Land Acknowledgement
Honoring the land that Lakewood occupies
Lakewood honors and acknowledges the Dakota, Ojibwe, Ho Chunk, and other Indigenous Communities who once lived, hunted, foraged and traded on this land, and where a Dakota village called Ȟeyáte Otúŋwe once existed. We pay respect to the people of these Tribes, past and present, and honor with gratitude this sacred land upon which we stand.
Cloud Man Village and the history of this land
In 1829, more than 40 years before Lakewood Cemetery was founded, a Dakota Chief named Mahpiya Wicasta (Cloud Man), member of the Black Dog band of Dakota, established a small agricultural community on the east side of Bde Maka Ska. His purpose was to try the “white man’s way” of farming.
It wasn’t an easy decision for this leader. For centuries the Dakota people had lived as hunters and gatherers. They traveled and harvested food through the year, gathering berries, fruits and root vegetables such as wild turnips. They fished in summer and hunted in fall and winter, sometimes ranging far from their villages. Some members of the community did plant and harvest food in season, but their livelihood had always depended on the abundant resources of wild plants, game and fish.
Mahpiya Wicasta saw that living conditions for his people were changing. Fur traders competed with native hunters for game. The buffalo they depended on for meat and hides were declining, especially in the eastern regions of the Dakota homelands. Game was becoming a less reliable food source. Some corn was grown but little was stored for winter sustenance. If the resources of game and fish were scarce, the people were hungry.*
At this time, an Indian agent at Fort Snelling named Lawrence Taliaferro was assigned to work with the Dakota. Taliaferro began encouraging those at Black Dog Village, close to the Fort, to take up agriculture beside Bde Maka Ska. The southeastern end of the lake was then a marshy area, familiar as a place to harvest wild rice. Taliaferro’s task was not an easy one—to change a way of living centuries old. Although the villages did have gardens, in Dakota culture “it was the women who cultivated crops, not the men.”** The men had to be persuaded.
Then Mahpiya Wicasta had an experience that changed his mind. This experience was later described by missionary Samuel Pond, who made an effort to learn and translate the Dakota language. He wrote that on a hunting trip on the plains near the Missouri River, Mahpiya Wicasta and other members of his party were overtaken by a sudden blizzard. The storm was so violent that the hunters lay down, each wrapped in his furs. Mahpiya Wicasta could not communicate with his companions and did not know whether they were dead or alive. They lay for three days and nights under the snow.
During this time, Mahpiya Wicasta thought about how Taliaferro had urged them to take up farming beside Bde Maka Ska. On returning home, the Chief persuaded a group of families to start the new village and focus on agriculture. They were given seed and farm tools by the U.S. government, and the little village, known as Heyate Otuŋwe (“the village at the side”), was formed in August 1829.
Taliaferro’s overall purpose was to convince the Dakota to take up the white man’s way of life. Five years later, he was joined by Samuel Pond, who with his brother Gideon arrived at Fort Snelling intending to convert the native people to Christianity. Taliaferro and Samuel Pond viewed Mahpiya Wicasta’s decision as a conversion to “the arts of civilized life.” They and others wanted the Dakota to become like them, dress like them, farm like them and adopt their religion. Taliaferro called the village “my little Colony of Sioux agriculturists” believing they were on a progressive path to assimilation into European ways.**
But Mahpiya Wicasta had a more practical view. The traditional ways of the Dakota were becoming more difficult to maintain and he was willing to try another way of self-sufficiency. “He did not intend to forsake his identity as a Dakota man; he was simply making an honest attempt to adapt to his surroundings, changing with the times as any human being, as well as any community, must do in order to live . . . Despite the fact that the people in this village embraced agriculture, Taliaferro was never able to convince them to stop being Dakota.”** For ten years, the members of the village farmed during the summer and continued to hunt, fish and gather crops as usual.
In 1839, Heyate Otunwe was abandoned following a conflict between the Ojibwe and Dakota nations. Some white settlers, and perhaps Taliaferro himself, thought it a “failed experiment.” But the village people continued to emphasize agriculture in their new location on the Minnesota River. From a Dakota point of view, it was not a failure because it ensured the survival of Mahpiya Wicasta’s people and his descendants. He saw people hungry and did what he needed to do—and for a period of time it worked.**
Mahpiya Wicasta died with many other Dakota in the concentration camp at Fort Snelling over the winter of 1862-63 after being captured during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. He is remembered by his descendants as a wise leader devoted to his people. Newcomers who had come to know him, such as Samuel Pond, wrote that he “was a man of superior discernment, and of great prudence and foresight.”
A work of public art is installed on the shore of Bde Maka Ska at the site of Cloud Man’s Village. The work is a collaboration of three artists: Angela Two Stars, Mona Smith and Sandy Spieler.
Resources
Learn more about our local Indigenous Communities with these helpful resources: