Dear Community Member,

The Honoring Dakota Project team reaches out to you today with humility and gratitude. We are fast approaching a significant milestone, the creation of the Honoring Dakota mural. In the coming weeks, the Honoring Dakota Mural will be painted on the City of Red Wing building located at West 3rd and Bluff Streets. This location, directly off the Eisenhower Bridge of Valor at the entrance of our community, and He Mni Can- Barn Bluff in close proximity, is a wonderful place to celebrate and honor the Dakota people and their contribution to our community.

Today we invite you to contribute to this gift, which will be presented to the Prairie Island Indian Community on October 9th, 2023 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

During the past several months, through the Honoring Dakota Project, our community has created a space for the celebration and preservation of Dakota culture and history. The Honoring Dakota Project has offered a platform for healing and reconciliation, both for members of the Dakota community and for non-Indigenous community members seeking to learn more about the shared history and culture of the land. We have asked people to consider their relationship to themselves, their community, and their environment through building community and collective solidarity.

Accountability is relational. The Honoring Dakota Project mural invites the broader community to embrace a fundamental Dakota understanding: “Mitakuye Owasin” - We are all related. It is a rare and precious opportunity to practice proper representation and inclusion - two communities within a larger community working to address and repair personal, interpersonal, and historical trauma. Through the power of arts and culture, this mural will represent the Dakota Peoples’ rightful place in our community.

We are overwhelmed by how the community has shown up with responsiveness and open heartedness. We are inviting you, our community, to make a financial contribution to support the gift of the mural to Prairie Island Indian Community. Additionally, you are invited to attend the mural dedication on Monday, October 9th, where we will stand together as a community and present this gift.

Thank you for considering this request. Your support is greatly appreciated and will go a long way in making this project a reality.

Please contact Kim Lampe, Honoring Dakota Project Manager at kim@redwingarts.org with questions and/or feedback.

Sincerely, The Honoring Dakota Project Team

Offline contributions can be mailed to Red Wing Arts, 418 Levee St, Red Wing MN 55066

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