Photo by Cynthya Porter
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While Winona, or Wapasha's Prairie, is the ancestral home of only some of the Native American people who will converge on Lake Park this weekend, for many others it is a symbolic homecoming of mind and spirit just the same.
From sunrise to sundown, Lake Park will host opportunities for reconciliation, for understanding, for celebrating, and all visitors need do is come with an open mind to experience it.
Saturday and Sunday, East Lake Winona will be the site of the 3rd Annual Hdihunipi, the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming at Wapasha Prairie.
Through homecoming games, ceremonies, feasts and conversations, people from the Native American nation will open their arms wide in a gesture of reunification, of sharing, of education about a culture that was nearly decimated a century ago.
In exchange, those not of Native American heritage are invited to observe, to participate, and to open their minds and their hearts to a culture that the area's European ancestors nearly destroyed not long after settlers landed on Wapasha's Prairie.
Building the bridge of understanding, of acceptance between the cultures during the past two homecomings, has forged bonds much bigger than the people of Winona and Native Americans who attend, organizers have indicated.
Rather, this Hdihunipi sends a message to Native Americans across the Upper Midwest and Canada that there is healing going on, and it is happening here.
Celebrated as a good example that other communities could learn much from, the Great Dakota Gathering this year will draw from the upper tiers of educators and participants in the Native American community.
For example, according to organizer Lyle Rustad of the Diversity Foundation, with something along the order of only 20 quillers (an ancient Native American craft) in the country, as many as six of them are expected to be demonstrating their skills on the shores of East Lake Winona.
The homecoming will also draw in storytellers from various tribes around the region, as well as drummers, dancers and craft people.
In what will be a living history encampment, visitors to the homecoming can learn about the Dakota language, tipis, toys and games used by early Native Americans.
And visitors can share unity meals throughout the weekend by purchasing an event button, bonding elbow to elbow with people who today may have as much in common as that which sets them apart.
For more information on the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming, see the advertisement in this issue of the Winona Post or visit www.dakota- homecoming.org.
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