I'm writing a book about the hidden history of the Minnesota River valley, which is to be released this spring - God willing. My deadlines are fast approaching and it's all I think about lately. But in the course of my research, I have uncovered a story with all the trappings of a mystery novel.
No. That's wrong. I didn't uncover it, I just became aware of it.
After I read about the sacred spring at Camp Coldwater I had to see it for myself, so Melanie picked me up and we headed out. We met a nice police officer at the entry to the sacred spring who told us the spring was at the end of the road. We had to park our car and go in by foot.
We hiked through the old abandoned Bureau of Mines Campus, occasionally skidding on the ice and almost gave up on finding the spring until we saw the arches built of stone, marking the spring.
We looked at the offerings left by visiting Native Americans, then held hands and prayed for their future. Call me a conspiracy theorist - but my overly active imagination thinks there is more here than meets the eye
The setting of the mystery is at the abandoned Minnesota Bureau of Mines campus, owned by the Federal Government's Department of Interior. Within that campus flows a spring which runs all year round and maintains a temperature of 47 degrees.
This sacred spring has, for thousands of years, been considered by the indigenous people of Minnesota to be their birthplace -the center of the earth and the heavens above, and home of a family of water-spirits called the Unktehi, similar to Greece's god of water, Poseidon, or Italy's Neptune who lives in the sea.
In addition to that, this place is of monumental importance in the history of the Anglo-Americans who secured the property from the Dakota in a treaty negotiated in 1805 by Zebulon Pike, of Pike's Peak fame.
TREATY WITH THE SIOUX
September 23, 1805
Ratified April 16, 1808.
Never proclaimed by the President.
Conference Between the United States of America and the Sioux Nation of Indians.
Whereas, a conference held between the United States of America and the Sioux Nation of Indians, Lieut. Z. M. Pike, of the Army of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the said tribe, have agreed to the following articles, which when ratified and approved of by the proper authority, shall be binding on both parties:
ARTICLE 1. That the Sioux Nation grants unto the United States for the purpose of the establishment of military posts, nine miles square at the mouth of the river St. Croix, also from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters, up the Mississippi, to include the falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river. That the Sioux Nation grants to the United States, the full sovereignty and power over said districts forever, without any let or hindrance whatsoever.
ARTICLE 2. That in consideration of the above grants the United States (shall, prior to taking possession thereof, pay to the Sioux two thousand dollars, or deliver the value thereof in such goods and merchandise as they shall choose).
ARTICLE 3. The United States promise on their part to permit the Sioux to pass, repass, hunt or make other uses of the said districts, as they have formerly done, without any other exception, but those specified in article first.
In testimony hereof, we, the undersigned, have hereunto set our hands and seals, at the mouth of the river St. Peters, on the 23rd day of September, one thousand eight hundred and five.
Z. M. Pike, [SEAL]
First Lieutenant and Agent at the above conference.
Le Petit Carbeau, his x mark. [SEAL.]
Way Aga Enogee, his x mark.[SEAL.]
Again, "ARTICLE 3. The United States promise on their part to permit the Sioux to pass, repass, hunt or make other uses of the said districts, as they have formerly done, without any other exception, but those specified in article first."
In 1819, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth, a soldier from Connecticut and a veteran of the War of 1812 arrived at the river. He led the 5th Regiment of Infantry on construction of fort Cantonment New Hope, along the backwaters of the Minnesota, below Mendota.
It was a difficult time for Leavenworth’s troops. The soldiers found their living conditions untenable due to poor sanitary conditions and spoiled food, and the infantry experienced a 20 percent mortality rate that first year.
Leavenworth moved his soldiers and their families on May 5th, 1820 to the land the sacred spring was located on, and the area became known as Camp Coldwater. Responsibility for the location and construction of the fort was turned over to Colonel Josiah Snelling.
At the sacred spring, they and their families found reprieve. They raised their tents and built elm-bark huts, occupying the area for three summers while they constructed the permanent fort.
An Environmental Impact Study was done on the Camp Coldwater acreage after the closing of the Minnesota Bureau of Mines, to determine future use of the land. The Dakota tribes are asking for the land to be returned to them as a sacred spot to resume their ceremonies and celebrations without having to get governmental permission.
The survey was based on the premise that the area was first occupied by Leavenworth's regiment, and says little of the use of the land by the Dakota previous to that.
The EIS was used by the National Park Service to consider granting this request. After further study, the National Park Services analysis and report concludes:
There is the danger that we would be giving a site a meaning and power for the Dakota that it did not historically have. If the evidence does not support historical use of the spring by the Dakota for any day to day or special ceremonial use, then maybe it was not special to them. If this were the case, then we (and all those non-Dakota interests who support giving the spring a special designation) may be creating Dakota history, rather than recording it. Since this process will be well documented, what we say now about Coldwater Spring will become permanent fact.
Um. Really?
Isn't that kind of what the people who signed the contract for the survey did when they said Leavenworth's people were the first to occupy the land in 1820?
It's a head-scratcher. Here's what I want to know . . .
1. Why did the federal government build the Minnesota Bureau of Mines on the 30 acres considered sacred and a meeting place of the Dakota for thousands of years, and was also of historical significance regarding the salvation of the military families who were dying on the Minnesota River backwaters?
2. In a state where our Historical Society is older than Minnesota itself, why hasn't the site been well marked, interpreted, and promoted like the battle-sites commemorating the U.S. Dakota Conflict of 1862?
3. Why have the Dakota been denied free access to the site for almost 200 years when the treaty of 1805 said they would have it?
4. When the Bureau of Mines built their campus, why were 9 feet of soil laid upon the existing land before construction?
5. When the contract for the Environmental Impact Study was drawn up, why was it based on the following premise?
* the area designated as Camp Coldwater was an area first occupied by AngloAmericans from 1820 - 1823 by the 5th infantry under the command of Lt. Col. Henry Leavenworth.
6. Why is the federal government opposed to returning a mere 30 acres to the tribes who still leave offerings at the sacred spring and pray there?
7. Does the group studying the EIS have a Native American as a member?
I'm just asking.
I don't know the answers, but I reckon someone does.
.
Click here for current information about Camp Coldwater's status.
