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The 2008 Wakan Wakpa (Rum River) Canoe Expedition offered a group of inner-city Dakota boys from Minneapolis and St. Paul to paddle the natural artery of their ancestors.
 Their 165-mile paddle—from Mille Lacs Lake to Minneapolis—commemorated many important aspects of Dakota history and culture. The expedition departed from the Mille Lacs headwaters the morning of Tuesday, June 24, with the group getting 32 miles behind them that day. Unfortunately, the low water forced the canoeists to walk over several stretches.
“The next day, we encountered a number of downed trees which forced several walk-arounds through muddy, boggy areas,” replayed group member Jon Lurie. “And then, of course, the bugs were horrendous.”
But Lurie quickly added that meeting those challenges on each leg of the voyage was rewarded with being wrapped up in the natural setting. Highlights included sighting an “incredible number of eagles– three variety of eagles– all along the route,” described Lurie.
The group picked up steam and was a good full day ahead of schedule when it passed through Isanti County July 26-27.
“You can see why the European men took the interpretation as a spirit-filled river. The headwaters stretch is so pleasant and so beautiful,” continued Lurie. “But the lower stretch is full of so many challenges. It’s like a sacred quest where it forces the boys to grow up in order to complete the trip.”
 The Rum, known for centuries as Wakan Wakpa (Holy River), is an important spiritual and cultural artery to the Dakota who, until 1745, lived at Mille Lacs (Mde Wakan) and considered it the center of their world.
Canoeists Ches Lorenzi (left) and Joey Deala pose with an eagle feather found along the route.
“These young people are taking the initiative to scout the length of the river in order for their tribe to become familiar with it, and in so doing, reclaim their tribal legacy,” says LeMoine LaPointe, director of the Healthy Nations Program at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.
Healthy Nations, an Eliminating Health Disparities grantee agency of the Minnesota Department of Health, is sponsoring the expedition.
LaPointe says reclaiming the Rum River is important to the health of the Dakota community.
“Over thousands of years of repeated use of that river Indian people saw something there that was good for them, and infused that into their physical and spiritual health. Knowing and interacting with that river had an enormous positive impact on them.”
LaPointe says it’s also important to the health of Native American people that the river be called by its original name.
“Rum is a pollutant, a destructive chemical. It’s not a poison river, it’s a holy river,” he said. “That river has contributed to the development of successful tribal communities for thousands of years. Recognizing it as Wakan Wakpa, Holy River, reattaches a positive connotation that will be felt in mind, body and spirit in many different ways.”
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