Ramsey County History Fall 2023 – From Lower Phalen Creek Project to Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi

A Sacred Dakhóta Site Inspires Community Renewal: From Lower Phalen Creek Project to Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi
Authors: Daniel W. McGuiness, with Maggie Lorenz

In the 1970s, land below St. Paul’s bluffs along Phalen Creek to the Mississippi was a mess: toxic soils, polluted water, an abandoned dump site—all on what is sacred Dakhóta land. East Side activists assembled as the Lower Phalen Creek Project (LPCP), and, with help from other organizations, created a community vision to transform the site, daylight sections of the creek, and establish the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. Along the way, members better understood the sacred and historical importance of the land around them. They connected with and listened to Dakhóta community members and invited Dakhóta leaders to the board. Under Dakhóta leadership, the vision of the group transformed, as did the organization’s name—Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi (WTA). Daniel W. McGuiness, an early member of LPCP, and Maggie Lorenz, executive director of WTA, share this history in “A Sacred Dakhóta Site Inspires Community Renewal: From Lower Phalen Creek Project to Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi.”

PDF of D. McGuiness & M. Lorenz article