UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA

AFFIDAVIT OF CLIFFORD DURAN

I, Clifford Duran, being duly sworn, upon oath make this Affidavit to support the claims of the Mendora Medewakanton Dakota Community in the dispute regarding areas in the vicinity of Fort Snelling and the proposed reroute of Hiawatha Avenue.

I am a native American person--Chippewa and Cree. I am a spiritual leader and a medicineman (healer). I perform ceremonies in sweat lodges and healing lodges. I was raised with the knowledge and skills to perform the ceremonies.

I was given tobacco and asked to come to the encampment near Fort Snelling to see if the area was good or bad for our people. I performed a ceremony in their sweat lodge and the "grandfathers", or the spirits, spoke to me. The spirits told me that they won't put a road on top of this part of the Earth. That is because many relatives are buried there and a road would destroy their spirits.

As concerns the four sacred trees, there were medicine lodges near the trees many years ago. They have changed the color of the Earth, so in the future all mankind will notice the changes on the Earth. The four trees were burial sites.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT

Clifford Duran

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of October, 1998.

Emily O. Fruchtman

Notary Public