(00:00:04) And you're listening to mid-day. I'm Mike Mulcahy and for Gary Eichten during this hour, we're going to look at some chapters of the Minnesota history book the mayors of both Minneapolis. And St. Paul have declared tomorrow Kenny rehabilitation institute day the proclamations mark one of Minnesota's most remarkable medical stories 60 years ago. The state was in the midst of a terrifying polio epidemic polio was crippling thousands and there was no known cure or prevention a safe and effective polio vaccine was still a decade and a half away throughout the 1940s and early 50s polio struck fifteen thousand Minnesotans 900 of them died many others were consigned to a life with metal braces crutches and deformed limbs until Elizabeth Kenny arrived the single-minded self-taught nurse from Australia had a treatment that got paralyzed polio victims up and walking she made Minnesota her home. Sixty years ago this month the Sister Kenny rehabilitation institute opened in Minneapolis Elizabeth Kennedy emerged from obscurity and became America's most admired woman. Her story has few parallels in medical history. Minnesota public radio's. Dan Olson has (00:01:16) more coming your way in the interest of the sister Elizabeth Kenny Foundation, you found out of the know this year's fun to peel of the Sister Kenny Foundation is now (00:01:29) on Bing Crosby and other stars raised money for the Kenny foundation in the 1950s. Her name was golden her polio treatment success stories were captured on film and seen around the country Kenny and the nurses she trained (00:01:42) seemed able to perform Miracles. There's people Center doctors and trained can instead of pests working close cooperation in administering the Kenny method of (00:01:52) treatment polio was frightening it passed over most people but struck others with crippling effects word of Elizabeth Kenny's treatment spread as polios toll (00:02:01) Rose 1944, 530 cases 37 polio deaths in (00:02:07) Minnesota the WCCO radio (00:02:09) documentary chronicled the Panic polio caused in, Minnesota. 1946 2881 cases 226 polio deaths public hysteria was doctors caution that maybe they didn't know for sure but maybe the disease was contagious. They advised against public meetings Gatherings large (00:02:38) crowds beaches were closed people stayed away from public Gatherings for fear of Contracting the virus. The Minnesota State Fair was cancelled in 1946 to reduce polio spread polio is also called infantile paralysis because so many of its victims were children South Minneapolis residents Edwin and Evelyn Handy's children were two and six when they contracted polio were treated by Kenny and made a full recovery. Can't you just Vision your kids with all this paralysis wheelchair wheelchair as her whatever. Yes. Credit shifter Kennywood. She was the one that I say did the trick Elizabeth Kenny was literally laughed out of the offices of the American Medical establishment when she sought endorsement of her physical therapy ideas for polio victims Vindication came when three prominent Minneapolis Physicians took a chance on her some of their colleagues shunned them as a result of allowing Kenny to try her treatment. Dr. Janine spear director of the Minneapolis-based Kenny rehabilitation services at Abbott Northwestern Hospital says her Mentor. Dr. Milan nap was one of them instead of like many Physicians saying this is hogwash. I don't understand her terminology. She doesn't know what she's talking about. He said I don't understand this. I have to learn more (00:03:56) about it Elisabeth Kenny's life a crusading nurse rising from obscurity to Celebrity Status reads like a movie script, which is exactly what RKO radio pictures thought in 1946 (00:04:10) one of Hollywood's top Stars Rosalind (00:04:12) Russell immortalized. As with Kenny story in the movie Sister Cami by 1952 a Gallup poll showed Kenny was the most admired woman in America edging out former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Kenny was modest about her success. This can't be done oneself alone is also written I can of my own self do nothing. It is true in my own experience (00:04:42) like many other viruses the one that causes polio lives all around us, even before vaccines. Most people were resistant and easily fought off its effects but among people whose defenses were weak polio spread quickly. There's usually an illness with a fever as the person gets either an upper respiratory infection or a gastrointestinal infection polio paralyzed Richard Owen in 1940 when he was 12 and growing up in Indianapolis, Indiana the son of a physician polios symptoms misled many who Right to diagnose it Owen thought he'd caught a cold or the flu. And then there's a quiet second period for a day while the virus is working its way between the bloodstream and the central nervous system and then my case it was even sufficient I've sufficiently well, so I went back to school for a day and then the next day I was paralyzed eventually Richard Owen was treated by Sister Kenny and through a quirk of Fate the disease became the focus of his professional life. Owen is a physician and the former medical director of the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis. He's retired and lives in Eden Prairie polio has been around for centuries, but Owen says it wasn't identified until the late 1800s and in 1916. They had a big epidemic in the United States that unfortunately happened in New York. And the first people to get it where groups of Italians so there was a very much an anti-italian up for the 1916 outbreaks Park the notion the disease affected only poor people that myth When polio spread among the rich and Powerful polio struck people all over the country, but for reasons not entirely clear hit the midwestern United States hardest even then it's paired many crippling only one out of a hundred who caught the virus religious zealots explain the disease's mysterious and random nature as God's punishment before Elizabeth Kenny's ideas were accepted the standard medical treatment for polio victims was like medieval torture patients were isolated and immobilized strapped into metal braces. They had me on a frame like device that made it possible for my legs to be spread apart and then my knees were bent in these things called Toronto splints leather-covered hunks of aluminum that were bent at the knee 12 year old Richard Owen lay immobilized in splints and braces for nine months. It would be three years before he got the Kenny treatment and was able to walk without braces. Elizabeth Kennedy grew up in rural Australia about the time the country's dance bands were playing. Oh Sydney, I'd love you. She was the daughter of lower middle class Irish immigrant Farmers Australian medical doctors were scarce. Most health care was done by Bush or rural nurses Yale University history Professor. Naomi Rogers says Bush nurse Elizabeth Kenny tended to farm families scratching out a living in Australia's vast rural areas. She delivered babies as did all Bush nurses. She cared for young and sickly children. She examined women who lived in Huts or Shacks Rogers is a native of Australia who's writing a book about Kenny. She says the young nurse went on Horseback to many of her calls, but was impatient with the slow pace. So can he bought a motorcycle and she would put her nurses bag in the side pouch of the motorcycle and Roar off into the (00:08:13) I (00:08:13) wish to see her patients there was almost no formal nurses training at the turn of the last century Kenny found a doctor in her hometown who taught her some of the basics of medicine. She was a voracious reader always borrowing books about the human body Bush nursing was perfect. Rogers says for the independent minded Kenny, there'd been a boyfriend or two, but she declined to follow her sisters example of marriage and homemaking Kenny just never liked taking orders from anyone and nursing was very appealing for a woman of that character because it was rare that there was much supervision other than what the nurse herself determined was (00:08:55) necessary. His muscles are contracted. They're pulling her into (00:09:03) knots. Can he first saw polio during Australia's epidemics in the early 1900's a child. She'd helped deliver a few years earlier came down with a fever muscle pain and Contortion that Kenny hadn't seen before Kenny approved the script for the movie about her life in the movie Kenny portrayed by Rosalind Russell telegraph's her Mentor physician and asks what she should (00:09:25) do his reply. (00:09:27) It sounds like polio no known (00:09:29) cure treats the symptoms. I'm going to try and moist heat. I want to get a blanket will tear it into strips strips of wool soaked in hot water (00:09:42) became the basis for Kenny's therapy wrapping the hot strips around paralyzed limbs relieve the muscle pain in England and the United States doctors were putting polio victims in casts and braces. It was little or no thought to helping them regain use of their limbs, but Australia was an ocean away word of the standard treatment hadn't reached the rural areas where Kenny worked (00:10:05) the heat. We leave the muscle pain, but didn't (00:10:07) bring paralyzed limbs back to life. Kenny used her hands to search the victims arms and legs for any sign of (00:10:14) movement. Your leg just told me something. It's beginning to think it can remember people attributed a healing (00:10:22) touch to Kenny's hands. Dr. Richard Owen says what was really happening is Kenny's fingers detected faint muscle movement. She had a great sense of how to to hold a paralyzed extremity and make you feel you're using it Owen says by flexing polio victims limbs telling them to move it and then repeating the movement day after day Kenny had Hit Upon a technique to jumpstart a polio patients brain. Your mind is remembering how you did something even though it and it's sending messages down there and the movement is sending messages back Elizabeth. Kenny said polios paralysis was the result of mental alienation and she called her treatment muscle re-education. However, neither of those phrases and other she coined were in medical texts of the day Kenny's jargon caused many in the medical establishment to dismiss her ideas (00:11:20) Commonwealth of Australia is a link in the Empire (00:11:26) chain the outbreak of World War One pushed worries about polio aside, the young Kenny signed up for England's nurse Corps. She was given the military rank of sister recognizing that many of the nurses but not Kenny were from religious orders after the war Kenny resumed her polio treatment and her Fame spread eventually. She took letters of recommendation from Australian doctors to (00:11:50) America. The second world war exploded as Elizabeth Kennedy arrived in the United States (00:11:58) polio was well known here (00:11:59) due in large measure to its best-known victim President Franklin Roosevelt yesterday, December 7th. 1941 a date which will live in infamy Roosevelt had been living with polios effects for 20 years. (00:12:19) He was wheelchair bound metal braces helped him stand Roosevelt had become a potent fundraiser for Research into a polio vaccine. However, an early vaccine was fatal and Roosevelt pulled back on his support World War II s Devastation eclipsed polios Rising toll however anxiety over the diseases spread was Rising Physicians and public health workers were virtually helpless to Stave off polios Advance when Kenny arrived in 1940. She went to the American Medical Association Yale University history Professor. Naomi Roger says Kenny sought endorsement of her therapy from the amas director who was extremely rude to her something. She would never forget and treated her as an ignorant quack seeking money for her own gain. Jean Rogers says Kenny was dejected tired and ready to return to Australia. In fact, she was on her way back to the West Coast to board a ship home when she decided to stop at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester doctors there told her they had no polio patients and directed her instead to Minneapolis. One of the city's hardest hit by the disease. I (00:13:31) was a playing miniature golf in the backyard and leaned down to get a book get a ball out of the cup and I couldn't get up Henry Haverstock Jr. was a South Minneapolis teenager when polio struck him in 1939. He was immediately given the standard treatment put in bed and immobilized with casts and braces. Haverstock's father was a wealthy Minneapolis attorney who spared no expense trying to get his son back on his feet. He sent him to Warm Springs the Georgia treatment center made famous because President Roosevelt had used the mineral baths there in a futile bid to regain mobility, and there was no improvement for Haverstock either. One day months after Contracting polio lying in his bed fitted with braces Haverstock remembers his father ushering a tall broad-shouldered older woman with snow-white hair into his upstairs bedroom Elizabeth Kenny asked Haverstock to carry his son to the dining (00:14:25) room table where she examined him. She showed how I couldn't even be forced into a sitting position with my legs ahead of me because he's braces had caused what she called spasm. I was stiff Kenny told Haverstock's father if he wanted her to treat his son. The braces would have to go Haverstock became one of Elizabeth Kenny's first US patients within weeks of starting her treatment. He was walking Kenny's Big Break came, when three University of Minnesota Physicians intrigued with her results arranged a lecture. She was late dozens of Physicians waited for her to appear one of them the late. Dr. Milan nap in a 1987 interview remembers Kenny arrived and went on a tear about the Dismal treatments. (00:15:09) Is receiving to give it to our talk the first hour and a half was griping about the treatment (00:15:16) that was a prominent physician at the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis General Hospital. He remembers after harangue Kenny used words. He had never heard connected with polio muscle spasm in coordination mental alienation. Kenny's own terminology nap was skeptical but hungry for any treatment that showed a glimmer of hope for people immobilized in casts and braces. He took Kenny to see one of his patients a Grocer's son. Kenny examined his paralyzed limbs recommended hot packs to relieve the muscle stiffness and her physical therapy to restore movement. The treatment worked the boy recovered nap was a convert he gave Kenny permission to treat patients at Minneapolis General Hospital. He kept records of the (00:16:02) results fifty-five percent of the patients turned out really what we call Norma and the others Varying degrees of weakness but all of them are pretty (00:16:12) functional the results were like a bolt of lightning from a summer thunderstorm. Can he was helping people many of them children consigned to a life with braces or a wheelchair to walk and she now had the support of an American physician whose credentials were Beyond reproach. However, Kenny was nearly broke from her travels Milan nap. Let Kenny stay in his family home in Minneapolis. He used his report on her treatment results to apply for Grants. But the wait for funds would be months even so Kenny with missionary like Zeal continue to treat polio victims and take no money for her work a group of Minneapolis. Businessman came to her financial rescue 98 year old Betty Henry remembers the Fateful meeting work. Any mint Minneapolis has high rollers Henry's husband. Jim was a member of a Downtown Minneapolis. Businessman's Club. He organized the meeting work any described her treatment to an audience willing to put their money behind. One who claim to be able to counter the panics owned by polio and they gave her four hundred twelve dollars a month, which was a lot of money in the 1940s and he remembers after the dinner meeting her husband Jim gave Kenny a ride home. She's at today is our first real meal. I have had in five days outside of tea and toast Kenny's fortunes had turned and her star began to rise. However, not many people knew much about the woman. We never really knew what sisters age was Margaret Ernest who lives in Minneapolis was Kenny's office administrator Elizabeth Kenny was born in 1880. Although she told people 1886 Earnest says she was a formidable figure Dryden and pasta dishes. She carried herself, you know, like a queen can he was 59 when she arrived in Minneapolis in 1940 Earnest says she was a workaholic just Mike she required very little wrist. She was always up early in the morning and she's ready to go and she'd be calling people ungodly hours. Kenny's caseload rose with polios Rising toll Evelyn and Edwin handy were returning from a vacation in 1950 when their six-year-old son and two year old daughter showed polio symptoms and he was kind of lounging in the back seat during the whole trip back and when we got home our little girl who would just learning to walk couldn't walk anymore. They immediately took the children to Minneapolis General Hospital already crammed with children paralyzed with polio. One of the doctors said, we don't have any room for you and the other doctor and said we've got to take them in so they were put in the hallways the handy children were isolated with hundreds of other polio victims. The Handy's despaired. They were both in their well, we couldn't get to see him we couldn't do anything about it. It was a worrisome time. Evelyn handy says neighborhoods and Families close their doors people weren't going to church they weren't going anyplace and I don't think anybody wanted to talk to us Edwin handy says Panic was Rife among parents because so many of polios victims were children when I say if you think about Anthrax today just think what polio was that if you had a young family unbelievable there was (00:19:33) people were (00:19:33) scared the handy children made a complete recovery doctors still groused sometimes publicly about Elizabeth Kenny's ideas, but many muzzled their criticisms and adopted her techniques after all they were yielding dramatic results and more importantly invoking the Kenny name was a potent source of money for polio treatment and Research into a (00:19:55) vaccine. This is guest star time transcribed by the sister Elisabeth Kenny Foundation brought to you in cooperation with the station as our guest stars Tim Spencer and his son. Of the pioneer. Hi neighbors. This is Tim Spencer coming your way. But the sun's the Pioneer constellation of stars (00:20:17) recorded radio public service announcements vaccine to stop polio finally became widely available in 1955 until then the Kenny method was still the best thing going for the treatment of polio Decades of nearly non-stop medical work fundraising and lobbying had taken a toll Elizabeth. Kenny was sick Parkinson's disease was eroding her Vitality. She left the United States and returned to her hometown in Northern Queensland Australia where she lived the last year's of her life Elizabeth Kenny died in 1952 (00:20:49) and went to try to take a big step with the Snake Here (00:20:52) Kenny's ideas are still in use around the world and at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis victims of vehicle crashes (00:21:00) stroke and (00:21:01) others who've lost use of their limbs come here to Kenny rehabilitation services to get muscle re-education. Director, dr. Janine Spears says Kenny's use of her hands fingers probing muscles weakened by polio for any sign of Life Advanced understanding of how to help convince patients. They can move if you put your hands are in support it in the proper position. Suddenly that muscle kick in because that activates the stretch receptors. I think Sister Kenny was doing this, but when she started she probably didn't even know what stretch receptors were Yale University history Professor. Naomi Rogers says Kenny's singular personality sets her apart as one of the most compelling figures of her time a feisty Lodge almost overbearing woman with gentle hands and a special understanding of a very frightening disease polio is still a Scourge with outbreaks in central Africa and India, however elsewhere polio is a disease of the past and public health officials predict, its eradication in a few years. 50 years ago at the height of the polio epidemic in this country thousands of polio victims regained Mobility because of Elizabeth Kenny's ideas a few medical histories make note of her role. There is a small Museum in her hometown in Australia her most visible Legacy is in Minneapolis. Where a neighborhood a school and a hospital Rehabilitation Center are named (00:22:30) after her Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio straighten out archibeque, (00:22:36) and I'm Mike Mulcahy and this is midday as we continue our look at some chapters of Minnesota History. We turn to the story of the five-week war in the Minnesota River Valley in 1862 on one side where the Dakota Indians on the other settlers and the US government hundreds of people died on both sides it led to the largest mass execution in US history 38 Dakota were hanged in Mankato. There's been a lot written about the Dakota conflict, but the impact on future Generations has not received as much attention more than a century later. The war still Sparks intense debate. Our report Minnesota's uncivil war was produced by Main Street radio reporters. Tim post and Mark style. Tim post tells the story. This is a special time of year for Ed Red Owl as summer blends with fall. He often thinks of history the history of his family the Dakota people wore. It's a complicated Road full of sharp curves and dead ends when he arrives in 1862. There's a Moment of clarity. I think of the conditions that they must have had (00:23:45) in August of (00:23:46) 1862 the crops were not doing well. The agents had failed to provide what they had committed to provide to the people it didn't happen. And I view it as an act of desperation. The remnants of War are still evident in the Minnesota River Valley. There are Battlefield markers monuments a few buildings. Kathleen backer lives in New ohm. She's related by marriage to settlers killed in the war despite the wars impact on our family tree. She's not bitter. This was devastating to a family. This was devastating to him Manatee and there were broken hearts and broken families on both sides after the war. It was easier for the settlers to recover. They had the public and the government on their side the enduring heartache of 1862 is with the Dakota some still avoid Mankato. The memories of the hangings are two fresh it Red Owl lives in Sisseton South Dakota. He still feels the emotion left by the snap of the ropes. We've never really come out of that grief and mourning that we are yet Afflicted with that that we seem to be a morning people at times. The Civil War battlefields were bloody in the summer of 1862 Minnesotans were shocked by the number of soldiers killed but problems were building in their own State the Dakota reservation was a place of unhappiness and unrest the Indians lived along the Minnesota River the reservation went from new. Ohm to the South Dakota Border in the summer of 1862. The Dakota were hungry Dan field of the Minnesota historical society says their crops had failed the previous fall. (00:25:30) There's a potato blight and there's a infestation of bugs because of what's going on here the Dakota don't get out on the fall hunt then in the winter of 61-62 terrible winter terrible winter heavy snows everybody snowed in and people are starving field stands near a stone Warehouse that survived the war it was stocked with food in 1862, but the government refused Handed out in an earlier treaty the government promised to support the tribe with (00:26:01) food and yearly payments, but in 1862 the government money was late Indian agent Thomas Galbraith was a stickler for policy the food and the money were always distributed together. He held to that in 1862 with disastrous (00:26:16) results Thomas Galbraith really really dropped the ball and he dragged his feet. He should have distributed the food. There was Dakota starving out here tensions built through the (00:26:25) summer at one point hundreds of Dakota began carrying off food from a store house. They were stopped by soldiers armed with Cannon. There was a meeting between the government Indians and Traders. One of the Traders was Andrew. Myrick field says the meeting broke down when Myrick made one of the most infamous comments in Minnesota (00:26:43) History to set the stage field says first in Indian spoke, this is our reservation and yet you go out and you cut our grass for your animals you cut down our trees for your building and for your fire you shoot our game. Which we have very little of anyway, it's ours you leave it alone and Andrew Myrick says well then if you want it, then you eat your grass and we won't trade with you The Interpreter. He doesn't want to say it. They don't want to say he's forced to say it and it said that a hush just Falls over there the entire Dakota just for an instant and it's dead quiet and they yell - erupts from out of the Dakota people some described it almost as a Battle Cry. My Rick's let them eat grass remark was dehumanizing an implied Indians were like horses or cattle soon after the killing (00:27:40) began on August 17th. A Dakota hunting party killed several settlers about 40 miles north of the reservation. This strike sparked intense debate on the reservation (00:27:50) many Indians favored War to clear the Minnesota River Valley of settlers. Elmer Weston is 81 years old. He lives on the Flandreau Indian reservation in eastern South Dakota as a young boy. He can remember his grandfather and others talking about what they saw in 1862. Weston says on August 18th and Indian covered his shotgun with a blanket and walked into a store located on the reservation. He said I want to show you people how to do things when he walked by this clerk sitting at the table writing something when he went by the he pull a trigger and he shot him that his first white man, they killed her. Among the many casualties that day was the traitor Andrew Myrick. He was found with grass stuffed in his mouth. (00:28:53) The war spread quickly the main fighting was in the Minnesota River Valley but extended South to Iowa and west of The Dakotas major battle sites included new. Ohm Fort Ridgely Birch Cooley and Woodlake the War lasted five weeks US troops finally broke the Dakota offense. It was a bloody end to years of turbulent relations Dakota spiritual leader. Gary Cavender says, one of the great lessons of 1862 is a simple one. We should learn (00:29:21) that. When you make a deal. You're making a deal and hold to those deals holster those issues that you made in that deal that no matter if the man carries a rifle or a bow and arrow you're on equal terms because you both have something that the other one (00:29:42) wants the Dakotas signed several treaties with the government in the Years leading up to the war. They were basically land for money swaps, but the Indians lost faith in the government after it reneged on promises six years before the war a government farming supervisor on the Dakota reservation wrote of the resentment. It cannot be wondered at that the Indians are dissatisfied and constantly complaining they often go as far as to accuse the government of stealing their monies, they they have a times asserted the same thing of the president and all the officials under him Indians were not the only ones to condemn government treatment of the Dakota and other tribes in 1867 Congress set up something called the Indian Peace Commission among its members was the famous Civil War. William Sherman in its report to the president the commission said the federal government had treated Indians unjustly. It was especially critical of the bureaucrats who controlled treaty payments that there are many bad men connected with the service cannot be denied. The records are abundant to show that gents of pocketed the funds appropriated by the government and driven the Indians to starvation. He cannot be doubted that Indian Wars have originated from this cause the Sioux War a Minnesota is supposed to have been produced in this way. But in Minnesota after the war, there was no sympathetic year for the Indians. There was no acknowledgement of the role that broken treaties and corrupt bureaucrats played in the war when the fighting ended the worst was still ahead for the Dakota. They lost the war and would soon lose their Nation. The German settlement of New Ulm was the center of resistance (00:31:28) against the Dakota and (00:31:29) 1862 these days the Glockenspiel in downtown new. Alma tracks a crowd of tourists to it's noon concert many of the tourists will also visit battle sites from the 1862 War the Dakota attacked New Ulm twice on August 19th, and the 23rd Darla Gerhard works with the Brown County Historical Society. Gerhard says Charles flandro was in charge of the city's (00:31:51) defense. Standing on a downtown sidewalk Gerhard describes a key moment. If you look kitty-corner across the street from the barricades was the Kissling blacksmith shop and the Dakota by this time. We're inside that blacksmith shop and Flandreau said if we don't make a stand they are going to come out come out of the blacksmith shop go over the barricades and they're going to take the tone. So they did get a group of man. That finally went over the barricades themselves and flush the Dakota out of the blacksmith shop and burned it to the ground and he said that was a turning point in the battle. It was the first time that they felt that they were not on the defense joining. The residents of New Ulm were hundreds of settlers fleeing the Dakota (00:32:32) salt free roaming bands of Indians broke off from the main War army to attack farms and travelers settlers were killed in places with names like actin Milford and Slaughter slew. There's never been an official report on the number of settlers killed but estimates range from 300 to 800 historian. Don Heinrich tolls man says Dakota War killed more civilians than any other War until the Attacks of September 11th, Alan Woolworths studied the 1862 War for more than 40 years. He was curator for the Minnesota Historical Society. He says the settler killings are still controversial. This is a very sore point with my Dakota friends and we simply don't discuss (00:33:14) it. The whole (00:33:18) conflict was a tragedy. No one (00:33:20) wanted the Dakota Indians lost everything their society their world was destroyed. They were scattered and many many thousands hundreds and thousands of white severs fled and many of them had very bitter memories of this event (00:33:37) Woolworths offers one explanation for the attacks on Settlers. The Dakota were doing what they had always done in war kill or capture everyone in their path the question of whether the settlers were the victims or the cause of the war is still debated in 1862 there really were no innocent white settlers in Minnesota Angela Cavender Wilson teaches history at Arizona State University, but she grew up in the Minnesota River Valley. Her home is steeped in Dakota tradition. She admits her views are controversial. She says whether they knew it or not settlers were part of a government policy to drive Indians from their lands when whites came to, Minnesota. Kane either knowing believing hoping that the Dakota would be exterminated or forcibly removed most descendants of settler families disagree. They say German immigrants had no knowledge of government Indian politics many settlers had Dakota friends Mary Blank says her great-grandfather often played with Indian children Before the War. I really believe that if my great-grandfather and his parents had not befriended the Native Americans, I wouldn't be here speaking about it many Dakota rescued white settlers the most famous John other day LED more than 60 settlers to safety still the death toll was high when he was an old man Crist spell Brink wrote an account of the war Mary Blank reads a portion of her great-grandfather story floreal Hartman was working in the field when his wife came through the cornfield to bring him some refreshments when she saw to her. Her husband shot down into Indians a short distance away. She ran to him and tried to drag him into the nearby corn field which she was unable to do and so had to leave him to his terrible fate. Most of the settlers were killed on the first day of the war August 18th several hundred more were captured and held by the Dakota until the war ended in late September the killings triggered an avalanche of bad press for the Indians most newspapers demanded all the code to be executed or removed from the state. But some of those closest to the war were not so vengeful Crist spell bring for one. Once again, Mary Blank reads from her great-grandfather's writing had the Indians been treated as agreed honest and upright this bloody day in Minnesota's history would have been avoided but as it was the engines never had a square deal after the war the surviving settlers had a hard time, especially orphaned children. (00:36:17) Brown County historian Darla Gerhard says damage payments were made, but little trickle down to the orphans. They knew that their their parents who were killed in the Dakota War. It had owned a farm that farm was gone when (00:36:29) they came of age and if you look at our (00:36:31) tax rolls (00:36:33) after 1862, (00:36:35) you see tax forfeiture sales all over the place. Time soften the jagged edges of War for most of the settlers many boosie Kerrigan was a little girl when she was captured and held for six weeks by the Dakota 40 years after the attack she wrote about the war and the friend. She lost any bitterness was replaced with a longing for the scenes in the images of childhood the creek near our home with a lovely white cherry blossoms were so (00:37:03) thick that they look like a white sheet little Pauline and many kits been my sister Augusta and I often brought our aprons full home to make Garland's out of them years after when I used to see the white cherry blossoms. I used to wish that I could go back and cover the graves of my little friends with the flowers they loved so (00:37:23) well. It was much harder for the Dakota to forget and forgive spurred on by public anger over the settlor killings the government (00:37:41) Hank 38 Indians in late December most historians now believe the convictions were based on flimsy evidence. They say innocent people were hanged in 1863 Congress throughout all treaties with the Dakota money promised the Indians instead paid the settlers War claims. All Dakota land was confiscated and in the crowning blow the Dakota were expelled from the state those Indians who had fought and those who had not were treated the same for good measure the Winnebagos were also kicked out even though they played no part in the hostilities 1862 is very real to us as Dakota people today historian Angela Cavender Wilson the problems that we have in our contemporary communities are Direct consequence of losing our homeland and it needs to be addressed the Dakota have been a divided nation since 1862 white civilization split the Indians into factions the government encouraged the Dakota to become Farmers Christians students Dakota traditionalist were angered by these new Indians. They might burn their crops kill their livestock or Worse. John Labatt has studied the war from all angles. His ancestors were Dakota and French. He says the Indian Nation fractured under the weight of the war (00:38:57) not all of the Dakota Indian started that war and not all of the people who fought in the War committed the worst atrocities that only a small group. Made all of the ins look bad little crow lid Warriors into battle but Chiefs like Wabasha. Well kutay and traveling hail opposed War many of the chief said killing settlers was wrong, but Labatt says they were ignored some of the onions were forced into the war by threat of death if they didn't join, some of the unions fled the area Some of the onions never involve they're out on their buffalo hunts, but they were blamed for the war. When the fighting ended Dakota turned against Dakota (00:39:40) some volunteered to serve as Scouts for the US Army most did it to escape exile to one of the new reservations Ed Red Owl of Sisseton, South Dakota says the Scout set up a screen of camps across North and South Dakota their job was to shoot any Indian returning to Minnesota as many as 300 were killed red owl says any Scout disobeying the shoot to kill order was subject to military execution. One of the chief Scouts here tells the account of encountering his own (00:40:10) nephew (00:40:11) and when he saw his nephew coming, he said I had tears in my (00:40:16) eyes, but yet I had (00:40:19) the orders of the United States Army (00:40:22) to fulfill (00:40:24) and so before my own eyes. I shot him until he (00:40:29) died. (00:40:42) After the war the Dakota became a transient people their new home was wherever the government decided to send them as one tribal website puts it the Indians were moved from state to state like a piece of unwanted baggage first to Fort Snelling then down the Mississippi River to Davenport, Iowa letters written by the Indian prisoners at Davenport are just now being made public the Flandreau Dakota are translating the letters. This one describes a disease-ridden prison camp. I'm going to tell you about something bad that I know I grew up on this Earth, but now for six months we are suffering greatly. I did not hurt anyone and now two of my younger brothers were hung and also to died of common death. I am the last of the Brothers Living because God had pity on me disease and Elevation followed the Indians to their next stop Crow Creek South Dakota some went South to Nebraska others wound up in Northeast South Dakota close to their old Homeland some ended up in North Dakota. And (00:41:43) Canada (00:41:47) time has not erase the divisions of War for the Dakota Ed read Al says, it's a nation split geographically and philosophically since 1862 consider. What some say is the modern-day economic savior of Indians casino gambling before 1862 resources were shared among the Dakota. But today bands rich on gaming profits refuse to share with those living in poverty at times there's instances of generosity of a band for some of their Western cousins in The Dakotas or Montana or Nebraska. But again, it's only a token. There isn't an overwhelming sense of responsibility as it once existed. He says the feeling also extends down to He says many Dakota have withdrawn from the world outside their home or reservation. If they try to reach out they often face discrimination and there's still evidence everywhere that the winners of History are in charge. Angela. Cavender Wilson says consider how the state honors Alexander Ramsey. He was Minnesota governor in 1862 in Redwood Falls, which is adjacent to the lower Sioux Community. There is a Ramsey Municipal Park and can you imagine being a resident or member of the lower Sioux community and every day being reminded that Minnesota celebrates the man who called for the extermination of our people but there are some Dakota who call this whining Lee Taylor is a former chairman of the Flandreau Dakota now working for the Minnesota Historical (00:43:20) Society, you know, we can't forget though. What happened in the past? We gotta learn from history. We have to move on. and learn how to get along together. I guess that can start with something as simple as recognizing that each life matters (00:43:39) in 1862 38 Dakota were executed in Mankato reporters wrote down their final words. They chanted a simple call for recognition. I am here. It's a cry that still Echoes today Tim post Minnesota Public Radio Minnesota's on Civil War was produced with reporting from Mark style Kate Smith edited the documentary Melanie summer was the web editor. There's much more information about the US Dakota war on our website, Minnesota Public Radio dot-org Americans of European descent. Somehow forget how poor their own immigrant ancestors were how foreign and threatening. They once seemed to the rest of America the Finns who came to Northern Minnesota has Iron Range at the turn of the century struggled against poverty prejudice and economic exploitation. They were leaders in the strikes and radical. Little movements of their time to recreate their story Minnesota public radio's Mary Lozier and Dan Olson collected voices from historical archives and interviewed descendants of Finnish immigrants. Their documentary is called Finland was a poor country. Every year on the first weekend of February (00:44:54) hundreds of people come to pelo a remote Northeast Minnesota community. So tiny. (00:45:00) It's nothing but a former School building in a clearing in the forest kids ride plastic sleds down a hill and out onto the frozen lake (00:45:08) others ride, a traditional Finnish wooden sled whipped round and round at the end of a long pole. This is the finished sliding festival or laski. I'm inside the old gymnasium a crowd listens to the Finnish national anthem people (00:45:25) put their hands on their hearts. The oldest ones know the (00:45:28) words. These are typical middle-class Minnesotans with cars and pickups and snowmobiles waiting outside in the parking lot. They're finished immigrant ancestors were (00:45:40) landless peasants (00:45:42) unskilled laborers or impoverished tenant Farmers people like Andy Johnson's (00:45:47) family who left Finland in 1906 when he was not quite 7 years old. He remembered the trip in an interview tape recorded when he was in his 80s. (00:45:57) Finland was a poor country. Grandpa was a tenant farmer. There was no future therefore father. And the rest of us we came in a wooden ship from Finland to England and then took it back, you know hardliner over crossed and across the Atlantic. (00:46:19) The Johnson family left Finland at a time when the population had grown dramatically and there was not enough Farmland to go around there had been famines in the late 1800s then in 1899 the Czar of Russia decreed that Finnish men could be drafted into the Russian army and tens of thousands of fins left for America. Many of them came to Northeastern Minnesota. Like the Johnson family. They were seeking jobs in the newly-opened iron mines. There are hoping for the chance to Homestead a farm of their own to be rich and free in America (00:46:53) either pick me up. When we enter the harbor of New York because everybody crowded to the railing to see the Statue of Liberty and I couldn't see it. I was that much short So she picked me up and held me. But the Johnsons came at a time when the best land (00:47:14) had already been homesteaded as they went (00:47:17) West they passed through (00:47:18) country that had been settled by immigrants who got their Generations before the fins. (00:47:24) We took the train from New York and we were on that trade day or night. I don't know how many days in how many nights and they didn't seem to be any end to it. I remember I was looking out of the window and watching the scenery Noise by in there was a beautiful place a beautiful Farm, you know, and I told Mama says well, why don't we stop here there but no he kept on coming (00:47:51) the family got off the train at Aurora Aurora new town where the air was filled with red dust blowing off the iron ore stockpiled from the mines, whatever they may have expected. It was not a place of boundless opportunity. They arrived with little money and speaking no English Andy Johnson's father joined the Immigrant work. Force people from Finland Italy Serbia Croatia and many other countries in the Iron Range mines. The main shaft the tower Sudan mine north of Aurora drops down half a mile through solid rock. The mine is a state park now and visitors can still ride the old elevator cars that lowered the miners into the darkness. The air is damn water drips from the ceiling of the car and runs down the window in tiny rivers of dissolved Red Dust finally the car slows and stops tunnels lead off into the Blackness Wilfred linon is a guide at the mine his great-grandfather worked here. My grandfather come in 1900 and he wrote back to his wife and Finland at in America. There's gold under every Rock. Cuz he got paid by the ton and so every time he picked up a rock and put it in the car. That's money. And the more of them he put in there more money made and he's making more money than he ever made before in his life. But the promise that Drew landless peasants like Linens grandfather across the ocean often faded over time, the miners worked 10 hour shifts six days a week moving the heavy or almost entirely by hand in a Darkness broken only by the flickering lights of the candles on their helmets. There were frequent accidents miners had to pay for their own equipment and supplies and sometimes after all their back-breaking labor ended up owing the company money in 1907 The Immigrant Workforce in the Iron Range mines went on strike many of their leaders were fins. We are striking for wages, but principally for an eight-hour day a young finish immigrant testified before the governor of Minnesota. If we lose this strike, Minnesota will no longer be a place where it will be possible for Finn's to live. The miners did lose the strike the mining company hired strikebreakers and armed guards to defend them workers who had struck were fired and blacklisted. The number of fins in the mines dropped by more than half Andy Johnson's father was among the workers who kept their jobs, but he and other fins had won a reputation with company officials Andy Johnson remembered it years later (00:50:40) this friend of my father's came from the old country and he he wanted me to go to one of the mines to ask for a job. So I went with him to Hudson mind out of Aurora so that the clerk at the offices what nationality is he? Well that surprised me out of you know, I was about 10 years old and I said he was a fan he's offended. He said we don't hire anything ladders. He says they're no good. I didn't know what to say John I turned around and walked out and John with the guy was our Swiss. He was he was asking me because the son of me that's just a know. What did he say? What did he say? I couldn't get the words out of me down the road a ways then I told him (00:51:31) Mining Company officials described thins as a surly Troublesome lat and complained about their socialist Tendencies many Finns were indeed socialists a movement that had made its way into Finland from neighboring Russia when the Tsar cracked down on leftists all across the Russian Empire many finish socialist leaders had to flee Finland. They came to America many of them to finish mining communities appalled that the conditions they found there. They helped lead the strikes. I must have been about nine years old when he was a great (00:52:05) strike the whole renew and on (00:52:07) strike in 1916 Mine Workers on the Iron Range went on strike a second time Lily Marie Mackey Isaacson whose father was a miner remembers workers of the World Unite. That's what I remember about it and I remember singing muscle has you (00:52:23) know, my father insisted that we go and marching and prayed and it was a (00:52:28) long train because (00:52:30) with all the workers naturally (00:52:32) going down the main street of babak was in the summertime and then our neighbor had a pop Factory. He had gone with this horse and wagon to the mines to sell pot and they shot him guards or whatever you call them. They killed him (00:53:12) Finland was a poor country was produced (00:53:15) by Minnesota public radio's Mary Lozier and Dan Olson. And that'll just about do it for midday today tune in tomorrow though. Gary Eichten will be back and his guests at 11 o'clock Governor. Jesse Ventura. Probably the governor's last midday appearance during his term. That's tomorrow at 11:00 Governor Jesse Ventura on midday with Gary. Eichten. I'm Mike Mulcahy. Programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by the blandin foundation committed to strengthening rural Minnesota communities online at blandin Foundation dot-org.