Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi, which means “those who care for Wakaŋ Tipi” in Dakota, is a Native-led environmental stewardship nonprofit in Saint Paul. Wakaŋ Tipi is a Dakota sacred site located in what is now Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. The organization engages people to honor and care for natural places, along with their sacred and cultural value.
Right now, Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi, also referred to as WTA, has two capital projects in the works. Their Daylighting Phalen Creek project seeks to restore the creek–which was pushed underground nearly a century ago–by bringing it back above ground. WTA is also constructing a new cultural and interpretive center in Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. After WTA secured sufficient funding for this $14.3 million multi-phase project, the center is slated to open in summer of 2025.
The Mortenson Family Foundation has been a long-time partner of WTA and has contributed to funding for the Daylight Phalen Creek project. In August, Maryan Abdinur, our community relationship officer for the Sustaining Environmental Systems program area, joined WTA leaders on a visit to the site where the first phase of Daylighting Phalen Creek will begin in 2025. This visit marked a key moment for us in understanding the nonprofit’s collaboration with the local community.
A Legacy of Cultural Preservation
WTA’s full service area stretches from Lake Phalen to the Mississippi River and throughout the East Side River District. Previously called the Lower Phalen Creek Project, WTA transitioned to Native leadership in 2019 and was renamed in April 2023 to center the organization’s Dakota values. Maggie Lorenz, the current executive director, is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe and descends from Spirit Lake Dakota Nation.
“Minnesota is Dakota homelands, and this area along the Mississippi River holds incredible cultural significance,” says Maggie Lorenz. “It is important that people who deeply understand that context are leading in decision-making about this landscape.”
The planned cultural and interpretive center will serve as the organization’s new headquarters and an intergenerational gathering place for the community. The building will have an exhibit hall, classrooms, a ceremony space, a community gathering area, a teaching kitchen, and teaching gardens. In addition to being a dedicated space for the Dakota community to celebrate their heritage and the land they hold sacred, the surrounding Daylighting Phalen Creek site will also be a resource for the broader public.
Before starting construction on the quarter-mile restoration site at Phalen Creek, WTA began engaging neighborhood stakeholders in 2017 to ensure there was support for the project from residents and relevant agencies, like the watershed districts and Metropolitan Council. In 2022, they received a $3.3 million investment to accomplish the project’s first phase of design and construction at the south end of Lake Phalen. Maryan visited the project site as WTA reached the 60% completion point of the project’s design phase.
Partnership and Progress
For the Daylighting Phalen Creek site visit, Maryan met Maggie, Gabby Menomin, and Louisa Harstad at the south end of Lake Phalen, near the headwaters of Phalen Creek. Gabby is WTA’s restoration manager and Louisa is its program director.
Historically, the creek flowed through the East Side of St. Paul and emptied into the Mississippi River near Wakaŋ Tipi cave in what is today called Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. In the 1930s, the creek was diverted underground to make way for housing and other developments that were never fully realized.
The northeast corner of the Daylighting Phalen Creek site will have a pedestrian-friendly street crossing. As part of the larger project, the nonprofit also plans to reintroduce natural ecosystems such as drought-resistant oak savanna prairie.
“The community wanted the space to look natural and with vegetation that would not obstruct views,” Maryan says. WTA will plant native buffalo grass to support the prairie ecosystem in more high-traffic areas on the Daylighting site. This grass and other low-growing plants will keep the Creek site safe by preventing areas of concealment.
WTA has conducted four listening sessions to involve the local community in the design process.
“The east side of Saint Paul is a vibrant community with incredible diversity of culture and languages,” Maggie says. “It’s important that while we are leading from an Indigenous perspective, we are inclusive of the voices of all our relatives who have made their homes and lives here on the east side.”
WTA is partnering with the Trust for Public Land on equitable community development work. This will prevent neighbors from getting priced out of their homes with the new habitat enhancements. They are also collaborating with St. Catherine University to test the creek’s water quality.
Building for the Future
Now in its third year as a partner with WTA, the Mortenson Family Foundation is excited to see the nonprofit’s progress on this important, place-based project. WTA’s work is one of the few environmental projects in the Twin Cities that is Native-led, Maryan says.
“As an east sider myself, I need to be able to continue to afford to live in this community while also having equitable investments made in our local parks and greenspaces,” Maggie says. “I want to be able to bring my kids to a beautiful and well maintained park in our neighborhood while feeling safe to build community. That’s what we are working to do for our neighbors with this project”.
