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May 28, 2009 6:47 pm US/Central
Law Barring Dakota Bands From Minn. May Be Lifted
(WCCO)
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Signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the law was the byproduct of a land war between Indians and white settlers in Minnesota that killed hundreds of people.
CBS
An effort is underway to repeal a law that's more than 140 years old that banishes Dakota bands from Minnesota.
Signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, it was the byproduct of a land war between Indians and white settlers in Minnesota that killed hundreds of people.
It is commemorated in a vivid painting at the Capitol, a wall-sized depiction of Dakota Indians attacking white settlers in the famed Dakota Conflict of 1862.
What happened afterwards -- a bounty on Dakota Indians and the forced removal from Minnesota -- still makes Jewel Arcoren weep for her ancestors.
"I still cry," said Arcoren, a descendant of Dakota Sisseton and Whapeton ancestors from Minnesota. "Can you imagine just you, your grandmother, somebody elderly, your baby -- just trying to stay alive, flee for your lives."
The law removing Dakota from the state, signed by President Lincoln, is still on the books.
And a legislator heading the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is working to get it repealed.
"Basically some open wounds that are still there," said Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City. "And maybe this can take another step toward healing some of those things and a step towards reconciliation."
There were 38 Indians hanged in 1862 for their roles in the Dakota Conflict. It remains the largest mass execution in U.S. history and a source of deep resentment.
Some Native Americans disrupted last year's Minnesota sesquicentennial party to make the point.
One prominent Indian leader today said repealing the law represents progress.
"It is symbolic," said Annamarie Hill, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. "An act that says a lot today about where we are in the healing of past wrongs that were committed."
The Minnesota legislature passed, and the governor signed, a resolution asking Congress to repeal the 1863 law.
Minnesota Congressional leaders said they could take it up still this year, the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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