When it comes to world-class medical facilities, it does not get much better than the Mayo Clinic. They treat people from across the globe, including some of those very important persons we read about in the news. Don’t just take my word for it though. Renowned documentary film-maker Ken Burns work on the Mayo will debut on September 25, 2018. It is eagerly anticipated in these parts.
In 1862, 38 Dakota people were hanged in the largest mass-execution in the history of the United States. President Abraham Lincoln signed off on the action, this during the midst of the Civil War. The stain of that event still impacts the community of Mankato, Minnesota, where there presently stands no marker or memorial to that event. Later the Santee were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes in Minnesota to what is now northeastern Nebraska.
For over 150 years though (seven generations), the story of the Mayo Clinic and the Santee people intersected — and not in a good way.
One of the people hanged that day was Marpiya Okinajin, also known as Cut Nose.
It is here, through Cut Nose, that the intersection occurs. I could tell you the story myself but Matthew Hansen of the Omaha World Herald does it much better:
...on the day Cut Nose was hanged, a young doctor snatched the warrior’s body from the shallow river bank where it had been buried. The doctor was unconcerned with Santee religious beliefs that the spirit of an unburied body will wander the Earth, forever lost.
The young doctor carted the corpse to his office, dissected it, melted off the flesh and made a skeleton he studied and allowed his children to play with.
The young doctor’s name was William Mayo.
The same William Mayo who along with his brother would go on to found the Mayo Clinic.
Seven generations later, a man strode into a ballroom in a casino in Santee, Nebraska. Jeffry Bolton is an executive at Mayo. On that day, he said:
“The Dakota people and the Mayo Clinic are connected. History can also bind us in broken ways. We acknowledge our role in that broken relationship.”
Bolton officially apologized for the actions taken by Mayo, and more. Again, read Hansen’s article. I could only dream to write it as good.
The coverage of that act up here was slow to develop, but we are now seeing it. After 156 years, it is gratifying to see amends being made. It’s a start.
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Editorial comment — There is of course much more detail to this story. I offer this diary as a beginning point. Feel free to add any additional parts or links in the comments as you wish. Thank you.