Katherine Kersten objects to a "new narrative about Fort Snelling" in her June 25 counterpoint "Activists commandeer historical society": "The fort is being reframed as a 'concentration camp,' a place of 'genocide' and a 'site of conscience.' In the process, its rich, 200-year military legacy is becoming a footnote, a source not of pride but of shame to present-day citizens."

But history is replete with differing perspectives and contradictions.

Thomas Jefferson wrote perhaps the most revered words our history teaches: "all men are created equal."

Jefferson also operated a hot, smoky nail factory on his Virginia property, using male slaves 10 to 16 years of age to hammer wire into nails to produce needed income to keep Monticello in the manner to which he was accustomed. When one of the young slaves in the factory attacked another, Jefferson wrote that "it will be necessary for me to make an example of him in terrorem to others, in order to maintain the police so rigorously necessary among the nail boys."

Jefferson, a believer in freedom? Jefferson, a slave owner terrorizing young boys? Which is the true history?

Of course, both are.

Jefferson's keeping and imbuing fear in young slaves does not change in any way, shape or form what we today derive from the words in the Declaration of Independence. Yet those words do not absolve Jefferson in any way, shape or form of utilizing and imposing fear on minors working as slave laborers.

In order to truly learn from the past, we need to know all of it, from all perspectives. While Kersten performs a cursory analysis of the source of the Native American perspective, her goal is, as she said in the beginning, to maintain the one-sided view of history that Fort Snelling had — only — a rich military legacy.

What the Minnesota Historical Society is doing has nothing to do with politics ("Historical Society seeks to tell state's entire story," Opinion Exchange, July 2). Rather it is attempting to present to us the varying perspectives that can help us understand how we got to where we are and to give guidance on how to approach the future.

Whitewashing history is the political act. Presenting only the white perspective is the true identity politics at play.

Dean Karau, Burnsville

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I chuckled quite a bit at Kersten's counterpoint, a piece that mixes confusion about what history is with bad history, false reasoning and breathtaking tail-wagging of the dog.

History isn't an absolute; it is pieces of the human story told from perspectives that regularly change with the addition of new research, scientific knowledge and the passing of time. Historians who never contradict earlier publications are failures.

St. Paul and Minneapolis have strong physical reasons for being where they are that have only a little to do with the fort but much to do with transportation and water power. The history of the fort's area is absolutely more complicated than was told in the past, and the inclusion of voices inextricably entwined with that history tell the story better.

Certainly better than Kersten, who glosses over the reasons for the Dakota War and slips past broken treaties, forced starvation, the hundreds of Dakota who died in "protection" and the hundreds more who died after forcible eviction from their homes, including those who took no part in the fighting. Only by listening to all sides can you approach an understanding of this seminal moment in the state's history, and Kersten and state Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer want none of that.

The claim at the end got the biggest laugh, though. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the ones driving a "political agenda" are the legislator and the "senior policy fellow," not the historians.

Patrick Pfundstein, St. Paul

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I hear tell of people who feel threatened by revisionist history. Renaming familiar place names, like Fort Snelling, to the names they were known by before white people came, such as Bdote, gives people like Kersten the sense that they should feel shame instead of pride for the history they feel comfortable with. In her recent opinion piece, Kersten takes aim at modern Dakota peoples' claim to Bdote as a sacred site. In particular, she faults "contemporary, undocumented Dakota 'oral tradition,'" which she implies didn't exist before about 2000.

I will leave it to more credible people than myself to set the record straight about how old the stories are. But I heard it from Jim Bear Jacobs (Mohican) and Bob Klanderud (Dakota) during their Healing Minnesota Stories tour at Fort Snelling at Bdote (and other places) that Dakota legend places the origin of human life at the confluence of two rivers: the Mississippi and Minnesota. Just like every other Native American nation, and every other civilization, we all have our origin stories. Those stories are almost always passed down orally.

We often place the origin of Western civilization at another confluence, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers come together, where the Garden of Eden is said to have been. Assuming the biblical Genesis story takes place thousands of years before it was written down, it must have been told and retold orally for a very long time before that. Does that make the Eden story any less valid to us? Is ancient Mesopotamia not really something Judeo-Christian people can claim as our own? And does it diminish our story to know that other people tell a different creation story, set right here in Minnesota? Of course not.

I think about this every time I cross the Interstate 35 bridge or stand on the shores of Crosby Park. Skip a stone across that river — that's where the original people here place their "Eden" story. You don't have to be ashamed of that, and it doesn't diminish everything else that's happened here. But I, among many, am curious about history in all its layers and perspectives. And I am proud to tell them all, as I am connected to them all. Mitakuye oyasin: "We are all related."

Ed Steinhauer, St. Paul

An article in the June 28 Star Tribune described the racial homeownership gap in the Twin Cities ("Racial gap worst in nation," front page). Out-of-town investors are making it impossible for low-income buyers to build equity in homeownership. They are creating a shortage in housing that would have been otherwise affordable by purchasing a large quantity of properties and forcing marginalized families to rent instead of own. This inability to build equity affects all aspects of life for people of color and their families. Revealing racial covenants in the Twin Cities regions should be of high priority to further investigate communal inequalities as our society depends on wealth through ownership. People of color have the right to ownership.

A reasonable solution would be to make a policy that single-family rental (SFR) operators can no longer invest in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Such communities need the opportunity to improve their credit scores by paying for a home and the opportunity to build their financial stability. With financial growth in disadvantaged neighborhoods, companies would begin to invest their businesses in the area, which in turn would create environmental supports and resources for low-income families and help mitigate the racial economic gap in the nation.

Kelsey Colvin, Ramsey

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This story came as no surprise to those of us who fought the Minneapolis 2040 Plan. We openly argued with our city leaders that wealth-building through homeownership would become unattainable, and that starter homes would be bought up by out-of-state investors with a short-term view of rental income and a long-term sale to a multifamily real estate developer to build more $2,000 one-bedroom rentals. Despite the majority of the thousands of comments the city received with deep concerns about how the 2040 plan would exacerbate our racial equity gaps, the city ignored us. The pro-density crowd labeled us racists and NIMBYs.

Election Day can't come soon enough. The flawed policies implemented by most incumbents now have data to prove their lunacy. The residents deserve policymakers who listen and lead with common sense.

Colleen Kepler, Minneapolis

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