History
The museum focuses on the story of Jane Gibbs (born Jane DeBow), who was abducted at age five from her home near Batavia, NY in 1835 by the Stevensons, a missionary family. They brought her West to live among the Dakotah people near Fort Snelling, Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet where Jane attended the missionary school with the Dakotah children and learned to speak their language. She developed a close relationship with the Dakotah and was given the name "Zitkadan Usawin" (Little Bird that was Caught).
She moved with the Stevensons to Illinois where Jane met and married Heman Gibbs in Galena in 1848. They returned to Minnesota in 1849 and bought the land that would eventually become the Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakotah Life in 1849.
Shortly after buying the land, Jane and Heman discovered an Indian trail running through it. Soon they found some of the same Dakotah who Jane had grown up with used the trail on their annual migration North to their wild ricing, hunting and fishing grounds in present day Forest Lake, Minnesota.
Each year the Dakotah band would stop at the Gibbs farm for up to three weeks to visit with Jane and her family before continuing their journey.
Read more about this topic: Gibbs Museum Of Pioneer And Dakotah Life
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