BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) — A new exhibit at Bemidji State University explores the relationship between Native Americans and both the federal and state government.
A Bemidji Pioneer report (http://bit.ly/12wGihY ) says the “Why Treaties Matter” exhibit describes how pacts were forged and how they’ve affected life for the state’s Dakota and Ojibwe people.
The exhibit was created out of a partnership between the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, the Minnesota Humanities Center, and the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian.
More than 10 percent of treaties ever signed between the U.S. government and American Indians involved people and land in what is now Minnesota. Some pacts involved transferring land from Native American to U.S. control and others allowed Indians to keep their lands.
The free exhibit runs through Aug. 22.
Information from: Pioneer, http://www.bemidjipioneer.com