Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
“Minnesota” was derived from the Dakota word Mnisota, meaning clear water, that reflects the clouds and the sky above. It’s a beautiful image without a word for in English.
According to Peter Diamond, in “Behind Minnesota’s Native History” from Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Dec. 3, 2019, “The word was appropriated and anglicized to fit into the English lexicon, Minnesota, and became the term what we now call the land between its manmade borders. Supplanting language is just one form of cultural erasure. The Dakota, Ojibwe, and other tribal groups have called this land their home for thousands of years and still do to this day.”
Water is a sacred symbol of native society – in Dakota, mni is at the heart of many of their traditions. Bdote, or “where the rivers join,” is passed down through oral history as the place where the first Dakota man and woman were created from the earth.
So, what happened to Minnesota’s native population? Beginning in the 1850s, Diamond noted that “Dakota nations were relocated by the U.S. government to land along the Mississippi River as part of treaty agreements. But between 1850 to 1860, as Minnesota’s non-native population grew from about 6,000 to 170,000, the influx of people took crucial provisions and resources from the Dakota, and their ensuing hunger and hardship led to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.”
In fact, in a speech on Sept. 9, 1862, Minnesota governor Alexander Ramsey said, “The Sioux [Dakota] Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of Minnesota.” Almost all the Dakota fled the state, hid, or were forced out.
James Jim Redbird Otherday was born near the Springs (later called Faribault Springs) in what was later Shakopee in 1849. His parents were Jacob Oyatekokepa Otherday (1816-1869) and Martha Tamazawiŋ Toboska War Eagle Wamadeduda Otherday (ca. 1815-1911).
Jim, as some people called him, was “modest and unassuming and in a long and colorful career he made many friends and free enemies,” said an article in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune on April 3, 1930. “In fact, he was the friend of everybody in the Shakopee community, and everyone had a good word for Jim. He lived on a five-acre plot of land and maintained a little garden….” He spent most of his time hunting and fishing.
James married Hapstiŋna Makaakaŋiwaŋkewiŋ Black Flute Lucy Campbell, who was also called Lucy, around 1864.
Hapstiŋna grew up on the north side of the Rivière Saint-Pierre (St. Peter’s River) around 1832. She was a Mdewakanton Dakota Indian. Her father was Antoine Joseph Kauginapin Black Flute Campbell (1825-1913) and her mother was Emma Emily Quana Otherday Laframboise Campbell Graham (1833-1919). Hapstiŋna’s mother was the sister of Ṡakpe II, the Dakota leader whose name is now the name of the town of Shakopee.
Jim’s brother, Anpetutokeca John Otherday, was the most recognized Native American at this time, even though Jim was also well known in Shakopee.
Anpetutokeca noted in 1869, “When I gave up the war path and commenced working the earth for a living, I discarded all my former habits…. My wife died during the winter which left my heart very sad. It was very hard for me to learn the white man’s ways, but I was determined to get my living by cultivating the land and raising stock.”
Anpetutokeca was born about 1819 in present-day Nicollet County. Anpetutokeca was a Dakota mediator from Minnesota who sought peace between Native people and white settler-colonists. He was a leader of a small band of Wahpeton Dakota farmers living on the reservation near the Upper Agency with his wife, Roseanne. For guiding 62 European Americans settler-colonists to safety during 1862, Otherday was received as a hero in St. Paul. “He helped guide non-Indian families through Indian villages for their safe journeys. Some people understood it was a humanitarian gesture, and others felt that we were betraying the tribe,” said relative Michael Childs in an oral interview at Minnesota Historical Society on June 20, 2022 at http://www.usdakotawar.org/node/1029.
Anpetutokeca served as a scout for Henry Sibley and fought beside white soldiers at the battle of Wood Lake. He died in Dakota Territory in 1869, according to Gary Clayton Anderson and Alan R, Woolworth in Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862 from the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 1988.
As for Jim Redbird Otherday? During the Third District American Legion Convention, which brought more than ten thousand to Shakopee in June 1927, Jim entertained listeners for a fee, and his recollections of the Battle of Shakopee in 1858 was a hit to the people listening, according to The Shakopee Story on page 318.
Jim was a familiar figure on the streets of Shakopee. He passed away at his modest little frame home across the river east of town on Friday, March 28, 1927. His daughter, Minnie Otherday Weldon, noted that she was 86 years old, according to the article, “Jim Otherday Crosses Divide,” in the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, April 3, 1930.
The funeral took place at St. Mary’s Catholic Church with Fr. McRaith officiating. The interment was at the Valley Cemetery, beside his wife, father, mother, and brother. After the Tiowakan Spiritual Center and Community Cemetery was opened at the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in 2000, the remains of Jim and other relatives were reinterred at the SMSC.
For more information about James Redbird Otherday and Tínṫa Otuŋwe, 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,” enhance the knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and their history. Hoċokata Ti is at 2300 Tiwahe Circle, Shakopee, MN 55379. (952) 233-9151.