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The historical displays at Fort Ridgely benefit the public, specifically as state park
employees provide landscape maintenance, upkeep of the historical markers, and carefully
worded displays to offer clear and precise historical information. However, a closure of the
museum, which houses more historical information and artifacts, halted the continued
investigation towards the public memory and commemoration of the U.S.-Dakota War. Also,
“[the] Fort was surveyed in the 1990s and archaeologist found prehistoric and Fort Ridgely era
artifacts where some of the golf pins and shooting ranges are,” says Anthropologist Michelle
Neumann during an investigation after visiting the Fort.15 While Fort Ridgely offers the public a
look at one of the military installations along the Minnesota River Valley, most of the fighting
took place in the hinterlands and small town centers of rural Minnesota.

Situated in Blue Earth County, the city of Mankato offers a sense of heartfelt sympathy
towards the Dakota population. On December 26, 1862, with the approval from President
Abraham Lincoln, the execution of thirty-eight Dakota men, mostly charged with rape and
murder, commenced in front of a largely white audience. This site would become one of the most
significant Dakota commemoration locations in the twenty-first century. Several parks offer
honorary monuments and sacred displays of their participation in the conflict. Minnesota State
University offers a larger cultural anthropological approach to Native Americans in the region.
Their study and attentiveness to protecting artifacts from indigenous people from a broad range
of time periods demonstrates that the memory of the Dakota is equally crucial to preserving the
artifacts. With their policies following the Native American Graves Protecting and Repatriation
Act (NAGPRA), the University continues to keep close ties with the Dakota, as well as other

15 Michelle Neumann, Minnesota State University Anthropology and Archaeology Department,
Interview by author, March 2016.