The stone says
MEMBER OF THE
BLACK DOG BAND
REBURIED
SEPT 10 1977

[a transcription of the sign]
MDEWAKANTON REPATRIATION BURIAL SITE

Near here are buried the repatriated remains of Mdewakanton Dakota. Many Dakota cooperatively worked for years with the State of Minnesota, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council to repatriate these remains. Used in an American Indian context, to repatriate means to return to the place of one's ancestry. The Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community has returned the remains of more than 80 of their ancestors to their homeland through multiple repatriations.
The US-Dakota War of 1862, a six week struggle, resulted from many years of uneasy interactions between Dakota, Euro-Americans and the US government. A devastating result of the War was that the majority of the Dakota either left their traditional homelands or were forcibly exiled to areas farther west. When these Dakota died, they were buried in the area of their most recent residence rather than their ancestral homelands in Minnesota.
Most of the Dakota whose remains are buried here resided in South Dakota or Nebraska at the time of their death. The remains of Chief Marpiya Oki Najin (Cut Nose) are of special concern to the Dakota. Chief Marpiya Oki Najin was one of thirty-eight Dakota men hanged at Mankato on December 26, 1862, for alleged crimes they committed during the War. After the hanging, doctors from Mankato and nearby towns stole the bodies of the dead Dakota men. For many years, the bodies were used for medical research and anatomical studies. Chief Marpiya Oki Najin and two others are the only known remains of the thirty eight Dakota hanged in Mankato to be recovered and properly buried.
While the remains of many of the Dakota have been repatriated to their ancestral homelands, the remains of many more are still awaiting repatriation and burial in a respectful manner with proper Sioux ceremonies.

Created by the Minnesota Historical Society 2000

This sign by the Minnesota State Historical Society had been restored after some vandalism. The wording in the Dakota language is probably the same as the English which is shown in the next picture down the page. A transcription is included in the caption.
Out of respect for this site where some of the remains are those that have been recovered from museums, no outsider should enter the fenced area. No effort is being made to photograph individual markers except from outside the enclosure.