Eden Prairie seeks to document its untold Indigenous history

Long before Eden Prairie’s documented history of immigrant settlers began in the mid-1800s, another story unfolded along the area’s rivers, hills, and streams – a story largely untold. While books chronicle the arrival of newcomers, the voices and experiences of the Indigenous people who called this land home for generations remain whisper-quiet.

Some resident volunteers who serve on the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) hope to remedy that.

With encouragement from the Eden Prairie City Council, the commission is moving forward with hiring a researcher and writer whose work may eventually result in a book detailing the city’s Indigenous history.

That researcher and writer is Paul Maravelas, author of “The History of Big Island, Lake Minnetonka,” which includes chapters on its earliest residents and the Dakota people. The book was published in 2023 by Minnetonka Press.

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Maravelas submitted the only formal proposal after the HPC recently invited Indigenous history experts to consider working on the project. Now, the commission will develop a contract for Maravelas’ work, said Beth Novak-Krebs, a city staff liaison to the HPC.

The research and writing of a manuscript is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $37,000, and editing and publishing costs would be on top of that. Funding for the project hasn’t been identified, though city officials say two possibilities are state grants or revenue from the sale of retired Eden Prairie street signs.

Bloomington’s work leads the way

One of the inspirations for the local project is Bloomington’s work to commission “Lines on the Land: How Dakota Homeland Became Private Property; A History of the South Loop District to 1900,” by Peter DeCarlo.

The South Loop is a redevelopment area in Bloomington, located south of Interstate 494 and east of Highway 77. DeCarlo’s historical story begins with the retreat of glaciers 12,000 years ago but mostly details how the Indigenous homeland of the Dakota became U.S. property and later the property of U.S. citizens.

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Novak-Krebs says commission members really liked what had been done in Bloomington in 2021. “The HPC got very excited about having something similar in Eden Prairie,” she said.

“The commission for years has been interested in telling the story of what happened prior to early settlement. There are a number of books written about the early settlers of Eden Prairie, and there’s a strong desire to look at what happened prior. And I think the Historical Society is also very interested in that,” Novak-Krebs said.

“They didn’t want something too academic,” she added. “They really want a book that reaches a broad audience. It’s about education; it has to be something that can be read and understood by lots of different folks.”

Interest in Indigenous history is growing

Existing books on Eden Prairie’s history include “Eden Prairie: The First 100 Years,” by Helen Holden Anderson; “Eden Prairie,” by Marie Berger Wittenberg, and “Heritage: Preserving Eden Prairie’s Past,” by Daniel Hoisington.

Those books don’t hold much detail about Eden Prairie before its settlement by white pioneers. Meanwhile, interest in Eden Prairie’s Indigenous period is growing.

The HPC began reading a land acknowledgment statement at the start of its monthly meetings in 2021. The statement begins, “It is important to acknowledge that we are gathered upon the ancestral, traditional and contemporary homelands of the Dakóta.” It goes on to pledge “to recognize, support, collaborate with and advocate for Indigenous People, and to consider the convergence of legacies that bring us to where we are today.”

In 2023, the HPC formed subcommittees to take on various projects and keep them moving forward. One subcommittee was named Native American History and Outreach.

Out of that came the book project.

Artifacts already collected by the Eden Prairie Historical Society are considered integral to the future book’s artwork. Novak-Krebs said she is convinced there are stories to be told, including those about the sacred Red Rock and the paths and trails Indigenous people traversed – many of which form today’s roadways.

This area was also once the site of one of the largest Dakota summer villages in Minnesota, according to Maravelas. A small group of Dakota people returned to Eden Prairie in the 1870s following the U.S.-Dakota War and provided the core for what became the nearby Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.

Evidence and artifacts of local indigenous history have also come from a case study tied to the 2014-2019 reconstruction of Flying Cloud Drive, which parallels the Minnesota River in southern Eden Prairie. Hennepin County’s project to raise the road to prevent flooding required an archaeological and cultural resources study, and that study – performed by the 106 Group in collaboration with local governments and tribal officials – resulted in an award-winning report on the more than 5,000 artifacts, including stone tools, pottery remnants, and animal remains, that were unearthed in six archaeological sites in the river valley.

Among the challenges faced by Maravelas and his associate, Zack Mohlis, is incorporating the Indigenous perspective into their final product.

“Ideally this project would include a writer who would supply an Indigenous voice,” Maravelas shared via email. “A splendid model is the book ‘Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota,’ by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2012. Westerman provided a narrative from the Native perspective, and White provided a narrative from a white one.

“For the Eden Prairie project,” added Maravelas, “we’ll explore the possibility of working with an Indigenous cultural expert, but our experience is that most are very busy and don’t have the time to devote to a large undertaking such as this. We will likely have to complete our research and writing and then submit it for review and comment.”

Maravelas and Mohlis appear to have the credentials to pull it off.

In addition to being an author, Maravelas has served as a board member and president of the Pond Dakota Heritage Society and was Eden Prairie’s historical program director in 1989-90.

Mohlis has more than eight years of experience as a professional historical interpreter, researching local history and leading place-based programs through talks, walking tours, guided paddling tours, and more throughout Hennepin County and the surrounding area. His senior thesis at the University of Minnesota focused on Inyan Sa, the sacred Dakota stone in Newport, which has a similar history and significance to the sacred rocks in Eden Prairie.

Maravelas said the project will identify what is known about the Indigenous history of Eden Prairie, including prehistoric and historic peoples. Most of the information they will analyze focuses on the Dakota people during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The City Council has voiced support for the project. When Novak-Krebs and HPC Chair Steven Schumacher met with council members on Feb. 4 for an informal discussion, they encouraged them to move forward with the project, even though funding has yet to be identified.

“We ought to run with it,” Mayor Ron Case said about the project. And, though no vote was taken, council members asked City Manager Rick Getschow to explore funding ideas.

Make sure it’s accurate and “tell the story well,” Council Member PG Narayanan advised Novak-Krebs and Schumacher about the book project. “I would say do a good job.”