Indian Mounds Regional Park: Restored land in a sacred place
The view of downtown St. Paul from the overlooks at Indian Mounds Regional Park, a sacred place of burial for Indigenous people and an FMR habitat restoration site. (Photo by FMR)
It's hard to overstate the importance of Indian Mounds Regional Park. Situated atop the bluff just east of downtown St. Paul, the park holds cultural, historical and ecological significance.
The park is also unique in that it's where three of FMR’s programs — land conservation, stewardship and youth engagement — converge.
"This is a burial place, and our ancestors are still here"
Before we talk about our work at this place, we should acknowledge its meaning to Indigenous people. Indian Mounds Regional Park is the site of six remaining burial mounds made by Indigenous people of this region. Fifty or more mounds once sat atop the bluff, split into two main groups: the eastern mounds where the current Airway beacon and much of the park's recreational amenities sit, and the western mounds above Wakáŋ Tipi, "dwelling place of the sacred" in the Dakota language, and future site of the Wakáŋ Tipi Center at this park.
These mounds have been here for thousands of years, the oldest dating back between 1,500-2,000 years. The mounds make this whole region a sacred place to the Upper Sioux Community, Lower Sioux Indian Community, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Prairie Island Indian Community, The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. In large part because of this history, the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Please check out Wakáŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi's webpage about this sacred place.
Before the land was forcibly taken from the Dakota people by European colonizers, people conducted ceremonies and interments in the mounds, which were located atop the bluffs in part to better connect the earth, water and sky. (Photo by Lorie Shaull)
Most of the mounds were destroyed or damaged through excavation and development of the area in the 1800s — flattened to make way for roads, homes and park infrastructure. For many years, the full cultural importance of this site to the Dakota and other Indigenous peoples has not been represented. The City of St. Paul is working with Native nations to change that. There is now a Cultural Landscape and Interpretive Plan for this park, a project guided by Dakota representatives that looks back to the history of the place and plans for better interpretation over a 20-year arc.
Right away, the project included installation of signs on light posts, benches trails and elsewhere throughout the park that will call visitors to respect this sacred place and remember what it is; one sign will read "Táku Wakháŋ Thípi — this is a burial place and our ancestors are still here."
Coming together to cultivate thriving habitat
Today, people come to the park because of its cultural significance and for the beautiful blufftop views of the Mississippi River and downtown St. Paul. At the time of initial European colonization, occasional natural and human-caused fires at the bluffs at Indian Mounds Regional Park would have kept dry prairie or oak savanna thriving. As St. Paul grew, development removed much of this habitat, and fire suppression and soil degradation damaged the park’s remaining natural areas.
The cultural memory of this place makes the tending of its land even more important. Since 2011, FMR has partnered with St. Paul Parks and Recreation to help restore and maintain natural areas at the park.
The varied terrain and habitat types, including both prairie and forest, are home to a variety of plants and animals. But this variety can also present management challenges. Both FMR and St. Paul have hired crews to help with restoration of the steep and hard-to-access areas of the park. FMR has also worked with contractors to manage invasive shrubs in the forests.
Still, taking care of this place is a community effort. We rely on public volunteers to remove invasive species and plant native species that support pollinators and help stabilize the bluff around the park’s main overlook. High school students plant grasses and wildflowers and monitor both plant and insect diversity in the restored prairie triangles.
Indian Mounds Regional Park is a perfect example of how our restoration work, public and group volunteering, and youth engagement come together.
Former FMR Youth Coordinator Kate Clayton (front) leads students from Open World Learning Community in a mock insect and vegetation survey before doing the real thing in the prairies at Indian Mounds Regional Park.
The monitoring, planting and invasive removal work by St. Paul's Open World Learning School, Harding High Earth Club and others has been key to our work at the site.
FMR volunteers, vital to our habitat restoration projects, pose for a socially distanced photo after a fall volunteer event at Indian Mounds Regional Park during the pandemic. (Photo by Dodd Demas for FMR)
Connecting habitat along the river
Our larger conservation strategy aims to connect habitat restoration projects.
Indian Mounds Regional Park is an important site in a growing corridor in East St. Paul. We've also restored habitat at the DNR’s nearby Willowbrook campus. Other close natural areas include Battle Creek Regional Park and Pig’s Eye Lake. And the restoration project at Wakáŋ Tipi / Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary lies just below.
FMR's state-funded restoration there, which wrapped up in spring 2024, returned this site to diverse native habitat, but there's still a long way to go to enhance and maintain these habitats for the benefits of wildlife, water quality and Dakota culture. With FMR's liaison role complete, we have supported transitioning the management of the site to Wakáŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi staff. And in July 2024, Wakáŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi and the City of St. Paul entered into a landmark co-management agreement for the site, ensuring that Wakáŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi staff has agency and influence in how the site is managed going forward.
Linking and improving the health of the land along the river contributes to the crucial migration highway of the Mississippi River flyway and increases habitat and climate resiliency. Restoration is important in this region sacred to the Dakota and other Native nations. One park is only part of this place. As another new sign at Indian Mounds Park will read: "This sacred land continues beyond the boundaries of the park, spanning the bluffs along the rivers of this region, the Bdóte, and throughout Minnesota. Wo´ohoda. Please respect this place."