Changing The Racist Name of The Knights of Columbus
By Thomas Dahlheimer
I am spearheading a local, national and international movement to revert the faulty-translation and profane name of Minnesota's "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota Indian name Wakan, which translated means (Great) Spirit. And after sending MN Representative Mike Jaros my draft bill to change the name of the "Rum River" as well as 13 other MN geographic site names that are offensive to American Indians, Rep. Jaros slightly modified it and then with the permission of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council he introduced it to the MN legislature.
Anoka, Minnesota is located at the confluence of the Wakan/"Rum" and the Mississippi rivers. During the summer of 2007 Jim Anderson,the Cultural Chair for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community and a leading Minnesota Dakota activist, and I gained permission from Anoka's Mayor, president of the Anoka area chamber of Commerce and the executive director of the Anoka County Historical Society to set up a tepee at the Anoka County Historical Center (located in the City of Anoka) during an Anoka County sesquicentennial event for the purpose of teaching the Dakota people's history in Anoka County.
During the event Jim Anderson brought awareness to the effort to change the profane Rum River name as well as to our plan to establish an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance. We later met with the Mayor of Anoka and discussed our plan to establish an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance. He is now helping as to establish an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance. In the near future we will be meeting with him again. During our first meeting we told him that Columbus was a genocidal maniac Indian killer. And I told him that during a meeting with the pastor of the Catholic Church of Saint Stephen in Anoka I told the pastor that Columbus was a "genocidal maniac who was following the edicts of a genocidal maniac pope" and that he then said "YES". Before our meeting the pastor had read articles of mine about Columbus and I had also sent him the Transforming Columbus Day website address.
However, when I later asked the pastor if he would help me "put an end to the Knights of Columbus organization in Anoka he said "NO", and then gave some lame excuse as to why not.
If their bishops are not asking them to take a counter cultural position on an issue, it seems like most priests will always go along with the majority position in their church and nation. Like when German Catholic's went along with Hitler's madness and also when priests went along with their bishops who bought and owned American Indian slaves as well as black African slaves. In my opinion, they do not listen to the Great Spirit calling them to "come out and be separate, and protest". And I also believe that most present-day Catholic priests are conformist, not Christians, they go blindly in the way of the many, they're, as a former MN Governor once said, "weak mined people who need strength in numbers", and so are most of their fellow parishioners. When they were young and vulnerable they were lead into the "conformist box" and then had their consciouses sheard.
And I recently spoke on the phone with a prominent member of Anoka`s Knights of Columbus. He called me to see if I, a new member of the Church of Saint Stephen in Anoka, would like to join the Church of Saint Stephen's Knights of Columbus. We had a fifteen minute conversation wherein I told him about my international movement to change the profane name of the "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota name. And I also told him about my draft bill that Rep. Jaros introduced to the Minnesota legislature.
I also told him about the UN's World Conference Against Racism document that identifies two Papal Bulls as the source of white racism associated slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing, grand theft of the indigenous peoples of the Americas homelands, denial of these indigenous peoples' fundamental human rights, including the right to have absolute root ownership of land, full independent nation sovereignty rights and religious freedom. I also told him about Columbus and his knights' evil exploitation of the native people whom they came in contact with.
In addition, I told him about the bicentennial national debate wherein some American Indian leaders were trying to influence the leaders of the Knights of Columbus to change their organization's racist name; and that I have received support for my effort to change the profane "Rum River" name from national and international renowned American Indian activists, and that I have been corresponding with national and international renowned multicultural educators and social activists who have given their support for the effort to change the profane Rum River name.
I also told him that I believe that the Knights of Columbus name is a white racist name; and that I was trying to influence the pastor of the Church of Saint Stephen as well as other members of the Knights of Columbus in Anoka to leave the Knights of Columbus and start up a similar organization, and then write a letter to the leaders of the Knights of Columbus, a letter wherein they would inform them as to why they left the KC's, and that after they change the racist name of their organization they will rejoin the organization.
I also told him that I would like to address Anoka's Knights of Columbus and personally present information to the Knights of Columbus about Columbus and his knights as well as about my plan to put an end to the Church of Saint Stephen's Knights of Columbus; and then, later, after the leaders of the Knights of Columbus change their organization's white racist name, reestablish a chapter in Anoka. I also told him that I had met and spoke with the pastor of the Church of Saint Stephen and that he agreed with me when I said that: "Columbus was a genocidal maniac following the edicts of a genocidal maniac pope".
The prominent member of Anoka's Knights of Columbus then told me that he would inform the other members of Anoka's Knights of Columbus, especially including the pastor of the Church of Saint Stephen, about our conversation. I then told him that there is a "problem" and what the problem is. I told him that it is very difficult for a pastor to tell his congregation that they might, because of a unique situation, "have to do something different". He agreed with me.
I also told him that Jim Anderson and I had met with the mayor of Anoka and that he understands that the Dakota people are coming back to Anoka; and doing so, because it is a part of their homeland. And I told him that the mayor is helping us to establish an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance, so that the residences of Anoka and the Dakota people can participate in Anoka pow wows, intercultural education classes and blend spiritually services, etc.. I also told him that I thought that Jim Anderson, the Historian and Cultural Chair of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community and leading Minnesota Dakota Indian activist, would also like to address Anoka's Knights of Columbus.
Rum River name change website
Name Changing MN bill
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Draft Resolution
Flier that Jim Anderson pasted out during an Anoka County
sesquicentennial event
Article: Flyer
Genocidal Maniac Christopher Columbus
Combating White Racism Against Indigenous Peoples
Contents
October 2007 Reports
Last updated on October 2, 2007