Copyright © 2002 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

The 30th Annual Mahkato Traditional Wacipi will be held this year on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, September 20-22, 2002 at the Land of Memories Park, in Mankato, Minnesota. All are welcome. For more information, visit Canku Ota's Mahkato Wacipi web site or send email to: Vicki Lockard.

About the Wacipi:

Having a cultural event like this in Mankato is unique for two reasons. First, there are no reservations near Mankato. Secondly, the creation of this annual Wacipi grew out of a friendship, in the late 1950s, between two men, Mr. Amos Owen, a Dakota elder, pipe maker and spiritual advisor to many from the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Community (90 miles northeast of Mankato) and Mr. Bud Lawrence, a Mankato non-Dakota businessman.

As an outgrowth of this friendship, the first Mankato pow-wow since the 1800s was put on at the YMCA in 1965. Since 1972, an annual three-day traditional Dakota Mahkato Mdewakanton Wacipi has been held the third full weekend in September in Mankato, Minnesota.

In 1976, the Mdewakanton Club, a nonprofit organization, was formed. Members of this organization include Native Americans and whites from the Mankato area and Dakota communities.

The 1972 pow-wow or Wacipi in Mankato was held in Key City Park, a baseball park. The Jr. Chamber of Commerce Wives and the YMCA Y's Men Association, under Jim Buckley, Director, sponsored this pow-wow. Key supporters in the mid-1970s included the Zonta Club and the Chamber of Commerce. Between 1974 and 1979, the pow-wow was held in Sibley Park.

In 1980, the City of Mankato demonstrated its support by designating a park site named by the Dakota people as "Dakota Wokiksuye Makoce Park" (Land of Memories Park) for the Mahkato (meaning "earth blue" in Dakota) Wacipi. This site is seen by the Dakota as an area where many ceremonies and gatherings took place prior to the 1862 U.S./Dakota Conflict, which resulted in the execution of 38 Dakota warriors in Mankato, December 26, 1862.

The annual traditional Wacipi event is held to honor the 38 Dakota warriors who died in that execution, the largest mass execution in U.S. history.