After 161 years, land was officially returned to the Upper Sioux Community
Nearly 20 years have passed since Elitta Gouge told tribal chair Kevin Jensvold that she wanted to seek return of the Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Upper Sioux Community. Gouge was serving as the tribe’s secretary at the time. It was hard to imagine the return.
When it happened, emotion welled up at Friday’s signing ceremony.
Gouge spoke about the significance of the land to her, recalling it as a place where she has sought respite during some of the most difficult times in her life. She talked about the land as the final resting place of many of their ancestors and the outrage felt by tribal members for having to pay state park fees to visit burial and prayer sites.
“The park is not just recreational. I consider it Wokiksuye k’a Wanagi Makoce — a land of memories and spirits. It is to be walked upon with respect and reverence,” said Gouge. “In speaking with the chairman that day so many years ago, I shared with him my feelings of annoyance, disgust and downright anger.”
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“Pejihutazizi Dakota Nation has had to reclaim it and the Minnesota State had to return it,” she said.
Hundreds of people gathered to mark the return of about two square miles in southwest Minnesota to the Upper Sioux Community.
“It’s a simple truth. What we’re talking about here. None of us were here back then to participate in the wrongs that happened, but we’re here today helping to make the rights,” said Upper Sioux Tribal Chairman Kevin Jensvold.
Joining Jensvold, Gouge, and members of the Upper Sioux tribal council were Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources commissioner Sarah Strommen. Together, they signed the legal and ceremonial deeds at the Upper Sioux headquarters necessary for the conveyance of the land.
Laughter punctuated the solemnity of the day’s work.
Motioning to Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, Gouge said, “I think that when Peggy was here a couple of years ago, I guess I told her that until we get the land back, or the state park back, the Vikings are not going to win the Super Bowl.”
‘The right thing for the state of Minnesota’
For many years, the Minnesota Historical Society helped maintain the site known historically as Upper Sioux Agency — the name from which the state park took its name. The site was where the U.S. withheld annuities during in the summer of 1862, an act which resulted in the starvation and death among Dakota people that year.
Those events would lead to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the mass execution in Mankato the same year, the internment of Dakota families at Fort Snelling that winter and Dakota exile from the state.
Those historical realities were reflected in the black t-shirts which read “161 Years,” a reference to the events that led to the outright theft of Dakota land and the amount of time it took for one parcel to be returned.
Chairman Jensvold also spoke about what the return of the land means going forward.
“I sit there sometimes and think, what did our ancestors, what was their intent for that land?” said Jensvold. “... I ended up at the same place every time I pose that question. [They] just wanted us to be Dakota people, to live in our home, to be who we were, to take care of this land and to take care of each other.”
Just before the ceremonies began, Walz took a selfie with a group of Dakota high school students.
A former history teacher, the governor spoke to the historical significance of the moment saying that he was among at least two Minnesota governors who have visited this site in the past.
He said the first, Henry Sibley, was a colonel fighting against Dakota people more than a century and a half ago. Walz drew a sharp contrast between himself and Sibley, and to the signing of treaties.
“Everyone in this room knows, the Yellow Medicine people know, our Dakota and Ojibwe brothers and sisters know, when there’s an official treaty signing or official documents, that almost always ended in sorrow and tears for your community,” said Walz.
“Today is not that day. Today is not that day. And as the chairman spoke about what we're here to do: to return this land to the original caretakers.”
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources commissioner Strommen said the land’s return corrects a historical wrong, that it should have never been a place for recreation.
“The recreational opportunities that that land was providing came at the expense of the Dakota people. And we came to believe and understand that that site was not appropriate,” said Strommen. “It has a different purpose. It has always had a different purpose.”
The DNR closed Upper Sioux Agency State Park near Granite Falls in mid-February.
“And so today, we are honored to be part of doing the right thing for the Dakota people, but also doing the right thing for the state of Minnesota,” said Strommen.
Last year, Walz signed legislation directing the DNR and the Minnesota Historical Society to return all state-owned land within Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Upper Sioux Community.
The Upper Sioux Community and DNR say buildings in disrepair within the bounds of the former park will be demolished. The remaining buildings were also transferred to the Upper Sioux Community in keeping with the land’s return.