Fort Snelling
Historic Ft. Snelling & Ft. Snelling State Park
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In this site Historic Fort Snelling and Fort Snelling State Park are not separated. Currently, the Minnesota Historical Society maintains Historic Fort Snelling, while the Fort Snelling State Park, site of the Dakota Concentration Camp of 1862-1863, is under the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
In Dakota history, in Dakota hearts, the “two” areas are one, and part of a larger sacred area
The 2000 census listed Fort Snelling as an unorganized territory,
This video expresses the experience of one Dakota person’s visit to Fort Snelling (Historic Fort Snelling in this case).
Fort Snelling has many meanings for many different people of the state of Minnesota, and the United States and beyond. A web search for ‘history of Ft. Snelling’ will reveal points of view of the non-indigenous and the indigenous.
But the fact that it was built to be a symbol of the American empire is clear. The fact that it was the source of death and crimes against the Dakota people is also clear. It is a wounded site. Dakota people were imprisoned here. Dakota people died here.
Recognition of the pain engendered by the current use of the area is still not visible outside of the native communities.
Historic Fort Snelling stops time at 1828. Exhibits, demonstrations, role playing, etc. focus on that year, thus effectively avoiding the difficult subjects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. No Dred Scott, no Dakota War, no concentration camp.
Fort Snelling State Park recognizes its history in a memorial near the parking lot and in part of the exhibit in the Thomas C. Savage Visitor Center, where the names of the imprisoned families are exhibited.
Listen to a current Dakota point of view on Fort Snelling.
Click for UN Genocide definition and information.
All historic photos from the Minnesota Historical Society
Image information from the MHS archives.
Image information from the MHS archives.
PILOT VERSION -2007
Click video to pause or restart.
