Ask Us: The reason Sitting Bull is behind that fence in N. Mankato – Mankato Free Press

Q: Dear Ask Us god,

Why?

A: This brief question was accompanied, thankfully, by a photo of a statue of a Native American behind a fence topped with barbed wire at the North Mankato Public Works Center.

The question is a couple of weeks old, and before Ask Us god, um, Ask Us Guy could get around to calling North Mankato officials, it came up at Mondays City Council meeting.

Its been suggested that the Native American chief statue currently positioned behind a fence is insensitive and perhaps maybe should be placed in a more appropriate setting, North Mankato resident Barb Church told the council during the public comment portion of the meeting. When the gates locked, it looks like were fencing in the Native chief.

City Administrator John Harrenstein provided a brief response and Mayor Mark Dehen a longer one.

Harrenstein said the statue is only behind the fence until it can be cleaned and placed in a city park.

I reject any perception or comment that where its placed is a place of dishonor, Harrenstein said. Its actually preparing it to be restored and moved on, and well be doing it as quickly as we can.

The mayor provided some additional background information about why the statue is in the lot along Webster Avenue.

We have been gifted the statue of Sitting Bull that was made by Tom Miller a number of years ago, Dehen said. It used to reside on the corner of Sherman and Belgrade, and the property owner donated that to the city. ... We intend to clean him up and make him a bright and beautiful statue again the way he was when he was crafted.

Dehen said plans are in place to meet with Miller, a longtime local sculptor, citizens and members of the Native American community for advice on a proper location to honor Sitting Bull and the history we have with North Mankato and the Native community.

Sitting Bull doesnt have a direct connection to the Mankato area. He would have been roughly 30 years old and living with his Lakota people in the Dakota Territory when the Dakota War of 1862 erupted in southern Minnesota, ending with the execution of 38 Dakota warriors across the Minnesota River from where North Mankato would later be founded.

But the Dakota War prompted the U.S. Army to retaliate against even bands that hadnt been involved, including Sitting Bulls Hunkpapa Lakota people. Over time Sitting Bull became a key leader in the resistance against the Army, against white settlement and against the arrival of railroads, according to online histories.

Sitting Bull is best known as the spiritual leader of the Lakota and Cheyenne people when they won a legendary military victory over Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in eastern Montana in 1876. He remained defiant even in the face of an onslaught of troops that followed Custers disastrous defeat at Little Bighorn, eventually leading his band across the border into Canada in 1877.

By 1881, with bison nearly extinct and struggling to keep his people fed, he returned to Fort Buford in Montana to surrender, saying, I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle, according to the website of the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center in Chamberlain, South Dakota.

He died at the Standing Rock reservation in 1890 and his remains were later reburied in Mobridge, South Dakota, to be nearer his birthplace.

Miller, who sculpted the Winter Warrior statue outside of the Blue Earth County Library, did not have a commission for his earlier work of Sitting Bull. He told The Free Press in 2007 that hed been working on and off on the statue for about 17 years. He later sold it to Jon Pluto, who lived at 615 Belgrade Ave. It was Pluto who recently donated the statue to the city.

Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, P.O Box 3287, Mankato, MN 56002. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com; put Ask Us in the subject line.

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Ask Us: The reason Sitting Bull is behind that fence in N. Mankato - Mankato Free Press