Growing up in Minnesota, I was taught the European American perspective on America's westward expansion (Manifest Destiny) with little said about the Dakota other than Dakota War of 1862. After reading Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota, I have an entirely new perspective on their history and place in Minnesota.

Chapter Four - Drawing Lines on Sacred Land: The Dakota Treaties introduced me to the concept of master stories. The framework of conflicting master stories helped me to understand why the course of history for the Dakota went the way it did with the arrival of European Americans in Minnesota.