# Bdote *Dakota place-name rendered "where two waters come together"; site of Historic Fort Snelling in Minnesota.* Bdote is the [[Dakota]] name under which the [[Minnesota Historical Society]] (MNHS) presents Historic [[Fort Snelling]] in [[Minnesota]].[^1][^2] The project's at-issue record, citing MNHS sources, renders the name as "where two waters come together." The same record says Dakota tradition holds that the people were created there.[^3] MNHS's reference work MNopedia titles its account of the fort's wartime years *Fort Snelling at Bdote: Civil and U.S.-Dakota Wars, 1861–1866*.[^4] A separate project publishes the *Bdote Memory Map*.[^5] The documented record attached to the site has three parts. The fort went up in 1820. A stockaded camp below the fort held roughly 1,600 Dakota and mixed-race non-combatants from November 1862 to May 1863, and MNopedia estimates that 130 to 300 of them died there. In 2013 the [[Saint Paul City Council]] passed a resolution directing interpretation of Dakota sites at Bdote. The at-issue record finds that the program's completion is not documented on the city's own pages.[^3][^4][^6] ## Where MNopedia places Fort Snelling at Bdote. It locates the 1862 camp on the river bottom below the fort.[^4] MNHS presents the site as Historic Fort Snelling under the name Bdote.[^1][^2] The 2013 Saint Paul resolution paired Bdote with the [[Great River Passage]] as places where the City was to identify and interpret Dakota sites.[^6] ## What The at-issue record says Dakota tradition holds that the people were created at Bdote. It also states that the site has been inhabited for at least ten thousand years.[^3] The 2013 Saint Paul resolution referred to "sacred Dakota sites at Bdote."[^6] ## When - **1820.** The fort went up, according to the at-issue record.[^3] - **March 6, 1852.** The Territorial Legislature established Hennepin County, with [[Minneapolis]] as county seat, according to the county's own history page.[^7] - **September 9, 1862.** Governor [[Alexander Ramsey]] told a special session of the [[Minnesota Legislature]]: "The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State." MNHS notes that the sentence was not in the prepared manuscript but appeared in all published versions.[^8] A Minnesota House publication states that the speech "provided political justification for the subsequent forced removal of Dakota people from Minnesota in 1863 and the execution of 38 Dakota men in Mankato."[^8] - **November 7, 1862.** A stockaded camp was established on the river bottom below Fort Snelling. It held roughly 1,600 Dakota and mixed-race non-combatants, mostly women, children and the elderly.[^4][^9] - **May 1863.** Survivors of the camp were removed to [[Crow Creek]].[^4][^9] - **January 9, 2013.** The Saint Paul City Council unanimously passed a resolution describing "the genocide of the Dakota people in Minnesota." The resolution directed the City and Parks & Recreation to identify and interpret sacred Dakota sites at Bdote and the Great River Passage.[^6] ## How MNopedia's account of the 1862–1863 camp uses the term "concentration camp." It defines the term as "a place where people are confined, often in poor conditions, without regard to legal norms of arrest."[^4] MNopedia attributes the deaths in the camp to mumps, measles and pneumonia, and to assaults by soldiers and civilians.[^4] ## How many - **At least ten thousand years** of habitation at the site, per the at-issue record.[^3] - **Roughly 1,600** Dakota and mixed-race non-combatants held in the camp below the fort.[^4] - **An estimated 130 to 300** deaths in the camp before the May 1863 removal, per MNopedia.[^4] - **Unanimous:** the Saint Paul City Council's vote on the January 9, 2013 resolution.[^6] ## In the at-issue record - **Chronology of the site (AI-Hennepin-066).** The entry sets at least ten thousand years of habitation at Bdote beside two later dates: the fort's construction in 1820 and Hennepin County's charter in 1852.[^3][^7] The entry's stated rationale is that the county's founding date sits "at the very end of the site's record." Its anchor document is a March 2025 presidential action titled *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos*.[^10] - **Saint Paul resolution (AI-Ramsey-033).** The entry places two items side by side. One is the City Council's unanimous January 9, 2013 directive to identify and interpret sacred Dakota sites at Bdote and the Great River Passage. The other is the entry's finding that the interpretive program's completion is not documented on the city's own pages.[^6] Its anchor document is a January 2025 presidential action titled *Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing*.[^11] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Historic Fort Snelling — Bdote* (undated) — MNHS page presenting the historic site under the name Bdote. https://www.mnhs.org/historiccenter/sites/historic-fort-snelling/historic-fort-snelling-bdote [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Bdote* (Historic Fort Snelling learning page, undated) — MNHS page on Bdote at Fort Snelling. https://www.mnhs.org/fortsnelling/learn/bdote [^3]: Minnesota wiki at-issue record, entry AI-Hennepin-066 (from *Freeman Apex Dossier* §VI, 2026-09-02) — Bdote rendered "where two waters come together"; Dakota tradition of creation at the site; habitation of at least ten thousand years; fort built 1820; county chartered 1852. The entry lists source domain mnhs.org but does not identify the specific page; no URL in the pack. [^4]: MNopedia (Minnesota Historical Society), *Fort Snelling at Bdote: Civil and U.S.-Dakota Wars, 1861–1866* (undated) — "concentration camp" and its definition; camp established November 7, 1862 on the river bottom below the fort; roughly 1,600 held; an estimated 130 to 300 died of disease and assaults; survivors removed to Crow Creek in May 1863. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/place/fort-snelling-civil-and-us-dakota-wars-1861-1866 [^5]: Bdote Memory Map, *Bdote Memory Map* (undated) — project website published under that name. https://bdotememorymap.org/ [^6]: Minnesota wiki at-issue record, entry AI-Ramsey-033, and history row HE-0218 (from *Warren E. Burger Apex Dossier* §VI, 2026-09-02) — Saint Paul City Council resolution of January 9, 2013, passed unanimously; the quoted "genocide" language; the directive on Bdote and the Great River Passage; completion not documented on the city's pages. The underlying sources (startribune.com; tcdailyplanet.net) are not among the pack's allowed URLs. [^7]: Hennepin County, *History of the county* (county website, undated) — county established March 6, 1852 by the Territorial Legislature, with Minneapolis as county seat. https://www.hennepincounty.gov/government/about/county-overview/history-county [^8]: *Warren E. Burger Apex Dossier* §VI (validated, 2026-09-02) — Ramsey's September 9, 1862 message to a special session of the Legislature; the MNHS note on the manuscript; the Minnesota House publication's statement on the 1863 removal and the Mankato executions. The dossier's source URLs are not in the pack. [^9]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Forced Marches and Imprisonment* (U.S.-Dakota War site, undated) — MNHS account of the post-1862 imprisonment and removal of Dakota people. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/aftermath/forced-marches-imprisonment [^10]: The White House, *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos* (March 2025) — presidential action cited as the anchor for at-issue entry 066. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/stopping-waste-fraud-and-abuse-by-eliminating-information-silos/ [^11]: The White House, *Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing* (January 2025) — presidential action cited as the anchor for at-issue entry 033. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/