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Coldwater Journal is a record of personal observations and reflections from visits to the Coldwater campus.
Please feel free to submit your thoughts and reflections about Coldwater for posting here on the FRIENDS of COLDWATER site via email. |
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2016
Coldwater Journal is chronologically reversed. The newest postings are first.
click for 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2017 | |
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Coldwater Journal
3 December 2016
Letter About Saving Coldwater From 2 Construction Projects and a Reply |
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Letter to: Senators Al Franken; Amy Klobuchar; Congressman Keith Ellison; Sharon Lennartson, Chair, Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community (MMDTC); Nick Anderson, Spiritual Advisor MMDTC; Minnesota Senator Tony Lourey; Representatives Susan Allen, Karen Clark, Jean Wagenius, Peggy Flanagan, Frank Hornstein, Jim Davnie, Kurt Daudt; Minneapolis City Council Members Andrew Johnson, Cam Gordon, Lisa Goodman; Peter Wagenius (mayor’s staff); Sara Beimers Minnesota Historical Society; Amanda Gronhovd MN archaeologist; Clyde Bellecourt, Sheldon Wolfchild
December 3, 2016
Coldwater Springs is the last major natural spring in Hennepin County;[i] has been flowing at least 10,000 years according to geohydrologists; is acknowledged by the National Park Service to be a Dakota sacred site;[ii] and has been labelled the Birthplace of Minnesota as the first Euro-American settlement in the pre-statehood territory.
Coldwater furnished Fort Snelling with water for a century (1820-1920) while the civilian pioneer settlement called Camp Coldwater provided servants, translators, traders, blacksmiths, meat, lumber, wives, midwives, baby-sitters, missionaries and liquor.
Dred Scott drank Coldwater when he was stationed at the Fort, between 1836-40, where he met and married his wife, Harriet. Scott used his status as a resident in the free then-Wisconsin Territory in part in his famous freedom from slavery suit which he lost in 1857 because he was found to be a slave, and not a person, and therefore had no right to bring a case into federal court.
“In 1976 after months of drought the city water developed an algae that was putrid & undrinkable by my husband who was very sick at the time,” writes Carolyn L. Lyschik, now living in Little Falls. “I made trips every other day to Coldwater Spring & stood in line to get the best tasting fresh water. We were so thankful for this vital resource. If it is still not polluted it should be a National Treasure!”
Coldwater is a National Historic Landmark. This year the National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized Coldwater Springs as part of the “National Treasure” that is “Bdote Fort Snelling.”
Coldwater lost 46,000 gal/day with the Hwy 55/Hiawatha reroute and light rail (1998-2002), reducing its flow from about 130,000 gal/day down to 84,000 gal/day.
Two illegal construction projects currently threaten the flow to Coldwater Springs. The Veteran’s Administration is constructing housing close to Hwy 55/Hiawatha and the Metropolitan Council is planning a new sewer project that intercepts underground fractures that carry an unknown amount of water to Coldwater.
The law is very clear about protection of Coldwater Springs.
The Law
The 1805 “Pike” treaty between the United States of America and the Dakota oyate (people/nation) permits the people to “pass, repass, hunt or make other uses of the said districts, as they have formerly done.” With significant decreases in the quantity and quality of spring water, Dakota people would be prohibited from using the water “as they have formerly done.”
While the treaty was ratified but never proclaimed, the United States proceeded as if the treaty were in effect since Fort Snelling was built and a military reservation established that exists to this day. The treaty has never been adjudicated although three federal court cases almost made it to trial, most recently in 2006.
In 1978 the federal American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed to protect and preserve religious rights and cultural practices including access to sacred sites, freedom to worship through ceremonial and traditional rights, and use and possession of objects considered sacred
The 2001 Minnesota Coldwater protection law (138.665 DUTIES OF STATE IN REGARD TO HISTORIC PROPERTIES. Subd. 4. Protection of natural flow.) mandates that “Neither the state, nor a unit of metropolitan government, nor a political subdivision of the state may take any action that may diminish the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs. All projects must be reviewed under the Minnesota Historic Sites Act and the Minnesota Field Archaeology Act with regard to the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs.
The Minnesota Historical Society preserves Minnesota’s past, shares our state’s stories and connects people with history in meaningful ways, according to its website. Coldwater is arguably the most historical site in our state.
Among the duties of the Minnesota State Archaeology office is the review of development plans submitted by government agencies and private entities to evaluate the potential for harm to archaeological sites in project areas.
So, Coldwater has the 1805 international treaty between the Dakota oyate and the United States of America; the federal 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act; the Minnesota state 2001 Coldwater protect law; and the October 10, 2016, Indigenous Peoples Day, Minneapolis City Council resolution calling for “the protection and preservation of Coldwater Springs.”
Yet Coldwater Springs is not being protected and preserved. It is merely being monitored and then sacrificed to progress, to development, to the cheapest, easiest construction methods.
The National Park Service claims to “own” this 10,000-year-old site (since 2011). In establishing its vision, NPS clear cut the 27-acre site and reformed the landscape with tons of dirt fill to create a semi flat prairie atop the Mississippi bluff. Coldwater was big woods country but prairie planting is currently in vogue as the fastest, cheapest way to prettify parkland.
Coldwater currently functions predominately as a dog park. In what meaningful way does the Minnesota Historical Society connect people with Coldwater’s history?
In what meaningful way does the state archaeology office preserve Minnesota’s past by permitting the diminishment of flow time and time again for each new construction project it is mandated to review?
Our Ask
We ask that the process be followed. We ask that the treaty be honored and the law be obeyed. “Our entire way of life in America today depends on the rule of law,” President Barack Obama 7/12/16.
Sincerely,
Susu Jeffrey for FriendsofColdwater.org
[i] Here is what is left of the four major springs in Hennepin County: Both the Great Medicine Spring in Theodore Wirth Park and historic Glenwood Spring were permanently dewatered for Interstate 394 in the late 1980s. About 2.5-million gallons per day from the 394-corridor end up piped into the Mississippi mixed with downtown street runoff. At the William-Miller Spring in Eden Prairie the water comes out of a pipe on the downhill side of Spring Road.
[ii] Coldwater Springs is a Dakota Tribal Sacred Site and Traditional Cultural Property according to the Ethnographic study commissioned by the National Park Service (GSA RFQ NO. 71599, June 2006).
_______________________
Reply from: Amanda Gronhovd, MS, RPA
Minnesota State Archaeologist
Office of the State Archaeologist
Fort Snelling History Center
St. Paul, MN 55111
612-725-2411
Amanda.Gronhovd@state.mn.us
http://mn.gov/admin/archaeologist
Reply to: Susu Jeffrey; adam_schiffs@franken.senate.gov; dan_solomon@franken.senate.gov
Cc: Sara (Upper Sioux) Childers; Sarah Beimers; Clyde Bellecourt; Peggy Flanagan; Rep. Clark; Rep. Jim Davnie; Rep. Frank Hornstein; Susan Allen; sen.tony.lourey@senate.mn; Sheldon Wolfchild; Jones, Jim (MIAC); Cerda, Melissa (MIAC)
December 8, 2016
I agree that Coldwater Springs is a very important resource, and you are correct in your assertion that Minnesota law states that projects that will potentially impact Coldwater Springs must be reviewed under the Minnesota Historic Sites Act (MS 138.661-669) and the Minnesota Field Archaeology Act (MS 138.31-42). In June of this year, the Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) and Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) officially requested that we be consulted regarding the Metropolitan Council’s sewer project. This consultation usually takes place during the environmental review process. I will contact the Metropolitan Council again, request a project update, and re-iterate the review requirement.
I was not aware of the Veteran’s Administration housing project. Do you have the name and address of someone at the Veteran’s Administration that I can contact?
I appreciate your concern and efforts to preserve Coldwater Springs, and ensure that the required review process is followed.
Sincerely,
Amanda Gronhovd |
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The War Against the Indians and Our Water
Coldwater Journal
November 2016 |
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Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin’s Facebook comments opposing Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies helping North Dakota forces police the Dakota Access Pipeline is very welcome. As McLaughlin notes, “There’s plenty for the Sheriff to do here in Hennepin County.”
For example, the law is very clear about protection of Coldwater Springs.
Two illegal construction projects currently threaten the flow to Coldwater Springs, an acknowledged Dakota sacred site. The Veteran’s Administration is constructing housing close to Hiawatha/Hwy 55 and the Metropolitan Council is planning a new sewer project that intercepts underground fractures that carry an unknown amount of water to Coldwater, the county’s last major natural spring.
Both the Great Medicine Spring in Theodore Wirth Park and historic Glenwood Spring were permanently dewatered for Interstate 394 in the late 1980s. About 2.5-million gallons per day from the 394-corridor end up piped into the Mississippi mixed with downtown street runoff.
The last time the Metropolitan Council did a project near Coldwater, 1998-2001, the spring lost 46,000 gallons per day to the Hiawatha reroute and light rail. With that 35 percent water loss, Coldwater shrank from 130,000 gal/day to about 84,000 gal/day.
A 2001 state law mandates “Neither the state, nor a unit of metropolitan government, nor a political subdivision of the state may take any action that may diminish the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs. All projects must be reviewed under the Minnesota Historic Sites Act and the Minnesota Field Archaeology Act with regard to the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs.”
The federal VA project simply ignored Coldwater protections. Research for the sewer project has been limited to removal of about 2,000 gallons per day from test wells. The Minnesota historic and archaeological agencies do not review a project until plans are complete, that is, until it is too late.
In an October 10th, Indigenous Peoples Day resolution “the City of Minneapolis reminds all government agencies to honor both the spirit and the letter of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 and the 2001 state law relating to the protection and preservation of Coldwater Springs.”
Additionally, the 1805 “Pike” Treaty with the Sioux allows Dakota people to “pass, repass, hunt or make other uses of the said districts, as they have formerly done.” With significant decreases in the quantity and quality of spring water, Dakota people would be prohibited from using the water “as they have formerly done.”
So, Coldwater has the 1805 international treaty between the Dakota oyate (people/nation) and the United States of America; the federal 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act; the Minnesota state 2001 Coldwater protect law; and the October 2016 local Minneapolis resolution to protect and preserve the spring.
Yet Coldwater Springs is not being protected and preserved. It is being monitored and sacrificed to progress, to development, to the cheapest, easiest construction methods.
What Happens to the Water Happens to the People
Alan Muller asks, “What is the complicity of the ‘Minnesota Historical Society’ (which seems to function in many respects as a state agency)” with respect to Coldwater.
The Minnesota Historical Society preserves Minnesota’s past, shares our state’s stories and connects people with history in meaningful ways, according to its website. Coldwater is arguably the most historical site in our state.
Coldwater has been flowing at least 10,000 years according to geohydrologists. In the Mississippi-Minnesota confluence area, what Dakota people call the b’dote, the meeting of waters, a 9,000-year-old bison spear point was found in Mendota. The b’dote is considered to be the Dakota emergence landscape, their Garden of Eden.
Coldwater is the birthplace of the state of Minnesota, site of the first Euro-American settlement in the pre-statehood territory. Coldwater furnished Fort Snelling with water for a century (1820-1920) along with servants, translators, traders, blacksmiths, meat, lumber, wives, midwives, baby-sitters, missionaries and liquor.
Dred Scott drank Coldwater while he was a slave, stationed at the Fort between 1836-40. Scott used his residency in the “free” then-Wisconsin territory as part of his famous case for freedom. Scott lost. He was found to be a slave, therefore not a person, with no right to bring a case into federal court.
The Scott case set up the “separate but equal” U.S. policy that was struck down legally, if not practically, with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Black Lives Matter is educating Americans about the reality of prejudice but consider that Indian people have the lowest rate of high school graduation and the highest rate, per capita, of assassination by police.
Indian people became U.S. citizens with the 1924 Snyder Act.
Coldwater is a National Historic Landmark. This year the National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized Coldwater Springs as part of the “National Treasure” that is “Bdote Fort Snelling.”
The National Park Service claims to “own” this 10,000-year-old site (since 2011). In establishing its vision, NPS clear cut the 27-acre site and reformed the landscape with tons of dirt fill to create a semi flat prairie atop the Mississippi bluff. Coldwater was big woods country but prairie planting is currently in vogue as the fastest, cheapest way to prettify parkland.
Coldwater currently functions predominately as a dog park. In what meaningful way does the Minnesota Historical Society connect people with Coldwater’s history?
In what meaningful way does it preserve Minnesota’s past by permitting the diminishment of flow time and time again for each new construction project it is mandated to review?
—Susu Jeffrey
I was one of the citizen intervenors against Enbridge’s Sandpiper fracked oil pipeline across northern Minnesota. We “won.” It was moved to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Friends of Coldwater supports the efforts to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and to focus on energy efficiency, the fastest, easiest way to save money and the earth.
The title, “the war against the Indians and our water,” is a quote from Dyna Sluyter writing in Minneapolis Issues Forum, October 27, 2016.. |
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PROJECT WATER: Saving Coldwater
Coldwater Journal
Wednesday, 03.23.16 |
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(Coldwater) Saving the flow of groundwater to Coldwater Springs is proving difficult for Metropolitan Council engineers planning a sewer replacement. The new sewer, called an “improvement” project, is located just north of Minnehaha Park and is a mile and a-half north of Coldwater. The location threatens a main underground bedrock fault that delivers an unknown amount of groundwater to Coldwater Springs.
The first Met Council sewer plan was “scrapped in favor of a less intrusive project.” Recall that the original Highway 55 reroute plan from MnDOT was to dynamite the road bed and pipe-in city water.
The second MnDOT Hiawatha plan resulted in the daily loss of 46,000 gallons. After construction, court-ordered monitoring documented a 35 percent loss of flow—down from 130,000 gpd (gallons per day) to 84,000 gpd.
Coldwater is the last major natural spring in Hennepin County. “Camp” Coldwater was the Birthplace of Minnesota, the first Euro-American settlement in the state. Before the Louisiana Purchase and European expansion across North America, Coldwater was a traditional gathering and ceremonial site for Dakota, Anishinabe, Ho Chunk, Iowa, Sauk and Fox nations.
Currently 10,000-year old Coldwater Springs is an acknowledged Dakota sacred site recognized by the National Park Service which claims to “own” Coldwater. In any culture the landscape around Coldwater would be considered sacred. For the Dakota, it is the location of their place of emergence as a people.
Consider the awesome geography of the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers beneath towering cliffs carved by glacial melt waters. Just upstream on the Mississippi, Coldwater Creek outflows, then Minnehaha Creek and nine miles upstream, the great falls now called St. Anthony.
Like the Biblical Garden of Eden, the Dakota place of genesis is a spring in a garden which parts into major rivers. It is not a dot on the map but a region that provided food, shelter and all the good things of life.
Coldwater is in danger of being cut and cut by development and “improvements.” First it was the Hiawatha/Hwy 55 reroute and light rail transit (1999-2002). In 2013 it was a utility right-of-way project slicing the west edge of Coldwater park for a gas pipeline. Now a sewer project is threatening the flow to the spring. And in the near future Highway 55 will be rebuilt.
For 10,000-years plants and animals and humans have depended on Coldwater for water so pure watercress grows in its flow today. Consider the next 10,000-years.
—Susu Jeffrey |
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COLDWATER SPRINGS: Talk Versus Truth, A History of Deception
Coldwater Journal
March 2016 |
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"The proposed reroute of Hiawatha Avenue will not impact the Camp Coldwater historic property of Coldwater Spring..."
—Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg, April 29, 1999, MnDOT news conference
"The project has been designed to avoid impacting the flow of groundwater to the spring. MnDOT will monitor both water quantity and quality during construction to insure that the spring is not impacted." MnDOT "Fact and Myth" sheet mailed to thousands of local residents in 1998.
"MnDOT is confident that the construction of T.H. 55 will have no effect on the flow of Camp Coldwater Spring." G. Joseph Hudak, MnDOT Chief Archaeologist to Dennis Gimmestad, SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) Government Programs and Compliance Officer, April 28, 1999.
"We stress the importance of taking the utmost care during the construction process to avoid disruption of the natural water source to this spring. You have addressed this issue with a redesign of a portion of the project, and, with your assurance that the water will continue to flow, the project should not affect the historical characteristics of this property. We understand that the Federal Highway Administration will also review the project design to ensure that effective measures are being taken to protect the natural flow of the spring." Britta Bloomberg, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, to G. Joseph Hudak, May 25, 1999.
These comments were made in writing, in letters between MnDOT and SHPO. The letters were part of the official correspondence between the two agencies as part of the fulfillment of the Memorandum of Agreement for the Highway 55 reroute and the 55/62 interchange.
The Lower Minnesota River Watershed District approved the 55/62 interchange project on November 15, 2000. The approval included the following assurance: "MnDOT stated that they guaranteed there would be no adverse impact and if there were any, at any time in the future, MnDOT would make whatever changes are necessary to eliminate that impact."
Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 15, 2001
"It is clear that MnDOT has chosen to fight the [Minnehaha Creek] watershed district where it might have found a compromise….It continues to blame the watershed district for delays that are partly its own fault. And having promised to mitigate any damage it does to the spring, MnDOT is trying to modify the [Coldwater protection] law to ease its obligations."
In an 11/16/01 letter to MnDOT's commissioner, the FHWA [Federal Highway Administration] called for more tests to determine the amount of groundwater flowing from the 55/62 interchange area to Coldwater Springs. Dye tests traced 30-percent of Coldwater's flow through the interchange.
Before Highway 55 construction Coldwater’s flow measured about 130,000 gpd (gallons per day). Post construction court-ordered monitoring documented a 35-percent loss of flow down to 84,000 gpd. 27,500 is pumped away from the 55/62 interchange, at the south end of groundwater charging Coldwater, and another 18,500 is simply gone.
Compiled by Friends of Coldwater |
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