PHOTO/WAKAN AWACHIN WIN (HOLY SEEKING WOMAN) R.L.SOLORIO
SWST, OLD AGENCY, SISSETON, SD – The Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe (SWST) is originally from “The land of cloud-tinted waters,” known today as the state of Minnesota.
For thousands of years, the ancestors of the “Dakotas” lived generation after generation in Minnesota. The Dakota Sioux were the first to negotiate with the U.S. government the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and were the first to resist with arms during the Minnesota-Dakota Sioux War of 1862 against government tyranny.
After many broken treaties, hordes of German immigrants flooded into their land from Chicago and Cincinnati. There were 30,000 of them in 1854 and 150,000 of them by 1857. And after outright starvation tactics used against them by crooked businessmen and corrupt government agents, the Dakotas struck back, under Chief Little Crow, in August of 1862.
For six weeks, Chief Little Crow and the Dakota Sioux warriors fought an armed struggle against all oppressors, resulting in the defeat and final removal of the Dakotas from their ancestral homeland of Minnesota.
Thirty-eight Dakotas were hanged as a result of the war on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota after being condemned to death in “trials” that lasted fewer than five minutes. This still remains the largest American mass execution and is one of the lesser-known acts of President Abraham Lincoln.
During an on-reservation interview with SWST member Wakan Awachin Win (“Richelle L. Solorio”), she stated: “Just like in the 1800s, the money-hungry business vultures have reached into the land of my people to do harm by force, subjecting all my people to poisons that will flow into our water sources and down into everyone else’s from the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
“I look at my history, specifically Chief Little Crow at this time, and I realize it’s been one continuous struggle. We can never give up opposing anything or anyone that harms Mother Earth and the people who walk upon her.
“I believe Standing Rock was just the beginning of the Water Protection Movement. At the Pow Wow, I was proud to pay my respects to the Water Protectors, who bravely faced severe injury and death by armed DAPL agents at Standing Rock.
“In the Dakota Way, everything that God created is related to us. This is just the beginning.”
