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Final INDS conference is next week
By Cindy Votruba
MARSHALL — With the final Indigenous Nations and Dakota Studies spring conference this year, Chris Mato Nunpa said it’s his effort in combating a massive wall of denial that’s out there.
The 15th annual Indigenous Nations and Dakota Studies spring conference, “Dakota People, Minnesota History on the Sesquicentennial: 150 Years of Lies,” will be from April 2-4 at Southwest Minnesota State University. The conference will also be the last one at SMSU, as Mato Nunpa retires this May.
“It’s done some things that are unique to native people, native academics,” Mato Nunpa said about the conference.
Mato Nunpa said the Dakota Studies program is also coming to a close at the end of the semester.
Mato Nunpa founded the conference in 1993 and has served as director all 15 years. The conferences started when his youngest daughter, Angela Cavender Wilson, was working on her doctorate at Cornell. She and her friends from college spoke on Native Women historians.
“A lot of people call her a ‘chip off the old block,’” Mato Nunpa said.
Cavender Wilson, Mato Nunpa said, tells the truth about the history of the Dakota people, especially from an historical aspect.
“That kind of truth is controversial to the general society because they don’t want to hear that,” Mato Nunpa said.
Controversial speaker Ward Churchill is making his second appearance at SMSU. Mato Nunpa said Churchill will speak on genocide.
Even though some have called Churchill a fraud, Mato Nunpa said he has used a lot of Churchill’s articles in his classes, adding that he’s checked the sources.
“They’re right on, they’re solid work,” Mato Nunpa said.
Originally, Mato Nunpa was going to have the final INDS conference be on the topic of genocide. But he learned that the state’s Sesquicentennial committee wasn’t funding projects submitted by Dakota people and the hostile responses his daughter got from a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune she sent, Mato Nunpa changed the conference’s focus.
Other speakers at the conference include Clifford Canku and Mike Simon on a translation project of letters from more than 400 Dakota men imprisoned at Davenport, Iowa.
“They learned how to write the Dakota language,” Mato Nunpa said. Mato Nunpa said Canku and Simon translated the letters and will talk about what happened and what was the cause of the imprisonment.
Jim Anderson of the Mendota Dakota Community will talk about the Treaty of 1805, the first treaty.
“We’ve gone to court four times on that,” Mato Nunpa said.
What Mato Nunpa hopes people take away from the conferences are historical truths, truths, he said, such as the massive land theft of more than 3 billion acres, stolen by the American government, and the 400 treaties made and broken by the government and American citizens.
In reference to the genocide of native peoples, Mato Nunpa said there were around 16 million.
By the turn of the century, there were 337,000 native people left, Mato Nunpa said.
“That’s a 98.5 percent extermination rate,” Mato Nunpa said. “These are things I want people to know.”
Suppression of the native languages is another truth, Mato Nunpa said. There are only six native Dakota speakers left at the Upper Sioux.
“This is a result of colonialism and imperialism,” Mato Nunpa said.
Then there is the truth of the forced removal from native homelands and the concentration camps that were in Mankato and Fort Snelling.
Mato Nunpa said he’s hoping people will also leave from the conference knowing about bounties that were placed on Dakota people.
“Almost every state had bounties on native peoples,” Mato Nunpa said.
Mato Nunpa said he’s thankful for the Dakota communities’ generous financial support for the conferences these last 15 years. And now that he’s retiring, Mato Nunpa said he’s still going to teach at other places, continuing writing a book and doing treaty work.
“They (the subjects) are unpleasant, they’re uncomfortable,” Mato Nunpa said.
Conference schedule
Wednesday, April 2
SMSU conference center
7 p.m. — Greetings and remarks; opening ceremonies — drum group,
Keynote address — Waziyata Win, “Woman of the North,” (Dr. Angela
Cavender Wilson), Dakota, Upper Sioux Community, Granite Falls historian, Ph.D. from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
After the keynote address: Reception hosted by the Oyate Club — for all attendees
Thursday, April 3
SMSU conference center and Bellows Academic
8:30 a.m. — Gaby Tateyuskanskan, Dakota, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
10:15 a.m. — Break
10:30 a.m. — David Larsen Jr., Bdewakantunwan Dakota, Lower Sioux Community, Morton, “The History of U.S. Racism”
Noon — Luncheon ($8.83 paid in advance)
1:15 p.m. — Mona Smith — Media and the Dakota People of Minnesota
3 p.m. — Break (Sessions move to conference center for remainder of conference)
3:15 p.m. — Clifford Canku and Mike Simon “Dakota Letters: Project Involving Translation of Letters From Dakota Men Imprisoned at Davenport, Iowa
Evening meal on one’s own
7 p.m. — Dr. Ward Churchill, genocide scholar, “Genocide and the Indigenous Peoples of the U.S.”
Friday, April 4
8:30 p.m. — Kathryn Akipa, Dakota, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate “The Dakota Language: Crisis and Revitalization”
10:15 a.m. — break
10:30 a.m. — Jim Anderson, Mendota Dakota Community “Selected Aspects of Dakota History”
Noon - luncheon ($10.64, paid in advance) — Culminating event, program
n Funded by: Sakpe Bdewakantunwan Dakota Community, Yellow Medicine Dakota Community and the Tinta Wita (“Prairie Island”) Dakota Community Conference is free and open to the public.
For information, contact Mato Nunpa at 507-537-6118 or 320-564-4348 “matonunpa@earthlink.net; Don Robertson at 507-537-6699, or Sandy Nelson at 507-537-6018. Send check for luncheon(s) by Monday, March 31, 2008 to:
Sandy Nelson, Office of Cultural Diversity, Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minn. 56258
The 15th annual Indigenous Nations and Dakota Studies spring conference, “Dakota People, Minnesota History on the Sesquicentennial: 150 Years of Lies,” will be from April 2-4 at Southwest Minnesota State University. The conference will also be the last one at SMSU, as Mato Nunpa retires this May.
“It’s done some things that are unique to native people, native academics,” Mato Nunpa said about the conference.
Mato Nunpa said the Dakota Studies program is also coming to a close at the end of the semester.
Mato Nunpa founded the conference in 1993 and has served as director all 15 years. The conferences started when his youngest daughter, Angela Cavender Wilson, was working on her doctorate at Cornell. She and her friends from college spoke on Native Women historians.
“A lot of people call her a ‘chip off the old block,’” Mato Nunpa said.
Cavender Wilson, Mato Nunpa said, tells the truth about the history of the Dakota people, especially from an historical aspect.
“That kind of truth is controversial to the general society because they don’t want to hear that,” Mato Nunpa said.
Controversial speaker Ward Churchill is making his second appearance at SMSU. Mato Nunpa said Churchill will speak on genocide.
Even though some have called Churchill a fraud, Mato Nunpa said he has used a lot of Churchill’s articles in his classes, adding that he’s checked the sources.
“They’re right on, they’re solid work,” Mato Nunpa said.
Originally, Mato Nunpa was going to have the final INDS conference be on the topic of genocide. But he learned that the state’s Sesquicentennial committee wasn’t funding projects submitted by Dakota people and the hostile responses his daughter got from a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune she sent, Mato Nunpa changed the conference’s focus.
Other speakers at the conference include Clifford Canku and Mike Simon on a translation project of letters from more than 400 Dakota men imprisoned at Davenport, Iowa.
“They learned how to write the Dakota language,” Mato Nunpa said. Mato Nunpa said Canku and Simon translated the letters and will talk about what happened and what was the cause of the imprisonment.
Jim Anderson of the Mendota Dakota Community will talk about the Treaty of 1805, the first treaty.
“We’ve gone to court four times on that,” Mato Nunpa said.
What Mato Nunpa hopes people take away from the conferences are historical truths, truths, he said, such as the massive land theft of more than 3 billion acres, stolen by the American government, and the 400 treaties made and broken by the government and American citizens.
In reference to the genocide of native peoples, Mato Nunpa said there were around 16 million.
By the turn of the century, there were 337,000 native people left, Mato Nunpa said.
“That’s a 98.5 percent extermination rate,” Mato Nunpa said. “These are things I want people to know.”
Suppression of the native languages is another truth, Mato Nunpa said. There are only six native Dakota speakers left at the Upper Sioux.
“This is a result of colonialism and imperialism,” Mato Nunpa said.
Then there is the truth of the forced removal from native homelands and the concentration camps that were in Mankato and Fort Snelling.
Mato Nunpa said he’s hoping people will also leave from the conference knowing about bounties that were placed on Dakota people.
“Almost every state had bounties on native peoples,” Mato Nunpa said.
Mato Nunpa said he’s thankful for the Dakota communities’ generous financial support for the conferences these last 15 years. And now that he’s retiring, Mato Nunpa said he’s still going to teach at other places, continuing writing a book and doing treaty work.
“They (the subjects) are unpleasant, they’re uncomfortable,” Mato Nunpa said.
Conference schedule
Wednesday, April 2
SMSU conference center
7 p.m. — Greetings and remarks; opening ceremonies — drum group,
Keynote address — Waziyata Win, “Woman of the North,” (Dr. Angela
Cavender Wilson), Dakota, Upper Sioux Community, Granite Falls historian, Ph.D. from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
After the keynote address: Reception hosted by the Oyate Club — for all attendees
Thursday, April 3
SMSU conference center and Bellows Academic
8:30 a.m. — Gaby Tateyuskanskan, Dakota, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
10:15 a.m. — Break
10:30 a.m. — David Larsen Jr., Bdewakantunwan Dakota, Lower Sioux Community, Morton, “The History of U.S. Racism”
Noon — Luncheon ($8.83 paid in advance)
1:15 p.m. — Mona Smith — Media and the Dakota People of Minnesota
3 p.m. — Break (Sessions move to conference center for remainder of conference)
3:15 p.m. — Clifford Canku and Mike Simon “Dakota Letters: Project Involving Translation of Letters From Dakota Men Imprisoned at Davenport, Iowa
Evening meal on one’s own
7 p.m. — Dr. Ward Churchill, genocide scholar, “Genocide and the Indigenous Peoples of the U.S.”
Friday, April 4
8:30 p.m. — Kathryn Akipa, Dakota, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate “The Dakota Language: Crisis and Revitalization”
10:15 a.m. — break
10:30 a.m. — Jim Anderson, Mendota Dakota Community “Selected Aspects of Dakota History”
Noon - luncheon ($10.64, paid in advance) — Culminating event, program
n Funded by: Sakpe Bdewakantunwan Dakota Community, Yellow Medicine Dakota Community and the Tinta Wita (“Prairie Island”) Dakota Community Conference is free and open to the public.
For information, contact Mato Nunpa at 507-537-6118 or 320-564-4348 “matonunpa@earthlink.net; Don Robertson at 507-537-6699, or Sandy Nelson at 507-537-6018. Send check for luncheon(s) by Monday, March 31, 2008 to:
Sandy Nelson, Office of Cultural Diversity, Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minn. 56258
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