Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

Patrick Leo Lléȟleȟya Máni Walks with Fire Foote III was born January 14, 1987, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His parents were Llwellyn “Louie” Foote and Georgette Garvin.

In his early years, Patrick went to the Heart of the Earth Survival School.

Heart of the Earth Survival School was established in January 1972 by members of the American Indian Movement. According to MNopedia, the school was opened “in AIM’s Minneapolis office without a penny spent, the school was austere in the extreme. Students from that first class recall a basement classroom with a single bare lightbulb, cockroaches crawling on the walls, and a toilet that wouldn’t stop flushing. There was one old blackboard, a single piece of chalk, and one pencil for the students to share. What the school lacked in resources, it made up for in vision.

“Unlike the public schools, which taught a Euro-centric perspective, Heart of the Earth’s vision included the restoration of vanishing knowledge like fishing and hunting skills, wild rice gathering, maple syrup harvesting, and Indigenous languages.”

When Patrick moved to Shakopee, he attended Shakopee Public Schools from second through tenth grade.

Patrick loved listening to all kinds of music, and he loved his Wacipi ceremonial music. He loved to cook and hang out with his nieces and nephews.

Patrick was a kind, loving person who had a heart of gold, and helped when he was asked to and would never say no, even when he wasn’t feeling good. He loved all his family members and his friends. He was funny, and always joking around, even through his illness.

Patrick Leo Lléȟleȟya Máni Walks with Fire Foote III passed on to the Spirit World on May 10, 2020, due to congestive heart failure. He was 33 years old. Patrick was survived by his mother, Georgette Garvin; stepmother, LaVita Wells; sisters, Renelle Foote, Dacia (Leon) Lussier, Daneen Foote, and Alaina Foote; his brother, Garrett Garvin, among many others.

Patrick also had Hunka mothers, Hunka brothers and Hunka sisters. The Hunka Ceremony is a ceremony when two people adopt the Hunka relationship toward each other, according to Internet Sacred Text Archive.

The Hunka relationship has existed among the Lakota and Dakota since ancient times. Once shamans assumed control, adding rites until the ceremony assumed its present form. The most common designation of the ceremony is They Waved Horsetails over Each Other. The relationship of Hunka is difficult to define for it is neither of the nature of a brotherhood, nor of kindred. The relationship of Hunkaya binds each to the Hunka by ties of fidelity stronger than friendship, brotherhood, or family.

Patrick’s Hunka mothers included Judy Exum, and Anita Campbell. Patrick’s Hunka sisters were Barrie Lawrence, LeAnn Exum, Tawney Burrows, Katie Brewer, Jenny Brewer, Lizzie Bendel, Georgianna Drapeau, Grace Goldtooth, Danelle Grey Eagle, and Sarah Iron Cloud, and Patrick’s Hunka brothers were Chaske LaBlanc, Glenford Drapeau, Dallas Goldtooth, Mike Rein, Jacob Melton, Reuben Crowfeather, Sr., Geno Barrientez, Anthony Barrientez, Matt Chuy Estrada, Phillip Steele, and Matt Pendleton.

Patrick was preceded in death by his father, Llwellyn “Louie” Foote; brothers, McConnell Allen Garvin, and McAllen Lee Hart-Garvin; grandparents, Patrick Foote, Sr., Evelyn Little Eagle-Foote, Margret Hart, Arnold Garvin, and Louise Youngbear; uncles, Geoffery Garvin, Rodger Wells, Patrick Foote, Jr., Joseph Foote, Sr., and Mark Foote; aunt, Delphine Foote.

A private traditional all-night wake was held on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, at the Tiowakan Spiritual Center, 14625 Prairie Grass Drive NW, Prior Lake. The private funeral service happened on Wednesday, May 13, with officiating by Jerry Dearly and Reuben Crowfeather, Sr.

Patrick’s interment was at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee.

Bibliography

Lurie, Jon. “Heart of the Earth Survival School.” MNopedia, 14 July 2020. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/group/heart-earth-survival-school.

“The Hunka Ceremony.” Internet Sacred Text Archive. https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/pla/sdo/sdo34.htm.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Patrick Gorham was born May 25, 1840, in County Galway, Ireland. He was the oldest of eight children born to John Gorham (1816-1892) and Anna Nancy Lynden Gorham (1820-1899). Patrick and his family moved from Ireland to America and lived near Spring Lake near Shakopee.

Patrick became a soldier in the Fourth Minnesota Regiment. He was 21 years old and enrolled on September 30, 1861. Patrick mustered out on October 4, 1861.

The Fourth Regiment of Minnesota Infantry witnessed much of the action in the Civil War’s Western Theater, according to Matthew Hutchinson, in an article in MNopedia. They were part of minor skirmishes as well as major battles, expeditions and campaigns. They were fortunate to avoid heavy casualties in some large battles they were in, but they proved themselves good fighters. The officers and men saw Vicksburg surrender.

From May 1862 to September 1863 the Fourth operated mainly in the state of Mississippi. In the fall of 1862, the regiment participated in the battles of Luka on September 19 and Corinth on October 3-4. During the following spring and summer, the Fourth served in General Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. The regiment was fortunate to avoid heavy casualties in the several battles fought in early- and mid-May, including Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, and Champion’s Hill. The Union forces attacked the Confederate works surrounding Vicksburg on May 19 and 22. Both attacks failed. During the assault on May 22, the Fourth Minnesota pressed right up to and on the enemy’s works. For their bravery, they suffered 12 men killed and 42 wounded.

Patrick wrote letters home to his sister, Mary Ann Gorham (who later married Dennis Flaherty of the Flaherty and Lies building on the northwest corner of First Avenue and Lewis Street in Shakopee).

The letters describe the movement of Patrick’s unit of the Fourth Regiment Roster of Company A all the way to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Here is one letter, dated July 1862:

Dear Sister:

I received your letter yesterday and was glad to hear from you. I understand that you are all a great trouble about me being shot but there is no such a thing. Those Spring Lake boys that wrote you this story home didn’t know no more about it than you did. They have been in the hospital ever since we came south. I suppose they thought they would write something to excite the folks. I hope you won’t believe no more of those rumors that you hear.

You seem to think that I am sorry for enlisting but you are mistaken. I never felt so well in my life as I do since I enlisted. I have very good health. We have a great many sick in the regiment and a great many dead. We lost two out of our company since we came here. We have about 10 in the hospital and about 20 more not fit for duty. We have about 100 in our company when we left Minnesota, now we have not got but 80 men in the company and about 30 men in the regiment.

Governor Ramsey paid us a visit yesterday. He gave us a speech on dress parade on which we gave him three cheers. Hew said that he had made arrangements for the sick soldiers of Minnesota to go home on sick furlough. William Willson is in the hospital. I think he will be sent home on sick furlough.

We have had several marches in the last month. We have some great times, picking black berries – apples not quite ripe yet, corn is in roasting ears.

We have been expecting a fight here lately. It was rumored a few days ago that there was 40 thousand secesh (secessionist troops) advancing on us but we haven’t seen them yet. If they come we will give them what Paddy gave the drum. We are camped near a little town called Riangi, about 15 miles south of Corinth. I don’t suppose we will stay here long.

No more at present.

From your Brother, Patrick Gorham.

And that was the last letter sent to his sister, Mary Ann.

A letter from his commanding officer announced the death in a battle. According to records, Patrick Gorham died on July 20, 1863, at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. He was buried at Fort Snelling Cemetery.

Bibliography

Hutchinson, Matthew W. “Fourth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment.” MNopedia, 19 March 2013. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/group/fourth-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

Patrick Biyogon Ayienda was born February 2, 1962, in Magena, Kissi, Kenya. His parents were Samson Ayienda Ogetakara and Penning Nyangweso Ayieda.

Patrick graduated from the Nyamache Boys High School in 1982. Nyamache Boys High School is a public, extra county level, boys boarding secondary school located in Nyamache town. The school has 29 teachers and about 2400 students.

Kisii (also known as Getembe or Bosongo) is a municipality and urban center in southwestern Kenya and the capital of the Kisii County. The town is a driving distance of 192 miles from the capital city of Nairobi, according to Wikipedia.

Kisii town also serves as major urban and commercial center in the Gusii Highlands – Kisii and Nyamira counties – and the South Nyanza region and the second largest town in formerly greater Nyanza after Kisumu City. Kisii municipality sits right at the center of the western Kenya tourist circuit that includes the Tabaka Soapstone Carvings, Maasai Mara, Ruma National Park and part of the Lake Victoria Basin.

Kisii town was originally known by the Gusii people as Getembe. It was later named Bosongo. It originated from “Abasongo” (to refer to the British or Whites) who lived in the town during the colonial times. The town was originally established by British soldiers who were being forced to retreat from Lake Victoria by heavy gunfire from German soldiers’ gunboats during the Great War in the early 20^th century.

The town is predominantly inhabited by the Gusii community, called Abagusii (also known as Kisii in Swahili, or Gusii in Ekegusii). The Nubians, Arabs, Luo, Luhya, Kuria, Kikuyu, Kamba, Somali, Asian and Kalenjin make up a minority of residents.

When Patrick was 22 years old, he joined the Kenyan Air Force. The Kenyan Air Force (KAF) or in Swahili, Jeshi la Wanahewa, is the national aerial warfare service branch of the Republic of Kenya. He served for 18 years, and retired as a corporal. Patrick received education and training in air defense, transportation technical skills, and leadership.

Patrick and his ex-wife, Penina Nyangweo Ayienda, had four children: Elisha, Winnie, Bornface, and Vincent. When Patrick divorced, he lived with his significant other, Janelle Petzel. They were together for 14 years, and Janelle was Patrick’s fiancée.

Patrick and family moved to Shakopee, and on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, Patrick Biyogon Ayienda died in Shakopee at age 59.

Patrick was survived by his children, and his brothers and sisters, including Clement, Jane, Wilfred, Roda, Gideon, Mellon, and Steven, and his father, Samuel Ayienda Opetakara, the mother of his children, Pamela Biyogo, and fiancée Janelle Petzel. He was preceded in death by his mother, Penina Nyangweso Ayienda, and siblings Marcella and Henry.

Janelle noted that “Patrick was the most kind and passionate man.” A friend noted that “Patrick will be missed for his humor and kindness. He said he was at peace … He was more worried about other people than himself,” said Denise Swenson. “I’ll never forget what a great friend and family man he was.”

Patrick was buried at Valley Cemetery.

Bibliography

“Kisii, Kenya.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kisii,_Kenya.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper

Dr. Josiah Schroeder Weiser was born August 17, 1832, in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He, along with his family, moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1857 was in Shakopee. In fact, his two brothers also moved to the town. Each became actively engaged in the business life of the place: Josiah as a doctor, William as a farmer, and Joel as a mason.

Dr. Weiser was a doctor in Shakopee, and married Eliza Victoria Hunt on June 2, 1859, at St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Shakopee, Minnesota. They had two children in Shakopee, Ada (1860) and Florence (1862).

Josiah enlisted in the First Minnesota Cavalry (Mounted Rangers) as a surgeon on October 21, 1862. “Doctor Josiah S. Weiser, regimental surgeon for the 1st Minnesota Mounted Rangers, was from Shakopee, Minnesota, and had lived among the Dakotas, learning their language and serving as their doctor,” said Paul N. Beck in his book, Columns of Vengeance: Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions 1863-1864. An orderly, also on a horse, was an aide to Dr. Weiser. He was African American.

African Americans served in the in the Civil War on both the Union and Confederate sides. In the Union army, over 179,000 African American men served in over 160 units, as well as more serving in the Navy and in support positions. This number comprised of both northern free African Americans and runaway slaves from the South who enlisted to fight.

Black Union soldiers did not receive equal pay or equal treatment. They were paid $10 a month, with $3 deducted from that pay for clothing— white soldiers received $13 a month with no clothing deduction – until June 1864, when Congress granted retroactive equal pay. Even in the North, racial discrimination was widespread and African Americans were often not treated as equals by white soldiers.

In total, Minnesota furnished 11 infantry regiments, two companies of sharpshooters, several units of artillery and cavalry, and several dozen sailors. During the war 104 African American men from Minnesota enlisted in the Union Army. These people were from the Minnesota state total African American population of just 259, including men, women, and children.

And one of them was the orderly who worked beside Dr. Josiah Weiser.

Josiah became a surgeon under Colonel Samuel McPhail of the Mounted Rangers who headed to Dakota Territory by General Henry H. Sibley’s Minnesota volunteers.

More than 6,300 Santee, or Eastern Dakota were dispersed of the Santee Sioux or Eastern Dakota in 1862. Of the 6,300 Santee, 2,000 were taken prisoner. About 700 of the Lower Sioux from the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands remained at large. Most of the 4,000 Upper Sioux from the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands, who had been reluctant participants in the war, also remained free. A few of these refugees from the war fled to Canada, but more than 4,000 congregated in the summer of 1863 in a large encampment in present-day Kidder County, North Dakota. They were joined in the camp by an unknown, but probably sizable, number of their Teton, Yankton, and Yanktonai relatives.

Dr. Josiah S. Weiser, chief surgeon, First Regiment of the Minnesota Mounted Rangers, spoke Dakota and assisted in the discussions. Next to him, also on a horse, was the orderly, who worked with Dr. Weiser. An orderly, an enlisted soldier, was assigned to perform various chores for a commanding officer. This orderly probably had some experience with healthcare. “Believing he saw men that he knew, Weiser and his African American orderly rode out of camp to a nearby hill, where scouts were meeting with some young warriors,” said Beck. when he was unexpectedly shot. A member of Iŋkpáduta’s band suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Dr. Weiser in the back, probably thinking he was Sibley.

Both parties scurried for cover while exchanging gunfire and retreating to defensible positions. Several chiefs and elders caught in the open were killed by the soldiers. The chance of a peaceful outcome was gone.

The orderly raced back to camp, screaming, “They killed the doctor!”

Henry Sibley ordered the army to prepare for combat. The Battle of Big Mound commenced. Paul Beck noted that Ṡakpedaŋ (Little Six) placed the number of Indians killed at 26, with most of them being “old men and women who could not get away.”

The Santee were poorly armed. Only about half had firearms and those had little ammunition. Several hundred of the Mounted Rangers pursued the Indian warriors, protecting the flight of their women and children, until nightfall. Most of Sibley’s infantry devoted themselves to destroying the large quantities of jerky, buffalo robes, cooking utensils, and other goods left behind by the Sioux in their hasty flight. According to records, “…the majority of the Santee whose villages they had destroyed and who were now economically devastated by the battle, left with no food or shelter for the winter, had had little or nothing to do with the uprising.”

Dr. Joseph S. Weiser was killed on July 24, 1863, in the Battle of Big Mound, Dakota Territory. Located in Kidder County, a headstone marks the place where Dr. Josiah S. Weiser was shot.

Dr. Weiser’s orderly, other than noting that he was African American, was not named in any of the documents, according to Paul Beck.

Bibliography

Beck, Paul N. Columns of Vengeance: Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions 1863-1864, 2013.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Now-we-ke-shick (or Noon Day) was one of the people killed during a long series of conflicts between Dakota and Anishinaabe (sometimes called Ojibwe) that took place on the banks of the Minnesota River north of the village of the Dakota leader Ṡakpedaŋ (Little Six) on May 27, 1858.

Now-we-ke-shick was a leader of the Ojibwe (Chippewa).

By the late 1850s, treaties with the U.S. government had confined the Dakota to a reservation straddling the upper Minnesota River and the Ojibwe to lands further north and east. White immigration and reliance on the fur trade intensified the two groups’ competition for resources. The addition of guns made the fighting even deadlier. The Ojibwe – Dakota tensions turned violent again in 1858.

E. Judson Pond, the son of Rev. Samuel W. Pond, Jr., was about ten years old on May 27, 1858 when a battle occurred between the Dakota and Ojibwe people on the north side of the Minnesota River, not far from Shakopee. “I saw the Indians and whites pass our house, the former rushing into battle ten minutes after the first shot was fired,” said E. Judson in “E.J. Pond, Pioneer, Shakopee Citizen: Energetic Shakopee Citizen Relates Happenings of Early Days,” in Recollection of Early Pioneers, 1925, available from the Shakopee Heritage Society.

The Dakota headed toward Major Murphy’s ferry, which is located today in The Landing in Shakopee. The two sides faced off on either end of the river and began firing upon each other. Because their attackers were beyond the range of their weapons, the Dakota climbed aboard Murphy’s ferry and began to cross the river. Once they were across, the battle began in earnest.

The Battle of Shakopee began and lasted about two hours, according to The Southern Minnesotan, Vol. 2, No. 4, 8-9. “The warfare was conducted in regular Indian style – a running fight amongst the trees and logs, and grass, interspersed with a few hand-to-hand conflicts with tomahawks and war clubs,” according to “The Minnesotan,” in Hennepin County History, Winter, 1970.

The Dakota had old men, boys, and even some men who were disabled in the battle, a total of 65 men. According to the History of Carver County, “There were but few good guns among them, all being common fowling pieces, some of them old and unreliable, while a dozen or more men had no guns at all. But the white men of Shakopee supplied this deficiency; they gave the Indians every gun in town.”

“The ammunition of the Indians ran low and the stores loaded a young stout Indian woman with a blanket-full, which she conveyed, under fire, to her warrior brothers on the field,” according to the Compendium of History and Biography of Carver and Hennepin Counties, Minnesota by R. I. Holcombe.

The number killed is not known but Now-we-ke-shick, a young leader of the Ojibwe, was killed according to the Eden Prairie Historical Society. The body was horribly mutilated by Wau-ma-nung, according to the Eden Prairie Historical Society.

Now-we-ke-shick was one of the people killed, according to the History of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis by George E. Warner and Edward Duffield.

Phillip Collins, who was an eyewitness, states that a Dakota cut the heart from his fallen foe and drank its blood, then after taking the scalp, cut off the head and carried it on a pole to Tínṫa Otuŋwe. Then the victory was celebrated by the scalp dance, lasting several days, characterized by their usual barbarity.

The Ojibwe fighting stopped. The Ojibwe retreated toward Lake Minnetonka, reportedly leaving behind four dead.

An article in the Cambridge Chronicle on June 5, 1858, noted “Shakopee, the place mentioned in the following letter from our correspondent, is one of the most important places in Minnesota; important from its favorable location on the Minnesota River, and near what is to be permanently the center of movement and influence in that new state. An Indian fight there must add considerably to the ordinary excitements of that new region, although our correspondent says the affair is generally regarded with much indifference. A telegraph dispatch containing news from St. Paul by way of Chicago, states that the Sioux have beaten the Chippewa and driven them off. A most remarkable spectacle has been witnessed, within thirty miles of this city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, within the past few days.”

Bibliography

Cambridge Chronicle, 5 June 1858.

“E.J. Pond, Pioneer, Shakopee Citizen: Energetic Shakopee Citizen Relates Happenings of Early Days.” Recollection of Early Pioneers, 1925. Shakopee Heritage Society.

History of Carver County.

“History of Eden Prairie.” Eden Prairie Historical Society. https://www.edenprairiehistory.org/learn.

Holcombe, R. I. Compendium of History and Biography of Carver and Hennepin Counties, Minnesota, 1914, p. 221-223.

“The Minnesotan.” Hennepin County History, Winter 1970.

The Miriam and Ira D. D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. Now we ke shick (Noon Day), a Chippewa chief. Joel E. Whitney Collection. New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-8c74-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.

The Southern Minnesotan, vol. 2, no. 4, p. 8–9.

Warner, George E. and Neill, Edward D. History of Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis. North Star Publishers, 1881.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Norman Melvan Crooks was born on May 28, 1917, in Morton, Minnesota, the son of Amos Crooks (1886-1958) and Ellen Marie Felix (1898-1937). Norman was in the United States Navy. He married Edith Ross on January 7, 1940, and they had six children: Norman, Stanley, Danny, Michael, George, and Alfred.

The Dakota people have lived in the Minnesota River Valley for centuries. Historically they fished in the river, gathered wild rice from riverbeds, as well as nuts and roots, and hunted game.

Bdemayaṭo Oyate is a federally recognized, sovereign Indian tribe of Mdewakanton Dakota people, located southwest of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, within parts of the cities of Prior Lake and Shakopee in Scott County, Minnesota.

The original 250-acre reservation, between Prior Lake and Shakopee, had originally been set aside by the United States government for the tribe in in 1886 to settle Dakota and other American Indians who sided with the United States during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Tribal members are direct lineal descendants of Mdewakanton Dakota people who resided in village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe and other villages near the banks of the lower Minnesota River.

Norman was one of the founders and first elected chair of the Bdemayaṭo Oyate or Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in 1969. He was a visionary who was instrumental in the tribe’s quest for sovereignty and self-determination.

Life for most of the Dakota people was one of poverty and hardship. Most of the tribe were living in trailers, often with little water and little support. Norman worked on establishing tribal programs to improve the standard of living for the community. He then decided to bring high-stakes bingo to Minnesota. Overcoming tremendous odds, Norman borrowed money and invested in the tribe’s future in a bingo operation, right in the middle of a cornfield.

In 1982, he oversaw the opening of Little Six, the community’s first bingo hall.

The hall, now called Little Six Casino, was a precursor to Mystic Lake Casino, which opened in 1992.

With the location being close to Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Little Six Bingo Palace became a success. It draws from a large population to attract numerous customers for its enterprises. The passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act by the United States Congress in 1988 recognized Indian gaming as a viable economic development for the nation’s Indian tribes who were often living in sub-standard conditions.

The original 250-acre reservation is now approximately 2,000 acres of land. Tribal lands are located near Prior Lake and Shakopee, Minnesota.

Over time, and based on the vision of Norman Crooks, revenues were then generated for other economic development, tribal welfare, and philanthropy.

SMSC Gaming enterprises include Little Six Casino, Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, and a connection to Canterbury Park, along with other retail and other business enterprises. These include Dakota Mall, Dakotah Meadows Mini Storage, Dakotah Meadows RV Park, Dakotah! Ice Center, Dakotah! Sport and Fitness, Wozupi Tribal Gardens, Mazopiya (natural food market), Mystic Lake Store at Mall of America in Bloomington, Playworks, Playworks LINK Event Center, Shakopee Dakota Convenience Stores #1 and #2, SMSC Organics Recycling Facility, SMSC Water Bottling Facility, and The Meadows at Mystic Lake (golf course), and Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee] the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s cultural center and gathering space for the community’s tribe members through exhibitions, preservation, and education.

Improving Native American narrative in Minnesota schools and improving Native American nutrition are other new programs that the SMSC is working on. The tribe has donated millions to organizations and causes and is the single-largest philanthropic benefactor for Indian Country nationally. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community also supports the local community, including supporting the Shakopee Heritage Society!

Norman Melvan Crooks died on October 20, 1989. He was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The vision that he started as chair in 1969, and the opening of Little Six Bingo Palacein 1982, when he was 65 years old, show that vision happens, no matter what age!

For more information about Mdewakaŋtoŋwaŋ, The Spirit Lake People, visit Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee], the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s (SMSC) cultural center and gathering space. The public exhibit, “Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake,” enhances the knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people, Norman Melvan Crooks, and their history. Hoċokata Ti is at 2300 Tiwahe Circle, Shakopee, Minnesota.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2023

“When Nina Makem and her family moved from the central African country of Cameroon to Shakopee in 2015, she had no idea she’d one day be heading to college as a wrestler,” according to Brett Martin’s article, “Female Shakopee wrestler to compete at college level” in the Shakopee Valley News.

According to Derek Levendusky, in an article, “Makem Can Make It: The Girl From Cameroon,” in American Women Wrestling, wrestling didn’t exist in Nina Makem’s homeland. “In Cameroon, a central African country of 26 million people on the Atlantic coast just north of the equator, the main sport is soccer. Makem played on the dusty fields in the hot sun like most African children do, but she also had dreams of wrestling, at least the kind she saw on TV from time to time.” Nina remembered “I watched WWE growing up which gave me the idea that I wanted to do that when I grow up.”

When she moved to Minnesota, Nina eventually found out that her school offered wrestling, though it took her a while to notice. “I started going to West Junior High in Shakopee,” she explained. “I didn’t know that they had wrestling as a sport in school until [the end of] 9th grade.”

When she first signed up for wrestling, she was only the second female on the Shakopee team and was nervous about what to expect. But luckily for Nina, wrestling ended up being a family event. Duplex and Randy, her older brothers, were also part of the Shakopee wrestling team. And her younger sister, Joel, also was on the team.

According to Levendusky, “Working hard was not a foreign idea to Nina Makem, as the culture in Cameroon is marked by a hard-working people. Even small tasks could be difficult for some in Africa, like getting water or basic travel to any location, which is often on foot. Her father was a farmer, spending his days in ‘his offices’ – the fields where he grew his crops. Makem would join her father in the work and often walk long distances for daily activities like school, the market, or visiting friends.”

Her family was excited about her opportunity to wrestle, as they welcomed exercise back into her life. “My family feels great about me having the opportunity to wrestle,” said Nina. “Back home [in Cameroon] I did a lot of exercise from working in my family farms and walking from one place to another, often for long distances. However, in the United States, I can’t walk everywhere because of the highways and awful snowy weather!”

For the three years that she competed, Nina mostly competed against males. She is also a member of the Minnesota Storm wrestling club where she takes the mat against other females.

According to Martin’s article, Nina was used to wrestling. “Growing up, I watched a lot of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.). I liked it and was inspired by it,” she said. “My older brother started wrestling in Shakopee and would tell us about it, so I joined too. In WWE, I liked that the wrestlers jumped off ropes and hit each other. When I joined the high school team, I found out it was much different. I went into the wrestling room and there weren’t any ropes or people jumping on each other, but I liked it. It seemed much safer.

“One thing I like about wrestling is that it’s a lifestyle,” Nina said. “Wrestling teaches you to be disciplined and go to practice almost every day to develop your skills not always because you feel like it, but because it’s important to reach your goals. You develop a mentality and routine to make weight and learn about nutrition. You can carry that with you for the rest of your life.”

Across all her competitions, Nina’s experienced only one occasion in which a male didn’t want to wrestle her because of her gender. Otherwise, competitors and especially her teammates and coaches have been enthusiastic and encouraging.

“My Shakopee teammates are very supportive,” Makem said. “They’re always saying, ‘Good job. Keep it up.’ They are always helping to make each of us better and feel happy. They don’t treat me differently because I’m a girl. They treat me like I’m a member of the team. It was really fun to go to practice every day and wrestle with the boys and be part of a successful team.”

“Nina is a pretty solid individual,” said Chad Shilson. “On the mat, she is a work horse. She will do anything you ask her. Off the mat, she’s the person that sends you random text messages, thanking you for helping her and her sister, wishing you Happy Birthday or various nuances of the Babaju tribe. What’s not to love about this girl?”

Besides wrestling, she also competed in track in high school, where she threw shot put and discus, and ran sprints. She said sports are important to her and help her academically.

“Sports let me take time off from school when I’m not thinking about the classroom,” Nina said. “Sports give me a break to rewire my brain. I can do something physically, then come back to do my schoolwork.”

Nina attended Normandale Community College, the University of Minnesota, and Augsburg University. She wrestled and majored in exercise science with an emphasis on physical therapy. She loves volunteering, cooking, drawing and painting, and helping others.

Nina loves life, and enjoys gaining new skills, more experience, and becoming an expert in her field. Every day Nina starts the day by waking up and seeing what the next day will bring. “Nina is the epitome of what you want in an athlete. Very kind and humble and extremely disciplined with her diet. She puts an emphasis on academics, and I believe she is the hardest-working athlete in the country. Nina has the drive and passion to make world teams,” said Jake Short.

She encourages other females who are interested in wrestling to pursue it. “Try it before you start making assumptions,” she said. “You might like it and want to stick with it because it’s fun. You figure out that as you go, you can get very good at it.”

Bibliography

Levendusky, Derek. “Makem Can Make It: The Girl from Cameroon.” American Women’s Wrestling, 30 Dec. 2019.

Martin, Brett. “Female Shakopee wrestler to compete at college level.” Shakopee Valley News, 18 March 2021. https://swnewsmedia.com/shakopee_valley_news/news/opinion/columnists/column-female-shakopee-wrestler-to-compete-at-college-level/article_87d50576-1de9-562c-b0bd-bb4a4ee4f9a1.html.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen was born on December 15, 1947, in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam.

While in Saigon, she met Roy Delmer Sheehan. His parents were Delmer John Sheehan (1911-1974) and Muriel Esther Thompson (1912-2005). Roy grew up on a farm with 13 other siblings and developed a charming, down-to-earth personality. He was drafted into the Army and spent two tours in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen married Roy Sheehan.

At that time, the Fall of Saigon happened, and in 1975 the city became Ho Chi Minh City, and Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen and family moved to Shakopee, where Roy had lived before the war.

Ngoc Quy Thi and Roy had three children. They also raised two other Vietnamese children. The five children included Ngoc Be (1968), Hai Ngoc (1970), Maria Elizabeth (1972), Bonnie Alice (1975) and Amy Nguyen Sheehan (1977).

Those children inherited the parents’ quirky sense of humor, a non-conventional and creative spirit, and an appreciation for distinctive beauty, diverse tastes, and bold, truthful living with a healthy dose of fun thrown in.

Roy was a devout Catholic, genius mechanic and builder, creative problem-solver, magnificent singer, RV-enthusiast, incredibly supportive and patient parent, world traveler, generous human, gifted storyteller, lover of Spaghetti Westerns, all-day breakfast, and coffee. Roy was an educator for mentally challenged adults. Roy was praised and awarded for his novel programs that expanded and challenged societies’ understanding of his students’ abilities and skillsets.

In an article in the Shakopee Valley News by Mary Schaefer, Ngoc Quy and her family visited their daughter’s first classroom at Sweeney Elementary School to talk about her life in Vietnam. Ngoc Quy told the class that she loves freedom.

“I really like – the first thing – is freedom. You never get scared here. The freedom — I like it. In Vietnam they have war.”

In the article “For Ngoc Quy, life is suddenly quite different,” she remembered, “You go to sleep and the rocket falls on the house and you die. Then one time it go to the school roof and it blow up. Then all the students and teachers, they die.” Ngoc Quy remembered the terrible life.

In Shakopee, she hates the tornados, thunder, and lightning. “In Vietnam we have no winter, but we have floods. We have no snow but we have monsoon.”

School starts at age eight. “Then you go all day long from eight o’clock to 4:30. You must bring your own food. They have no bread over there. No milk, just cold water.”

Of course, the students were not happy.

Ngoc Quy noted that in Vietnam, “We eat a lot of fish and a lot of rice – every day, all year. And salad like spinach. Not much meat, though. Too expensive. We have no hamburger, no hot dog in Vietnam. We eat snake and dogs for meat. We ate cat, too.”

The class continued to listen to Ngoc Quy. “Chicken and pork chops are eaten rarely,” except of special occasions like the coming of a new year. “We have no candy, no cookies. But that is good because then there is no cavity in the teeth!”

Ngoc Quy, Roy, and their children lived in a bilingual home where they spoke Vietnamese and English. In fact, Ngoc Quy spoke four languages – French, Chinese, English, and Vietnamese.

She learned English in Vietnam, but “I not used to talk to people in English. Sometimes you talk and I must see it written to understand. Everybody learn English in Vietnam.”

When Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen Sheehan was 31, she divorced her husband, Roy.

Ngoc Quy Thi Nguyen Sheehan died on May 28, 2007.

Roy Delmer Sheehan, her ex-husband, died in 2020, and was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, according to Find a Grave.

Bibliography

cd39. “Roy Delmer Sheehan.” Find a Grave, 27 Aug. 2020. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/214891116/roy-delmer-sheehan.

Schaefer, Mary. “For Ngoc Quy, life is suddenly quite different.” Shakopee Valley News, 28 Feb. 1976.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Na-he-no-Wenah Spirit of the Moon’s maternal parents were Catherine Totedutawin, a Wahpeton Dakota, and sister of Wapahaṡa and Keeiyah (Flying Man), brother of Maȟpíya Wičhášta (Cloudman). She was born in 1802 on the shores of Bde Maka Ska (Be-DAY Mah-Kah Ska).

Non-Indians continued to arrive in the region, including Philander Prescott. Na-he-no-Wenah, like other native women sometimes entered unions with Euro-American traders, and later, with soldiers and government officials because they saw such relationships as socially and economically beneficial to themselves and their kin, according to Jane Lamm Carroll. Na-he-no Wenah found out that Philander decided to ask her father to allow them to be together.

“I began to think about getting married after the Indian manner, so I took ten blankets, one gun, and five gallons of whiskey and a horse” and went to Na-he-no-Wenah’s father, Keeiyah. He learned in three days that the gift had been accepted, but Na-he-no-Wenah did not like the idea of marrying. After a few days, the family moved near Philander’s house. After ten days (and entreaty of the parents), the two came to be a companion as long as they chose to live together. Of course, as it turned out, they were together for forty years!

Na-he-no-Wenah was 21 years old, and Philander was 32. They had nine children, five who would live to adulthood. In early marriage, Philander was often apart, working as a trader and traveling for supplies. Na-he-no Wenah lived near Fort Snelling and had their first two children. When Philander returned for a visit, Na-he-no-Wenah told him that she was not willing to live apart. And so, Philander decided to stay in Minnesota Territory with his wife.

Cultural conflicts happened in their early marriage. Philander wanted his son, William, to enroll in the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky. He wanted his son to be away from the Dakota influence. He sent him down the river, but William’s grandmother, Totedutawin, followed them down the river, found their encampment, and insisted on bringing the boy back home. When Philander scolded his mother-in-law, his wife, Na-he-no-Wenah left with the children for several weeks.

Na-he-no-Wenah was a resolute woman who remained close to her family and continued to share the Dakota values. Na-he-no-Wenah and Philander often disagreed about how to raise their biracial children. As it turned out, Philander enrolled William in school in 1834. A year later, William died at the school because of neglect and abuse.

Prescott had an emotional breakdown, left, and headed south where he found a preacher, found God, and returned to Minnesota in 1837. He asked forgiveness and married her in the Christian church. Na-he-no-Wenah took the baptized name of Mary, and 14 years after their Dakota marriage, they were married by Rev. Samuel Pond.

Na-he-no-Wenah, a Christianized Dakota, married Prescott wearing a wedding outfit that combined Dakota and European garb, including moccasins, blue broadcloth pantalets and skirt, several dozen strings of dark cut glass beads, and a blue broadcloth blanket thrown over her shoulders.

After living near Bde Maka Ska, Na-he-no Wenah and her children lived with her Dakota kin at Oak Grove. Prescott tried to support the family with farming and trading. Then he got a job as an interpreter, and so they lived near Fort Snelling for ten years. Then the family moved to a house on the route between Fort Snelling to St. Anthony Falls, where they operated a tavern and inn. While Prescott was hired in 1854 to be a supervisory farmer and government interpreter, he traveled between the homestead and the reservation until, in the late 1850s, Na-he-no Wenah and three of their children moved to live with Prescott at the Lower Sioux Agency.

Philander was one of the casualties during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Na-he-no-Wenah and all her children survived. She moved to Shakopee, living with her daughter, Lucy Prescott Pettijohn and family.

On March 29, 1867, at age 65, Na-he-no Wenah died, just 12 miles from her birthplace at Bde Maka Ska. Her obituary describes her as “noble … industrious, frugal, and kind.” In addition, “She was a good wife, a fond mother, and one of the most even-tempered and consistent women we ever knew. She relieved the wants of the poor, visited the sick, and bestowed deeds of charity upon those who were needy. She was never idle.”

Na-he-no-Wenah was buried at the Minnesota Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, the only full-blooded Dakota buried there. She was buried next to her husband, Philander, as well as their son, Lorenzo Taliferro Prescott, a Civil War veteran, who died from ulcers in 1869 at thirty years old.

Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Sisters Clara, Mechtildis, and Adelaide from the Benedictine Convent of St. Joseph at St. Mary, Pennsylvania arrived in Shakopee in 1862.

The sisters, with ecclesiastical approval, founded the Convent and Academy, according to Julius Coller in The Shakopee Story.

In a letter to King Ludwig of Bavaria on December 2, 1862, Abbott Boniface Wimmer noted that he founded a little mission for the Sisters “to the great joy of the English and German Catholics.

“The new convent has its own story. First, it was a cow shed, then a horse barn, and now it is an embryo of a woman’s convent, but it only serves, in any event, only the most necessary purposes.”

The sisters erected a large two and a half-story limestone building at the corner of Fourth and Atwood Street, south of St. Mark’s Church.

St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy by the Sisters of St. Benedict was incorporated on May 4, 1866, said Edward D. Neill in History of the Minnesota Valley including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota.

The first commencement exercises of St. Gertrude’s Convent and Academy took place on June 20, 1871.

On September 4, 1871, the academy had an enrollment of 46 young ladies.

The board and tuition for the season cost $40.00. Bedding and laundry was $5.00, piano lessons were $8.00, and guitar lessons were $3.00. Lessons in cloth, wax works, and paper flower making were extra.

Mother Gertrude Flynn was the prioress. She was admired, and she put the convent and academy in firm financial foundation. By mid-1878, the debt of St. Gertrude Convent and Academy was practically paid off.

Father Alois Plut, pastor of St. Mark’s and intensely German, decided in 1878 to refuse to re-employ the Benedictine Sisters as teachers at St. Mark’s School because he contended that they were unable to teach German properly. Father Plut and the sisters had a mutual antagonism that developed.

At one point, Father Plut refused, for a time, to give the nuns pews in the church.

At this time there were thirty sisters staffing the academy, convent, and three schools in Minneapolis, Carver, and Belle Plaine, and the orphanage in St. Paul.

Father Plut replaced the Benedictine Sisters with the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Milwaukee in May 1878.

On August 31, 1880, Bishop Ireland advised the sisters that St. Gertrude’s was suppressed, and the thirty sisters needed to join St. Benedict’s Convent in St. Joseph, Minnesota or be dispensed from their vows.

Sister Gertrude Flynn, OSB, and the other sisters who had come originally from St. Mary’s Pennsylvania moved reluctantly to St. Joseph. The merger of this English-speaking community introduced other nationalities that enhanced St. Benedict’s community and provided it with a group of zealous religious whose professional experience assisted in meeting the demands of its academy and other apostolates, according to the Saint Benedict’s Monastery Archives.

According to a letter to Bishop Ireland, Abbott Alexius Edlebrock of St. John’s Monastery noted: “They believe they were wrong, and in my own impression is that they were wronged.”

Bibliography

Coller, Julius A. II. The Shakopee Story. Shakopee Heritage Society, 2009.

Neill, Edward D. and Charles S. Bryant. History of the Minnesota Valley, including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota and History of the Sioux Massacre, 1882.

Saint Benedict’s Monastery Archives. College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, MN.