View the introductory video about how to use the website in your classroom
Website Highlights
- Learn about Minnesota's first peoples through maps of the Dakota homeland and the Oceti Ŝakowiŋ, Dakota language and word pronunciations.
- An interactive map of Dakota place names and Dakota communities today.
- Oral histories by Dakota and Settler descendants are referenced throughout. They talk about the war, it's causes, the aftermath as well as life today. They are an important tool for discussing how history is remembered.
- See the loss of Native land through an interactive map that shows the development of the United States.
- Explore the decisions and outcomes that Dakota people faced when the U.S. government desired to buy and open the land to newcomers in the 19th century in Broken Promises, a 10 minute interactive activity.
- Explore an annotated breakdown of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux that explains the language in a treaty, and an interactive map of Minnesota treaties that shows how changing boundaries reflect the influx of settlers and displacement of the Ojibwe, Dakota and Ho-Chunk people.
- View an interactive map of the U.S.-Dakota War.
- View a video about the Internment Camp at Fort Snelling which shows an animation created from primary source research and oral narratives.
- Read an annotated letter written by a Dakota prisoner of war.
- Find resources for educational initiatives today.
- See how the information is adapted for different learning levels (PDF) and how it aligns with the new social studies standards (PDF).
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