Twin Cities Intertribal Dancers, comprised of performers from various tribes in the United States and Canada, demonstrated different cultural traditions at the Falling Water Festival on Saturday, Oct. 10. Thunder Before the Storm provided the drumming, seen in the background. The festival celebrated Native American heritage along the Mississippi River. (Mike Madison)
The Dakota people returned to Owámniyomni on Saturday, Oct. 10, and filled Father Hennepin Bluff Park with music, Native food, dance and locally-made products for hundreds of guests on a sunny afternoon.
Artist and powwow emcee Deanna StandingCloud and comedic raconteur Trish Cook, both Red Lake Nation Anishinaabe, opened the 13th annual Owámni Falling Water Festival. StandingCloud said she wanted to acknowledge, “That we are on the homelands of the Dakota, and we, as Anishinaabe, are kind of newcomers to this land. But the food that grows on the water called us to this land, and we’ve been here for hundreds of years, and the Owámni Falling Water Festival is a celebration of Indigenous Minnesota culture.”
The festival honors the cultural and historical significance of Owámniyomni, the Dakota name for St. Anthony Falls, meaning “turbulent water.” The festival included live musical performances, the Twin Cities Intertribal Dancers, and hands-on games and art activities. The event was made possible through a grant from the Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Board.
Before performing, dancers drew smoke from burning sage toward themselves. In Dakota and Anishinaabe traditions, sage is used for cleansing and purification. (Mike Madison)
Carrie Day Aspinwall, Indigenous liaison to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB), said Dakota and Anishinaabe people historically gathered at the site to negotiate hunting, fishing and other agreements that helped maintain balance in the territory. The Festival honors the Indigenous communities that cared for the sacred site, “long before colonization changed and polluted it.” She added that the site continues to hold spiritual significance for Indigenous people today.
Barry Hand is the program director at Owámniyomni Okhódayapi (formerly Friends of the Falls), a project rooted in the revitalization of Dakota culture and restoring connections to the river. Hand’s background includes teaching Dakota language and managing a portfolio of community development initiatives. Programs he has developed include the creation of a winter camp and the building of traditional bark lodges, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished in Minnesota in more than 150 years.
Vibrant beadwork and feathers adorned the dancers’ regalia, and face paint was worn by some. (Mike Madison)
A recent Alley Newspaper article about his appointment says that “his philosophy centers around positivity in language acquisition, emphasizing the importance of trying, and staying in love with the language, and avoiding harm.” Hand’s efforts resulted in getting Dakota language classes at Red Wing High School, for both heritage (Native) and non-heritage students. The piece went on to say that Hand has encouraged Dakota communities to collaborate with organizations such as the National Park Service, Mississippi Park Connection, and Wilderness Inquiry to help advance Dakota cultural programming along the river.
Hand envisions Owámniyomni Okhódayapi as a catalyst for growth, inspiring new connections and breathing new life into Dakota culture within the state of Minnesota. The project aims “not only for preservation, but also for thoughtful expansion, led by the Dakota community.”
Zakyas of Big Island First Nation in Canada before performing a water dance. (Mike Madison)
Hand was there to take people at the festival on a walking tour, but he began by talking about the history of the area, and the philosophical differences between someone from Western Europe, and a North American, meaning an Indigenous First Nations person. “One person will talk about land as a resource, and the other will see the land as a relative. If you look at the land as a relative, there’s no such thing as a wilderness. We didn’t even have a word really for wilderness because everything that exists is considered a relative.”
He said there were 14 places in the seven-county area that are considered sacred by Dakota people, and that Owámniyomni Okhódayapi is working to restore 5.2 acres near the shuttered St. Anthony Lock and Dam “where people can access our sacred sites and talk to creation how they choose; there’s no door, there’s no lock, there’s no key.”
The restoration project has raised $42 million of the $60 million needed to finish, and restoration has begun with the demolition of the Army Corps of Engineers building. Work is expected to be completed by fall 2027.
By the start of the walking tour, the few listeners grew to more than three dozen, and Hand led the group across the Stone Arch Bridge, pointing out the areas where the falls have been redirected over time, and how Spirit Island, downriver from the bridge, had been one of the Dakota sacred places.
Different dance styles were performed in front of the large crowd at Father Hennepin Bluff Park. Paula Landis and Kellee Nelson attended the event Saturday afternoon. “We just wanted to come out and be with the community on this beautiful day. We want to support the culture. I’m from White Earth Indian Reservation. Whenever there’s an opportunity … in the metro area to support the community and Native culture we come out and do it,” Nelson, a resident of Waubun, Minn., said. (Mike Madison)
Shelley Buck, Owámniyomni Okhódayapi president and a Dakota woman of the Prairie Island Indian Community, said, “The area itself was a really important place for Dakota people. They would go and gather there and they would pray there.” The island was reduced to almost nothing between the 1890s and the 1960s, when it was quarried for limestone. By 1963, Spirit Island was gone.
Owámniyomni Okhódayapi is working with the Native American Community Development Institute to reimagine St. Anthony Falls. Plans include native landscape restoration, walking paths and ceremonial gathering places that honor the sacred nature of the site. Work is well under way.