Pig's Eye, Straight Tongue, and the Advance Guard: Minnesota's Federal Occupation Then and Now
- Patrick Duggan
- Jan 10
- 5 min read
The Names We Bury
Minnesota's capital city was originally called Pig's Eye.
Named after Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant - a one-eyed French Canadian fur trapper and bootlegger who was the first resident of what became St. Paul. He got kicked off federal land at Fort Snelling in 1838 for selling whiskey to soldiers and Dakota people.
The federal government decided who could stay and who had to go. Pig's Eye landed downstream, built a shack, opened a tavern. The settlement became "Pig's Eye Landing."
Father Lucien Galtier was so embarrassed by the name that when he built his chapel in 1841, he reportedly declared: "Pig's Eye, converted thou shalt be, like Saul; Arise, and be, henceforth, Saint Paul!"
We renamed the bootlegger's landing after a saint. We do this a lot - bury the uncomfortable origins under respectable names.
But the fort remained.
Fort Snelling: The Advance Guard
Fort Snelling was established in 1805. Its purpose was straightforward: project federal power into the frontier.
1838: Major Joseph Plympton evicted squatters (including Pig's Eye) from fort land. The inspector general had found 47 of 300 soldiers locked in the guardhouse for drunkenness. The solution wasn't discipline - it was expanding federal control. Push the undesirables downstream.
1862: After the U.S.-Dakota War, Fort Snelling became an internment camp. Hundreds of Dakota - men, women, children - were held through the brutal Minnesota winter before forced relocation to South Dakota. Many died.
2026: Fort Snelling houses the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. Inside: ICE Regional Headquarters. Immigration court. Hub for federal enforcement across five states.
Same location. Same function. Different century.
Bishop Whipple: Straight Tongue
Henry Benjamin Whipple was the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota. The Dakota called him "Straight Tongue" because he didn't lie to them.
In November 1862, after the U.S.-Dakota War, 303 Dakota men were sentenced to hang. Bishop Whipple wrote letters to President Lincoln, public officials, and the press pleading for clemency.
Lincoln commuted 265 sentences - the largest mass commutation on record. Thirty-eight were still hanged in Mankato, the largest mass execution in American history.
Whipple then ministered to the hundreds of Dakota held in the internment camp at Fort Snelling. He saw what federal power did to vulnerable people. He spent his life advocating against it.
When he died in 1901, they named a federal building after him.
The Building Today
The Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling now houses:
ICE Regional Headquarters
Immigration court
Federal enforcement operations for MN, WI, IA, ND, SD
On January 10, 2026, Representatives Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison, and Angie Craig attempted an oversight visit. They were physically removed. Congressional access denied.
Three days earlier, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good - a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three - in South Minneapolis. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem labeled her a "domestic terrorist" within 48 hours, before any investigation.
Video shows Good's steering wheel turned away from the agent when she was shot.
The Pattern
Year | Location | Federal Action | Victims |
1838 | Fort Snelling | Eviction of squatters | Pig's Eye, settlers |
1862 | Fort Snelling | Dakota internment | Dakota men, women, children |
2026 | Fort Snelling | ICE operations | Renee Nicole Good, immigrant communities |
The fort changes names. The building gets a saint's label. The function remains constant.
What Would Pig's Eye Think?
Pierre Parrant was a scoundrel. He sold whiskey to anyone with coin - soldiers, settlers, Dakota. The federal government kicked him out for it.
But Pig's Eye knew something about federal power that we keep forgetting: it doesn't serve you. It serves itself. When you're useful, you stay. When you're inconvenient, you go.
He'd recognize the pattern immediately.
The federal government is again deciding who can stay in Minnesota and who has to go. They're again using Fort Snelling as the headquarters. They're again labeling people as threats to justify removal.
Pig's Eye would probably open a tavern near the protests and sell whiskey to anyone who needed it.
What Would Bishop Whipple Think?
Henry Whipple spent his life fighting for clemency. He wrote letters. He ministered to the imprisoned. He used whatever power he had to advocate for the persecuted.
Congressional oversight is denied
Immigration courts process deportations
The agency that killed Renee Nicole Good operates
The Dakota called him "Straight Tongue" because he told the truth.
The building that bears his name houses an agency whose secretary labeled a dead woman a terrorist before watching the video that shows she wasn't.
The Spinning Corpse
There's a dark joke going around: Bishop Whipple must be spinning in his grave so fast you could strap magnets to his corpse and power Minneapolis.
It's gallows humor. It's also a compression of the entire historical irony into one image.
The man who begged Lincoln for mercy now has his name on the building where mercy goes to die.
The Flag We Won't Give Back
There's another piece of Minnesota history that matters right now.
On July 3, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Private Marshall Sherman of the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment captured the battle flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry. He held his bayonet to Confederate Lieutenant John Lee's chest and said: "Throw down that flag or I'll run you through."
Lee dropped it. Sherman took it home.
Virginia has asked for it back seven times: 1905, 1961, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2013.
Minnesota's response, across governors of both parties:
Year | Governor | Response |
2000 | Jesse Ventura (I) | "Why? We won. ... We took it. That makes it our heritage." |
2003 | Tim Pawlenty (R) | "They're not getting it. ... We believe it's rightfully ours." |
2013 | Mark Dayton (D) | Returning it would be "sacrilege" to Union soldiers who died. |
The flag - still bloodstained - sits in the Minnesota Historical Society. Seven requests. Seven refusals. Bipartisan spine.
That's the Minnesota that could exist right now.
Instead, in 2026, when the federal government occupies our cities and kills our citizens and denies Congressional oversight, our governor announces he's not running for re-election.
Jesse Ventura told Virginia to pound sand over a flag.
Tim Walz couldn't tell DHS to pound sand over a life.
Why This Matters
History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.
Federal violence against vulnerable population
Internment at Fort Snelling
Bishop Whipple advocates for clemency
Lincoln commutes 265 sentences
38 still executed
Federal violence against vulnerable population
Operations headquartered at Fort Snelling
Governor calls it "totally predictable, totally avoidable"
Congressional oversight denied
Renee Nicole Good is dead
The building changed names. The patterns didn't.
Pig's Eye Regional Park
There's a regional park in St. Paul named after Pierre Parrant. Most people think it's named for the old slaughterhouses that used to be nearby.
We forget our own history. We rename things. We build federal buildings and name them after saints and humanitarians.
But the fort is still there. The federal power is still there. The vulnerable people being pushed out are still there.
Pig's Eye knew it in 1838. Bishop Whipple knew it in 1862.
The people standing at restaurant doors in Rochester know it now.
Her Name Was Renee Nicole Good
She dropped her 6-year-old son at school that morning.
She encountered an ICE vehicle stuck in the snow.
She was shot three times in 700 milliseconds.
The video shows her steering wheel turned away from the agent.
The federal government called her a domestic terrorist.
Fort Snelling continues operations.
The pattern holds.
"Pig's Eye, converted thou shalt be, like Saul; Arise, and be, henceforth, Saint Paul!"
We can rename things. We can put saints' names on buildings.
But the function remains.
Her name is Renee Nicole Good.
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