Minnesota Indians protest state celebration

Minnesota Indians are protesting the state's 150th birthday celebration.

An estimated two dozen protesters blocked the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Wagon Train on Saturday. The train was making its way to Fort Snelling, where Dakota Indians were imprisoned in the winter of 1862.

That winter, 38 Dakota men were hanged on the orders of President Abraham Lincoln. The men had been arrested during a conflict with non-Indians in Minnesota.

About 75 protesters gathered at Indian Mounds Park on Sunday to pay respects to those who died. They marched to the Capitol and said the state was ignoring its past misdeeds.

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Celebration, somber protest at Capitol (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 5/12)
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Protesters decry 'shameful history' (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 5/11)