Centuries before European-Americans engineered St. Anthony Falls along the Mississippi River to power flour and timber empires, Dakota people came there for ceremonies.
The falls, Owámniyomni in Dakota, stretched wide into what is now downtown Minneapolis and below them lay Spirit Island, a large slab of limestone covered with trees and visited by Dakota people from across the region. Located just north of the Dakota origin site of Bdote, where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers meet, the falls were a destination for women giving birth and those nearing death.
Centuries of industrialization and displacement of Native people attempted to erase most of that history. The last remnants of Spirit Island are believed to be a narrow jetty emerging from the south end of the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam.
But a new project spearheaded by the Dakota-led Owámniyomni Okhódayapi is working to remind people of that history and provide more public access to a restored riverfront. Shelley Buck, the former president of the Prairie Island Indian Community Tribal Council is leading the organization as it seeks to transform the lock and dam into a space for people to learn about the Dakota people and connect with the water.
“This area means so much, and I think this is such a huge opportunity for our Dakota people to feel home again,” Buck said.
Owámniyomni Okhódayapi aims to take the 5-acre lock and dam site and restore it to a more natural state, while making it accessible as a public park. In 2020, Congress ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to turn the site over to the city of Minneapolis. In April, city officials declared Owámniyomni Okhódayapi as its official designee to own the land when the transfer is completed next year.
“We want everybody who comes to the site and enjoys the site to feel safe and feel at home and be connected to the land,” Buck said.
Beyond checking a box
The group is nearing completion of its design for the site, and hopes to begin construction in 2026, Buck said. Those designs are taking input from the four Dakota tribes in Minnesota and from historians known as Dakota knowledge-keepers.
Often when projects consult Native people for historical input, it can feel like checking a box, Owámniyomni Okhódayapi outreach and communications assistant Sage Yeager said. They didn’t want to do that. Instead, Dakota knowledge-keepers are a consistent part of the process.
“With this project, to have them at the center of it is really special,” Yeager said.
Those knowledge keepers know history passed down through various Dakota nations across the U.S. and Canada, Buck said. Much of it can’t be found in books. They intend to remove the mass of concrete that channeled part of the falls into the former lock and dam and restore natural elements like oak savanna and lowland forests that can help naturally contain flooding, minimize erosion and provide habitat for animals.
Efforts to restore the waterfront in the Twin Cities have made some progress already. Dakota people consider other living beings as relatives and have been pleased to see more animals like muskrats in the area, Buck said. Removing the concrete and regrading the land to allow for water to flow through with native vegetation should provide more space for them to thrive.
“What we want is the ability to restore the land and take care of our nonhuman relatives,” Buck said.
The project will include a mother garden made with soil and plants brought from every Dakota reservation in Minnesota, Yeager said.
The project will allow for Native people to conduct traditional ceremonies and harvest cultural medicines, Buck said. It will provide access to the water that allows for blessings and prayers. Today in Minnesota, many Dakota people are limited by the state from access to harvesting fish, animals and medicinal plants.
‘Tired of being forgotten’
When the Corps of Engineers closed the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in 2015 to stop the northern progress of invasive carp, there was talk of harnessing the falls for hydroelectric power. A group called Friends of the Falls arose to push back, and began to learn more about the Dakota history there, Buck said.
The group began talks with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the state’s four Dakota tribes, which led to more tribal involvement and exploring ways to turn ownership over to Dakota people, she said.
“The tribes had been talking about how we were tired of being forgotten in our own homelands,” Buck said.
The organization added more Native board members, and changed its name to Owámniyomni Okhódayapi in 2023. Now the group has board members from three of the four Dakota tribes in Minnesota, and is in ongoing efforts to have a member of the Upper Sioux Community join, Buck said.
Educating the public is a major goal of the project. Owámniyomni Okhódayapi offers free public tours and has QR codes placed along the Stone Arch bridge that allow people to learn about the history of the falls, in English and Dakota.
Owámniyomni Okhódayapi is largely financing the project through private funds. While Dakota ownership is important to the group, they don’t believe the burden should fall on Minnesota tribes.
“It’s not their job to pay for land that was taken and destroyed,” Yeager said.
Buck was uncertain about leading a nonprofit organization, afraid that she would spend all her time asking for money. But the land restoration project at Owámniyomni presented a great opportunity for her people, she said, and she felt she needed to be involved.
The Bush Foundation awarded the group a $2.6 million grant in 2024, which is being used to finalize design work and to seed early construction work. Owámniyomni Okhódayapi recently submitted its latest design proposal to the Army Corps of Engineers for review and hopes to have a completed design by the end of the year.
The project aims to begin demolishing the lock and dam and regrading the site in 2026. Construction will continue in 2027 in coordination with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, which will be working on the second phase of the Water Works park. The first phase of the Water Works project includes the building that houses the Owamni restaurant started by Lakota chef Sean Sherman.
