Repeal of 3 law banishing Dakota Indians from Minnesota would promote healing
A state resolution asking Congress to repeal an 1863 act that banished the Dakota Indians from Minnesota can foster teaching and healing nearly 150 years after the bloody war that erupted between the tribe and white settlers, a representative of the state’s Indian communities said today at the State Capitol.
“I do believe it is an act of symbolism and an act that says a lot today about the healing of past wrongs that were committed,” said Annamarie Hill, executive director of the state Indian Affairs Council.
After the Dakota Conflict of 1862, which killed hundreds of whites and Indians, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act that removed four Dakota bands from Minnesota. The act provided each Indian with 80 acres of land outside the state, apparently as an inducement to farm; most of them wound up in Dakota Territory or in Canada.
Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, sponsored the resolution after finding out that the statute was still on the books. It came to his attention as chairman of the state’s Lincoln