Multiculturalism

I’m only posting this because I found it to be an unusual occurrence. I’m not saying that it was good or bad, just different.

I was walking the banks of the Minnesota river the other day with my 3 yr old Drew. We were by the lovely town of Mendota. As we were walking I noticed a woman further downstream on shore looking at the river and doing something.

At first I thought she was setting up to do some painting or photography. But as we got closer I could see that that wasn’t what she was up to. I was getting more intriqued all the time. I also noticed that she was dressed rather Amish like with the long dress and bonnet type garb.

When Drew and I came up to her I noticed she had a candle burning on the ground and a medicine bag next to it. So it finally clicked for me. She was doing some sort of ceremony by the river. This area near the confluence is sacred to the Lakota (or is it Dakota?) so that made sense. I said hello and we chatted for a second and I continued on my way. Drew and I came back through the woods so as not to disturb her again. I could here her singing something I would assume was Lakota. A pretty neat experience! Here, however, is where the real muticulturalism kicks in. This nice woman doing the ceremony was a blue-eyed blonde scandihoovian.

Just thought I’d share!

dd

Cool! That/those rivers bring a lot of magic feelings to all kinds of people for many different reasons.
Thanks for posting!

I’ve always said,”I belong to the Church of the great outdoors!”

I’m the most at peace with the world when in the woods or on the water, as I’m sure many of us are!

The following is derived from the history of the Village of Mendota Indian community:

The name Mendota is a French misinterpretation of the Dakota word Mdo-Te.
Mdo-Te (pronounced Bdoh Tay) means the mouth of a river or a meeting of
waters. In this instance it is the Mdo-TE of the Wakpa (River) Mni-sota
(less than clear or smoky water). The French explorer Joseph Nicollet
visited this region in the late 1830’s. Nicollet was told by Dakota Elders
at that time that the area around Mendota was considered by the Mdewakanton
(Bday-wah kahn toon) Dakota People to be the middle of all things and the
exact center of the earth. Our people have been here for centuries but
appear in history in connection with the earliest French and English Traders.

Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, President Jefferson sent Lewis and
Clark up the Missouri River, and Lt. Zebulon Pike up the Mississippi to see
what had been purchased. Lt. Pike negotiated a treaty in 1805 with our
people for two parcels of land for the establishment of military posts. The
first parcel was a nine-mile square of land centered on the confluence of the
St.Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The second parcel was an ambiguous piece of
land from just above the falls of St.Anthony to just below the mouth of the
St. Pierre (St. Peters) River (The Minnesota) and extending nine miles on
either side of the Mississippi River.

Despite the huge acquisition of some 100 square miles of land, the army did
not appear here again until 1819. A temporary post was established on the
bottomland of the Minnesota River for the first winter. Because of unhealthy
conditions on the bottomland, a permanent post was established across the
river on the promontory where Fort Snelling now stands. The army was camped
at a sacred spring of the Dakota people (Coldwater Spring) for the time it
took to build the magnificent limestone fort of which today’s fort is a
replica. An Indian Agency was established outside the fort and the traders
from the American Fur Company set up headquarters across the river at
Mendota. This was the beginning of the white man’s history of the area.
Most of the traders, agency employees and military personnel took Dakota
women as wives. This was the beginning of the kinship ties that have bound
our people to this area till the present day. In this setting we have been
much assimilated by white society, but continue to maintain cultural and
religious ties to our Dakota ancestors.

http://www.mendota-heights.com/pdf/heritagemap.pdf

Not knowing this woman’s specific intentions, as Tuck said, this location is significant to many for many different reasons.
cheers

Drake you scholar, you! Very interesting history of the area. There are about 3 historic homes in Mendota just off highway 13 with tours available. It is a neat little town that seems to have been forgotten by time.

dd

Boy Id better get a degree just for reading that

Multicululturalims is an understatement for what I have experienced on the river banks over the last 25 years. Rarely will a person ever experience something as Joel(Drews Dad), but it happens on occasion.. there are other *cultures* that use the river also, many arent traditional, and some are far from proper.

I have run across everything from Transient(sp?) villages, cultist rally’s, a guy wearing nothing but a pair of leather chaps that thought I was dressed up to play a fisherman role(he quickly learned otherwise).. to one * Groovy * guy at Hidden Falls park several years back that had an accoustic guitar tied to the end of a rope, tossing it into the river, and slowly retrieveing(sp?) it try to *catch Elvis*.. he claims he had a couple knibbles? No joke, it really happened. That was the most humorous thing I seen in years.

One never knows what they might run into at the river.. cultural, traditional, un-nautural… you just never know.

I NEVER fish the river at night alone, and prefer company any time I intend to be on the shore anywhere for long.

Quote:

---

I NEVER fish the river at night alone

---

I’m thinking this is good.

You could in WI, there is no criminal element over there to worry about.

All joking aside, that is pretty good advice whether it is the River, or downtown.

Quote:

---

I’ve always said,”I belong to the Church of the great outdoors!”

I’m the most at peace with the world when in the woods or on the water, as I’m sure many of us are!

---

Do any of you ever notice that’s when you really talk to God alot is in the outdoors.(God please just send me a big buck, I promise to be in church the rest of the year!)

One of my strangest memories was from the high school years.
My buddies and I used to play tackle football on the sand flats just north of the Ford bridge. The game lasted as long as the “gates” were open at the dam. When the water came back up, we would return to our fishing rods in their holders along shore and resume fishing.
On one particular tackle, a freind complained that he smacked his shoulder on something. We all joined in investigating the buried item. We were rewarded with a sawed off shotgun in relatively good working condition.
We did not get to see the end of the day before a parent called the police and turned it in. I do not know what we thought we were going to do with it?
That was back when a group of kids could walk Jefferson Ave. from the river to Davern (about 1.5 miles) with a sawed off shotgun and not alarm anyone .
cheers