"Preserving a people’s history is sacred work in any culture.

Tangible artifacts, photographs and documents help define us individually and as a society and provide a connection to the past allowing us to continue with a strong sense of who we are into the future. Such a collection also is instructive to others now and in the future who want to better understand a culture’s thinking and actions.

The American Indian Culture Research Center on the campus of Blue Cloud Abbey near Martin preserves a 45-year-old collection that documents the Dakota people. Started by the Rev. Stan Maudlin, a Benedictine that the Dakota called “Eagle Man,” the collection faces a move because the abbey is closing in early August.

Director Colleen Cordell has the right idea in promising that the 40,000 photos, hundreds of taped oral histories, countless books and clothing and artifacts of the Dakota people will remain together in a location somewhere on the Plains. While she is looking at options, a new home has not been chosen."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Preserve Dakota collection (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 7/15)

Also Today:
Indian history center's fate tied to closing of abbey (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 7/7)