In 1934, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs set up a new organizational model to transform Native American tribal governments. The articulation of that model, the Indian Reorganization Act, influenced the governance systems of Native people, including Minnesota’s Ojibwe and Dakota. They now work to customize the government forms imposed upon them.
Governor Mark Dayton issues a proclamation declaring this date to be the first state-wide Indigenous Peoples' Day, celebrated in place of Columbus Day. Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, and Minnesota State University, Mankato, had adopted the holiday in 2014.
Maggie Sengoge and Porky White drill into a tree in order to collect maple sap as part of the Heart of the Earth Survival School. Photograph by Randy Croce, 1984.
Maddy Moose making maple sugar at the Heart of the Earth Survival School (of Minneapolis) sugar bush camp, Maple Plain. Photograph by Randy Croce, 1984.