To the sound of drumming, singing and performances by traditional dancers, St. Paul Indigenous leaders and community members marked Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday by dedicating the land that will become the new Wakan Tipi Center.
Three acres of land at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary will soon become a cultural and environmental interpretive center surrounding the sacred cave where Dakota leaders once made alliances with other tribes. The center will feature both community gathering spaces and opportunities to learn about Dakota culture.
After years of fundraising and $4 million in bonding from the state Legislature, the center will break ground this fall, and will open in 2023.
The initiative to revitalize the sacred meeting space was led by the Lower Phalen Creek Project, a Native-led nonprofit in St. Paul. Executive Director Maggie Lorenz, who is Dakota, said she remembers how magical the cave was to her as a child, and recalled her mother and aunts telling her stories about their ancestors.
"Our people have endured genocide on this land. My family was one of the countless families that lost that connection because of those policies," Lorenz said.
She has long felt a desire to reconnect with her culture in an authentic way — which wasn't easy. Now, young Dakota people like her granddaughter will have a place close to home to learn and explore their Dakota history.
"This place is going to offer a healing salve for our people to put on those wounds of historical trauma, a place where we can reconnect to our culture and our language and our ceremonies," Lorenz said.
For non-Native Minnesotans, it will be a place for people to truly understand Native Minnesota, and the lives and causes of Indigenous people, said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the first American Indian woman to become lieutenant governor of Minnesota. The center shows what is possible for Indigenous people, she said.
