Women of the Mississippi River

The narratives included in The Women of the Mississippi Project are important when discussing women’s history in the United States due to their lack of acknowledgment. They are also important to Minnesota history as some of the first women to cast their vote did so in South St. Paul. However, the ratification of the 19th Amendment did not mean victory for all. After years of activism, it was mostly White women who gained access to vote after the 19th amendment. Due to the deliberate lack of national recognition, narratives from non-white women are especially important to the dialogue surrounding the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment.

When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment in August of 1920, accomplishing the adoption of the amendment, Indigenous and African-American, in addition to other minority women, had several years of battle ahead of them before they could cast a vote. Not only did de jure discrimination and racism disenfranchise minority women, states also used physical violence to further hinder them once they obtained the right to vote.

The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act granted Native Americans citizenship four years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. However, this act did not equip Native Americans with full citizenship rights such as voting. In 1957, 37 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Utah became the last state to remove “state statutes preventing Native Americans from voting.” The Magnuson Act of 1943 granted citizenship to Chinese people in the United States, allowing them the right to vote. Next, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed eliminating discriminatory voting practices aimed at non-white voters. In theory after 1965 voting became an equitable practice among United States citizens-- in reality voter suppression continues to this day.

Nonetheless, the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment marks a historic moment for the United States. As such, this project aims to celebrate the voices of women and recognize their struggles and successes in a patriarchal society. The narratives included in this project are only a small portion of the incredible people who have helped shape the Twin Cities Mississippi River corridor into what it is today. A special thanks to the dozens of volunteers who researched, interviewed when possible, and wrote these stories. The Women of the Mississippi Project would not be possible without them.

As we observe the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, “National Parks across the country share stories of visionary women, trailblazers who dared to imagine a different future,” (National Park Foundation, 2020). Our contribution to the larger narrative is the Women of the Mississippi River project. The women highlighted here have worked within and outside of government to shape this incredible park. Some have risen to the highest levels of government service or private industry and others have led from positions unacknowledged by accolades or titles of distinction. We hope you read their stories and find an inspiration to connect with this water, this air, and this land that is the life source for all of us who live in the Twin Cities – and across the great American Midwest. Here’s to the Women of the Mississippi River.

In the ongoing struggle against capitalists who profit from continuously destroying the environment, Mary Hannah Gibbs Logan is an inspiring example of the power each of us has when we stand up and fight back, and a lesson in the importance of solidarity within movements.

In 1903, Mary was just 24 years old when she defied logging companies by putting her body in front of a gun to save the old growth forests in Itasca State Park.

State legislature barely established Itasca State Park as Minnesota’s first state park by a margin of one vote. The now 33,000 acre park in the northwestern part of Minnesota is best known as the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which starts in a lake so shallow in some parts that visitors can walk across it and hardly wet their ankles.

A bison kill site at the park tells us that 7,000-8,000 years prior, nomadic tribes hunted in the area. Burial mounds from people of the Woodland era—who predated the Dakota and Ojibwe—indicate that this group settled in the area a few thousand years later. (Minnesota DNR, 2020).

By the time the state set aside $21,000 to start purchasing the land from different timber investors, most of the forest around Lake Itasca had already been cleared. (How the land went from being inhabited by Indigenous people to being owned by logging companies is beyond the scope of this essay, but should be acknowledged.) At the time, logging was the state’s only major industry, giving companies power and leverage by wielding the almighty dollar. (Harvey, 2001).

Mary’s father, John Gibbs, served for a short time as the park’s superintendent starting in 1901. Mary and her family lived at the lake and she worked as her father’s secretary at just 22 years old. When her father unexpectedly died in February of 1903, the governor appointed Mary as her father’s successor. She is the first woman and the youngest person in the US to ever hold this position. (Harvey, 2001). At this time, women still did not have the right to vote, so it was unusual for her to act in a role appointed by a governor. (Prairie Public, 2016).

Logging companies used Lake Itasca and the Mississippi River to transport logs to the mills downriver. As the water began to rise behind a dam situated a quarter mile down from the lake, so too did tensions between the logging companies and the park. Water flooded the stands of pine in the park. The longer the trees sat inundated with water, the closer they came to dying. (Sidenote: we see this happening today in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, as increased flooding as an effect of climate change affects certain tree species’ ability to grow and survive in the spring.)

By April, water levels were more than double the amount agreed upon, and went against lake levels established by state law. Mary, just two months on the job, went to the dam twice in three days to ask the company to open the gates, only to be ignored. Nevertheless, she persisted. (Prairie Public, 2016).

Mary returned with an arrest warrant for the dam operator for violating the state law. Several angry workers and the lumber company’s superintendent were there to greet her, one armed with a rifle. Years later, Mary recounted the event in a letter:

“When Constable Heinzelman attempted to serve the warrant and order the gates opened, M.A. Woods [a lumber company superintendent] said, `I'll shoot anyone who puts a hand on these levers.' Constable Heinzelman then returned the warrant to me unserved. I said, ‘I will put my hand there, and you will not shoot it off either.’ And I did.'”

Mary was unable to move the levers herself, as it normally required 6 people to open the gate. Mr. Woods ordered the gates to be opened just before getting arrested. Rumors spread throughout the state that Mary threatened the dam operators with a pistol. A frontpage headline of the Minneapolis Journal that month read, “She had nerve, and a big gun.” (Harvey, 2001).

The next day the logging company’s lawyer threatened Mary with arrest if she ever returned to the dam, stating that it was she who was shooting off her gun and threatening the men at the site, although the injunction was overturned by the attorney general. (Prairie Public, 2016).

When she put her hand on the levers that fateful day, she took a stand against the entire timber industry. But just a week later, the governor, who was also one of the state's biggest log shippers, unsurprisingly replaced Mary with a new park commissioner. Mary did not feel solidarity from the state in her struggle to preserve the park, so she resigned. (Harvey, 2001).

Mary eventually moved to western Canada, got married, raised four kids, and died in Vancouver in 1983. She was 104. Her family didn’t know this part of her story, and it wasn’t until the state park dedicated the Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwater Center to her that any of them came back to visit the park. (Prairie Public, 2016).

Mary’s time as the park superintendent was short-lived—less than three months—and her showdown with the logging company was even shorter. While the governor would go on to allow two logging roads to be built through the park and the logging companies would nearly exhaust the timber in the area over the next 15 years, the water remained at levels low enough to preserve the park’s pine forest, due in part to Mary’s courage and persistence. (Harvey, 2001) 

This edition of Women of the Mississippi is dedicated to Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, whose significance is often relegated to simply being the wife to a more historically significant figure. However, she was much more.

Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, née Margeret Bonga was the granddaughter of Jean and Marie Jeanne Bonga, who were among 13 Black slaves captured by the British after a failed U.S. attack of St. Louis during the American Revolution in 1780. Thereafter, they became the slaves of Captain Daniel Robertson, a Scotsman who married into a Canadian family of New France. In 1782, the Bongas accompanied the Officer to Mackinac, Michigan, and following his death in 1787, became free (There are conflicting sources on the topic of their freedom, with some claiming that they were freed by Captain Daniel Robertson during his life). Jean and Jeanna Marie soon joined the fur trade, as Mackinac Island was an important hub of the fur trade among the Ojibwe and Ottawa people, the French, and British and American traders.

Their son, Pierre Bonga, having grown up in Mackinac became a successful fur trader himself. Bonga mostly worked within the Red River region, alongside the Ojibwe, and he soon married an Ojibwe woman, Ogibwayquay. They gave birth to several children, one of whom was Marguerite Bonga.

Marguerite Bonga and her lineage represent a remarke circumstance, in that she came from a prominent Black trading family, at a time when the slave trade was thriving not only within the south but also the so-called “free” states of the north. Additionally, she stood as a symbol of an incredible union between a Black trader and Ojibwe woman. At this time, mixed marriages between traders and Native women were a common way to establish kin relations and secure trading partners, however, these mixed marriages primarily involved White traders.

Yet, perhaps, what Marguerite Bonga is most known for is being the wife of Jacob Fahlstrom, who is widely celebrated as “the first Swede in Minnesota,” as it is a state where many are of Swedish Ancestry. Bonga and Fahlstrom married in 1823 when his work in the fur trade brought him to Minnesota, and while he has been memorialized, Bonga’s role in history has been largely marginalized. As such, not much is known about the story of Marguerite Bonga. However, due to the historical fact that Ojibwe women were central to the functioning of the fur trade, it’s unlikely that Fahlstrom would have risen to the social position, which has so captured historians and the public, without Bonga’s contribution.

Firstly, successful fur traders relied on marriage to Native women because their prosperity was directly correlated to the influence and skills of these women who joined communities through marriage. In addition, the Native wives of traders served as travel partners as opposed to staying home. They took on several laborious tasks, including providing assistance during the grueling process of portaging boats. Furthermore, at some trading posts, including those of the North West Company, Native women performed the duties of producing moccasins, stringing snowshoes, and making leather garments for their husbands, starting from the process of treating the skins, among several other duties.

This is all to say that Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom was almost certainly much more impactful that she has been given credit for and likely played a large role in the success of her husband, Fahlstrom. She was married to Fahlstrom for 35 years and had 10 children: John, Nancy, James, Sarah, Jane, George, James, Cecelia, George, and John (yes, they had two children named George and two children named John), all of whom were of a unique African, Ojibwe, and Swedish ancestry.

So as we remember Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, we must recognize her beyond her role as the wife of Jacob Fahlstrom. We must recognize that while history has largely relegated her to the sidelines, she has her own rich history.

Harriet Robinson Scott was an enslaved woman whose determination to free herself and her family made history. She and her husband, Dred Scott, spent years living in free territory in what is now Minnesota. In the 1840s, the Scotts sued for their freedom in Missouri. Their case made its way to the Supreme Court. In 1857, the Court ruled against the family. Dred Scott v. Sandford hastened the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. Historians regard it as one of the worst and most consequential Court rulings in U.S. history.

Slavery at Fort Snelling

Harriet Robinson was born enslaved in Virginia around 1815. In the early 1830s her enslaver, Lawrence Taliaferro, brought her to Fort Snelling in what was then the Northwest Territory.[1] Slavery was illegal there. But it was common for military officers to break the law by bringing enslaved people with them when they were reassigned to different postings.

In 1836, the man who would become Robinson’s husband arrived: Dred Scott. Scott and Robinson met and married in 1836 or 1837. Although the government did not legally recognize marriages among enslaved people, Taliaferro united the couple in a civil ceremony. He transferred ownership of Harriet Scott to Dred Scott’s owner, a military surgeon named John Emerson.

Over the next few years, Emerson moved the Scotts back and forth between free and slave territory. Their residence in free areas would become the centerpiece of their legal cases. At times, Emerson and his new wife, Eliza Irene Sanford, leased the Scotts out as hired slaves. They would work for other employers, and the Emersons would take their wages. Harriet probably worked doing laundry, cleaning houses, and caring for children. During one trip between Louisiana and Minnesota, Harriet gave birth to her first daughter, Eliza, on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. A few years later Harriet had another daughter, Lizzie. In 1843, John Emerson died, and left the Scotts to his wife. She sent them back to St. Louis from Fort Snelling, where they were again hired out to work for other people.

Freedom Suits

Three years later, Harriet and Dred Scott determined that they would to take action to win their freedom. They filed separate petitions in the St. Louis Circuit Court.[2] Their cases rested on their residence at Fort Snelling, in free territory. Several free states had laws on the books that held that if an enslaved person lived there for a certain length of time with their owner’s permission—as both Scotts had done—they would become free.

Other enslaved people had claimed their freedom in this way. The Scotts likely received advice from John R. Anderson, the pastor at the church Harriet attended. Their lawyers offered evidence that Dred Scott had been treated as a free man while living at Fort Snelling. They pointed out that Lawrence Taliaferro had performed a civil marriage ceremony for the couple.

The cases wended their way through the court system, and the Scotts endured years of delays and multiple appeals. In 1850, their lawyers decided to merge their two petitions into one, and Harriet’s name was dropped in favor of her husband’s.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Finally, in 1857, the case, now titled Dred Scott v. Sandford, reached the US Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the majority opinion. He argued that the framers of the Constitution had believed that Black people had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Enslaved or free, he ruled, Black people were not citizens of the United States. Dred Scott and other Black people therefore had no right to bring freedom suits.

The Court also struck down the Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery in most northern states and territories while allowing new areas in the South to enter the union as slave states. The decision contributed to the start of the American Civil War four years later.

Freedom for the Scotts

The loss of their case was a devastating setback, but the Scotts gained their freedom a few months later. Their owner—by then Taylor Blow—freed them on May 26, 1857. Dred Scott died of tuberculosis less than a year later. Harriet Robinson Scott remained in St. Louis as a free woman. She worked as a laundress for many years. She died at the age of 61 on June 17, 1876 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, one of the first Black burial grounds in the city. Although her name is not as well-known as her husband’s, her drive to secure freedom for herself and her family was equally powerful in changing the course of American history.

Notes

[1] Historic Fort Snelling is now part of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960.

[2] The first two trials of the case took place at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, now part of Gateway Arch National Historic Site. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. This site is also part of the NPS’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Pelagie Faribault (1783-1847) was born in Prairie du Chien, then part of the County of Illinois of the Virginia Colony and now an incorporated city in Crawford County, Wisconsin. Joseph Anise, who may have been Pelagie Faribault's father of French descent, was a British government interpreter and later was superintendent of Indian Affairs, working out of Mackinac, and both traded with and assembled Native American Councils at Prairie du Chien and St. Peter in the late 1780's to rekindle British loyalty. Pelagie’s mother “although sources disagree, likely...belonged to the Mdwwakanton band” (Goetzman, 2013).

Marriage

Pelagie married Jean Baptiste Faribault (1774/1775-1860) in a marriage "á la façon du pays" (in the fashion of the country), a type of common law marriage. Relationships typically formed between Dakota women and European fur traders for economic and social reasons and were not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Jean Baptiste Faribault was a well known early fur trader in the Minnesota Territory. Pelagie Faribault and Jean Baptiste Faribault were the parents of Alexander Faribault, who also contributed to Minnesota history.

In 1820, Pelagie and her family moved to Wita Tanka (Pike Island) on the Mississippi River, and in 1826, to the village of St. Peter or Mendota, Michigan Territory, opposite the military post of Fort Snelling. She died in Faribault, Rice County, Minnesota.

Pike/Pelagie’s Island

At the confluence of the Saint Peter’s/Minnesota River and the Mississippi River, just South of the site of the reconstructed Historic Fort Snelling, lies an island that is currently named Pike Island. It has also been known as “Pelagie’s Island,” located at the Bdote which “holds deep spiritual significance for Dakota, Ojibwe and Iowa tribes. ...There has been conflict over land use at these sacred places, as well as a struggle to have Dakota voices, stories and place names represented and respected” (Wright, 2020).

In 1805, Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813) received orders to “negotiate treaties with the Native Americans...to see that the agents of British fur trading companies were in conformity with American laws” and to “extend geographic exploration” (Schreier, 2000). Through a treaty “from the chiefs of the Dakota” of the land from the Minnesota River to the falls at St. Anthony and from the St. Croix river, Pike established a military presence in that area. Still, some sources say that the treaty was “not ever considered binding upon the Indians, or that they ever yielded up the possession of their lands” in that treaty (S. Rep. No. 193, 34th Cong., 1st Sess. (1856)). In 1819, the Dakota people were paid $2,000 in goods for some of their land and in 1820 the military fort construction began which became Fort Snelling above Pike Island.

Sources also say that in 1819 the Dakota people transferred Pike Island to Pelagie Faribault “a gesture that symbolized the Dakota value of honoring women” (Vaughan, 2020). In 1820, Pelagie Faribault and her family moved to Pike Island to establish a trading post where they farmed the land. In 1821, Colonel Snelling ordered Pelagie to leave Pike Island. Other sources say Pelagie and her family moved due to flooding. In 1825 it was understood that the “island in question was and is the property of Mrs. Faribault” (S. Rep. No. 193, 34th Cong., 1st Sess. (1856)).

Federal Government Recognition of Pelagie’s Ownership of Pike Island

Due to the value of the island to the U.S. military, the federal Congress recognized Faribault’s land claim to Pike Island. In 1858 the United States government ultimately paid $12,000 to Jean Baptiste Faribault (at least $240,000 in current equivalent value dollars) for Pelagie’s island, eleven years after her death.

At the time, in many U.S. states and territories, married women were not recognized in law as being capable of the ownership of real or personal property. Despite her status as a woman, her status as a person of French and Dakota descent, and her status as a person who was married in the “country custom” way rather than in a conventional European legal or religious manner, Pelagie’s land claim was recognized.

Eva McDonald Valesh was an investigative journalist and labor activist. She exposed unsafe conditions for women workers in the Twin Cities during the late nineteenth century and became a prominent labor writer and speaker.

Eva McDonald Valesh was born Mary Eva McDonald in 1866 in Orono, Maine into a working-class family. Her father John, who had grown up in Canada, was a carpenter and bridge-builder. When McDonald was eleven, her family moved to Minnesota, following work in the lumber industry. McDonald graduated from high school in Minneapolis at the age of fifteen. She went on to teacher training school, but found teaching "dreary." She began searching for another way to support herself.

Labor Journalist

McDonald soon got a job writing for a reform newspaper in Minneapolis, the Saturday Evening Spectator. She seized the opportunity to learn typesetting, a lucrative skilled trade, and to hone her skills as a journalist. In 1888, McDonald launched a column series for the St. Paul Globe, reporting on how working people were really living in the Twin Cities. She disguised herself in raggedy clothes and got jobs in flour mills and garment factories. With her slight stature and short haircut, she seemed barely into her teens. “I looked as if I hadn’t eaten a square meal in a long time,” she remembered later. She gained the trust of fellow working women and escaped the scrutiny of factory bosses.

Her first article, “ ‘Mong Girls Who Toil,” appeared in March of 1888 under the pen name “Eva Gay.” She reported on the poor conditions that women workers suffered. Long hours in crowded workshops with little light or ventilation. Dangerous chemicals and industrial machinery. Sexual harassment from male bosses and coworkers. Paltry wages. Her exposé of conditions at the Shotwell, Clerihew, and Lothmann garment factory on Second Street in Minneapolis prompted women workers there to go on strike. This was the first large women’s strike in the history of the Twin Cities.

Labor Agitator

McDonald became an in-demand speaker for the Knights of Labor, the Farmers’ Alliance, and the Eight-Hour League. She continued to work as a labor journalist, covering the 1889 Twin Cities streetcar strike. She ran (unsuccessfully) for Minneapolis school board, becoming one of the state's first female candidates for political office. After marrying Frank Valesh in 1891, she continued to work. Only a near-death experience in childbirth in 1892 curtailed her public speaking activities.

In 1896, McDonald Valesh moved to New York City with her son Frank and her sister Blanche. She began working for the American Federation of Labor (AFL), as the “right-hand man” of its president Samuel Gompers, a longtime friend. She also served as editor of the AFL’s journal, the American Federationist. McDonald Valesh was one of the few women in leadership with the AFL. By the early 1900s, it was a conservative advocate for native-born white men in skilled trades. The AFL discouraged the participation of immigrant, Black, and women workers. It would take until the 1920s for the women organized labor movement to be welcome in the AFL.

Eva McDonald Valesh remained on the East Coast for the rest of her life. After having a heart attack in 1919, she retired from the world of labor activism and spent the rest of her career as a proofreader for the New York Times. She died in 1956 at the age of ninety.

In 1953, Reiko Umetani Weston moved from Japan to Minnesota with her husband, Norman Weston, and her parents. That move would eventually lead to the redevelopment of Minneapolis’s riverfront.

Upon moving to Minnesota, Weston enrolled in classes at the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities. To keep her parents occupied, she opened up a restaurant called Fuji-Ya, meaning second to none in Japanese. Eventually, business picked up and she took on a more involved role. After the quick success of the restaurant, Weston began scouting out new, larger locations.

She was particularly attracted to a location near the riverfront among abandoned mills and railroads left behind by the great milling industry of the 1800s. Upon seeing the site of the 1870 Bassett Sawmill and 1882 Columbia Flour Mill for sale near St. Anthony Falls, Weston immediately contacted the real-estate company and made an offer. People told her she was ridiculous for wanting to move there, but she could see that beyond the industrial landscape, the mighty Mississippi would bring her and the restaurant luck as was believed in Japanese culture.

After acquiring the location, Weston, alongside architects Shinichi Okada and Newton Griffith, decided to build on top of the historic mill instead of destroying it. They designed the space by combining traditional Japanese style with mid-century modern elements. They also incorporated the sound of St. Anthony Falls into the experience by facing the entryway toward the Falls. Restaurant goers described their experience at Fuji-Ya as being transported to an “exotic place” crediting the traditional Japanese music, design, and of course, the food.

In addition to introducing Japanese food and culture to Minnesota, Weston hired women for what usually were men’s position back in Japan. Both her head chef and teppanyaki chef were women. Further, what is especially notable is the success she and Fuji Ya experienced in spite of opening during a period of anti-Japanese sentiment. Two of her many accolades include being named Minnesota’s Small Businessperson of the Year in 1979 and being inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame in 1980.

In 1988, Weston passed of a heart attack and soon after, Fuji Ya’s presence on the riverfront came to an end in 1990. After an ongoing dispute over the land that Fuji Ya sat on, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board paid “$3.5 million in exchange for the building and the roughly two acres of land” to develop West River Parkway (Tanaka and Moore 108). Although Fuji Ya is no longer within an ear’s reach of St. Anthony Falls, its legacy remains.

Through Fuji Ya, Weston reintroduced the beauty, value, and power of the Mississippi River to Minneapolis. In 1968, Barbara Flanagan wrote in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, “Nobody looked twice at the riverbank site until Mrs. Weston got there. Leave it to a woman to show the way. Now everybody’s interested in the river” (Tanaka and Moore 108). Since Fuji Ya’s establishment, millions of dollars have been poured into the development of the riverfront near St. Anthony.

Today, Fuji Ya has moved to uptown and its old location has been razed. Remnants of the old restaurant are located in the Japanese Garden at Como Park in St. Paul and some elements are to be incorporated into the new park, Water Works which will complete the existing Mill Ruins Park. In the old space where the critically-acclaimed restaurant once stood will soon become Owamni, a restaurant run by Sean Sherman, also known as the Sioux Chef. There, Sherman seeks to revitalize and reintroduce Minnesota to Native American cuisine.

Reiko Weston catalyzed the riverfront redevelopment that Minneapolis is still experiencing today by preserving historic elements of the city, inspiring others to do so, and ultimately sparking a lasting interest in the river. 

The Ebb and Flow of the Mill City River Front

When Elisabeth “Betsy” Doermann first became Secretary to the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board in 1988, she said she didn’t have much authority other than “the power of the Xerox and the computer to write the minutes.” But just a few years later, in 1991, she became the site manager for the heritage zone and gained a reputation as a person who gets things done.

When a national historic landmark, the Washburn A. Mill, was about to be demolished after suffering a catastrophic fire, urban archeologist Scott Anfinson knew what to do. “I knew if I could make one call, if I had my one dime to get out of jail, it was Betsy I’d call,” he said. Betsy worked through her network to preserve the charred mill from total annihilation by a well-meaning fire department.

The Washburn A. Mill was one of many sites identified as critical to the historical interpretation of the riverfront. In 1988, 72 miles of the Mississippi River running through the Twin Cities metro in Minnesota was declared a National Park Service site, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA). For the next two years, the heritage board developed a master plan that concentrated on three imperatives. First, identify the features of the riverfront: buildings, bridges, billboards, and other structures both manmade and natural that create a sense of place. Second, create a heritage trail linking those features. And third, create a visitor center. But, the entire zone was a mess. Betsy would go on to play an important role in ensuring the newborn park flourished as a national treasure.

The downtown area designated for the newly established heritage zone and the national river park had been abandoned for decades. Beginning in the early 20th century the mills began to shut down. The loggers left and in 1978 the last freight train crossed the Stone Arch Bridge. Many people turned their backs on the river that had provided all the energy to make the Twin Cites the flour capital of the world. The wake of the desertion left a filthy river, dark smokey air, and a population comprised mostly of homeless men. But Betsy, with her own natural energy and years of experience as director of the Hill House, held a different vision – a vision of history to transform lives.

To bring history to life Betsy used the same strategy used to create MNRRA. The river park was formed like no other national park. It was a partnership park forged by the convergence of the National Park Service and local agencies. The 72-mile Mississippi river park flowing from Anoka and Washington counties south to Hastings receives care and support from over sixty private and public partners along with the National Park Service.

Betsy knew of the park’s unique formation and understood the value of many partners. Under an act of legislation, the heritage board was required to have a certain number of elected officials. But Betsy knew more was needed. From the very beginning, she spoke to everyone from neighborhood organizations on up to the federal government. In the oral documentary she said, "Oh, boy, we used partners every place we could find them." She was known for saying, almost as a mantra, "This was a job far bigger than anyone agency could manage." With that mindset, she gathered partners.

Of all the concerns the Stone Arch Bridge captured Betsy’s imagination first. She re-imagined the old rail bridge, with its twenty-one stone arches as a pedestrian bridge giving three-hundred- and sixty-degree views of the river. Her mind was set on re-establishing the mighty Mississippi’s pride of place. The pedestrian bridge would be a link between the past and the future. It would link the east bank to the west bank so the river would not be a barrier to the heritage zone. Betsy reasoned that just as Minnesotans walk around lakes, Minnesotans should walk around the river. To those ends, her first success was securing the rights to transform the Stone Arch Bridge into a pedestrian - biking trail.

With the Stone Arch Bridge and the Heritage Trail secured, Betsy turned her mind to the visitor center. The Washburn A. Mill seemed a foregone possibility because of the fire. But architect Thomas Meyer, who did not abandon the cities but lived among the ruins had a plan for the scorched mill. The Museum of the History of Saint Anthony Falls, his graduate thesis project for the University of Minnesota in 1972 designed a museum with the river and the falls running through repurposed mills. (He said as a college student he didn’t have to be practical.) Two decades later in partnership with Betsy and the heritage board, the museum came to life from the ruins of the Washburn A. Mill. As with the first design, the new Mill City Museum incorporated the ruins, the river, and St. Anthony Falls. A new Mill Ruins Park would house the visitor center.

Within six years of Betsy’s appointment to the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board and the establishment of Mississippi National River and Recreational Area, the Stone Arch Bridge opened to the public. Two years later in 1996, The Heritage Trail was complete. In 2001 Mill Ruins Park and visitor center was the new home for National Park Rangers. And in 2003 the Mill City Museum was ready for guests. Betsy’s belief in history as a transformative power quickly transformed the blighted historical zone into a thriving national treasure. Together the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Zone and Mississippi National River and Recreational Area make the metros mighty Mississippi a place where people gather together once again.

Walking The Walk With Sharon Day

One foot after the other, Sharon Day walks the waterways of North America, leaving ripples of positive change across the spiritual, political, environmental, and cultural landscapes. Like a magnificent cottonwood holding both the land and water with its feet, Sharon bridges contemporary society with the sacred traditions and ever-important values of Indigenous ways. Weekly (and regardless of weather), Sharon can be found bringing together people while leading an Ojibwe Water Ceremony on the banks of the Mississippi, with the fundamental belief that when we are healing the water, we are healing all of life. Sharon’s feet are callused, and her will mighty like the river.

What Are You Going To Do About It?

When the HIV epidemic was devastating the Native American community in Minnesota during the 1980’s, Sharon was bluntly asked, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”. In Sharon’s words:

“Nobody wanted to work on HIV because they didn’t want to talk about sex. And they didn’t want to talk about drugs. They certainly didn’t want to talk about sex and drugs. And the lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations. Not something people really wanted to work on.”

Sharon, however, responded by launching the Minnesota American Indian AIDS Task Force in 1987, which embraced the challenge head-on by providing culturally-appropriate HIV education and direct services to the Native community in Minnesota.

Today, the effort has grown organically into the nonprofit called the  Indigenous Peoples Task Force  (IPTF), in which Sharon holds the position of Executive Director. IPTF continues its HIV prevention and healing work and has also positioned itself to respond to needs that arise in the community. Programs offered now include Asemaa (Tobacco Programs), Giikinoo-amaage-gidiwin Gitigaan (The Teaching Garden), and the development of a 12,350 sq. ft. community art and wellness center in South Minneapolis. The Mikwanedun Audisookon Center, which means ‘remember our teachings’ in Ojibwe, will provide ‘an urban sanctuary where body, mind, and spirit can become whole through time-honored Indigenous culture and practice.’

The Truth Is In The Youth: A Grandmother’s Leadership

A common thread that weaves into everything Sharon thinks, says, and does is youth empowerment and the commitment to co-create a better future for generations to come. This thread can be witnessed in the soon-to-launch  Indigi-Baby Foods  (a reclamation of growing and making available healthy traditional foods like wild rice, blueberries, and squash), the ongoing  Nibi Water Walks , and perhaps most vividly through the  Ikidowin Youth Theater and Ensemble .

With play titles like “We Will Do It For The Water” and “Everything’s A Circle,” Sharon’s artistic nature flows-freely while providing Native youth the opportunity to deepen their cultural knowledge, build community, and become thriving and articulate individuals. When speaking on the question of why theater, Sharon shares, “We needed to figure out a better way to tell our stories. And that’s what we do with Ikidowin Youth Theater.” As a respected elder for so many, Sharon glows with joy and heartfelt emotion when reflecting on story after story of various young people she has been able to teach and learn from.

There is no illusion presented from Sharon that we live in a perfect world. Yet, she continues to walk the walk. Sharon is a living embodiment of offering your best and trusting that good is already circling its way back.

Mona Smith is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota who grew up in Redwing, Minnesota. She had some exposure to her cultural heritage growing up, but she felt a disconnect like what she learned from her relatives wasn’t enough. This is not an uncommon feeling among the Dakota as most of them were removed from their homeland after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. American settlers had made the Dakota invisible in their own homeland. After moving to Minneapolis, Mona learned the missing pieces of her heritage and realized that she had unknowingly moved closer to the heart of the Dakota homeland. She saw this as a sign that she had a purpose in being there and she would end up taking action to reveal the truth of what happened and start the process of making the Dakota people visible in their homeland again.

Mona started out as a college-level educator, but she discovered that she really enjoyed working with video and she saw an opportunity to use her talent to give a public voice to indigenous people. She became a media producer creating documentaries that covered topics such as health, sexuality, and how spirituality and traditional values play a role in all of those topics. Her videos, including Her Giveaway (1988), That which is Between (1989), and Honored by the Moon (1990) have been viewed internationally and received multiple awards. In 1996 Mona would create Allies: media/art which is the media and art production division of Allies. This Dakota owned company would result in many partnerships and collaborations that would help share the voice of the Dakota people and their relationship with the Mississippi River.

A major shift in the direction of Mona’s work occurred when the Minnesota Historical Society offered her the use of a room to make an art installation. She created the Cloudy Waters: Dakota Reflections on the River installation that was opened to the public in 2005. This installation had a video projected into a pond with Dakota voices coming from a speaker above that described the Dakota relationships with the river, the trauma they experienced leading up to their exile from their homeland, and what they are doing now to heal. Nature video was projected onto the walls with nature sounds filling the room. There were two speakers that addressed the 1862 war with one giving voice to the Dakota hanged in Mankato and the other giving a brief chronology of the war. The audio from this exhibit would be installed in the Mill City courtyard in 2011 and the video projection was installed in the Science Museum of Minnesota in 2015. Mona found she preferred the nonlinear manner people used to explore the art installation, which is similar to traditional methods of Dakota teaching, making this one of her favorite media formats to work with.

Mona’s next art exhibit was City Indians in 2006. This exhibit featured a car trunk made to look like the back of a police car. The trunk’s purpose was to raise awareness of an incident where officers from the Minneapolis Police Department put two inebriated native men into their trunk to transport them to the police station. Video was projected into the trunk showing native people expressing how that incident affected them. This exhibit also had the first version of the Bdote Memory Map. In this instance, the map was a version of the area with American landmarks removed so only the rivers remained. Then there where some Dakota landmarks placed on the map such as Bdote, the confluence of the Ȟaȟáwakpá (Mississippi River) and the Mnísota Wakpá (Minnesota River). Post it notes were provided so people could add their own places and memories to the map. The role of this map was to show the Dakota homeland that is hidden by American development.

After City Indians, the Minnesota Humanities Center extended funding for the Bdote Memory Map and Mona created a website version of it, which can be found at  bdotememorymap.org . This version also has a simplified map of the area, but you can click on the points to learn about each location, see images, and play videos and audio to hear about each location from Dakota speakers. This map was also used as the basis for the Bdote field trip which takes participants to these sites to learn about their significance to the Dakota, the history of what happened to the Dakota, and how they continue to be affected today. Mona encourages people to go out and visit these sites, because to really know and understand a place you must experience it.

In addition to her roles as an artist and an educator, Mona has also participated in a variety of organizations in the community. She is a member of the Mapping Spectral Traces Network, a “trans-disciplinary, international group of scholars, practitioners, community leaders, and artists who work with and in traumatized communities, contested lands and diverse environments.” She is also a member of the Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Board which provides interpretive resources in the Saint Anthony Falls area. Bringing members of both of these groups together, Mona smith founded the Healing Place Collaborative. This collaboration brings people together that would normally work independently from each other for the purpose of healing the river and the communities the were created by the river.

Most recently Mona has been involved with two important art projects. She was one of three artists selected to create art installations for Bde Maka Ska in 2019 after the lake’s name was restored. She created a multimedia website which can be found at  bdemakaska.net . This website provides recordings of Dakota people explaining how the lake was an important location to the Dakota and how their culture is reflected in their relationship with the lake. It also explains the importance of restoring the lake’s name to Bde Maka Ska and features the other artists discussing their art installations. Mona also participated in the Hearts of our People exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2019. She created the video projection that welcomed people into the exhibit. The purpose of the entire exhibit was to showcase the art of native women and show how, despite the fact that previous exhibits have focused on the art created by men, most native art is created by women.

Mona Smith has done several important things for the Dakota and everyone else who lives along the Mississippi. She has shone a light on our history to remind us that there is another side to what happened versus what American settlers chose the record. She has also reminded us that this is the Dakota homeland and participated in restoring some of their landmarks so that everyone can see, understand, and appreciate them for what they mean to the Dakota. She also participated in efforts to teach the importance of Dakota sites to those who teach our children because every Dakota youth should be able to learn about their cultural heritage and those who are not indigenous should know about the people whose homeland they have grown up in. And finally, by sharing native voices and stories with us, Mona has shared part of the Dakota culture with everyone. For those willing to listen and learn, this can teach us to be better stewards of the Mississippi River because their teachings tell us to view the river as a relative instead of a resource.

“The very first pair I made was perfect,” said Ramona Kitto Stately as she recalled the first pair of moccasins she made, “I knew I had this talent but I did not know where it came from. It was before I read her obituary.” The obituary Stately referenced belonged to her great-great-grandmother, Pazahiyayewin (She Radiates in Her Path Like the Sun).

Pazahiyayewin and her husband Mazaadidi (Walks on Iron) lived along the River valley, approximately 40 miles from Fort Snelling in Husasa’s Village (near Morton, Minnesota) in the 1800s. In 1859, they birthed a baby at Pike Island, commonly known as Fort Snelling. Just three years later, Pazahiyayewin, her children, and many other Dakota women and children endured what no one should-- The Death March of 1862.

The march consisted of a 150-mile forced walk through battle towns of the US Dakota War, where Dakota women were attacked and their babies killed. Lacking men to do the hunting on the march, Pazahiyayewin did it herself, which “is a thing that Indian women never do,” to feed her children who cried with hunger. This happened later in Crow Creek. Hundreds of Dakota women, children and elders died in the six day Death March. Soldiers imprisoned her husband, Mazaadidi, due to his participation in the U.S.-Dakota War leaving Pazahiyayewin to solely care for her children during the Death March and for years to come. He later rejoined them in Santee, Nebraska where Pazahiyayewin lived out the rest of her life. She never returned to Minnesota, nevertheless her great-great-granddaughter did.

After growing up in Florida, Stately found herself drawn to Minnesota where her people had originally lived. Once in Minnesota, along with her family, Stately began researching her family history which brought her to the Mississippi River. “The Mississippi River has huge significance not only in our genesis and creation story, ability to thrive and survive, but then also our exile from Minnesota,” Stately said. Through her research, Stately learned about her great-great-grandparents' time at the concentration camp at the Bdote (a Dakota word meaning “where two rivers come together”) of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. “That river was used as a weapon later on. There is lots of history with the Dakota and that River,” Stately added. Although the Mississippi River was used to forcefully take Pazahiyayewin to Crow Creek, South Dakota and then to Santee, Nebraska, it also brought a sense of closure.

Every other year since 2002, Stately and her family walked the very 150 miles that Pazahiyayewin walked on the Death March of 1862, “We can’t tell our history until we acknowledge that suffering. So we did, we walked.” They stopped after 2014, “I felt that part of the healing was finished, so I made prayer flags and walked the Mississippi with Sharon Day and my children one more time,” Stately said, “It was a perfect way to close that ceremony and close those prayers and give our thanks to the Creator for being able to heal and make that journey. Those walks were along that river.” The Mississippi River brought her closer to her story and to her great-great-grandmother.

Through Pazahiyaywin’s obituaries, Stately learned more about herself than what she anticipated, “Her obituary said she made beautiful moccasins and that blew me away because I make moccasins,” Stately recalls, “That was a gift that was handed down those generations. The gift of knowledge.” Pazahiyaywin had been present throughout Stately’s life,“I realized her influence in my life. And I am grateful for that and I see it all the time.” The Mississippi River allowed Stately to further understand Pazahiyaywin’s story, “My connection to that place is really my pathway back to her memories and experiences and knowledge. And there is a disconnect between her and me and this relationship building is remembering again. Understanding and seeing the world in a way that is different and powerful.” One way of Stately connecting to her past and honoring her ancestors is through the art of making moccasins, “When you are making a moccasin, you are also reclaiming something that is lost, a way of walking on this earth and connecting to it.” Stately reclaimed her identity, her history, and honors it.

Stately is an enrolled member of the Santee Sioux Nation and is currently educating the public on the Dakota people’s connection to the Bdote and Twin Cities through immersive experiences. Additionally, she serves as the Project Director of We are Still Here Minnesota. Stately obtained a BA in Dakota Art and Culture, and a MAE-Teacher Leadership while working in Indian Education for the Osseo Area School District from 2005 to 2020 and has served as the Chairperson of the Minnesota Indian Education Association since 2018. 

Sharon Sayles Belton has a spring in her step as she peers over the edge of the Saint Anthony Falls lock wall to view the cascading falls below. She looks up at to the Minneapolis skyline along the Mississippi Riverfront, a landscape that she shaped as mayor from 1994 – 2001.

When you stand on the lock wall, nearly everything you see has been touched by Sayles Belton’s vision. “the goal was to bring housing to the south bank of the central riverfront. I went looking for a partner and called Peggy Lucas who worked at Brighton Development. She believed in the idea and developed the abandoned Northstar Woolen Building on the east side of Portland Ave. This project was the catalyst that attracted other housing and commercial development in the area.” Today thousands live along the  vibrant downtown riverfront .

She also knew that the crossing at Washington Ave needed improvement if people working downtown were to be comfortable walking to the river.  Open Book  and  The Depot  both took shape during her tenure – these project acted as catalysts for the transformation of Washington Avenue’s vacant lots into a thriving commercial corridor. The strategy was to link the rich history of the river’s past with a bold promise for a brighter future. Fortunately for Sayles Belton, those that believed in the potential of the revitalization of the riverfront outweighed the skeptics.

“The City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, the Minneapolis Park Board the State Historical Society all came together with the residents on both sides of the river to forge a partnership that would strengthen the neighborhoods, expand commerce and the city’s tax base and to top it off show respect and regard for the mighty Mississippi River.”

She says, one of her most memorable experiences on the river was, “walking across the fully restored Stone Arch Bridge [for the first time]. The once beautiful bridge had severely dilapidated over the years, I knew once restored it would attract a lot of people to come and marvel at the rushing water and the Minneapolis skyline.” Last year, the Stone Arch Bridge saw more than 2.1 million people biking, walking, and running over the river.

Sharon’s earliest memories of nature were at summer camp and in Girl Scouts. “I’m a strong advocate for young people to be exposed to the river. I grew up going to camp on the St Croix River. You learn how to live with nature, and enrich your experience through being outdoors.” For her the river is a great metaphor for life.

“If anybody stops to think about it: ‘Water is Life’ and it is important for us to protect this critical life source. The first nation people lived along the banks of the Mississippi River. Many of their settlements were along the river.”

She is a strong champion of Wilderness Inquiry and their programs that give children and youth in the Twin Cities an opportunity to experience the river – and is very passionate about those first introductions catalyzing life-long relationships with the outdoors.

“More people need to understand the importance of the river. Some people take [it] for granted. There obviously have been times in our history where we turned our back to the river and didn’t pay attention to what it meant to us. Looking forward, I strongly believe that there will be more citizens, more groups, and more city council members that will come together, share our history, and continue to put safe guards in place so that our Mississippi River is protected for future generations for the prosperity for our state and region.”

She also acknowledges that there is more work to do. Recalling a river trip to the confluence of the Minnesota and the Mississippi Rivers, she saw the dark, muddy water of the Minnesota River mixing with the clear, clean water of the Mississippi River.

“My heart was broken.”

“We should all be environmentalists. By that I mean protectors and advocates for clean air and water. Add access to food, shelter and health care too. These are the basic things we need to live and thrive. Sayles Belton believes that we must all be steward of this work. She added “if you care about what happens with future generations then you have to get involved and you must vote.”

It is important for people to remember that democracy is ours. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to engage in it. If you don’t vote, then you voice will not get heard.”

She remarked that there are people that literally put their lives on the line to vote. There is no excuse for us today, but there is much to lose if we fail to vote. “Vote now.”

Looking forward, Sayles Belton is still catalyzing the future of Minneapolis and the river, “I just wish more people could watch the mud roll into the river. There is so much more to the story. And so much that we can all do …together!”

Over the course of three decades, Peggy Lucas through Brighton Development Corp., which she co-founded, shaped Minneapolis’ riverfront as it is known today. Many of the mills that used to power the Milling City still stand thanks to much of the work of Brighton Development.

Their first project, Lourdes Square, was where the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. once stood. At that time, Minneapolis’ riverfront was run down and abandoned. Lucas said that former Minneapolis mayor, Sharon Sayles Belton, challenged her and her partners to bring back stakeholders to the city (Buchta). They built 40 Georgetown-style brick townhomes and successfully brought back stakeholders.

After that project, they continued looking for opportunities along the riverfront. Lucas explained, “The old mills were crying for help [and] the mills were the right size project” for Brighton Development. So began the many historic preservation projects that Brighton Development often did. They went on to work on projects at North Star Blankets, the Washburn Crosby Mill, and helped in creating the Mill City Museum. Lucas said, “Building on the history made it special [and] history anchors the place.”

The riverfront that Lucas and Brighton Development began working on in the 1980s and 1990s looks unlike the riverfront people have come to love today. Lucas explains that there is “a lot more activity on the river [and] on any weekend day, there are hundreds of people on the river.” It contrasts the forlorn riverfront of the past and is now a major attraction. She cites the opening of the Stone Arch Bridge as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge as a turning point that transformed Mill City “into a neighborhood.” She thinks of the bridge somewhat like Minneapolis’ own Eiffel Tower.

When asked about the importance of the river in this area, Lucas responded that, “The river is why we’re here—in the early days it was for the water power and indigenous people were attracted to the river. It’s one of those great rivers that is symbolically and economically important.”

Now, Lucas is retired and Brighton Development is no longer taking on new projects, though they still own and manage properties along the river. She said now, she is cheering along the City and hopes that they capitalize on the right moments to make the city better. 

The Minnesota Master Naturalist Revolution on The Mississippi National River

The story of the Minnesota Master Naturalists (MNats) program began in 2005, when director Amy Rager and her team received a $1.7 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to fund their dream project. Amy, also known as the Prairie Woman, and her cohort worked for the next 15 years (and counting) to build a corps of well-educated conservation volunteers dedicated to making the world a better place to live, work, and play.

With Amy’s leadership, the program grew quickly over the years and thrives today. In 2019 alone, the volunteers plugged 58,895 service hours; traveled 15,547 hours; drove 488,237 miles; cared for 608,564 acres; reached 333,338 people; logged 83,985 total hours and sowed a total value of $2,364,198 dollars into Minnesota’s natural habitats.

Amy and the program’s success lies with her intimate understanding of Minnesota’s ecology and her passion for conservation through education and action. “We live in a beautifully biologically diverse state, with four major biomes,” Amy said. [This is not common in a state without mountains.] “This means we can dig deep and learn about each of those ecosystems without ever leaving our state.” It also means that the MNnat curriculum and textbooks she and her team curate dig deep and wide, amassing a web of knowledge that is just as complex as the ecosystems’ connectivity.

Each unique biome course stems from Amy’s affinity for and understanding of the whole of Minnesota. The trainings are delivered through the University of Minnesota Extension and are described by Amy as follows:

Prairies and Potholes, for the far Southwestern Prairies of waving grasses and beautiful colorful flowers.

Northwoods, Great Lakes, for the Northeastern boreal forest with its evergreens, rocks and waterfalls.

Aspen Parklands in the northwestern corner, large tall burr oaks, and prairie grasslands as the understory

Bigwoods, Big Rivers, the Deciduous Forest with the remnant forests, and the mighty Mississippi River winding through the state.” 

It is in this last biome we find Prairie Woman’s influence on the Mississippi River. The character of the river changes more throughout the 72-mile urban park than it does anywhere along its 2,350-mile course. The park provides diverse cultural and historical learning opportunities, while the trails, beaches, and green spaces provide a wide range of recreational opportunities. Most uniquely, the river park provides a space for urban human-wildlife interaction.

Master Naturalists are trained to serve both, acting as interpreters and tour guides. They monitor aquatic, avian, and terrestrial species and they work on habitat restoration in the National Park Service’s expanding urban conservation initiatives. That the majority of MNats live in the Twin Cities speaks to the timeliness of the Master Naturalist program and the dedication to urban conservation as an organic process–the first in history–to meet the needs of an aquatic urban wildlife corridor.

Unlike other national parks set far off from human society, the urban river park cannot be expected to be wholly self-sufficient. To that end, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is the first-ever partnership park with over sixty public and private agencies supporting it. Volunteers can choose from many areas of interest to devote their time. Amy’s Master Naturalists reinforce the reciprocal relationship that exists between humans and nature. It is a relationship much like that envisioned by ecologist, environmentalist, and author Aldo Leopold, where all people are empowered to autonomously build a better environment than the one we inherited from the 20th century. Autonomous citizens, educated and taking ownership of our shared environment, is a revolution in education, conservation, and democracy. This partnership park is a revolution in the National Park Service. The torrent of volunteer opportunities available to the Minnesota Master Naturalist program has built a strong and unending stream of people willing to give of themselves to ensure a diverse and flourishing future for all. The Minnesota Master Naturalists rising from Amy Rager’s program are a gift to conservation and our shared future along the mighty Mississippi.   

“I’ve been on a canoe in the Mississippi River,” said U.S. Representative Betty McCollum, “If you would have told me I would have done that in the 60s and 70s, I would've said you are freaking crazy! No way would I be on that river, no way!” 

McCollum grew up with a much different Mississippi River than the one people are recreating on today. 

“My view of the River was a working river. The Mississippi was never a place where people ever thought of recreating,” said McCollum, “The river was so filthy and had been abused,” she continued as she reminisced on her early childhood days in South St. Paul during the mid-20th century.

McCollum remembers her hometown, South St. Paul, as a “working middle-class town,” with railroad tracks, heavy barge traffic, and a municipal airport. She recounts South St. Paul “had wonderful amenities to it; Good schools, we had swimming pools when other places didn’t have them, and we got a sewage disposal plant.” Yet, in addition to the waste disposal from the meat packaging companies, the sewage disposal plant overwhelmed the river “so it would smell. The river smelled,” McCollum said.

Apart from the smell, the river would often overflow causing people who could afford it to move to the bluffs along the river and out of the river basin where flood walls lacked, while others were left with significant damage. 

Due to the constant flooding in the late 60s, only male students at McCollum’s high school would get released to sandbag.

“They didn’t want us down there because of the rats in the river,” McCollum said. Yet, the rats did not stop McCollum. “Some of the girls would get in trouble and we would go down there because it was the 70s and it was [the era of] women’s rights,” she said.

Just like McCollum and her friends defied sexist standards, so did other women in her life. 

“Women have always been there; they have always been working hard; they have had a fight, however they chose to do so,” she said. “So I watched some of the women in the family be in a fight to do clean up in different ways.” Her grandmother fought by recognizing and talking about the wrongful pollution plaguing the river. McCollum recalls her own mother fighting the river pollution by teaching McCollum and her siblings it was wrong and by teaching them to be actively engaged in local politics. Both her grandmother and mother ingrained in McCollum a sense of responsibility for the river and the environment.

The state of Wisconsin sued St. Paul and the state of Minnesota in the 70s due its constant pollution to the Mississippi River, and so came the mandates to rehabilitate it. McCollum thought of this as a step in the right direction.

“I was paying attention and that was exciting.” Thus began a transformation for the Mississippi River and subsequently work for McCollum and fellow elected officials. As a Minnesota State Representative in the 1990s, she joined colleagues and a group of Mississippi River representatives to begin cleaning up the river and telling the river’s story. The city of St. Paul contributed to the cleanup by using federal funds to improve their water separation system and to upgrade their sewer facility.

“As a State Representative, I worked on raising our state share so we could match the federal share so we could do the cleanup,” McCollum said. 

In 2000, McCollum marked a historic milestone for Minnesota as just the second woman elected to Congress since the state’s founding in 1858. Here, she worked on the federal side of the funding equation.

Due to McCollum’s work and that of many others, the Mississippi River began to transform and slowly become the river known to the Twin Cities today. McCollum rejoices in seeing wildlife return to the river.

“The bald eagles have returned. I did not see bald eagles down there when I was a kid. You didn’t see the herons in the way you do now… It’s been just fabulous seeing that happen.”

McCollum also recognizes the women who took part in making the transformation possible.

“You see women being engineers for sewer and water systems, you see women who are environmental engineers involved in the cleanup. Women are playing a role and taking back the river from it being this sea of pollution and, quite frankly, stink, to it being something people want to be engaged in and connected with in a very positive note in recreating.”

Currently, McCollum also serves as the chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee and continues to work on the Mississippi River. Her Fiscal Year 2021 funding bill includes the Mississippi River Restoration and Resiliency Strategy directing federal agencies to work together on ways to improve this vital waterway.

“I look at the river as part of the neighborhood in the one home that we all share, which is planet Earth. We have a responsibility to each other to leave that in better shape than we found it.”

McCollum takes that responsibility to heart.

“It’s an honor, it’s a privilege. It’s exciting, it's historic.”

Peggy Knapp has been around rivers her whole life - she was even born at a confluence of rivers in the state of Washington! She says she came to the Mississippi River through education and storytelling in media, which encouraged her deep understanding of relationships to the river at a cellular level.

One of her first forays into working with the Mississippi River was a documentary she helped produce about the historic 1993 flood called, “In Nature’s Wake”. This was not the river of her childhood. As she reported, she was struck by the Mississippi’s ability to completely overwhelm all man-made structures around it, the magnitude of flow rate increases, and the incredible services the river provided.

As a professor at Hamline University, Peggy encouraged students to consider all the different kinds of relationships they have with the river - historical, musical, hydrological, and beyond. She saw these same students begin to realize that no other relationship was separate from their relationship with this water. The Mississippi was her stage for telling this story. One particular day, Peggy took a group of teachers out on the water in canoes in the middle of our park. After locking through at St. Anthony Falls lock and dam, the group continued downstream and eventually took out south of downtown. Thirty minutes later, the I-35W bridge collapsed into the same water where their boats had been just minutes before. It was moments like these that made learning on the river unforgettable, while terrifying and tragic.

Peggy is most proud of her work with  Freshwater Society , developing a program called  Master Water Stewards . She knew that people care about water but they just don’t always know where to start to take better care of it. Master Water Stewards trains volunteers in urban water management and community organizing setting them up to be local leaders. Stewards now number more than 300 in Minnesota. You can find them building raingardens, advocating for smarter salting policies, educating their neighbors, and leading the volunteer program with your local national park (like our Environmental Stewardship and Volunteer Manager, Mary Hammes). Stewards are a direct response to the needs of those who keep the river clean and also a program that meets volunteers where they are at: starting with what people can do and what they want to do, and giving them options to accomplish a cleaner river, which, of course, everyone wants! We are so grateful to our own volunteers, like Laurie Bruno, who are also Master Water Stewards and bring that unique perspective to serving with us.

Peggy’s work has brought thousands of students, teachers, and volunteers to serve the water of the river. Her impact is best felt by reading her own words. She is adamant that, “If we continue to put any other thing as more important than water, we cannot sustain life. Things will fall apart. Water is the only thing that does what it does. There are absolutely no substitutes. If we put any other issue above it, we don’t have a future. We need to question anything that emphasizes anything else over water. This must be our value system. We don’t teach it. And we have to.”

From 2007 to 2017, I was fortunate to call Anne “boss” as she served on Mississippi Park Connection’s board of trustees. While I’ve known Anne in a professional capacity for a long time, I was excited to get the chance to get to know her better and ask questions about her interesting life and many accomplishments. I feel like I only scratched the surface of Anne’s contributions to Saint Paul and to the river over the arc of her life so far.

Early bonds to the river…

Anne has been living and working near the river her entire life. Born in Saint Paul, Anne grew up in South Saint Paul on a bluff overlooking the river. She and her siblings loved playing in the ravine behind the house. “The bald eagle was supposed to be extinct in my lifetime. It’s been amazing to watch the improvements in water and air quality since that time.” An immersive trip to the BWCA in high school and a summer job in Glacier National Park cemented her lifelong dedication to working for environmental causes.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Anne got involved in student government and Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), which gave her a crash course in community organizing and collective action. After graduation, Anne went to work at the Neighborhood Energy Consortium, which focused on urban residents having a positive impact on the environment. During her tenure, she met Chris Coleman who was active in his Frogtown neighborhood. Anne would end up working for Mayor Coleman as his Environmental Policy Director.

The power of showing up…

Anne has clocked more hours that anyone I know at community meetings, both in her personal life and professional capacity. Her early work as a community organizer taught her the value of listening to people, honoring their history and making sure that you have a variety of voices in the room during planning efforts. “I learned a lot from community leaders like Gloria Perez and Patty Tototzintle who fought for the Latinex community on the West Side.”

Might want to sleep with your life jacket on…

Anne’s nearly 20 years living on a houseboat in Saint Paul gives her immediate cred as a river rat. She has vivid memories of living through major floods on the river, including 1997 and 2001. Each night, after checking the lines for debris, Anne and her black labs would curl up in the lower cabin, with a life jacket, a marine radio, and Upper River Services on speed dial.

She sold the houseboat a few years ago but she can still see the river from her home. “I miss the houseboat, but indoor plumbing is an amazing accomplishment.”

You can see Anne’s fingerprints everywhere along the river in Saint Paul. As co-founder of the St. Paul Bike Classic, she ignored the skeptics about how many people would sign up (2,100 in the first year) and created a much loved annual event for the city. Some of her dedication has had immediate results—saving majestic Cottonwood trees from the axe at Harriet Island to pulling out hundreds to tons of refuse out of the river with Living Lands and Waters. Other efforts can take decades but persistence can pay big dividends for the community. “Plato boulevard is finally going to connect people of West Saint Paul to the river. We’ve been working on that for over 20 years! Kids will be able to ride their bikes to Harriet Island on a bike lane.”

I’m sure they will enjoy exploring the river and resting in the cool shade from the Cottonwood Trees.

In her current role as Director, Office of Enterprise Sustainability, Anne supports Minnesota state government agencies' efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy and fuel consumption, waste, water use and procure sustainable products.

Do you enjoy biking along the Mississippi River Trail, kayaking along the Mississippi River Paddle Share route, or thumbing through the Mississippi River Companion to plan your next adventure? If you have experienced any of these, you have one of the park’s first employees, Susan Overson, to thank. But Susan will be the first to tell you that none of her accomplishments were possible without the strong partnerships that define the success of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA). Many of which she cultivated during her 26-year tenure as a Park Planner.

With a background in Natural Resources and Landscape Architecture, Susan began working for the National Park Service (NPS) in Denver. She was offered a temporary position that brought her to MNRRA, where she carried on advocating for the river until her retirement in 2018. When Susan first arrived at the park in 1992, there were only a handful of employees. Susan was hired to assist with the creation of the park’s Comprehensive Management Plan. This Plan incorporated feedback from the public, local agencies, and organizations. It provided a framework to coordinate efforts to protect and interpret the national significance of the Mississippi River. After the Plan was approved by the Secretary of Interior, Susan and the park were able to award grants to community projects, like restoration activities.

With a unifying mission, rooted in the river’s significance, Susan went on to establish the Trails and Open Space Partnership (TOSP) – a group of planners from cities, counties, regional parks, non-profit partners, and more. The TOSP, led by Susan, aimed to create a continuous trail and open space corridor along both sides of the Mississippi River within the park. The group worked together to identify gaps in trails and open spaces, design solutions, and secure funding to complete the work. As a collective, they were able to advocate for these projects and prioritize their completion. One significant achievement was connecting and developing the Mississippi River Trail – a 10-state bikeway that follows the Mississippi River from it’s headwaters at Lake Itasca to the Gulf of America and is a prominent feature within our park. This partnership model was essential to accomplish this work and still meets today to continue the vision Susan established.

Another significant accomplishment through partnership efforts was the creation of the park’s Alternative Transportation Plan. Susan developed the plan to create multi-modal access throughout the corridor. This plan has leveraged over $17 million to provide visitor access to the park while minimizing impacts to the park’s resources. Susan was able to expand the Mississippi River Companion-- a comprehensive park guide map that features points of interest and alternative transportation access opportunities nodes throughout the river corridor, to include alternative transportation opportunities to access the river, including bike trails, light rail, bus, and river access. – Through this focus on alternative transportation, Susan’s planning efforts helped welcome Nice Ride bike-share to the Twin Cities. Communal bikes allow users to experience the river by a means other than a personal vehicle. This collaborative effort resulted in a strong partnership with Nice Ride MN that provides access to the river for all.

From this alternative transportation idea sprung Susan’s proudest achievement: the creation of the Mississippi River  Paddle Share . Susan created the first kayak-share program in a National Park. Kayaks are retrieved from a unique kayak “locker” or station that holds the kayak, life jacket, and paddle. Users paddle downstream, experiencing the river from a new perspective. Stopping along the route is encouraged to explore river islands, animal habitats, remnants of industry, and features of the working river. After paddling downstream, the kayaks are returned to a designated return station where a bike share station is available at some locations to return to your starting point. This program has welcomed many paddlers to the Mississippi River for the first time and received several national awards. It is intended to be accessible for all and has grown to involve more locations and additional adaptive kayaking equipment at Pickerel Lake in St. Paul. Rooted in Susan’s vision and strengthened through partnerships, the program continues to thrive.

Throughout her 27 years of service to the National Parks, 26 years of which were at the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Susan advocated for the public lands, responsible development, protection of park resources and access for all to experience places of national significance. Susan’s work for the park continues to shape land management decisions. Her work ensures that land manager’s actions uphold the Mississippi River as a nationally significant feature in need of our protection and restoration efforts. Susan greatly improved the visitor experience and I think of her legacy every time I cross a bridge over the river and notice the brown road sign and iconic arrowhead indicating the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.