Indigenous Activists Occupy Land Near Fort Snelling, Plan to Stay Until ‘Land Back’
Minneapolis, MN — On February 9, 2026, Indigenous activists erected multiple tipis at Coldwater Spring outside Fort Snelling, establishing an occupation. Organizers demand land back in the form of “returning Fort Snelling” to the Dakota people, and invite state officials like Governor Tim Walz, and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan to have a conversation, said Gary Spears, organizer with First Nations United.
Within a wooded area, the occupation sits on the other side of the Whipple Federal Building, which is the headquarters of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Operation Metro Surge, as well as a detention center for immigrant detainees and a flashpoint of recent protests.
Park Police have been frequenting the area, checking in on people, and have negotiated to allow the occupation to stay until Thursday, but activists say they are “staying put.” Organizers say they plan to bring in a buffalo to carve and teach traditional ways in which each and every part of the animal is respected and utilized.
On the first day of the occupation, Wasu Duta, a Dakota headman of the Bdewakantanwon-Santee Dakota Sioux tribe, led the spiritual configuration of the four tipi layout along with Niskíthe Prayer Camp from Lincoln, Nebraska. He shared his thoughts on the importance of utilizing the treaties and hopes that other tribes will follow their example.
See more from the camp’s first and second days in the video below.
“I hope that all other tribes’ figure to do this. You look for the loopholes and utilizing the treaty to your defense,” said Duta, who continued, “we do have rights here.”
Ta Pe’juta Wičháȟpi Win, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, said that she would like to see all of the Dakota people in and outside of the city come together to “form a delegation,” and “kind of put in everybody’s visions and ideals together.” She also expressed a desire to take the land back to further the cause of getting rid of ICE in the area where Operation Metro Surge has been ongoing for 72 days.
Activists from Niskíthe Prayer Camp, an organization working on revitalizing native culture, says, “the land needs to be returned to these people for stewardship.” People need to go back to living in “reciprocity with Mother Earth,” they said, “it’s about our only hope as a species.” The prayer camp dealt with similar land battles in Nebraska and decided to help out in Minnesota, said Delan Lonowski, a member of the camp.
It’s time for people to come together again, said Kara Knutson, a member of Niskíthe Prayer Camp. “We all deserve to be respected and honored. Our history as Indigenous peoples deserves to be told and not erased.”
At the occupation, the chairman of the American Indian Movement Twin Cities, Mike Forcia, said, “We need land back like Powderhorn Park, if the Dakota people got Powderhorn Park, we can have green jobs, a cinema, a theatre. Land Back.”
Forcia also spoke about the importance of Fort Snelling, being a concentration camp. “The significance of Fort Snelling is that it was a concentration camp, no one should be held at Whipple at all. They’re Americans, they should never be in there, never again. That’s why the sight needs to be turned over to the Dakota people. All the stuff going on with ICE right now has to do with the land and resources. They decide who comes. They decide who leaves.”
As part of the colonization of the Minnesota Territory, the United States government built a military fort on one of the most spiritually and culturally important sites in the area, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. The fort was used as part of the genocide and attempted extermination of the native population.
The 1805 Treaty of St. Peters, also known as Pike’s Purchase, was created by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike, who wasn’t authorized to make this treaty on behalf of the U.S., and it was signed by the Mdewakanton Dakota, which ceded over 100,000 acres of land to allow the construction of Fort Snelling.
Back in 1862, as masses of Native Americans were imprisoned in Fort Snelling, a military commission held trials for 498 Dakota men who were suspected of raiding settler towns. 38 men were convicted and sentenced to public execution by hanging in Mankato, MN. This mass execution, ordered by President Abraham Lincoln, is the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Two more Dakota leaders, Medicine Bottle and Shakopee, were captured and hanged at Fort Snelling on Nov. 11, 1865. If it weren’t for the efforts of Bishop Henry Whipple, all 498 men may have been hanged (see video below for more).
The Dakota War of 1862 further poisoned the relationship between Natives and non-Natives, as the colonial response to the Dakota attacks was imprisonment, execution, and forceful relocation of the Dakota, thus increasing the unjust victimization of the Dakota.
Activists of the Coldwater Springs occupation say they’re thinking about moving to another site, Sibley Park, named after former governor and military-man Henry Hastings Sibley who was a key figure in the 1862 mass executions and exterminations of Indigenous people. Last year, Indigenous-led protests burned the Sibley Park sign and ceremonially renamed the park to 40th Street Park in honor of Indigenous values. That area is state-owned, whereas the springs are owned by the National Park Service.
Dakota 38+2 Run Commemorates Hanging of Dakota Ancestors
All images from footage by River Akemann, UR contributor.
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