coldwater

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On September 2nd, Members of Dakota Oyate reoccupied the land surrounding Coldwater Spring. As Dakota people who consider the spring as essential to our spiritual lifeway and the surrounding land as a part of our homeland of Bdote, we believe that we will be better stewards of the land than the United States has been. This is evidenced in the fact that the site is abandoned, littered with dilapidated structures, and the soil is polluted.

On Tuesday September 2nd, Members of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) of the Dakota Oyate reoccupied Coldwater Spring and the surrounding land. The Coldwater Spring site is an abandoned property of the defunct Bureau of Mines. As Dakota people who consider the spring as essential to our spiritual lifeway and the surrounding land as a part of our homeland of Bdote, we believe that we will be better stewards of the land than either the United States or the State of Minnesota has been. This is evidenced in the fact that the site is littered with dilapidated

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - CAMP COLDWATER, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA—On Tuesday, September 2, members of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) of the Dakota Oyate are reclaiming Coldwater Spring and the surrounding land. As the Original People of Minisota Makoce (Land Where the Waters Reflect the Skies), Dakota people are claiming their inherent right to their sacred sites as well as the rights preserved in the Treaty of 1805.

August 10 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Minnehaha Free State, the first urban anti-road occupation in U.S. history. On August 10, 1998, the occupation of the condemned corridor of the reroute of highway 55 through Minnehaha Park began, and would last for another 16 months. Although highway 55 desecrates the land in south Minneapolis today, the sacred Coldwater Spring continues to flow.

Below is a history of the Free State, from The Struggle is Our Inheritance: A History of Radical Minnesota.