Tribal Historical Preservation Office

The Community Council adopted a resolution creating the Tribal Historical Preservation Office (THPO) on August 17, 2006. The Council saw the need to protect, preserve and promote Dakota culture presentation, as well as to have a balanced plan to manage all aspects of cultural protection. The scope of the work was to encompass not only the Lower Sioux Community, but also the land of our ancestors.

Despite a variety of federal, Tribal, state, and even local laws passed over the past 85 years, it has not stopped the looting and vandalism of Dakota properties, such as burial mounds and artifacts. The importance of the THPO is to help protect the culture of our people and to make sure that our history is presented and our ancestors and their artifacts are returned to our homelands from museums across the country. Federal and state agencies must comply with the laws and the acts that have been passed to protect human remains, cultural objects and sacred sites. As Dakota people we need to preserve our cultural heritage, come together, and bring back the traditional ways of our Grandmothers and Grandfathers. We need to teach our history and our language to our Grandchildren to help preserve our culture for future generations.

Recent projects the THPO has been involved with:

Repatriation of remains in Washington State
Repatriation in Sisseton
Lake Albert, Big Stone and Otter Tail Project
Consultation on Camp Ripley burial mounds
Consultation on Wind cave for a sacred site
Declaration of Rosebud Battlefield as a historical and sacred site
Work on a Programmatic Agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation
Signing of a Programmatic Agreement with North Dakota Department of Transportation
Signing of a Programmatic Agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers
Black Dog Mounds shovel testing in Egan
Minnesota Science Museum need for over three hundred items to be reviewed
Dakota Time Line brought in by Sara Childer