Marpiya te najin

Not to be confused with Cloud Man or Marpiya wicasta.

Marpiya te najin
1 January 1909, Walker, T. B. and the Press of Hahn & Harmon Co.; courtesy of HathiTrust. From a descriptive catalogue with reproductions of life-size bust portraits. Originally exhibited in the Minnesota pioneers' portrait galleries on the State Fairgrounds in 1909.
Born	unknown
Died	26 December 1862 Mankato, Minnesota, United States
Other names	Marpiya Okinajin, He-who-lives-in-the-Clouds, Cut-Nose

Marpiya te najin, or Marpiya Okinajin, literally "He-who-stands-in-the-Clouds", was a Dakota warrior noted for being one of the "38+2" Dakota warriors executed in Mankato, Minnesota ^[1] by the order of U.S. Army Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley for their resistance of U.S. Military incursions upon Dakota land in the Dakota War of 1862, ^{[2] [3]} one of the American Indian Wars carried out in the American pursuit of the political-cultural philosophy Manifest Destiny. Marpiya te najin has also historically been known improperly by the mistranslated name Cut-Nose, which is considered inappropriate by many members of the Dakota people.

Abuse of human remains by the Mayo Clinic

After his execution and burial in a shallow grave, his body was exhumed by the English-born physician Dr. William Worrall Mayo, who then dismembered and dissected the body as an educational specimen. His sons Charles Horace Mayo and William James Mayo, who at the time were an infant and unborn, respectively, would go on to develop medical textbooks, relying on information gathered through the dissection, and found the Mayo Clinic. ^[4]

Contemporary reconciliatory efforts by the Mayo Clinic

Seeking to account for Marpiya te najin's nonconsensual, yet critical role in the founding of the Mayo Clinic, the administration of the contemporary Mayo Clinic has, through pressure from Indigenous rights advocacy organizations, sought to accept the unethicality of the misuse of his remains. ^[5] This has included, most prominently, the creation of a scholarship fund for Dakota citizens known as the "Marpiya te najin Scholarship". ^[6]

References

1. Hope, Native. "Dakota 38+2: Honoring those who lost their lives striving to survive". blog.nativehope.org. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
2. "'Cut Nose Who Stands on a Cloud': Willmar grad tells more than the story of the infamous warrior in his first book - West Central Tribune | News, weather, sports from Willmar Minnesota". West Central Tribune. 21 Feb 2007. Archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023. Retrieved 13 Feb 2024.
3. Minnesota Historical Society (2012-08-23). "The Trials & Hanging". The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Retrieved 2025-02-17.
4. Minnesota Historical Society. "W.W. Mayo House". Archived from the original on 7 Feb 2025.
5. Pereira, Kanaaz (30 May 2022). "Healing is a journey, not a destination".
6. McKinney, Matt (19 September 2018). "In hopes of healing, Mayo creates scholarship as apology for misuse of Dakota leader's body". Associated Press (AP).