History of Survivance: Upper Midwest 19th-Century Native American Narratives

First Episcopal Church 

Title is listed in Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians. By W.H. Jackson of the Survey

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Jackson/id/2364

http://54.245.164.12:3000/mdl/items/MSS_1608_p66_b1_f9_98a.tif

The fight for the land came to a head in the mid-19th century in Minnesota, culminating in the US-Dakota War of 1862. While this conflict started and centered around the southern Minnesota city of Mankato – deep in Dakota lands – the conflagration spread to engulf Ojibwe lands as well, threatening the lives of every Native group in the state.
The reasons for the War are clear – Dakota bands in Minnesota were left to starve in the face of an increasingly uncaring and hostile Federal government. Relations between nations finally broke down in August of 1862, when a government trader Andrew Jackson Myrick refused to sell food to the Dakota at the Lower Sioux Agency. When the Dakota pleaded with him that their people were starving, Myrick reportedly replied, “…then let them eat grass or their own dung.” The unfortunate result is that there is distrust and enmity between Native and non-Native residents of the state of Minnesota to this day.

Conflict

Ancient Legacies

Colonization

Colonial Narratives

Reservation Era

Survivance

Brigham Young University - Harold B. Lee Library

Mountain West Digital Library

This portrait of Toleuka, a Crow Creek Dakota man, circa 1877 may help elucidate the seriousness with which Native people took the treaties they signed with the US government. In this image, Mr. Toleuka wears two government-issued peace medals beneath a shell gorget, a traditional symbol of military rank on the Plains. Bronze peace medals were issued by the Federal government to Native leaders after successful treaty negotiations between the nations; it is clear from the juxtaposition of the gorget and the medals on this man’s chest that he considers the medals part of his honors as a leader in his nation. While these medals were only minted until 1869, many Native families on the Plains still keep these objects as heirlooms and reminders of the US government’s failure to keep its legal treaty obligations.