RED WING, Minn. — Dakota people from several communities gathered at a repatriation site in the Red Wing, Minnesota, area beginning Monday night, Sept. 8, to plan for the week’s events. They gathered at a quiet place atop a gently rolling terrace surrounded by trees on one side and farmland on the other.

Earlier the same day, Prairie Island Indian Community cultural resource workers completed preparations for the return of ancestral remains, along with hundreds of funerary items.

Taken from burial mounds in southeast Minnesota, the remains had been held by Minnesota institutions for many decades.

Beginning Tuesday morning, the Prairie Island Indian Community held ceremonies to rebury the remains of 59 people and almost 500 sacred items. The ceremonies are a part of the tribe’s ongoing c

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