By Mark Fischenich
ST PETER — The Nicollet County Historical Society has an attractive building at a historically significant site just off of one of southern Minnesota’s most heavily traveled highways.
And at the heart of it all, there’s a big room with a concrete floor, unpainted walls, a makeshift lighting system and exhibits that were put together on a shoestring budget.
By June, the society plans to change that.
With the help of a $75,000 state appropriation and the hoped for $55,000 in locally generated donations, there will be a professionally designed, instantly engaging, kid-friendly exhibit to match the quality of the Kasota-stone Treaty Site History Center and the importance of Traverse des Sioux to Minnesota’s past and present.
That’s the plan.
“I look at this as a time when people can really get reinvigorated about the treaty site,” said Ben Leonard, the executive director of the Nicollet County Historical Society. “We’re positioned really well with the sesquicentennial (of Minnesota’s statehood) next year and then the sesquicentennial of the Dakota War in 2012.”
What happened at Traverse des Sioux in 1851 is a key moment for both of those histories. The site, a place Native Americans had used for centuries to cross the Minnesota River, was where a treaty was signed between the Dakota and the U.S. government that turned over 35 million acres of land across the southern and western parts of Minnesota.
Tensions prompted by the ever-growing number of white settlers pouring into the area and the federal government’s failure to make payments promised by the treaty resulted in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
The Nicollet County Historical Society decided in the 1980s to build a museum at the site of the treaty signing, which is on the north edge of St. Peter just off of Highway 169, and began raising funds in 1990, said society treasurer Herb Poncin of rural Nicollet. Construction began in 1993 even before all the money had been raised, and the building was completed in 1994 — with a substantial mortgage attached.
There was never enough money for the high-quality central exhibit that was envisioned for the large room at the heart of the building. Still, Poncin has seen the interest the site can generate in visitors, even those who never step into the building and just walk the interpretive trail outside.
“There is such an interest in people,” Poncin said. “They’ll come and look at those signs and just read and read. They’re interested in the past.”
Continued fundraising by the society and a bequest by an area resident eventually paid off the mortgage, and this spring the Legislature agreed to provide $75,000 for the long-awaited exhibit.
Rep. Paul Gardner, vice chairman of the House’s Minnesota Heritage Finance Committee, said he thinks it’s a good investment.
“There are sites of significance like this that just fade away if you don’t remember them,” said Gardner, DFL-Shoreview. “... I think the upgrading of the exhibits there is really going to give people reason to stop. The additional bump from the state will give it a more professional feel.”
Gardner said Minnesota’s history is one thing that pulls Democrats and Republicans together at the Capitol, partly because they recognize the lasting impact of historic events. He notes how treaties — and divisions among whites and Native Americans about the results of the treaties — still arise in the attitudes of people about Indian casinos and fishing rights on certain northern Minnesota lakes.
“There’s a very interesting dynamic that still exists 150 years later,” Gardner said.
Another member of the committee, Republican Rep. Dean Urdahl of Grove City, agreed the treaty site appropriation is a worthy one.
“Preserving history — and the impact it has on the education of our people — is one of the most important things we do,” said Urdahl, who notes the state spends about half its budget on education. “I feel this is a continuation of that.”
Leonard is optimistic the new central exhibit can be completed by June. It will include the perspective of the Dakota (with the help of members of the Upper Sioux community) and show how the treaty was integral to the white settlement of a region that runs basically from Interstate 94 south.
About $55,000 is needed to bridge the gap between the $75,000 provided by the state and the $130,000 cost of the upgraded central exhibit hall. Leonard will be seeking grants and donations to cover that local share, and he expects to find willing donors.
“The state of Minnesota’s donation has, I think, sent a very important message to those people,” he said.
