Star Tribune
Dark history, hopes for future mix as Minnesota transfers state park to Dakota tribe
UPPER SIOUX COMMUNITY – Before a word was said or a document was signed, boxes of tissues were laid out, at the ready.
It was an emotional day at the Upper Sioux Community, Pezihutazizi Oyate, in far western Minnesota, as the state officially returned Upper Sioux Agency State Park to the Dakota people.
The park, several people noted at Friday’s ceremony, was originally created on the 100-year anniversary of the starvation of Dakota people on the land. The ensuing 1862 U.S.-Dakota War ended with the largest mass execution in the United States: 38 Dakota men hanged in Mankato.
Tribal Chair Kevin Jensvold marked a moment he said was at least 20 years in the making. The idea originated, he said, in a conversation with another tribal leader who mentioned that the community had to ask the state’s permission to conduct ceremonies on the land.
“None of us were here back then to participate in the wrongs that happened, but we’re here today … helping to make the rights,” Jensvold said.
The 1,300-acre park at the confluence of the Minnesota and Yellow Medicine rivers is full of rolling prairie and wetlands. Before it closed to the public on Feb. 16, it received about 35,000 visitors a year, significantly lower than most of the 66 state parks.
The park is a sacred site, where Dakota people visit to pray or meditate, but also the site of deep trauma. Many Dakota people were left starving there in 1862 after promised payments from the U.S. government failed to arrive and traders refused to sell food on credit.
Desperation drove an attack against the Lower Sioux Agency, another government complex farther down the Minnesota River — an event now viewed as the start of the six-week war.
That dark history hung heavily over the ceremony to return the land.
“When there’s an official treaty signing or official documents, that almost always ended in sorrow and tears for your community,” Gov. Tim Walz said during the ceremony. “Today is not that day.”
Implicit in the celebration was the fact that this story has not always been widely told across Minnesota. Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, said that he had not learned the history when he was growing up in the state, but felt moved to champion it as he sponsored the House bill that led to the land transfer.
Jensvold said after the celebration that it was not a day for blame, but for facing the truth of what had happened to this Dakota community, also known as the Yellow Medicine People.
“If we can’t even face the truth, then we have a lot of learning to do as a society,” he said.
The historic land transfer comes as state lawmakers consider several moves to return public land to Indigenous hands. One bill would give portions of the 160,000-acre White Earth State Forest to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe by 2029, as well as first refusal to buy any tax-forfeited land in the forest.
Another bill would transfer the eastern half of Upper Red Lake, a mile-wide buffer around it and some nearby public forest to the Red Lake Nation in Beltrami County.
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, sponsored the Senate bill to return Upper Sioux Agency, and is sponsoring the new White Earth bill. She said before the ceremony that the return of the land to the Upper Sioux wasn’t intended to start a wave of actions to put acres back in Native ownership — but it has started a conversation.
“It makes a lot of non-Native communities very nervous that the Indians are starting to take over,” Kunesh, a descendant of the Standing Rock Lakota, later told the gathered crowd. “I don’t see it as taking over. I see it as returning the stewardship of the land.”
In some cases, tribes are buying back private land. In 2022, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa purchased some 28,000 acres of privately held forest land in the band’s reservation, then the largest transfer of its kind in the United States.
The Department of Natural Resources has pledged to help replace the amenities of the Upper Sioux Agency park, which is near the city of Granite Falls. In meetings held last year, some residents worried there would be little to draw people into the community or convince them to stay there.
No new plans were announced by the DNR for new amenities in the region Friday, but it will be an important campaign to continue to push, said Autumn Cavender, an Upper Sioux Community member who said she advocated for the land transfer.
Cavender noted that the now-closed state park was in need of several upgrades, making it an easy decision for the DNR to hand it over. The cultural center on the land was condemned, and a major road through it was crumbling, she said.
“This is a very weird and rare circumstance, where everyone can win,” Cavender said. Making sure the park would be replaced would be “the next chapter.”
She said she was looking forward to visiting the graves of her ancestors on the land, without the risk of getting a citation for being there.
Elitta Gouge, a former tribal secretary, also claims ancestors in the park — including her great-great-grandfather Mazomani, a Dakota leader who died during the 1862 war. The land had been a refuge for her in the past, a place she visited in gratitude when she learned her son had narrowly escaped boarding a plane that later crashed — and where she mourned a friend who had been on board.
When she returns to the former park, she said, “The first thing I will do is give thanks, and I will feel the spirits, and I will feel the creator’s attention.”
Gouge started the original conversation that inspired Jensvold to campaign for the land transfer. On Friday, DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen brought that two-decade story to a close with a deep breath and a swift signature on the state park’s deed.
The document was then whisked away, to be officially recorded at the Yellow Medicine County Courthouse.
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
