Native American Press/Ojibwe News

Coldwater Springs: Sacred Site or Parking Lot?

By Cheryl Lewis Fields - September 14, 2001
“We don’t want Coldwater Springs to have minimum protection. We want it to have maximum protection,” stated Lynn Levine of the Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition at a recent public hearing on the sale of the sacred site to the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC).

State Rep. Mark Gleason (D-Richfield), who earlier this year introduced the legislation to protect Coldwater Springs, together with Rep. Wes Skoglund (D - Mpls) invited the public to comment on a draft Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that stipulates how the MAC may use this land.

Rep. Gleason called the “unofficial” public hearing to prevent this issue from again disappearing “behind closed doors” after the National Parks Service who is negotiating the transaction for the US Department of Interior refused any further hearings on the sale. Levine points out the National Parks Service (NPS) will benefit by $2 to $3 million from the proceeds of this sale, a serious conflict of interest.

If Coldwater Springs remains under the federal government - it is currently “owned” by the US Department of Interior - it will have much higher protection than when transferred to the MAC, a state agency. The MOA, a covenant that will run with the deed to the land, is supposed to ensure continued protection but unanimous public comment denounced the document as entirely inadequate.

Also attending the short-notice hearing were State Reps. Jim Davnie (D - Mpls), Scott Dibble (D - Mpls), Margaret Kelliher (D - Mpls), Jean Wagenius (D - Mpls) and State Senator Jane Ranum (D - Mpls), a representative from US Rep. Betty McCollom’s office, Minnehaha Creek Watershed District commissioners, members of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community, as well as representatives from the sale “closure team” - the MAC, National Parks Service and the State Historic Society.

Rep. Waginius who authored legislation this year to sell only the “air rights” to the MAC, pointed out that a main contention is the selling of this site to the MAC “which does not have a reputation of trust” and would not be the best steward of the land and water.

A written statement from the MAC says, “The MAC has indicated its intent to enter into an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources or the Minneapolis Park Board to manage and operate the property.The MAC continues to stand behind these commitments.”

One hearing attendee’s written comments read, “The MAC weaseled out on the insulation issue. Will they try to weasel out of this too?” A transportation department, and one with a poor environmental record, the MAC is not an appropriate steward say Coalition and other community members who continue to question MAC’s intent for purchasing the property.

“A parking lot keeps appearing,” Coalition spokesperson Levine told the packed hearing room at the Nokomis Public Library. The vagueness of language in the MOA still allows for airport parking facilities and industrial development at the site.

The MAC’s original intent to purchase the Coldwater area was to locate an 850 employee multi-story parking lot on the site. Situated along the Hiawatha light rail corridor, airport and commuter parking remains a major concern heightened by St. Paul’s recent “no build” vote along the West 7th Street corridor after also refusing light rail and MAC parking lots along its riverfront.

Also of major concern is the lack of accountability and enforcement, as well as need for representation on an appointed dispute resolution council. Essentially the MAC would be left to police itself and the public left with no recourse.

The Coalition, Mendota Dakota oyate and the federally recognized Dakota tribes of Minnesota have been allowed consulting participation in the MOA process, but their major concerns are not reflected in the written document which took the past year to draft. The document still provides the MAC everything and the public nothing.

The former Bureau of Mines property where Coldwater Springs is located has been abandoned for years, “Why suddenly the rush to sell this property without first adequately addressing serious concerns?” asks Levine insistent that a “cultural resource management” program and an ethnographic study of Coldwater Springs for classification as a Native American “traditional cultural property” could and should be completed before, not after, the sale of the land.

The sale “closure team” will only consider written comments. The 30-day commentary period to a document that State Historic Society closure team member John Anfinson himself described as “very complex“ ended September 10. No oral comments from this hearing nor last year’s “official” public hearing are of official record despite the presence of 10 note-takers last year.

Coalition members were highly critical of the sole reliance on written commentary, “especially when dealing with cultures with oral traditions.” According to Coalition member Susu Jeffreys, the whole issue is about “environmental racism”.

Reiterating that “sacred sites are not for sale,” the Coalition and the Mendota Dakota stated they were participating with reservations in the MOA process should the sale to the MAC go through.

The final MOA document is expected to be completed within two to three months and the sale concluded shortly thereafter according NPS spokesperson Joanne Kyral.

Levine urged consideration of “alternatives to selling the land to the MAC”, including “no sale”.

There was guarded optimism that perhaps another offer still might be forthcoming from a “federally recognized” tribe which a government source hinted could possibly still be considered.

While local efforts to protect Coldwater Springs were initiated by the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community, they still await “federal recognition”; only “federally recognized” tribes or government agencies may submit offers on this former Bureau of Mines property being disposed of by the Department of Interior.

The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, which is a “federally recognized” tribe, did previously request the Coldwater Springs area on behalf of the Mendota Dakota; however, a missed bureaucratic louvered window of opportunity prevented its progress.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit brought by the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, which protects Coldwater Springs, against the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) heads back to the courts this week. According to watershed district’s hydrogeolgist Kelton Barr, Coldwater Springs flow has already been diminished by one-quarter as a result of recent nearby dewatering by MnDOT for construction of the Highway 55/62 interchange adjacent to Coldwater Springs.

MnDOT is responsible for the death of Medicine Springs in Theodore Wirth Parkway and other large springs in the Twin Cities area. Coalition members say the damage done to other Springs is proof enough not to entrust such an environmentally sensitive, cultural and historical landmark to a department of transportation.

A link to a full copy of the MOA can be found at www.PreserveCampColdwater.org