The Wild Reed: Oheyawahe

Sunday, October 03, 2021

Oheyawahe

Recently my friend Karla and I visited Oheyawahe (also known as Pilot Knob), a hill in Mendota Heights, Minnesota that is considered especially sacred to the Dakota people. I too found myself experiencing it as a very special place.

The image above shows the north slope of Oheyawahe, “a hill much visited,” also known as Wotakuye Pahá, “the hill of all the relatives.” These names were given to this place by Dakota people centuries ago.

Oheyawahe (which can also be spelt “Oheyawahi”) overlooks the confluence of the Minnesota (or Mnísota Wakpá) River and the Mississippi River, which for the Dakota is the center of the world. The hill has long been a gathering place for Dakota, Objibe, and Iowa people, and a place for ceremonies and burials. In the 1830s, for instance, Charles La Trobe described a “tomb of an Indian chief” at the summit of Oheyawahe.

The area is currently undergoing restoration to oak savanna, led by Great River Greening, a local non-profit. Conservation grazing (using horses, goats, and sheep), has been used to help restore and maintain native grassland. A trail system has been established, including three scenic overlooks, which connects to the Big Rivers Regional Trail. Oheyawahe is also situated within the Mississippi Flyway, a bird migratory route that goes from central Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Above: My friend Karla at Oheyawahe – Saturday, September 25, 2021.

Above: That’s downtown Minneapolis pictured behind me on the horizon. The Mendota Bridge can be seen at left. It crosses the Minnesota River just before if flows into the Mississippi River.

Notes the website Native Voices:

The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree – all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life.

The Medicine Wheel can take many different forms. It can be an artwork such as artifact or painting, or it can be a physical construction on the land. Hundreds or even thousands of Medicine Wheels have been built on Native lands in North America over the last several centuries.

The Treaty of Mendota was signed at Pilot Knob in 1851. The treaty ceded 25 million acres of land west of the Mississippi (much of southern Minnesota) to the U.S. government. During the Dakota War of 1862, Dakota people were forced into an internment camp on nearby Pike Island (below). Some of the many Dakota who died that winter were buried on Pilot Knob.