extreme hardships and generations of separation from one another in order to survive.
MORE ON UNITY RIDERS:
Winona Daily News, Oct. 20, 2002, "Unity trail ride won't be history repeating itself"
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(photo courtesy of Winona County Historical Society)
Early Dakotah village near modern day Winona, formerly know as Wapasha's Prairie. |
After their forced excile from Minnesota in 1862, Many of their Dakota ancestors were forced to flee westward, while many others fled north into remote and destitute areas of Canada. It is only recently (after nearly 150 years of exile), that descendents of these widely dispersed survivors have begin to rediscover and relocate some of their "long-lost" Dakota relatives at Pow Wows and other Cultural Ceremonies. The Unity Riders and these Journeys have become a "Model" and symbol & source of strength for this Reconciliation and Reunification process.
Prior to the GE04's Flotilla's arrival, the Unity Riders, and other Dakota Native Americans, will also be conducting an 1850s Dakotah "living history" encampment on the shores of Lake Winona. This realistic encampment will consist of an entire village of authentic Dakota Tipi's and Lodges and other amenities similiar to how Chief Wapasha's Dakota band lived prior to the 1851-53 Treaties which forced them to relocate to remote reservations in southwestern Minnesota.
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