{"id":1954,"date":"2017-02-20T17:20:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/?p=1954"},"modified":"2017-02-22T21:15:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T21:15:02","slug":"whos-history-why-not-all-history-needs-to-be-represented-in-our-capitol-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/whos-history-why-not-all-history-needs-to-be-represented-in-our-capitol-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose History? Why Not All History Needs to be Represented in Our Capitol (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been to St. Paul lately, you\u2019ve likely seen that the Minnesota Capitol Building is undergoing a massive renovation. More than $300 million is being spent to make the century-plus building a host of structural and technological upgrades. Once completed in the fall, a nearly two year-long project will come to an end.<\/p>\n

However, it is not the building itself that\u2019s been grabbing headlines. Instead, it\u2019s the art inside \u2013 art that\u2019s been estimated to be worth nearly $1 billion<\/a>. Many of these pieces depict key moments in the state\u2019s history: Among them the landing of Father Hennepin and the gallantry of the 2nd<\/sup> Minnesota Company from the American Civil war. One piece that will not be on display when the Capitol reopens is a 1906 work by Anton Gag<\/a>. It shows the attack on New Ulm by Dakota warriors during the short-lived 1862 conflict.<\/p>\n

\"567986a1d0858.image
“Attack on New Ulm” by Anton Gag, 1904<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The decision to not display \u201cAttack on New Ulm\u201d has been a controversial one. State Representative Dean Urdahl, a social studies teacher and author of several books on the 1862 conflict, has urged the Minnesota Historical Society, the body that decided to remove the work, to reconsider its decision. Rep. Urdahl, a descendant of settlers who fought in the conflict, argues that the painting represents<\/a> an integral part of the state\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

While the painting itself may represent an aspect of history, viewed in a wider context, it\u2019s not one Minnesotans should be proud of. Just weeks after the Battle of New Ulm, recently arrived Union forces crushed the Dakota at the Battle of Big Woods. Nearly 400 Dakota men were arrested and 303 were sentenced to death. Ultimately, 38 were hung in Mankato<\/a> \u2013 the largest mass execution in American history. The Dakota men who weren\u2019t executed were shipped out of state. Meanwhile, Dakota women, children and elderly \u2013 nearly 1600 of them \u2013 were detained over the winter on Pike Island, below Fort Snelling. Over 300 would die of exposure and illness. They too were removed from the state. To ensure Minnesota was cleared of Dakota, the state established a bounty for Dakota scalps and recruited volunteers to lead punitive campaigns across the state and into the Dakota Territory.<\/p>\n

The Battle of New Ulm and its aftermath should not be forgotten. The Dakota conflict of 1862 is a tragic reminder how easily territorial greed and racism can lead to violence and genocide. But it\u2019s also not history that should be represented in our state capitol, a building meant to represent all Minnesotans. Unfortunately, Gag\u2019s \u201cAttack on New Ulm\u201d presents a literal snapshot<\/em> of the complicated history the Dakota conflict, without a place for the larger impacts of the conflict or its painful legacy. The devastating effects of the conflict for the Dakota and the rest of the state\u2019s Native American community in the aftermath of the conflict are all but ignored, leaving visitors to the capitol with a skewed perspective of it. The Minnesota State Historical Society Director, D. Stephen Elliot, said it best when he wrote, \u201cThe \u2018Attack on New Ulm\u2019 portrays one incident during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, which not all Dakota supported. This painting should not be the primary portrayal of American Indians who lived in Minnesota for more than 10,000 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surely we can find many aspects from Minnesota\u2019s great history that we can all be proud of for the newly renovated capitol.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joe Eggers is a 2016 graduate of the University of Minnesota. His master\u2019s thesis explored the cultural genocide of\u00a0indigenous people through the boarding school system.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been to St. Paul lately, you\u2019ve likely seen that the Minnesota Capitol Building is undergoing a massive renovation. More than $300 million is being spent to make the century-plus building a host of structural and technological upgrades. Once completed in the fall, a nearly two year-long project will come to an end. However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2078,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[92127,323,92126,92121],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-anton-gag","tag-art","tag-dakota","tag-minnesota-state-capitol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2078"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1957,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}