The Flow of Memory in the Culture Garden
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
This is a Dakota place.
Look for the words Imnizaska Otunwe carved into one of the granite markers embedded in the ground. Imnizaska Otunwe, "the place of the white cliffs," is the Dakota name, the first and oldest name, for this place. The name comes not from a foreign saint but from the high limestone bluffs that have marked this location on HaHa Wakpa/the Mississippi River for centuries.
According to the Bdote Memory Map Project, the river below has served generations of Dakota people, past and present, as a source of food, medicine, "communication with the physical and spiritual worlds," and a point of contact with other nations in their Minnesota homelands.
River as Metaphor:
immigration and migration
Sources
https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/parks-recreation/natural-resources/arts-gardens/public-art/saint-paul-cultural-garden
Mississippi River, Bdote Memory Map. Accessed July 21st 2020. http://bdotememorymap.org/