No Reservations
Education is Key
Tradition Tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. For Gail Whipple ‘75, the memory of a very special Mdewakanton Dakota woman of great strength and resilience was the emotional trigger to establishing the Susan Windraw Scholarship for Native American Students. Whipple shares a Dakota/ Lakota and German lineage, but it wasn’t until her adult years that she came to know, understand, appreciate and love her heritage. Gail Whipple ‘75 Susan Windgrow
Susan Windgrow, known as Maka Waste’ Win (Good Earth Woman) to her people, was Whipple’s great-great Grandmother. Born in 1845 near what is now the Lower Sioux Reservation in Minnesota, Windgrow survived the Dakota Conflict of 1862, overcoming the loss of family members, her home, and the life she knew. She died at age 94 much as she lived: strong, humble and proud of her people.
“With a degree in-hand, there is absolutely no limit to the possibilities in that young person’s life. To know that I have helped even in a small way will made me very happy.”
Whipple’s Native American lineage wasn’t an integral part of her childhood, and understandably so, when one examines the plight of the American Native people in the 19th century. Whipple grew up in Hastings, Minnesota, the oldest of eight children of Willard (Whip) and Nellie Whipple. Her mother ran a home daycare and her father worked for 3M. But Whipple’s story really begins several generations back…
Erasing a People The Dakota were a nomadic people who historically relied on wild rice gathering, fishing, and game hunting for sustenance. The Resettlement Treaty of 1837, designed to remove all Native Americans dwelling on the east side of the Mississippi River, effectively diminished the Dakota homeland and their way of life. With less ability to provide for themselves, the Dakota were forced to increasingly depend on the federal government’s promises and provisions. The federal government’s failure to deliver on these promises brought near-starvation and growing anger among the Dakota, culminating in the US-Dakota War of 1862. Whipple’s paternal grandfather, Ben, was born in 1907 on the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska. Young Ben was removed from his home at Santee and sent to the Indian boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania: “This was common practice in the early 1900s,” Whipple began. “The goal was to take the ‘Indian’ culture out of American Indians. My Grandfather was not allowed to speak his language or practice any traditional activities. When he returned, he had been trained and educated as an American.”
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