Let’s honor those buried on Pamida site

I have been following the news about what may or may not happen with the Pamida property now that the store is closing. I think this is a great opportunity for the Bemidji community to fully acknowledge that there are at least 22 Dakota people buried there, under the pavement, and honor them.

This is a well documented fact; feel free to contact the cultural resources director at the Minnesota American Indian Affairs Council for more information. That entire stretch of river shore, as well as the shores of Lake Irvine and Lake Bemidji hosted many burial mounds. The Pamida site originally had a large mound and burial ground on it. Much of it was bulldozed prior to Pamida being built. When the store was constructed, however, 22 bodies were found. The remains were determined to be from the Dakota tribe, which was in Bemidji prior to the Ojibwe. The bodies were covered in concrete, the construction of Pamida was completed and the store opened for business.

Needless to say, this is not the proper way to lay some of Bemidji’s first inhabitants to rest. The Dakota left this area after a period of conflict with the Ojibwe. Soon after that, non-natives began to move here. As someone who is both Ojibwe and non-Indian, I feel very strongly that there should be a monument at the gravesite and the area should be protected, not by a slab of concrete but with a fence, grass and plantings, so the remains will be undisturbed.

As a child I remember hearing my parents and other community members discuss all of this with rage and disgust. We never went there to shop. No one in my family has ever shopped there. The Headwaters Science Center is a wonderful place to take children. We take the children in our family there often. If the Science Center is moved to the Pamida building, we cannot take the children there without contradicting what we have taught them about respect and honor for those who have gone before us.

It is time for us to make things right. We need to erect a monument and transform the grave area into a proper burial site. Better late than never.

Megan Treuer

Bemidji