From dreams to sacred sites: Jim Bear Jacobs' commitment to storytelling, connection
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Organizer Jim Bear Jacobs says that about 15 years ago, he had a dream that repeated itself for three nights.
“I was standing up on Pilot Knob hill. In my dream, I was looking at a burial scaffold, which is a traditional way the Indigenous people, the Dakota people of Minnesota, would bury their relatives. And hanging on the burial scaffold were 38 feathers, which I knew was a symbol for the 38 Dakota warriors who were hanged in Mankato, Minn., in 1862,” Jacobs said.
He sought out the advice of Dakota elders about his dream. That year, Jacobs chose three sacred sites in Minneapolis and Mendota Heights to gather, share stories and build understanding among Native and non-Native people.
“I immediately felt this incredible conviction. I'd grown up in the Twin Cities my entire life, and I was well into my 30s before I ever really had any kind of functional understanding of the Indigenous story of the land that I was occupying and living on,” Jacobs said.
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Jacobs joined the Minnesota Council of Churches as a co-director of Racial Justice in 2018. The nonprofit represents two dozen protestant denominations across the state.
In early December, Jacobs announced on his social media page that his work with the organization was ending.
The Trump administration’s reductions in funding for refugee resettlement have disrupted the organization’s racial justice work.
Last January, President Donald Trump suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program through an executive order, a move that blocked new refugee admissions to Minnesota and other states. Within days, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Homeland Security, halted funding to organizations, many of them faith-based organizations.
The reduction in federal funding has had consequences for the organization’s racial justice work.
The Minnesota Council of Churches has delivered employment support and housing services for new Americans for several years.
Executive Director Suzanne Kelly said the effect of those decisions was felt immediately.
“We were left with families in refugee camps who we had expected to resettle here, who weren't allowed to come into the country. It was a mass upheaval,” Kelly said.
In 2024, federal funding helped the nonprofit resettle almost 1200 people. This year, that number is fewer than 50.
It also means layoffs. The Minnesota Council of Churches started the year with 71 people, and by the end of the year, 22 staff will remain.
In a statement made in the organization’s newsletter, Kelly wrote, “These changes have had real human consequences, and we lament every loss that accompanies them.”
Kelly says the organization has also seen individual contributions fall off and a “sharp decline” in philanthropic investment in racial justice work.
Kelly says the Minnesota Council of Churches’ racial justice work will continue, but she says it will be organized differently.
“How can we do more with less, or at least the same with less?” said Kelly. “How do we use technology to create workshops across the state that people don't have to travel to come to? How do we think about issues in fresh ways where there may be additional funding available?”
Sacred sites tours
Over the last 15 years, Jacobs has brought thousands of people to Pilot Knob, the hill he saw in his dream.
Pastor Jessica Patchett arrived in Minneapolis earlier this fall to lead Westminster Presbyterian, a downtown Minneapolis church.
She says one of the first things she did was join one of Jacobs’ tours. She’s pregnant, expecting her second child.
“Jacobs told us the story of both the beautiful Genesis creation story that was located in that place where people would actually bring their pregnant people to that place to give birth in that land, knowing that there was this deep connection with the Creator there,” Patchett said.
Patchett also visited Pilot Knob, the same place Jacobs had dreamed of years before.
It’s the third and final stop on the tour. Jacobs says he brings people there to understand the contemporary issues facing Indigenous people.
What’s now called Pilot Knob hill has been a Dakota burial site for centuries. Acacia Park Cemetery has shared a part of the hill overlooking the Minnesota River for the past century.
Acacia Park Cemetery is located on one side of an asphalt road. Jacobs has dubbed it “The road that goes nowhere.” On the other side is an open green space currently undergoing restoration of its original oak savanna. The road is what’s left of a 2006 project to build luxury condos at the site. He points out to visitors that the public cemetery was never under threat of development.
“I bring them to this moment of confronting the reality that it's only 19 years ago that this historic place of Indigenous burial was under significant threat,” Jacobs said.
‘Follow where the spirit goes.’
Jacobs says he’s sad to be leaving, “that work within Indigenous community always centers around relationship and relationality,” said Jacobs.
He’s worried that the organization will lose the stories that are connected to the community and to the land.
Kelly, a longtime advocate for racial justice, said she understands his concern.
“There's always the chance of erasure, of marginalization,” Kelly said. “I decided, if we can't fund just one stand-alone department, then we've got to do an integrated model, because there is that opportunity to just minimize the work if it's just the responsibility of one person.”
Patchett says she believes Westminster Presbyterian Church and other congregations will continue to support faith-based racial justice work.
“What I hear from people is that this is something they want to help fund into the future,” Patchett said.
Jacobs says he will continue to pursue his dream of educating people about Indigenous issues, but outside the organization. Jacobs’ first tour of the new year is set for April.
"I had a very dear spiritual mentor of mine just say, ‘You know, your job is just to be like a leaf in the wind, and you just follow where the spirit goes.’”
