Mni Sota Makoce: Carleton, the Dakota, and the Dakota Homelands Study Group #1

March 30, 2021

This session was the first in a three-part series of study groups that sought to prepare campus for the “Why Treaties Matter” exhibit in fall 2021. These study groups were a first step in living out Carleton’s land acknowledgement through acts of honest storytelling.

John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies Michael McNally led the first session, which focused on the history of Dakota people in what we now call Minnesota. The session explored the relationship of the Dakota to this land before, during, and after the Treaty of 1851, with an emphasis on the contemporary Dakota presence in the state and Carleton’s neighborhood. Small group discussions were interspersed with Professor McNally’s short lecture, where attendees discussed the lecture and selections from Gwen Westerman and Bruce White’s Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota.

The session was co-sponsored by the Public Works Initiative, the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, Ethical Inquiry, the Learning and Teaching Center, and the Humanities Center.