Alena - a book

There, it was out.  It floated onto the wind and swirled its way toward Alena, who breathed it in.  The words searched for a place to land and take root.  They traveled to her ears, her brain, to the rest of her body and then to her heart, where they settled in reaching down immediately for nourishment.  Alena yearned for more.

Op-ed piece

I finally submitted an op-ed piece to the Rochester Post Bulletin last week regarding Indian Heights.  I used a local analogy:  The State Hospital Cemetery was overrun with plants and other vegetation and it too was lost.  A few compassionate local people restored the cemetery to its proper dignity without having to uproot the graves to prove that it was a cemetery used by early settlers descendants of the Rochester area.  The same is with Indian Heights Park.  It too was used as a burial site and its purpose is apparent to the Dakota people and their descendants, but we have to prove it. We have to dig through and actually find remains for it to be declared as an official burial site.  How sad.  How sad that the Dakota people were not even consulted by the park board.  Indian Heights can have its dignity restored IF the park board is willing to be courageous and designate it as such and in this way the State Archeologist, the Minnesota Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service can aide in this effort.

Another banner park board meeting to determine Indian Heights Park's fate

The  meeting was such a farce.  Let me explain.  Indian Heights Park encapsulates the highest point in Rochester that was used by the Dakota Nation as a burial site prior to the "founding" of Rochester.  The park fell into obscurity which was bound to happen when the founding fathers put a $100 to $500 bounty on dead Dakota people.  Now the park has come under scrutiny because Friends of Indian Heights (neighbors that live near the park) doesn't want mountain biking trails bull-dozed through the park.  They also don't want the increased traffic that will surely come with the added trails.  The FOIH used the Indian Card to stall the development of the park and contacted anyone who was "Native American" and now it is relying on an Osage man to help them convey the importance of a Dakota burial site.  Honestly.  They have the audacity to use the Indian Card and now don't have the courage to see to it that the Dakota Nation has a chance to convey its own history.  Instead, they are using their Osage puppet who is a self-proclaimed medicine man who can lead a sweat lodge to do their will.    He espouses a general or generic form of "Native American religion" as if we are all alike.

If that wasn't bad enough, during the last meeting, May 10th to be exact, the director of the park board said that the Rochester Area Sports enthusiasts organization (RASC) was very valuable to the City of Rochester Park Department. RASC maintains many parks for the city and the director didn't want the park to jeopardize their relationship over a little park like Indian Heights.  Quite a cozy relationship I would say.  Today, the park director tried to back pedal his statement from the 10th by stating that he really didn't mean to say it that way.  Please.  He is on the park board along with a couple of other goodl old boys who undoubtedly stand to gain from such a merger.  Such a farce.  Where is the state archeologist you ask?  Well that is what I would like to know.  After all it is their office that is supposed to identify and enforce Indian burial sites. Word has it that he is waiting for this farce of a process to play itself out.

So why do I care?  My grandmother's people, the Dakota people used the highest point within Indian Heights Park as a burial site.  This means that it was sacred and still is sacred.  History states that up to 200 Dakota lived near Rochester before it was Rochester.  That is to say they used the area freely up until the 1860's.  The Dakota used this area for its hunting grounds AND burial grounds.  These are my grandmother's people.  My grandmother, Marie Edith Crowe Decorah was a noble and great woman.  She was a full blood Dakota woman who survived boarding school to go and to become an adjunct professor who taught her native Dakota language at the University of Minnesota.  It was no accident that I began to look into Indian Heights Park in 2009.  FOIH or the "not in my backyard people" started to be concerned about Indian Heights Park in 2010, about the same time as RASC.  My purposes for preserving the park are pure.  I am not a neighbor of the park.  I am not in the sporting goods business as some of the park board members.  I am interested in preserving the park because it was and still is a scared site.

Time to sound off about the virtues of holding your tongue...

The other day I had the opportunity to see the film Dakota Exile. After the movie, a group of natives and non-natives began to discuss the film and our feelings about the inhumanity the Dakota suffered.  As expressions of empathy and understanding were voiced by natives and non-natives alike, suddenly the drone of some militant man with SMS (short man's syndrome) disturbed the peace.  He would not be quiet. I rolled my eyes so much that I nearly did a flip.  Anyway, I caused the facilitator to start laughing and he had a hard time focusing after my eye roll.  I didn't say a word. I didn't say what I was thinking.  Yet my eyes were speaking for me.  So, holding your tongue is a virtue.  Dare I say an art.  However, as you hold your tongue, try to hold the rest of yourself still as well.

IMF scandal, Arnold has more children, state budget and poetry reading

There is so much in the news that is startling (Arnold and his many children), sad (MN state budget bickering), and unreal (IMF perks).  What is a well-informed and fairly intelligent woman to do?  Today is my youngest daughter's class poetry reading event at her school.  It begins at 2:30pm.  I better get there early.  Oh, and I bought some flowers.  I think I will plant them and help make the world (in my corner of it) a prettier place.

Celebrate Dakota Week Proclamation

What is making news today

Arnold and a maid, national.  RCTC president and campaign contributions to Kim Norton, local.  I think our local news is of more interest.