Blue Earth Banks

Mankato, MN, my hometown, is the site of the largest mass execution ever on US soil: a platform, 38 men hung, jeers and sneers of the masses. This is the aftermath of the US Dakota War. Growing up I remember a small plaque, referring to this historical event, lay hidden among the library shadows. Now, a public library sits on this site next to the Minnesota River—a waterway encased in blue clay shores. These are the voices I heard: the 38 Dakota. I hope we always remember the stories and lives of the Original People.

Their memory, do not let it lie fallow

On the blue earth banks

Which caught the 38 tears

As they spilled, shedding death amid jeers.

Mother absorbed them,

Heard them,

Entwined them in the River Minnesota.

Oh, Mankato. My Mankato, what have you done?

The shades of flesh are not

Red

Nor

White

But

Honor and dishonor,

Truth and deceptions,

Peace and fury.

So, Mother, continue your burial.

Swallow the 38 into your blue earthen clay,

Molding a fount to hold the tears:

Washing out the words sioux uprising and dakota conflict.

Mother, clasp the vibrations

Of their last voices rising to sing,

I am here!

From the water’s edge,

Let all remember and hear your funeral dirge in the currents of the River Minnesota.