Upcoming events:
- The Indigenous History of Bdote Fort Snelling, a fundraiser for Missouri River Water Walk, Aug. 21
- Pipeline Resistance Tour, Aug. 22-24
- Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community Pow Wow Sept. 8-10, (volunteers needed!)
Details follow.
Where the Two Waters Meet: The Indigenous History of Bdote Fort Snelling
The Minnesota Pachamama Community is hosting an Evening with Ramona Kitto Stately and Fundraiser for Sharon Day’s Missouri River Water Walk, Monday August 21, 6 to 9 p.m. at Historic Fort Snelling, 200 Tower Ave., St Paul.
Ramona Kitto Stately (member of the Santee Sioux Nation) will share the rich history of the Dakota people and invite us to see this place we call “Minnesota” from an indigenous point of view. Bdote is a Dakota word that means “where the two waters come together.” We will convene at Bdote Fort Snelling, where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers converge. Long before this area became a military fort, Dakota tribes lived here and today they continue to regard it as their spiritual and cultural point of origin.
This program is a fundraiser and all proceeds from the evening will be given to support Sharon Day and her fellow Nibi walkers as they walk the Missouri River from its headwaters in Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
Cost is $20; find more info and register here.
Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Tour Aug. 24-26
Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light (MNIPL) is organizing a trip to give people first-hand experience with Enbridge Line 3, a proposed expansion of a tar sands crude oil pipeline through northern Minnesota.
The existing Line 3 stretches from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, crossing northern Minnesota. It is old and failing. Enbridge proposes to abandon the current pipeline in the ground and install a new and larger pipeline along a new route. Tar sands mining is a very polluting process. A pipeline rupture could cause huge problems for our environment and tourist industry. Resistance to the pipeline is growing.
The Pipeline Tour will leave at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24, from Mayflower UCC parking lot. It will return late Saturday.
Join MNIPL staff and leaders on a visit to the heart of pipeline and resistance in Minnesota. They’ll tour the pipeline construction and Native resisters; visit sustainability projects on the White Earth and Red Lake reservations; and visit the deepest lake in Minnesota and the headwaters of the Mississippi – stunning natural areas endangered by the path of Enbridge’s Line 3.
Spaces are limited. Cost is $200 per person, including transportation from Minneapolis, some meals, and lodging at Farm by the Lake in cabins or tents. Some scholarships available. Click here to register.
Questions? Contact Rev. Emily Goldthwaite Fries egoldthwaitefries@mayflowermpls.org or Julia Nerbonne julia@mnipl.org!
Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community Pow Wow Sept. 8-10
The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community’s 18th Annual Traditional Wacipi will be held Sept. 8-10 at St. Peter’s Church Grounds located at 1405 Sibley Memorial Hwy, Mendota, MN 55150.
If you are interested in helping out, they are looking for volunteers, too. (But even if you are not able to volunteer, get the Pow Wow on your calendar!)
You can sign up for 3 hour volunteer shifts as a group or individually. Shifts start on Friday at 7 p.m.. You can get shifts anytime Saturday from 8 a.m. to midnight and Sunday from 8 a.m.to 10 p.m. Volunteer needs include food preparation, cash register, servers, dishwashers, grill, fry cook and clean up.
To sign up as a group, please contact Joy Sorensen Navarre at sorensennavarre@gmail.com. To sign up individually, contact Karen Shatek at jkshatek@comcast.net jkshatek@comcast.net.
The Mendota Mdewakanton Tribal Community is the Fifth Dakota Community in Minnesota and is currently in the process of seeking Federal recognition. Tribal members are direct descendants of intermarriage between Dakota and French Fur Traders. They had villages in the Mendota area as early as the 1700s. Mdo-Te or Mendota is a Dakota word meaning, “Meeting of the waters” signifying its sacred relationship to the joining of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.
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