Minot State repatriates Chief Drags Wolf war shirt to MHA Interpretive Center, descendants
MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University and the Northwest Arts Center (NAC) worked in collaboration with the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara (MHA) Interpretive Center to repatriate a war shirt of Chief Drags Wolf to his descendants in late November.
An important piece of Hidatsa heritage, the war shirt has been in Minot State’s possession as part of the Ralph Hubbard Special Collection. Hubbard, a former professor at MSU, donated it as part of his extensive collection to the University in 1986.
“MSU and the Northwest Arts Center are proud of the long history we have collaborating with our tribal partners,” said Minot State President Dr. Steven Shirley. “Ensuring the war shirt of Chief Drags Wolf is returned home and properly displayed at the MHA Interpretive Center helps continue this collaborative spirit. Many students from the MHA Nation have attended MSU over the years, and we look forward to continuing to partner with our MHA friends and neighbors.”
Minot State began to examine its Native American Collection of approximately 450 items of clothing, decorative crafts, and other artifacts during the Northwest Arts Center renovation in the lower level of MSU’s Gordon B. Olson Library in 2018. During renovation of the new arts center space and collection restoration, members of the MSU community closely examined the entire Native American Collection.
In 2019, the Northwest Arts Center hosted representatives from the MHA Nation and the MHA Interpretive Center at MSU. Tribal historians and MHS Interpretive Center personnel toured the Northwest Arts Center and the Indigenous Collections stewarded by MSU-NAC. Priority for the visit was to start a working relationship between Interpretive Center and Arts Center staff for loans, consulting, and exchange of information.
Foremost among the collection, Chief Drags Wolf’s war shirt was identified as an item to be returned to his family and the MHA Interpretive Center. Greg Vettel, NAC director, worked closely with Amanda Watts, MSU humanities professor, and Annette Mennem, MSU Native American Cultural Center director, to develop a timeline and plan for the long-term loan and delivery of the shirt including working with Delphine Baker, MHA Interpretive Center director, and Zane Baker, MHA Interpretive Center collections manager. The project also included MSU art major, NAC intern, and member of the MHA Nation, Bernadine Stevens, whose great-grandfather had acted as a translator for Chief Drags Wolf.
“Minot State University’s and Dakota College at Bottineau’s Land Acknowledgement was written to be a living document, one that would demonstrate our commitment to the first peoples of the Northern Plains,” Mennem said. “The University provides a place and a person to assist student success of our Indigenous student population, which represents approximately 5% of the student body. It provides programs highlighting the contribution of tribal nations. We continue with this commitment to these nations by bringing Chief Drags Wolf’s hide shirt home to the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation.”
In November, Mennem, Watts, Vettel, Stevens and other MSU personnel traveled to the MHA Interpretive Center in New Town and met with more than two dozen of Drags Wolf’s descendants, for an emotional ceremony returning the war shirt that included prayers, riders from the X’oshga Clan, and a drum to perform his song welcoming the war shirt home.
The MHA Interpretive Center plans on documenting and interpreting the symbols covering the shirt for future generations before displaying it at the center this summer.
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Published: 12/21/23
