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Understanding the Land: The West Bank

Introduction

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In this spot, you're now looking out on the Mississippi River. Beyond the Stone Arch Bridge is a waterfall---the most significant elevation change on the river from the headwaters of Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. It looks different from how you might picture a waterfall. It was engineered to stay in place, which you'll see closer later on your walk. The falls is an example of how peoples relationship to the environment shaped the choices they made.

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Backstory and Context

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Relationships to Land

The land inside the boundary of present-day Minnesota has long been inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe people, as well as other Indigenous communities. According to the Bdewakantonwan Dakota creation story, Dakota people and life began where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers meet (Bdote). The Dakota relationship to the land, both past and present, emphasizes stewardship. Owamniyomni (St. Anthony Falls) was a place of spiritual significance.

Many white investors and entrepreneurs viewed the land as an opportunity for profit.The pines of northern Minnesota and the potential use of water power at St. Anthony Falls in production brought commercial lumber millers in 1848. The United States' forcible removal of Dakota people from their homelands between St. Paul south to the Iowa border accelerated in 1851, when the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota open up the west side of the river for settlement.

Sources

Anfinson, John O.. "Spiritual Power to Industrial Might: 12,000 Years at St. Anthony Falls".Minnesota History, no.5-6, vol. 58, Spring/Summer 2003: 252 - 269. https://www.mnhs.org/market/mhspress/minnesotahistory/.

Danbom, David B. "Flour Power: The Significance of Flour Milling at the Falls." Minnesota History, no.5-6, vol. 58, Spring/Summer 2003: 270 - 285. https://www.mnhs.org/market/mhspress/minnesotahistory/.

Westerman, Gwen. White, Bruce. Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota. St. Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2012.

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