River's Name Disrespects Native Culture

[What's in a Name?]

Change the derogatory name of the Rum River to its sacred Dakota name

March 2, 2006

Environmental Activism

By Thomas Dahlheimer

I am an American Indian rights activist who is spearheading an international movement to change the profane and derogatory name of a Minnesota River, the "Rum" River. My website is located at: www.towahkon.org

This river received its current profane name by way of a faulty translation that desecrated the sacred Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate's sacred "name" for the river (Wakan) translated as Spirit or Sacred. In April 2003, I established a non-prophet organization to help me change this river's derogatory name.

My organization's name is Rum River Name Change Organization, Inc..

And I, along with the other members of this organization, have established an environmental committee that is in the process of establishing an environmental movement with a mission to help clean up this beautiful but badly named river.

Russell Means, an internationally known American Indian activist, sent me the following Nov. 04, 2003 letter of support. "To Whom it may Concern: I hereby support the movement to change the derogatory name of a Minnesota River, the White Man named Rum River. In my language,
"Wakan" is Holy. I support the effort to return this Minnesota River to its rightful name Holy Water. Perhaps it will quit being polluted as well.

David Gonzales, an American Indian environmental activist once wrote an article and then managed to get it published in Minnesota's best selling state-wide daily newspaper. It promoted the formation of a group of American Indian environmental activists who would then canoe from Mille Lacs Lake down the badly named "Rum" River to its confluence with the Mississippi River. And do so, in an effort to change the dominant culture's collective attitude toward the rivers in particular and water in general. In his article he presented his groups plan to take a canoe journey down
the Wakan/"Rum" River to its confluence with the Mississippi River and while doing so, stop along the way and set up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations along the river as "environmental schools" to promote American Indian environmental awareness.

In his article, David Gonzales wrote: "The environmental crisis necessitates that we speak for the rivers and water as a place to care for, make safe, and enjoy."

The environmental crisis also necessitates that the Rum River Name Change Organization's envisioned Wakan/"Rum" River environmental movement becomes manifest and that it too speaks for the Wakan River,
as well as for other bodies of water, as places to care for, make safe, and enjoy.

If this envisioned environmental movement becomes manifest, its activists, in an attempt to change the collective attitude, will canoe from Mille Lacs down the Wakan River to the sacred two-rivers area where
the river meets with the Mississippi River in Anoka, Minnesota.

And during this canoe journey, these environmental activists will come in contact with riverside communities, and this will symbolize their theme that
the Wakan River, and all other rivers, are sacred arteries for life.

And they will set up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations located along the Wakan River as environmental schools to promote public awareness.

And they will make use of American Indian language to change attitudes. During their canoe journey they will be promoting respect for the sacred American Indian word wakan, the sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name for the "Rum" River. This sacred American Indian word wakan not only means sacred, holy and spirit, it is also used as a Dakota/Lakota/Nakota name for the (Great) Spirit.

In the late 1700s, white men took the sacred Dakota name for the "Rum" River Wakan, and then, by way of a "punning translation", translated the sacred Dakota name for the "Rum" River (Wakan) to mean an alcohol
spirit, the alcohol spirit rum. They then, unfortunately, named the river
"Rum". By doing so, the sacred Dakota name for the river was desecrated. And because the Dakota word Wakan is derived from the
Dakota name for their Great Spirit (Wakan-Tonka) , the "Rum" River name, therefore, indirectly desecrates the Dakota name for their Great Spirit. And what makes the white men's naming the river "Rum" even worse is the fact that...at the time when the river was named "Rum", Rum was bringing misery and ruin to many of the Indians.

The Rum River Name Change Organization's environmental activists who will be canoeing down the Wakan/ "Rum" River will be promoting the effort to revert the name of the "Rum" River back to its sacred American Indian
name Wakan. And they will, by means of promoting respect for the sacred American Indian "name" for the "Rum" River Wakan, attempt to change the collective attitude, so that our nation's cultural mainstream people become eco-conscientious protectors of the Great Spirit's rivers and other bodies of water. And as these environmental activists search for a way to
change attitudes toward rivers and water - and of course the earth - American Indian language will become more and more important to them, hence they will become more diligent in their mission to revert the badly named "Rum" River back to its sacred American Indian "name" Wakan.

Near Summertown, Tennessee there is a large and very successful youth of the 1960s hippie countercultural commune with a world-view behind the word wakan. This hippie countercultural commune's founder and leader is
Stephen Gaskin. Gaskin was a Green Party candidate for President in the year 2000. And in the 1960s, another leader of the hippie countercultural revolution, who occasionally met and spoke with Stephen Gaskin, visited me in Wahkon, Minnesota , the headquarter of the Rum River Name Change Organization. His name is Richard Carter. And he is now an bi-nationally known environmentalist and one of the Governor of Arizona's
top environmental advisers. Note: The word wakan is sometimes spelled wahkon.)

And at the 1983 Tekakwitha Conference, a conference that represented hundreds of tribes, I was interviewed by the conference's keynote speaker (Matthew Fox). Matthew Fox is an internationally know environmentalist. And during that interview, I informed Fox about my "world-view behind the word wahkon" environmental mission. And during that interview, Matthew Fox told me that he would like for me to keep in touch with him, so as to keep him informed about the progress of my "world view behind the word wahkan" environmental mission. And after sending a letter to Matthew Fox, wherein I informed him about my movement to change the derogatory name of the "Rum" River, he sent me a letter of support for my
effort to change the river's name.

And National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans has also given its support for the effort to change this river's derogatory name.

I am hoping that the envisioned Wakan River environmental movement will soon become manifest and that its participants will then fulfill our
environmental committee's initial mission, by canoeing from Mille Lac Lake down the badly named "Rum" River to its confluence with the Mississippi River; and in the process stopping along the way and setting up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations as "environmental schools" to promote American Indian environmental awareness.

And I am also hoping that there will soon be a formation of a group of America Indian environmental activists, who will then canoe from Mille Lacs Lake down the badly named "Rum" River to its confluence with the Mississippi River, and in the process also stopping along the way and setting up colorful tepees and camps at key environmental locations as
"environmental schools" to promote American Indian environmental awareness.