The Messaging Plan is organized around six Key Messages communicated through two frameworks for messaging — Site-Wide Messaging that spans the entire site and Area Messaging, that consider opportunities to engage with features on site in greater specificity and in a more meaningful and powerful way.

Site-wide Messaging is delivered through three strategies – Immediate Acknowledgment, a Threshold of Cues, and Digital Media. All three approaches ensure that the key message of Respect + Honor is consistently conveyed across the site, regardless of where one is located. The intention of Site-wide Messaging is to communicate that “This is a Sacred Burial Ground’’ and to inspire people who come here to behave with dignity and respect. Through the integration of native and culturally significant plants—such as white sage, coneflower, and native grasses—cues, benches, artful interventions and signage, enlightened behavior can emerge from a deeper understanding of the value and deep power of this place. The Immediate Acknowledgment phase is currently underway and will include necessary signage across the site, including digital media tied to signage, where visitors can watch recordings of Dakota people on site telling stories about the significance of this land.

Messaging at specific areas throughout the site is an opportunity to encourage pause and reflection through focused features deeply tied to a particular place. These features prompt people to slow down and seek out specific points of interest in the surrounding landscape and to awaken their sense of curiosity and imagination. The features and exhibits created across the site are organized into three approaches – Core Messaging, Gateway Messaging, and Educational Messaging. Core Messaging is concentrated at the areas of confirmed burial along the bluff, and therefore messaging and healing is most sensitively developed at these features. Gateway Messaging identifies the east and west entries into the park as key opportunities for clear and explicit messaging to passers-by that they are entering a sacred place, while Educational Messaging occurs primarily at the woodland trails and landscape spaces further from the mounds. The intention of the Area Messaging features is to create powerful and lasting experiences that alter the perception of this place for non-Indigenous visitors and that make Indigenous people feel more welcome in this place that is their home.