Truth and retelling:
Whose History is it, Anyway?
“That’s history,” the saying goes, meaning, “forget about the past; move on!” But in the belief systems of many indigenous communities throughout the Midwest, past, present, and future are irrevocably intertwined. History, then, is both complex and unforgettable.
Photo by Richard G. Anderson
Collaborating with American studies professor Brenda Child (Chippewa), undergraduates Carly and Kate Beane (Dakota) and graduate student Scott Shoemaker (Miami) are leading a dialogue about how American Indian history in Minnesota is told.
The conversation focuses on Fort Snelling, the familiar Minnesota landmark known to some as just another stop on the light rail. As most Minnesotans learned in grade school, Fort Snelling was once a trading post and military base. What they’re less likely to know is that the land it occupies was also the setting of the Dakota creation story, long before Europeans arrived in the Northwest Territories. And in the mid-1800s, it became the site of the mass slaughter of Dakota people.
A grant from the McNair program, which helps exceptional undergraduates of color prepare for graduate school, brought Carly and Kate Beane into their research partnership with Brenda Child. When the topic of Fort Snelling arose, Carly Beane felt irresistibly compelled. “How often is it that you get the opportunity to participate in a project that affects your entire nation?” she exclaims. “That affects your community, that affects your family so intimately? When something like that comes along, how do you say no?”
Beane didn’t say no, and so began a research project that would lead to a memorable evening of heated debate among over 100 people, indigenous and otherwise, about how to address Fort Snelling’s checkered past and correct the historical record.
Photo by Leo Kim
The students’ research involved over 30 interviews with Dakota people state-wide about the possibility of reclaiming part of the site for an American Indian Language Center, which would serve as a gathering place for the preservation and revitalization of Minnesota’s imperiled indigenous languages. The center would be called Bdote, which means “where the rivers meet.”
When the students shared their initial findings at the February forum, the response was a storm of passionately felt, and often sharply conflicting, opinions on what it would mean to build a symbol of healing at a site desecrated by the massacre of Indians. Could Indians ever tell their story at such a site?
Tempers flared, and some sharp words were exchanged. “Afterward, a number of people came up to me and said, ‘Don’t be discouraged,’” recalls Carly Beane. “But I didn’t feel discouraged. If anything, I felt encouraged. Because I saw clearly how much work there is to be done.”
The debate has really just barely begun. For her part, Carly Beane plans to be indefinitely involved. Next semester, she’ll intern with the Minnesota Historical Society. As for her college career, she believes that working alongside a faculty member on an issue that hits so close to home has been indispensable.
“The reason I’m here is to further my education so that I can find ways through my work to benefit my community,” she says. It’s an enormous undertaking, but she’s already got her community talking.
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Carly Beane graduated Fall of 2006 with a BA in American Indian Studies.
Katherine Beane graduated Spring of 2007 with a BA in American Indian Studies.