“You can look at bark lodges in a book all day long, but to have the actual structure in front of you really brings our past to life.”

In 2024, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) built a bark lodge, which is the traditional summer home of the Dakota people. Its presence marks a revival of traditional lifeways that had been absent for more than 150 years.

Learn more about the SMSC’s bark lodge project and the revival of traditional lifeways in the spring 2025 issue of Wiċoṡkaŋ, available at locations around the SMSC and online at isu.pub/CO5fvZ8.