Explanation

St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Minneapolis, MN the Cathedral of The Episcopal Church in Minnesota (ECMN) is located on Dakota land has published and announced this Land Acknowledgement (see attachment) for nearly 2 years at all 3 worship services every Sunday; owning our truth, recalling the historical fact that the first Bishop of Minnesota, Henry Benjamin Whipple, did intercede on behalf of the Dakota with President Abraham Lincoln to reduce the number of men who were hung in Mankato, Minnesota. The hanging of the 38 remains the largest mass execution by federal order in the United States of America. We resolve to tell the truth of our complicity, acknowledging our sin against our indigenous relatives who have long resided within the state of Minnesota; the Dakota, Anishinabe and Ho-Chunk among others. We ask that all Cathedrals within DFMS the Episcopal Church seek truth, recognize whose land they are located on in a path to the Beloved Community.

Land Acknowledgment

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral acknowledges that we are located on the ancestral homeland of the Dakota People. We are in close proximity to the territories of the Anbishinabe and Ho-Chunk peoples. This land has been stewarded as a living relative by the Dakota for generations. The United States government effectively stole this land from the Dakota people through a series of unjust treaties and broken promises, followed by targeted efforts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced removal. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, born out of White Protestantism, recognizes our complicity in these matters. The United States government often carried out this injustice in cooperation with institutionalized white churches. The trauma of forced assimilation and the boarding school system is a stain that cannot be washed away; but we can repent of that past and turn towards a more just future. We look now to the Dakota people and indeed all Native American communities located in the State of Minnesota as examples of resilience, resistance, and strength. We stand resolute in our commitment to oppose any threat to Indigenous culture or tribal sovereignty, be it political, industrial, or religious. We were wrong, we can do better, we will do better.