'Bless this water': Indigenous Peoples' Day ceremony honors creek in Golden Valley

Jim Rock stood a few feet from a stream of water in Golden Valley, pointing at a map filled with Indigenous names for the area's lakes and waterways.

This was, he said, "very recently known as Bassett Creek. For thousands of years, it was called Ȟaȟa Wakpadan."

Rock, who is Dakota, and his wife, Roxanne Gould, who is Odawa and Ojibwe, organized a water ceremony Monday for Indigenous Peoples' Day, where they talked about their hopes of restoring the creek's Indigenous name and honoring the importance of the waterway that flows from Medicine Lake through nine municipalities before discharging into the Mississippi.

"We thought it would be a wonderful way … to celebrate the Dakota people's homeland and their original caretaking of this place and also a call to action to people to care for this watershed," Gould said.

Several dozen people gathered behind Golden Valley Library near the creek for the ceremony, one of a series of events around Minnesota marking the first celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day as an official state holiday.

Rock played a song on his flute. He pounded a drum. He sang as he moved in six directions, acknowledging the Earth Mother and protectors watching over the water. Gould walked from person to person in the circle, holding a bowl of burning sage.

"Take a little pinch of tobacco," she told them. "Hold it in your left hand because it's closest to your heart."

Rev. Richard Buller of Valley Community Presbyterian Church stepped up to share a land acknowledgement that he said was written after the church decided in 2020 to form a task force to participate in Indigenous Peoples' Day.

"We acknowledge the ongoing injustices that we have committed against the Dakota people," Buller said. "We pledge to interrupt this legacy. We will educate ourselves about Indigenous history and recognize and support and advocate for our Native neighbors."

The church also conducted an oral history project drawing on interviews with 14 Indigenous people who have ties to the watershed.

Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris spoke in support, saying that on this Indigenous Peoples' Day he affirmed the town's "ongoing commitment to Ȟaȟa Wakpadan as an important historical and contemporary waterway, and urge all citizens to recognize indigenous homelands and the importance of indigenous place names."

Gould raised concerns about the health of the Bassett Creek Watershed and encouraged those gathered to follow sustainable water practices. What was once a beautiful watershed rich in biodiversity "is now one of the sickest watersheds in Minnesota. As we stand here today, we ask why, and what needs to be done to change those individual and collective behaviors that cause harm to this water and land that gives us life."

She asked the group to put the pinch of tobacco they'd been holding into one tray, thinking about the good intentions they had for the water "so that we can go down and let the water know we care."

Bradley Blackhawk, a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, knelt before a pail of water and gave the first drink to the earth. The crowd drank from their own cups of water. Blackhawk repeatedly dipped an eagle bone whistle in the pail and blew it. He waved a feather over the pail and a bowl of burning sage.

"We ask you to bless this water … this life-giving water, so that we can all have it for the future of our children, for generations to come," he prayed. "We take this water, we bless ourselves with it. … Relatives, all of you, bless you all."

Rock and Gould walked down to the creek's edge and dropped in their offerings of tobacco, smoked fish, blueberries, wild rice and some creek water that had received prayers at a separate Dakota ceremony.

"Water, we love you," Rock sang in Ojibwe. "Water, we respect you. … Water, thank you."