July 24

Tues was a travel day, but we stopped at Upper Sioux Agency State Park, and a little museum of Minnesota Farm life in the mid- late 1800's- ?. At the State park we learned a lot about the Dakota "problem" or whatever euphemism you might use. Here's my understanding: The Dakota were native to the land, when the settlers came in. They were pretty easy to get along with, as long as there weren't too many of "us". The Dakota signed a few treaties saying they'd stay out of this area, if we'd stay out of that. That worked pretty well until our government sent in some managers to handle all of these areas. Probably one of the first times the line "I'm from the Govt. and I'm here to help" was uttered.
It was just as true then as it is today, and the Dakota, resented being pushed around by Uncle Sam. A Dakota chief went to Washington DC to meet our chief, and came back astounded by what he saw in the 1850's. He knew there was no way to beat the Europeans, so decided to negotiate. That didn't work out too well either, because the US through the "managers" it appointed simply violated everything that they didn't like in the treaties. The Sioux, getting fed up, finally struck back, but the US "was engaged in a great civil war". The settlers took it on the chin. The Army couldn't defend them and many of them were wiped out. Turns out New Ulm played a pivotal role in all of this, losing many families to the Sioux warriors, but also playing a key role in eventually resoloving the crisis. It was resolved, so we & the Dakota are now friends. If you click on the picture above you'll see a tribe of them camping right next to us! :-). The state park had Teepees you could rent- cool!
The museum had a great collection of household items from the 1850's up to present times. These museums can run the gamut from a call for everyone to clean out your basement and barn - to a well managed collection that represented the time period. This one was much more the latter. There was much that I recognized form my grandmothers house, vintage 1920's, up to things from the 60's. As Liz said, our kids didn't live then they don't know this stuff! True. The picture is a farm kitchen form the early 1900's. ex. they had a combination wood fired and electric stove!