Stories
Minnesota Historical Society staff members collected dozens of stories from Dakota people throughout Minnesota, the Midwest and Canada as well as from settler descendants in southwestern Minnesota during 2011 and 2012. Full transcripts and audio versions as well as selected quotes are available on this website.
Oral tradition is a way for cultures from around the world to remember and relay history throughout generations. Ancestors have passed down history in this way for thousands of years, and no one oral tradition is more valid than the other. They represent the personal feelings and memories of the person interviewed. They are all honored and respected in a good way, with a good heart.
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- Chippewa)
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- Highway 29
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- Honesty
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- Honors
- Hoop Dance
- How to Treat People
- Humanitarian
- Humanity
- Humor
- Hunt
- Hunting
- Identity
- Immigration
- Indian Agent
- Indian Removal Act
- Injustice
- Inkpaduta
- Intermarriage
- Iran
- Iraq
- Japan
- Jobs
- John Other Day (Anpetu-Tokeka)
- Justice
- Kindergarten
- Kinship
- LaBatte
- Lac qui Parle
- Lake Traverse
- Land
- Land Loss
- Language
- Leadership
- Learning from the Past
- Leavenworth
- Leaving
- Lena Campbell
- Letter
- Lifestyle
- Lincoln
- Little Crow
- Little Crow (Thaóyate Dúta)
- Little People
- Lower Sioux Community
- Lying
- Mankato
- Mankato Hanging
- March
- Marches
- Massopust
- Media
- Medicine
- Men
- Midwifery
- Migration
- Milford
- Military
- Minnesota Historical Society
- Misperception
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- Money
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- Morton
- Mounties
- Myrick
- Neighbors
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- Norwegian
- Ojibwe (Anishinaabe
- Opression
- Oral History
- Orphans
- Pazoiyopa (Runs Against Something When Crawling)
- Peace
- Perceptions
- Philosophy
- Pike Treaty
- Play
- Point of View
- Police
- Policies
- Poverty
- Prayer
- Prejudice
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- Protection
- Punitive Expeditions
- Quinn
- Racism
- Ramsey
- Reconciliation
- Red Iron (Ma-za-sa)
- Relatives
- Religion
- Repatriation
- Reservations
- Resilience
- Riel
- Roeser
- Roles
- Roner
- Roots
- Sacrifice
- Savage
- Scalping
- School
- Settlers
- Shame
- Sienks
- Skills
- Slough
- Sod Houses
- Soldiers
- Somalia
- Soup
- Spirit
- Spirits
- Spiritual Leader
- Spiritual Leaders
- Spirituality
- Starvation
- Steamboat
- Steamboat
- Storytelling
- Subsidies
- Suffer
- Superman
- Survival
- Time
- Tiospaye
- Trade
- Traders
- Treaties
- Treaty
- Trials
- Trust
- U.S. Government
- Understanding
- United Nations
- Unity
- Untruth
- Upper Sioux
- Upper Sioux Agency
- Values
- Victims
- Violence
- Wakute (Wacouta)
- War
- Warrior
- Warriors
- Weapons
- Wechankpeotowe (Many Stars Woman)
- Women
- Wood Lake
- Work
- Wounded Knee
- WPA
- WWII
- Youth
Narrator | Title | Theme | Topics | Keywords | Type |
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George Luskey | A Sad Day in Section 29, Tyrone Township, Le Sueur County |
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Share your story |
Lauren Hargrave | TERRIBLE FATE OF EMIGRANTS TO MINNESOTA |
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Share your story |
G. Wik | Patrick Kelly - Indian Interpreter |
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Share your story |
Matt Boisen | Death of Innocence, A Nine Year Girl in the Dakota War |
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Share your story |
Robert Johnson | Holl Family Account of the US-Dakota Indian War |
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Share your story |
Patty Johnson-Harrington | A Johnson Called Thong |
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Share your story |
William Woodward Swaim | Chief Other Day Saves the Woodward Family |
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Share your story |
Rev. Richard Jacobsen | Rev. August Nierens and Rev. Christian Lewis Seder |
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Share your story |
Robert Reyff | THE STORY OF EMANUEL REYFF |
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Share your story |
Gene Estensen | War Comes to Norwegian Grove |
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Share your story |
Dorothy Busch | Anna Mary Rieke Story, a Defender of Fort Ridgely |
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Share your story |
Nancy Downey | Mary Muehlbauer Witt |
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Share your story |
Jan Klein | The Heuer Family In Milford |
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Share your story |
Keith | Hungry |
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Share your story |
Carol Shubert | The Wilhelmina Ienenfeldt Story |
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Share your story |
Sally Nugent | Present affected by uprising |
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Share your story |
Anna Schmitz Thul Story |
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Share your story | |
Larry Long | Water In The Rain featuring Amos Owen |
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Share your story |
Jan Klein | The Cla(u)sen Story |
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Share your story |
Gloria Sinell | How The Events Touched a Pioneer Family |
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Share your story |

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