Rum River
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The Rum River is a slow, meandering channel that connects Minnesota's Mille Lacs Lake with the Mississippi River. It runs through the farming communities of Milaca, Princeton, Cambridge, and Isanti before ending at the Twin Cities suburb of Anoka, roughly 20 miles northwest of downtown Minneapolis.
[edit] Naming Controversy
The current name is a mistranslation of the one given to it by the local branch (Mdewakanton) of the Dakota (see Lakota) tribe. They called it Wakan, meaning Sacred. Late 18th-century Europeans interpreted the Mdewakanton Dakota name for the river Wakan ("sacred" or "spirit") to mean spirit in an entirely different sense ... and ever since it has been known as the Rum River.
There is an international movement to return the river to its previous "name" on the basis that the current one as a "corruption" of the name's original intent. It's seen an affront to native sensibilities (the Dakota word for "Great Spirit" is, for instance, Wakan-Tonka). The movement has the endorsement of many tribal and native organizations, human rights organizations, multicultural organizations, the United Nations' Secretariat of the Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues, the Minnesota Historical Society's Indian Advisory Committee, a Minnesota State Legislator and religious leaders, including Archbishop Harry Flynn and Bishop John Kinney. However, some people still believe it is doubtful that such a change will be affected because the modern usage is so entrenched with communities along the river.
[edit] History
The early Explorer Father Louis Hennepin is credited with being the first European to lay eyes upon the Wakan/Rum. He was taken to see it during the spring of 1680, while under the captivity of a party of Dakota. He referred to it as the St. Francis river in his published journals, although obviously the name didn't stick.
The Bogus Brook flows into the Rum River and is known to have been a refuge for moonshiners during prohibition.
