Relationships with Indigenous Peoples
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY ~ MANKATO, MN OCTOBER 5-9
All events are free and open to the public.
Click on one of the links below to read more about specific events
BLUE EARTH COUNTY LIBRARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESENT SCREENING OF DAKOTA 38 
The Blue Earth County Library System (BECLS) and Blue Earth County Historical Society (BECHS) invite members of the community to celebrate the final Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride on Monday, December 26. Following the traditional ceremony at Reconciliation Park, the BECHS will offer a screening of the award-winning documentary Dakota 38 in the Blue Earth County Library Auditorium, beginning at approximately 11am.
This year marks the 160 th anniversary of the hanging of 38 Dakota men in downtown Mankato on December 26, 1862, the largest mass execution in American history. Since 2005, descendants of those men have made the 330-mile ride from Lower Brule, South Dakota to Mankato on horseback in honor of the dead and in a spirit of reconciliation between the Dakota and Mankato communities. The ride concludes with a ceremony at Reconciliation Park at approximately 10am.
Following the ceremony, the BECHS will screen Dakota 38 in the library auditorium. The library will open its Main Street doors at 9:30am to make restrooms available to attendees, and refreshments will be provided courtesy of the Friends of the Deep Valley Libraries. This event, like all BECLS events, is free and open to all.
For more information, please call 507-304-4001.
Assisting the Dakota Riders with Breakfast on December 24
Diane Dobitz is coordinating with the Dakota 38+2 Ride from the Lower Bruhle Reservations to provide breakfast this year on December 24 at 7:00am at the Courtland Community Center, 300 Railroad Street, Courtland MN 56021, 507-354-5611.
The Fellowship is donating coffee for the event. Ten more 9×13 egg bakes are needed. Monetary donations will help purchase muffins and fruit. The following congregants are providing food, funds, or assistance: Sue Wiltgen, Cindy Backman, Teresa Neufelder, Rebecca Larrabee, Rev. Rita & Jeff Lowry, and Penny Herickhoff. Will you join them?! Contact Diane Dobitz for logistics and donations 507-995-9715.
See DAKOTA 38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pX6FBSUyQI to learn more about how the ride began. The film was created in 2008. UUFM made its Fellowship Hall available to and served a meal to the Dakota Riders that year.
Here at UUFM, we celebrate and honor the presence, identities, and work of the Dakota people.
UUFM Land Acknowledgement :
May we remember, no matter where in the United States we
meet for worship this morning, that
Indigenous people were first with the land.
Before European colonization, the Dakota peoples were stewards of
the land on which our Fellowship meets.
In Dakota language, Ina is the word for both mother and land.
Ina reminds us that we are all relatives,
all peoples and all beings, with the land itself.
The land does not belong to us,
though it holds the history of our conflicts and
our attempts at reconciliation.
This congregation commits to an ongoing and
intentional journey of lovingly humble connection with
Indigenous peoples, characterized by
understanding our shared history,
accepting responsibility for restoration, and
building relationship in the here and now.
Thus, we seek always to be good relatives.