WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.660 Did you know that the very first American shots 00:00:02.660 --> 00:00:07.019 of World War II were actually fired by Minnesotans? 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:09.099 Right, which is something most people completely 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:12.919 miss. Exactly. Or, get this, that the state's 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.259 capital city was just a hair's breadth away from 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:18.079 being named Pig's Eye. Oh yeah, after a bootlegging 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:21.359 squatter. Yeah. So today we're taking a deep 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:24.579 dive into the sprawling, honestly highly detailed 00:00:24.579 --> 00:00:27.679 Wikipedia archives of Minnesota. We really want 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:30.440 to figure out how this freezing kind of isolated 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:34.000 territory became this global hub for you know, 00:00:34.299 --> 00:00:36.820 both cut -through industry and life -saving technology. 00:00:37.179 --> 00:00:39.899 Yeah, it really is a study in how extreme geography 00:00:39.899 --> 00:00:42.960 basically forces extreme adaptation. Right. You're 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:44.979 looking at a landscape that demanded relentless 00:00:44.979 --> 00:00:47.820 problem -solving just to survive. Right. And 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:50.100 that, in turn, forged a very specific, and I'd 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:52.579 say often contradictory, modern identity. OK, 00:00:52.619 --> 00:00:54.780 let's unpack this. But a quick note for you, 00:00:54.820 --> 00:00:56.659 the listener, before we really dive into the 00:00:56.659 --> 00:00:58.600 timeline here. Yeah, important context. Right. 00:00:58.990 --> 00:01:02.170 Our source text covers the raw, unfiltered reality 00:01:02.170 --> 00:01:05.290 of this state's history. And that means we are 00:01:05.290 --> 00:01:08.670 looking at brutal territorial wars, the realities 00:01:08.670 --> 00:01:12.129 of racial discrimination, and deeply complex 00:01:12.129 --> 00:01:14.909 civil rights struggles. Including the 2020 murder 00:01:14.909 --> 00:01:17.629 of George Floyd. Yes, exactly. So we are looking 00:01:17.629 --> 00:01:20.670 at the factual history exactly as it's documented 00:01:20.670 --> 00:01:23.650 in the sources. Our job today isn't to take sides 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:26.409 or endorse any political viewpoints, right? We 00:01:26.409 --> 00:01:28.840 are just here to act as your impartial guides 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:30.959 through the events that actually happened. And 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:33.659 the timeline itself really requires that level 00:01:33.659 --> 00:01:36.400 of objectivity, especially because the roots 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.349 of this region go back. Well, much further than 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:41.390 most people probably realize. Oh, absolutely. 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.769 The source text highlights human remains, like 00:01:44.769 --> 00:01:47.849 Brown's Valley Man, which dates back 9 ,000 years. 00:01:48.010 --> 00:01:50.209 Yeah. And then there's Minnesota Woman, found 00:01:50.209 --> 00:01:52.370 in Otter Tail County, who lived roughly 8 ,000 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:54.890 years ago. And the detail here that completely 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:56.890 stops you in your tracks is what she was buried 00:01:56.890 --> 00:01:58.989 with. It's in crow. He had a dagger made from 00:01:58.989 --> 00:02:01.510 an elk antler, which, sure. But she also had 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:03.969 a conch shell from a snail species that only 00:02:03.969 --> 00:02:06.840 existed in Florida. 8 ,000 years ago. What's 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.340 fascinating here is the sheer mechanics of how 00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:12.240 a Florida conch shell ends up near the Canadian 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:14.740 border millennia before the wheel was even introduced 00:02:14.740 --> 00:02:16.879 to the continent. Exactly. Like, how does that 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.379 even happen? Well, it completely dismantles that 00:02:19.379 --> 00:02:21.400 outdated textbook narrative, you know, the one 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:24.639 about isolated primitive bands of hunter -gatherers. 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:28.780 That shell is physical proof of a massive, highly 00:02:28.780 --> 00:02:32.280 organized continent -spanning rela network. So 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:35.139 trade was just passing hand to hand across thousands 00:02:35.139 --> 00:02:37.639 of miles. Yeah the people living in this region 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:39.939 were already plugged into an ancient economic 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:43.259 web. And they were also like pioneering industrial 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:46.780 tech. By 5000 BC, people living on the shores 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:49.520 of Lake Superior were the very first on the continent 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:52.879 to forge metal tools. Which is a huge technological 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:54.680 leap. Right. They weren't just chipping rock. 00:02:54.819 --> 00:02:57.219 They were pulling raw copper ore from the earth, 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:59.759 heating it, and hammering it into knives and 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:02.039 spear points. And if we fast forward to the era 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:05.259 just before European arrival, the region is primarily 00:03:05.259 --> 00:03:07.500 inhabited by the Dakota people. Who actually 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:10.099 gave the state its name, right? Yes. They call 00:03:10.099 --> 00:03:13.740 the area Meni Soto Makoche. which translates 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:17.699 to land where the water reflects the skies. Which 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:20.960 I think remains the only indigenous phrase depicted 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:24.539 on a U .S. state seal. It does. But the geopolitical 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:27.939 reality really begins to fracture in the 1600s. 00:03:28.020 --> 00:03:30.960 Right, when the Ojibwa migrate westward into 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:33.099 the area. Exactly, and simultaneously you have 00:03:33.099 --> 00:03:35.219 French fur traders arriving. Which brings us 00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:38.280 to Father Louis Hennepin in 1680. He's this French 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:41.340 explorer who supposedly, quote unquote, discovers 00:03:41.340 --> 00:03:43.939 St. Anthony Falls. Right, discovers, yeah. Sources 00:03:43.939 --> 00:03:46.360 show he published a journal hyping up the falls 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:48.960 to his European audience. He's describing this 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:52.300 terrifying, roaring, like 50 to 60 foot drop. 00:03:52.460 --> 00:03:54.780 When in reality the drop was maybe what, 16 feet? 00:03:54.840 --> 00:03:57.060 Yeah, exactly 16 feet. He was basically acting 00:03:57.060 --> 00:04:00.360 like an early influencer using a filter to exaggerate 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:01.860 his lifestyle. That's a great way to put it. 00:04:02.039 --> 00:04:04.020 He was running a frontier marketing campaign. 00:04:04.219 --> 00:04:06.659 Hennepin needed funding, right? And prestige 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:09.300 from European monarchs. So he weaponized the 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:11.139 landscape to make it sound far more dramatic 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:13.479 and resource rich than it actually was. But I 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:15.939 mean, that hype campaign worked. Well, it definitely 00:04:15.939 --> 00:04:18.480 worked. It fueled an international desire to 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:22.120 control this geography. So following the Louisiana 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:24.459 Purchase, the young United States government 00:04:24.459 --> 00:04:27.860 looks at the map and realizes, hey, we need a 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:32.199 permanent military anchor to lock down this sprawling 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:35.139 territory. So in 1819, they build Fort Smelling 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:37.519 right at the intersection of the Minnesota and 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:39.959 Mississippi rivers. Right. And looking at the 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.379 text, the fort doesn't just act as a military 00:04:42.379 --> 00:04:45.699 outpost. It seems to exert this massive economic 00:04:45.699 --> 00:04:48.120 gravity that, like, accidentally creates the 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.139 Twin Cities. Well, think about the logistics 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:53.100 of supplying a remote military fortress. You 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:55.259 need a lot of stuff. Exactly. You need lumber, 00:04:55.339 --> 00:04:58.289 you need food, you need... milled grain. Minneapolis 00:04:58.289 --> 00:05:00.670 essentially springs up on the west bank of St. 00:05:00.829 --> 00:05:03.430 Anthony Falls simply because the river's current 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:06.269 was strong enough to power the massive saw mills 00:05:06.269 --> 00:05:08.889 and grist mills required to keep the fort operational. 00:05:09.170 --> 00:05:10.949 OK, so that's Minneapolis. But St. Paul, the 00:05:10.949 --> 00:05:13.329 capital, is a borne out of just pure chaos. Yeah, 00:05:13.410 --> 00:05:15.329 total chaos. You have these squatters who get 00:05:15.329 --> 00:05:17.589 evicted from the fort's snowing grounds by the 00:05:17.589 --> 00:05:19.709 military. So they move downstream and take over 00:05:19.709 --> 00:05:22.529 this place called Fountain Cave. Right. And one 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:25.009 of these guys is Pierre Parent, who happens to 00:05:25.009 --> 00:05:27.389 be blind in one eye, earning him the nickname 00:05:27.389 --> 00:05:30.670 Pig's Eye. Such a great historical detail. I 00:05:30.670 --> 00:05:33.689 know. So he sets up a moonshine operation, and 00:05:33.689 --> 00:05:36.410 the settlement literally adopts his name. For 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:38.730 a while, the area is just called Pig's Eye. Until 00:05:38.730 --> 00:05:41.790 a Catholic missionary named Father Gaultier eventually 00:05:41.790 --> 00:05:44.129 builds a log chapel dedicated to Saint Paul. 00:05:44.269 --> 00:05:48.889 Right. But tell me if I'm wrong here. Was Fort 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:51.089 Snelling basically the accidental incubator for 00:05:51.089 --> 00:05:53.329 the entire modern state? Oh, absolutely. It was 00:05:53.329 --> 00:05:56.050 an economic engine. But we also have to recognize 00:05:56.050 --> 00:05:59.839 that chaotic combative energy that sort of defines 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:02.839 their eventual path to statehood. Oh, man. The 00:06:02.839 --> 00:06:05.240 pettiness is unbelievable. It really is. When 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.759 Minnesota finally achieved statehood in 1858, 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:10.819 the politicians are so bitterly divided that 00:06:10.819 --> 00:06:13.019 the Republicans and Democrats refuse to sit down 00:06:13.019 --> 00:06:14.920 and sign the same Constitution. Right. They couldn't 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:16.980 even be in the same room. It's like a corporate 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:19.639 merger where the two CEOs refuse to be in the 00:06:19.639 --> 00:06:21.939 same boardroom, but somehow still manage to build 00:06:21.939 --> 00:06:24.160 a company. I mean, they literally drafted two 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:25.920 identical constitutions on different colored 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:29.089 paper. One white, one blue tinged. Yeah. Just 00:06:29.089 --> 00:06:30.730 so they wouldn't have to share a document, imagine 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:32.490 living in a state where the politicians were 00:06:32.490 --> 00:06:35.730 that petty. It's wild. But while the politicians 00:06:35.730 --> 00:06:37.569 were playing color coordinated games with the 00:06:37.569 --> 00:06:39.829 state's founding documents, the foundation they 00:06:39.829 --> 00:06:42.129 were building on was already fracturing. Because 00:06:42.129 --> 00:06:44.410 of what was happening nationally. Right. And 00:06:44.410 --> 00:06:46.189 we actually have to look back at Fort Snelling 00:06:46.189 --> 00:06:49.310 for this. Because slavery was prohibited in that 00:06:49.310 --> 00:06:52.110 territory, the fort became the temporary home 00:06:52.110 --> 00:06:56.209 of an enslaved man named Dred Scott. Ah, right. 00:06:56.350 --> 00:06:58.550 His master was a military surgeon posted there. 00:06:59.029 --> 00:07:02.310 Exactly. Dred Scott's time on that free soil 00:07:02.310 --> 00:07:05.009 formed the exact legal basis for his eventual 00:07:05.009 --> 00:07:07.949 fight for freedom. Which led to the infamous 00:07:07.949 --> 00:07:10.670 Supreme Court case. Yes, which pushed the entire 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:13.709 nation much closer to the Civil War. Which means 00:07:13.709 --> 00:07:16.730 Minnesota is inextricably linked to the powder 00:07:16.730 --> 00:07:20.089 keg of the 1860s. Very much so. And this decade 00:07:20.089 --> 00:07:22.350 is where the state's identity essentially splits 00:07:22.350 --> 00:07:24.449 down the middle. Here's where it gets really 00:07:24.449 --> 00:07:27.170 interesting in a dark way. It's like a teenager 00:07:27.170 --> 00:07:28.990 forced to grow up overnight, they're fighting 00:07:28.990 --> 00:07:31.779 two entirely different wars at once. Yeah, that 00:07:31.779 --> 00:07:34.720 dual trauma is critical to understand. So in 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:37.639 1861, Minnesota is the very first state to offer 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:40.100 troops to the Union Army, and their role at the 00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:42.779 Battle of Gettysburg is legendary. First Minnesota 00:07:42.779 --> 00:07:45.139 infantry regiment. Right. They were ordered to 00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:47.399 halt a massive Confederate assault. They were 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:49.699 vastly outnumbered, but they charged in to plug 00:07:49.699 --> 00:07:53.139 a literal gap in the Union line, buying five 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:55.259 crucial minutes for reinforcements to arrive. 00:07:55.610 --> 00:07:58.209 And the tactical reality of that charge was basically 00:07:58.209 --> 00:08:03.509 a suicide mission. Out of 262 men, only 47 survived 00:08:03.509 --> 00:08:07.029 unscathed. They suffered an 82 % casualty rate. 00:08:07.850 --> 00:08:10.350 Military historians widely consider this the 00:08:10.350 --> 00:08:13.110 highest casualty rate of any surviving U .S. 00:08:13.470 --> 00:08:16.050 military unit in modern warfare. It was the ultimate 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:18.339 sacrifice to preserve the Union. But we have 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:20.079 to look at what was happening back home at the 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.600 exact same time. It's the summer of 1862. The 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.379 state is sacrificing its own men out east while 00:08:26.379 --> 00:08:29.199 simultaneously orchestrating an absolute tragedy 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:32.059 within its own borders. The Dakota War of 1862. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:34.860 Yeah. And the sources lay out the mechanics of 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:37.639 this clearly. The Dakota people had signed treaties 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:39.860 ceding vast amounts of land to the government. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:42.320 But the compensation, you know, the gold and 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.440 supplies they were promised in exchange, was 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:47.129 deliberately delayed. And add to that severe 00:08:47.129 --> 00:08:49.450 crop failures and the loss of their traditional 00:08:49.450 --> 00:08:52.149 hunting grounds to white settlers. You have an 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:54.629 entire population pushed into artificial starvation. 00:08:55.049 --> 00:08:57.669 The conflict didn't spontaneously erupt. It was 00:08:57.669 --> 00:09:00.450 the mathematical result of broken treaties and 00:09:00.450 --> 00:09:04.570 desperate conditions. So in August 1862, four 00:09:04.570 --> 00:09:07.730 Dakota men seeking food killed a family of settlers, 00:09:07.809 --> 00:09:10.230 which ignited a faction led by Little Crow to 00:09:10.230 --> 00:09:12.690 try and forcibly drive the settlers out of the 00:09:12.690 --> 00:09:14.909 Minnesota River Valley. And it resulted in a 00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:17.750 brutal six -week war. Hundreds of settlers were 00:09:17.750 --> 00:09:19.830 killed, which triggered a massive panic. And 00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:21.950 the retaliation from the U .S. government was 00:09:21.950 --> 00:09:24.190 absolute. Is devastating. After the fighting 00:09:24.190 --> 00:09:27.049 ended, 425 indigenous men were put on trial, 00:09:27.409 --> 00:09:29.750 and 38 Dakota men were hanged in the town of 00:09:29.750 --> 00:09:33.490 Mankato on December 26, 1862. Which still stands 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:35.830 as the largest mass execution in U .S. history. 00:09:35.950 --> 00:09:39.610 Just a horrific day. And the aftermath was equally 00:09:39.610 --> 00:09:42.870 grim. The surviving Dakota, including women, 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:45.470 children, and those who hadn't even fought, were 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:48.169 confined in a makeshift prison camp at Pike Island. 00:09:48.450 --> 00:09:50.470 Through a brutal winter. Right, where hundreds 00:09:50.470 --> 00:09:53.470 died of disease. Ultimately, Congress abolished 00:09:53.470 --> 00:09:55.789 their reservations and exiled the Dakota from 00:09:55.789 --> 00:09:58.509 Minnesota entirely. I mean, how does a state 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:01.809 reconcile that? In a single year, you have unparalleled 00:10:01.809 --> 00:10:05.009 heroism at Gettysburg and the systemic starvation 00:10:05.009 --> 00:10:07.990 and exile of an indigenous population. It creates 00:10:07.990 --> 00:10:11.179 a deeply scarred psychology. Emerging from those 00:10:11.179 --> 00:10:13.980 dual traumas, the fate machinery seems to go 00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:17.159 numb to everything except aggressive, relentless 00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:20.139 industrial expansion. The late 19th century just 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:22.840 becomes all about extracting wealth from the 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:25.379 geography. Precisely. And they did it with staggering 00:10:25.379 --> 00:10:29.120 efficiency. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:31.500 aggressive expansion of railroads by magnates 00:10:31.500 --> 00:10:34.279 like James J. Hill brought in massive waves of 00:10:34.279 --> 00:10:37.250 immigrants. Germans, Norwegians, Swedes. Minneapolis 00:10:37.250 --> 00:10:39.549 quickly brands itself the milling capital of 00:10:39.549 --> 00:10:42.029 the world. But they didn't just throw grain between 00:10:42.029 --> 00:10:44.330 two rocks. The sources explain the technology 00:10:44.330 --> 00:10:46.990 they had to invent. Because Minnesota grows hard 00:10:46.990 --> 00:10:49.509 spring wheat. Right. Which survives the cold, 00:10:49.590 --> 00:10:53.139 but has a very brittle, glassy husk. If you grind 00:10:53.139 --> 00:10:56.179 it with traditional stone mills, that husk shatters 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:58.919 into microscopic dust, turns the flower brown, 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:01.759 and makes it spoil. Which basically made the 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:04.419 region's primary crop nearly worthless on the 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:07.759 global market. Exactly, until they invent the 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.159 middlings purifier. This machine acted like a 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:14.450 wind tunnel. It used jets of air to blow away 00:11:14.450 --> 00:11:17.350 the lighter husk fragments while the heavy, starchy 00:11:17.350 --> 00:11:19.669 middle of the wheat dropped down. It's brilliant. 00:11:19.750 --> 00:11:21.450 And then they combined that with steel roller 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:23.509 mills that crushed the grain instead of grinding 00:11:23.509 --> 00:11:26.669 it. Suddenly they're turning the toughest, cheapest 00:11:26.669 --> 00:11:29.470 wheat into patent flour. The most premium snow 00:11:29.470 --> 00:11:32.149 white flour in the world. So what does this all 00:11:32.149 --> 00:11:34.429 mean for the everyday listener? When I look at 00:11:34.429 --> 00:11:36.649 the sheer scale of the milling tech and the open 00:11:36.649 --> 00:11:39.710 pit mining up north, late 19th century Minnesota 00:11:39.710 --> 00:11:42.470 looks like the Silicon Valley of flour and iron. 00:11:42.649 --> 00:11:44.830 I really like that analogy. Right, because they 00:11:44.830 --> 00:11:47.169 were leveraging cutting edge tech to completely 00:11:47.169 --> 00:11:49.929 monopolize natural resources. Yeah, and while 00:11:49.929 --> 00:11:51.750 they were engineering wind tunnels for wheat, 00:11:52.210 --> 00:11:54.169 they discovered something equally lucrative up 00:11:54.169 --> 00:11:57.440 north. The iron ore. Yes. The Masabi Range held 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:00.519 massive deposits of iron ore that didn't require 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:02.779 deep shaft mining. It was sitting right near 00:12:02.779 --> 00:12:06.059 the surface. Wow. So by 1904, they had carved 00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:09.980 111 open pit mines into the earth, scooping out 00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:12.600 iron and shipping it across the Great Lakes to 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:15.139 feed the steel mills of the East Coast. But that 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:17.720 monopoly created extreme wealth disparity. Oh, 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.879 absolutely. The men who owned the flour mills 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:23.799 and the railroads amassed immense fortunes. They 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:25.960 built high culture institutions like the Minnesota 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:28.299 Orchestra and established the Federal Reserve 00:12:28.299 --> 00:12:30.820 Bank of Minneapolis. But the thousands of immigrants 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:33.720 actually working the mills and mines faced brutal, 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:36.759 dangerous conditions. And this economic friction 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.360 sparked intense social turbulence. Which totally 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:42.379 explains the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike. 00:12:42.919 --> 00:12:44.820 The workers were pushed to the breaking point. 00:12:45.049 --> 00:12:47.450 The strike was so bloody and explosive that it 00:12:47.450 --> 00:12:49.649 practically paralyzed the city. And the shock 00:12:49.649 --> 00:12:51.730 waves from that actually helped push the federal 00:12:51.730 --> 00:12:53.909 government to pass the National Labor Relations 00:12:53.909 --> 00:12:57.990 Act. That's huge. And during the same era, the 00:12:57.990 --> 00:13:01.309 tax notes a really dark rise in intolerance, 00:13:01.929 --> 00:13:04.129 specifically the growth of the Ku Klux Klan in 00:13:04.129 --> 00:13:06.750 the 1920s, which openly targeted the growing 00:13:06.750 --> 00:13:09.590 populations of Jews, Catholics, and people of 00:13:09.590 --> 00:13:12.860 color. Right. This is a recurring pattern. Extreme 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:16.360 conditions yield extreme outcomes. When the environment 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:19.340 or the economy fractures, you see both the absolute 00:13:19.340 --> 00:13:22.779 worst of society and simultaneously the absolute 00:13:22.779 --> 00:13:25.299 best in community problem solving. Like in the 00:13:25.299 --> 00:13:27.460 medical sector. Exactly. Consider the medical 00:13:27.460 --> 00:13:30.629 sector. Right. Because in 1883, a massive F5 00:13:30.629 --> 00:13:33.309 tornado completely levels the town of Rochester. 00:13:33.850 --> 00:13:36.889 The destruction is absolute. And a local doctor 00:13:36.889 --> 00:13:39.649 named W .W. Mayo steps in, working alongside 00:13:39.649 --> 00:13:42.409 nuns from the Sisters of St. Francis, just to 00:13:42.409 --> 00:13:44.870 triage the victims in the rubble. And they quickly 00:13:44.870 --> 00:13:47.190 realize the town can't survive the next disaster 00:13:47.190 --> 00:13:49.009 without a permanent medical facility. Right. 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:52.110 That localized, desperate need forces them to 00:13:52.110 --> 00:13:54.679 open St. Mary's Hospital. which is the direct 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:57.240 foundational forerunner to the modern, renowned 00:13:57.240 --> 00:13:59.519 Mayo Clinic. If we connect this to the bigger 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:01.759 picture, it really explains the state's transition 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.320 into the mid -20th century. Well, the infrastructure 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:06.779 of problem -solving, whether it's surviving a 00:14:06.779 --> 00:14:09.539 tornado, milling brittle wheat, or moving millions 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:12.799 of tons of iron, it built a culture of engineering 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:15.580 that made Minnesota the backbone of the American 00:14:15.580 --> 00:14:17.639 war machine during World War II. Yeah, the numbers 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:19.860 are almost impossible to comprehend. They are. 00:14:19.980 --> 00:14:23.539 Between 70 and 75 percent of all the iron used 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:25.879 by the United States to build tanks, planes, 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.039 and ships during WWII was pulled straight from 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.639 Minnesota's mines. Just massive extraction. And 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:34.240 a meatpacking company. Hormel, figured out how 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:37.779 to can pork shoulder and shipped over 150 million 00:14:37.779 --> 00:14:40.919 pounds of spam to feed the allied troops globally. 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:43.759 Right. And then Cargill, a company that usually 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:46.639 just moved grain on barges, pivoted their entire 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:49.399 operation and built actual military ships and 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:51.639 refueling vessels for the Navy. But the most 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:53.799 significant outcome of the war wasn't the iron 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:56.039 or the spam. No. No, it was the intellectual 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:59.139 capital. The military had funded massive secretive 00:14:59.139 --> 00:15:01.120 research into code breaking and early computing. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:04.340 Oh, wow. And after the war, many of those engineers 00:15:04.340 --> 00:15:07.179 stayed in Minnesota. Which totally explains the 00:15:07.179 --> 00:15:09.320 whiplash I felt reading the modern section of 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.679 the sources. I bet. You go from reading about 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:14.179 dairy farms and wheat to suddenly reading about 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:16.860 a company called Engineering Research Associates 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:19.539 secretly building massive code breaking mainframes 00:15:19.539 --> 00:15:21.840 for the National Security Agency in St. Paul. 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:24.659 And there is a brilliant practical reason for 00:15:24.659 --> 00:15:27.820 that location. What is it? Early computers used 00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:30.539 vacuum tubes that generated immense crippling 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:33.580 heat. Oh, right. So the freezing ambient air 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:36.360 of Minnesota winters provided a literal free 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:40.399 cooling system for the NSA's massive early mainframes. 00:15:40.659 --> 00:15:42.679 That is incredible. The cold actually protected 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:45.639 the tech. Exactly. And from there, the dominoes 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:48.299 just keep falling. Seymour Cray leaves to create 00:15:48.299 --> 00:15:50.399 the world's first supercomputers that control 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:53.690 data. IBM decides to build a massive facility 00:15:53.690 --> 00:15:56.429 in Rochester. Partly to tap into a hard -working, 00:15:56.669 --> 00:15:59.210 non -unionized agrarian workforce. Right. And 00:15:59.210 --> 00:16:01.730 they eventually help design the fastest supercomputers 00:16:01.730 --> 00:16:05.169 on Earth. Meanwhile, a guy working in a Minneapolis 00:16:05.169 --> 00:16:08.570 garage starts a company called Medtronic. He 00:16:08.570 --> 00:16:11.210 invents the first wearable external pacemaker 00:16:11.210 --> 00:16:14.570 and turns it into a global medical device empire. 00:16:14.889 --> 00:16:17.549 It is the ultimate manifestation of their historical 00:16:17.549 --> 00:16:20.500 identity. The environment fostered a specific 00:16:20.500 --> 00:16:23.940 kind of relentless practical innovation. But 00:16:23.940 --> 00:16:27.000 as the economy fully modernized into a tech and 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.059 medical powerhouse, the social fabric was still 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:32.919 catching up. And the sources document a deeply 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.860 complex civil rights record. I mean, Minnesota 00:16:35.860 --> 00:16:38.799 has a legacy of major progressive milestones. 00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:41.879 It was the very first state to grant black men 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:44.830 the right to vote. way back in 1868, immediately 00:16:44.830 --> 00:16:47.710 after the Civil War. Which is huge. Yeah. And 00:16:47.710 --> 00:16:50.549 in the mid 20th century, politicians like Hubert 00:16:50.549 --> 00:16:53.070 Humphrey championed the country's first municipal 00:16:53.070 --> 00:16:55.570 fair employment law while mayor of Minneapolis. 00:16:55.990 --> 00:16:58.429 And later as vice president, he was instrumental 00:16:58.429 --> 00:17:01.460 in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Which 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.720 raises an important question, right? Yeah. How 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:05.980 does a society that invents life -saving medical 00:17:05.980 --> 00:17:09.319 devices and champions national civil rights legislation 00:17:09.319 --> 00:17:12.460 continue to fail its own citizens on a systemic 00:17:12.460 --> 00:17:15.279 level? Right, because the source text impartially 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:17.740 tracks the reality on the ground, which was often 00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:19.559 starkly different from the political rhetoric. 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:22.680 Exactly. The state has a documented history of 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:25.599 at least 20 lynchings, three of which were of 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:28.299 African Americans. And the text makes it painfully 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:30.640 clear that the struggle for equality isn't just 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:34.119 a chapter from the 1920s. It is a modern ongoing 00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:37.319 reality. Yes. The sources detail the events of 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:41.140 May 25, 2020, when George Floyd, an African -American 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.700 man, was murdered by Minneapolis police officer 00:17:43.700 --> 00:17:46.279 Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for over 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:48.900 10 minutes. And that event, which was captured 00:17:48.900 --> 00:17:52.140 on a viral video by Darnella Frazier, ignited 00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:54.539 global protests and led to the conviction of 00:17:54.539 --> 00:17:57.079 Chauvin and three other officers. officers. The 00:17:57.079 --> 00:17:59.160 inclusion of this event in the historical record 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:02.039 serves as a blunt reminder. A state can lead 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:04.559 the world in supercomputing and healthcare, yet 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:07.359 still be deeply entangled in the complex, painful 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:09.950 work of achieving basic civil equality. It's 00:18:09.950 --> 00:18:12.670 all part of the same messy, complicated tapestry. 00:18:12.829 --> 00:18:14.910 It really is. Well, we have covered a massive 00:18:14.910 --> 00:18:17.309 timeline today. We started 8 ,000 years ago, 00:18:17.430 --> 00:18:19.730 tracing trade routes through a floricant shell. 00:18:19.769 --> 00:18:22.730 Yeah. We saw politicians petty enough to draft 00:18:22.730 --> 00:18:25.309 color coordinated constitutions rather than share 00:18:25.309 --> 00:18:27.819 a desk. Which I'll never get over. Right. We 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:30.519 watched a state sacrifice its own men to save 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.480 the Union Line at Gettysburg while simultaneously 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:36.660 exiling its indigenous population. And we saw 00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:38.960 how the extreme climate forced the invention 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.339 of wind tunnels for wheat, massive early mainframes 00:18:42.339 --> 00:18:45.859 for the NSA, and the wearable pacemaker. It is 00:18:45.859 --> 00:18:48.380 a remarkable evolution. But I want to leave you 00:18:48.380 --> 00:18:50.660 with one final detail from the source text to 00:18:50.660 --> 00:18:53.619 mull over. OK. We discussed the Dakota War and 00:18:53.619 --> 00:18:55.759 the broken treaties that stripped away indigenous 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:58.920 lands. Well, in 1858, when the Yankton Sioux 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:01.700 tribe ceded their territory, the treaty included 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:05.319 one very specific provision. They retained a 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:07.559 one mile square reservation at the Pipestone 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:09.779 Quarry in the southwest corner of the state. 00:19:09.900 --> 00:19:12.180 Oh, because that is where the sacred red clay 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:14.859 used for carting peace pipes is found. Precisely. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:17.619 And what's profound is the mechanism of how that 00:19:17.619 --> 00:19:20.460 space exists today. Oh, so. That quarry remains 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:23.279 active. By strict treaty with the National Park 00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:25.759 Service, the right to quarry that sacred stone 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.259 is restricted exclusively to Native Americans. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.279 So I want you to ponder that image. Amidst the 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:34.420 relentless hum of Seymour Cray's supercomputers, 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:37.440 the sprawling concrete of the Twin Cities, the 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:40.839 Iron Mines, and the global medical empires, ancient 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:44.420 sacred spaces still silently endure. They operate 00:19:44.420 --> 00:19:47.059 right alongside the modern machinery. A quiet 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:49.599 heartbeat from thousands of years ago that refused 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:52.140 to be paved over. That is a stunning contrast. 00:19:52.339 --> 00:19:54.279 I guess history isn't a straight line of progress, 00:19:54.420 --> 00:19:56.740 is it? It's a constant collision of ancient traditions, 00:19:57.359 --> 00:19:59.720 extreme environments, and the sheer human will 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.000 to solve the next problem in front of you. Thanks 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:03.440 for taking this deep dive with us today.