Dakota War of 1862

Dakota War of 1862
Part of the Sioux Wars and the American Civil War

1904 painting "Attack on New Ulm" by Anton Gag
DateAugust 18 – September 26, 1862
Location
Minnesota, Dakota Territory
Result United States victory
Belligerents
 United States Dakota
Commanders and leaders
Abraham Lincoln
Alexander Ramsey
Henry Hastings Sibley
John Pope		 Little Crow
Shakopee  Executed
Red Middle Voice
Mankato  †
Big Eagle  Surrendered
Cut Nose  Executed
Casualties and losses
77 USV killed[1]
36 volunteers killed[2]
358 civilians killed[3][4]		 150 killed[5]
38 executed[6]+2 executed November 11, 1865

The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several eastern bands of Dakota collectively known as the Santee Sioux. It began on August 18, 1862, when the Dakota, who were facing starvation and displacement, attacked white settlements at the Lower Sioux Agency along the Minnesota River valley in southwest Minnesota.[7] The war lasted for five weeks and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of settlers and the displacement of thousands more.[8] In the aftermath, the Dakota people were exiled from their homelands, forcibly sent to reservations in the Dakotas and Nebraska, and the State of Minnesota confiscated and sold all their remaining land in the state.[8] The war also ended with the largest mass execution in United States history with the hanging of 38 Dakota men.[8]

All four bands of eastern Dakota had been pressured into ceding large tracts of land to the United States in a series of treaties and were reluctantly moved to a reservation strip twenty miles wide, centered on Minnesota River.[8]: 2–3  There, they were encouraged by U.S. Indian agents to become farmers rather than continue their hunting traditions.[8]: 4–5  A crop failure in 1861, followed by a harsh winter along with poor hunting due to depletion of wild game, led to starvation and severe hardship for the eastern Dakota.[9] In the summer of 1862, tensions between the eastern Dakota, the traders, and the Indian agents reached a breaking point. On August 17, 1862, in a disagreement four young Dakota men killed five white settlers in Acton, Minnesota.[10] That night, a faction led by Chief Little Crow decided to attack the Lower Sioux Agency the next morning in an effort to drive all settlers out of the Minnesota River valley.[8]: 12  The demands of the Civil War slowed the U.S. government response, but on September 23, 1862, an army of volunteer infantry, artillery and citizen militia assembled by Governor Alexander Ramsey and led by Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley finally defeated Little Crow at the Battle of Wood Lake.[8]: 63  Little Crow and a group of 150 to 250 followers fled to the northern plains of Dakota Territory and Canada.[11][12]: 83 

During the war, Dakota men attacked and killed over 500 white settlers, causing thousands to flee the area[13]: 107  and took hundreds of "mixed-blood" and white hostages, almost all women and children.[14][15] By the end of the war, 358 settlers had been killed, in addition to 77 soldiers and 36 volunteer militia and armed civilians.[16][17] The total number of Dakota casualties is unknown, but 150 Dakota men died in battle. On September 26, 1862, 269 "mixed-blood" and white hostages were released to Sibley's troops at Camp Release.[18] Interned at Fort Snelling, approximately 2,000 Dakota surrendered or were taken into custody,[19] including at least 1,658 non-combatants, as well as those who had opposed the war and helped to free the hostages.[15][13]: 233 

In less than six weeks, a military commission, composed of officers from the Minnesota volunteer Infantry, sentenced 303 Dakota men to death. President Abraham Lincoln reviewed the convictions and approved death sentences for 39 out of the 303.[8]: 72  On December 26, 1862, 38 were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, with one getting a reprieve, in the largest one-day mass execution in American history. The United States Congress abolished the eastern Dakota and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) reservations in Minnesota, and in May 1863, the eastern Dakota and Ho-chunk imprisoned at Fort Snelling were exiled from Minnesota to a reservation in present-day South Dakota. The Ho-Chunk were later moved to Nebraska near the Omaha people to form the Winnebago Reservation.[20][8]: 76, 79–80 

In 2012 and 2013, Governor Ramsey's 1862 call for the Dakota to "be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State" was repudiated,[21][22] and in 2019, an apology was issued to the Dakota people for "150 years of trauma inflicted on Native people at the hands of state government."[23]

  1. ^ Clodfelter, Micheal D. (2006). The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862–1865. McFarland Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7864-2726-0.
  2. ^ Clodfelter, Micheal D. (2006). The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862–1865. McFarland Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7864-2726-0.
  3. ^ Wingerd, p. 400 n 4.
  4. ^ Satterlee, Marion (1923). Outbreak and massacre by the Dakota Indians in Minnesota in 1862 : Marion P. Satterlee's minute account of the outbreak, with exact locations, names of all victims, prisoners at Camp Release, refugees at Fort Ridgely, etc. : complete list of Indians killed in battle and those hanged, and those pardoned at Rock Island, Iowa : interesting items and anecdotes. Minneapolis, MN: M.P. Satterlee. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-7884-1896-9. OCLC 48682232.
  5. ^ Clodfelter, Micheal D. (2006). The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862–1865. McFarland Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7864-2726-0.
  6. ^ Clodfelter, Micheal D. (2006). The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862–1865. McFarland Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7864-2726-0.
  7. ^ "During the War". The US–Dakota War of 1862. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cite error: The named reference Carley-1976 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Mary Lethert Wingerd, North Country: The Making of Minnesota (2010) p. 302.
  10. ^ "The Acton Incident". The US–Dakota War of 1862. February 27, 2013. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  11. ^ Anderson, Gary Clayton; Woolworth, Alan R., eds. (1988). Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press. pp. 2, 4, 120, 141, 268. ISBN 978-0-87351-216-9.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Carley-1976a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b Anderson, Gary Clayton (2019). Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-6434-2
  14. ^ "During the War". The US–Dakota War of 1862. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  15. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Brown-1897 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Clodfelter-1998 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Wingerd, North Country (2010) p. 400 n 4.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference US–Dakota War-2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Monjeau-Marz-2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "Ho-Chunk and Blue Earth, 1855–1863". MNopedia. September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  21. ^ Nelson, Emma (August 16, 2012). "Dayton declares remembrance of U.S.–Dakota War". MN Daily. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  22. ^ "Dayton repudiates Ramsey's call to exterminate Dakota". Star Tribune. May 2, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  23. ^ "Dakota Governor Walz makes historic apology for 1862 mass hanging in Mankato". Indian Country Today. January 2, 2020. Retrieved August 26, 2022.