'A true story from Dakota eyes': Shakopee Tribe shares its culture with the world

Monday, September 30, 2019  

SHAKOPEE, Minnesota – The seven 40-foot high tipis pierce the cornflower blue skies above the sprawling museum and cultural center. Their images are reflected in the cool, calm waters of a nearby stream.

The wind is fierce this afternoon as Andy Vig, coordinator of the culture and history preservation work group for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, stands by the stream and talks about his tribe’s $41 million cultural center and museum.

The 92,500-square-foot structure was completed in July after three years of construction, but the Shakopee have been dreaming of it for nearly 30 years, Vig said.

“We’ve been wanting this building for many years,” he said.

Until the Hoċokata Ti museum and cultural center was built, the tribe held its cultural activities in outdoor spaces like its wacipi (powwow) grounds and in a much smaller cultural center next to its government center.

Hoċokata Ti means “lodge at the center of the camp” in the Dakota language.

For the Shakopee, the structure serves two primary purposes: to educate others about the Mdewakanton Sioux people and to educate themselves about their past. Hoċokata Ti also serves as gathering place for the tribe’s general council, which serves as the governing body of the tribe.

Unlike most tribes, which have elected governing councils, the Shakopee Mdewakanton general council is made up of all the tribe’s enrolled members age 18 and older. The tribe’s business council, which is made up of three elected officers, implements the decisions of the general council.

Hoċokata Ti’s 3,805-square-foot public exhibit, called “Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake,” provides a history of the tribe from the time before contact with settlers to present day. The public exhibit and a gift shop take up much of the building’s upper floor, while its educational and meeting space takes up its lower level.

“With the public space up top here, we really wanted to help educate the public about who we are as Mdewakanton Dakota people and also have a place for our children and our own members to go through and learn more about our people,” said Vig, whose father Charles Vig serves as the tribe’s chairman.

The museum experience begins with an interactive map of the tribe’s small reservation south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. A room made to appear like the inside of a tipi then displays a starry sky on four video screens as a narrator describes the Shakopee creation story.

Another exhibit offers a re-creation of the federal government’s efforts to force the Shakopees to sign treaties giving up millions of acres of fertile farmland. An arbor with a large book beneath it explains the massive loss of land that resulted in the treaties.

Several exhibits are devoted to explaining one of the most tragic events in the tribe’s history – the Dakota War of 1862 that resulted in hundreds of deaths and ended with the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Under the command of president Abraham Lincoln, 38 tribal leaders were hanged for their involvement in the bloodshed and two others were hanged later.

One exhibit about the war asks visitors: What role would you choose? The choices include war leader, protector, refugee, peacemaker and Army scout. Another interactive exhibit features tribal members reading quotes from Dakota leaders from that time.

Other exhibits offer information about the impact of the mass slaughter of bison and the boarding schools on the Mdewakanton people.

Andy Vig said the boarding schools nearly extinguished the tribe’s language.

“My grandma knew the language as a child,” he said. However, she never taught her own children the language after returning from the boarding school.

“My father didn’t learn the language,” he said. “Now, my generation is picking the language back up.”

The last exhibits describe the past 100 years of the tribe’s history, including the granting of federal recognition to the tribe in 1969, an act that allowed the tribe to begin pursuing economic development. Its first gaming enterprise, the Little Six Bingo Palace, opened in 1982 in six trailers on the tribe’s fortuitously located 250-acre reservation.

The passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988 allowed the tribe to negotiate compacts with the state of Minnesota and offer blackjack and video slot machines. Little Six Bingo became Little Six Casino, and two years later, the tribe opened Mystic Lake Casino.

Today, the tribe that survived a war with the federal government and more than a century of encroachment boasts one of the most profitable casinos in the Midwest, a much-expanded reservation, convenience stores, a hotel, a golf course and a store at the Mall of America.

But the Shakopees never forgot their humble beginnings and have donated more than $350 million to other organizations and tribes, as well as provided $500 million in economic development loans to other tribes, making the tribe the largest philanthropic benefactor for Indian Country.

“We never forgot the values of helping others and generosity,” Andy Vig said.

He said the museum and cultural center will allow the Mdewakanton people to tell their story from their perspective, something that not all tribes are able to do.

“It’s pretty rare to see an exhibit like this on Dakota people, and oftentimes the history books we have are telling it from a different side,” he said.

“So this is a true story from Dakota eyes.”