Saint Paul partners with Indigenous group for nature sanctuary

SAINT PAUL— Today, Mayor Melvin Carter announced a new partnership with Wakáŋ Típi Awáŋyaŋkapi to manage the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary during a celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day at American Indian Magnet School in Saint Paul with leaders and students.

This partnership will use traditional Indigenous methods to care for the 27-acre sanctuary, which is sacred to the Dakota. The goal is to restore the land and strengthen the connection between Indigenous people and these important local landscapes.

“Saint Paul is built on Dakota land,” said Mayor Carter. “We are proud to finally restore access and stewardship to this sacred site.”

The partnership shows how the Division of Design and Construction in the Department of Parks and Recreation has learned from Dakota leaders about their important landscapes and sacred sites in Saint Paul.

The Cultural Landscape Study at Indian Mounds Regional Park helped shape the Wakáŋ Típi Center, a 7,500-square-foot interpretive center at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary that will open in 2025. This center will have exhibits and programs designed to enhance understanding of Dakota history and culture while also serving as a place for Dakota communities to reconnect and revitalize traditional practices.

“Wakáŋ Típi Awáŋyaŋkapi plays a vital role in educating the East Side and Saint Paul on the Dakota experience,” said Saint Paul City Councilmember Cheniqua Johnson, Ward 7. “This partnership honors Dakota cultural heritage and strengthens community ties, fostering a deeper understanding of our city’s shared history.”

The organization received a $2.4 million Bush Community Innovation grant for its work. Recently, Wakáŋ Típi Awáŋyaŋkapi was recommended for $669,000 in funding from Minnesota’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund for restoration and environmental education projects at the site.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime for me to be able to work toward this reclamation of access, stewardship, and relationship with this sacred place for our Dakota people,” said Maggie Lorenz, a Dakota and Anishinaabe resident of Saint Paul and Executive Director of Wakáŋ Típi Awáŋyaŋkapi. “The work we are doing today is only possible because of the work and sacrifices of many before us. I see our work now as both a responsibility to those elders and ancestors as well as a responsibility to our children and grandchildren who will continue this healing work in the generations to come.”

Wakáŋ Típi is a sacred cave at the eastern end of the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, linked to the burial mounds on the bluff at Indian Mounds Regional Park. These sites are part of the Bdote area where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers meet, which is significant in Dakota creation stories. Over generations, various Dakota bands and other Indigenous Nations have gathered at Wakáŋ Típi to form and reinforce alliances.

“We are very excited to support the work Wakáŋ Típi Awáŋyaŋkapi is doing to develop and test this new model of Indigenous urban land stewardship,” said Mattie DeCarlo, Grantmaking Officer at the Bush Foundation. “The Foundation has a deep commitment to Native people and nations and supporting Native self-determination — this is one aspect of how that happens. This model of a co-management agreement is a first in Minnesota with the potential to shape the land management ecosystem regionally, allowing Native community members to reconnect to the land in a way that rebuilds their relationship with the land and reclaims Indigenous decision-making power. This is an innovative approach that others in the field are eager to learn from and we look forward to seeing its impact over time.”