Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community

Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community is a Dakhóta community centered in Mendota, Minnesota. The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community (MMDTC) is an organization that works to sustain and cultivate Dakhóta cultural practices, help their enrolled community members, relatives from other communities, the displaced Urban Indian population of the Twin Cities, and exercise tribal governance. The MMDTC is not federally recognized, however, it is in the process of seeking federal recognition by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. The community offers activities such as an annual pow wow, spiritual and cultural outlets, teachings and venues, formal Dakota language instruction, and is actively engaged with partnerships and collaborations with sister Dakhóta communities, organizations, and the broader Seven Council Fires diaspora in Minnesota and beyond.

The Dakhóta people are the original inhabitants of the land that is now known as Minnesota, specifically centered around the modern day Twin Cities, Mille Lacs Lake, and Minnesota River Valley. The name "Minnesota" comes from the Dakota "Mni Sota," which was used as the name for the Minnesota River and means "cloudy water," which was then used by settlers as the name for the entire state. The Minnesota River has a strong cultural significance for the Dakota people as the place where it joins the Mississippi River, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is known as Bdóte, which the Dakota people consider to be the place they were created. This is close to other important sites to the Dakota people, including Oheyawahi-Pilot Knob and Coldwater Spring.

Before American colonists made contact with them, Dakota people had lost much of their northern lands in wars with the Ojibwe people, who themselves had been forced westward in conflicts with colonists and had therefore acquired the advantage of guns and ammunition before the Dakota. The first official contact between the Dakota and the United States Government was the 1805 Pike's Treaty, in which the U.S. was able to establish a military fortress, Fort Snelling, and the land that became the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. This meant the loss of the area around Bdóte, and so the heart of the Dakota land. Many treaties were later signed with the U.S., sequestering the Dakota people into smaller plots of land with each successive treaty, culminating in the conflict known as the U.S.-Dakota War.

The U.S. Dakota war was incited when U.S. officials refused to provide promised food items and goods, leading to widespread starvation and death within the Dakota reservations, particularly along the Minnesota River. Following this, the remainder of the Dakota in the Fort Snelling camp were ordered into exile outside of the state of Minnesota.