The US- Minnesota Historical Society ! "#$%!&'()*+,-!$%!.!(',&+,%+&!/'0*!'/!-#+!1+2!3.4+%!.5.$6.26+!.-!#--37881119)%&.:'-.1.09'048;!0+30+%+,-$,4!.!%*.66!3.0-!'/!-#+! $,/'0*.-$',!.5.$6.26+!-#+0+9!!"#+!3.4+%!.0+!%#.0+&!1$-#!-#+!3+0*$%%$',!'/!-#+!<'($+-=!/'0!-#+!3)03'%+!'/!%)33'0-$,4!-#+!<>> wrote: file:///private/var/folders/PQ/PQLev8E5Gj86GCQYVrSGfU+++TI... material website ) sent a message using the contact form . the else. else. [email protected] use contact to you anything anything for need need http://www.mnhs.org/mhsuse.html [email protected] you if go-ahead LaBree the know know V. got http://www.usdakotawar.org/ me me Karen- Karen Randall ( at I am working on curriculum to be used by Saint Paul 6th grade teachers as part of instruction on research and informational text writing. The focus of the work is US-Dakota War and your web site an excellent, comprehensive resource. Access to computers is an issue in many schools, though, so it would be helpful to be able to provide teachers and students with PDF versions of some pages from your site, for printing at their buildings. Would the licensing rules of the Historical Society permit this? Re: [Website feedback] Permission to include print version of web pages as part of district curriculum Aimee VL Hohn to: karen.randall 10/22/2012 10:16 AM Show Details History: This message has been replied to. Hi Just per our use policy: Let Thanks, Aimee On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 1:43 PM, < -- Aimee Online Producer Minnesota Historical Society 345 Kellogg Boulevard Saint Paul, MN 55102 T: 651-259-3028 F:651-282-2374 1 of 1

Oceti !akowi": The Seven Council Fires | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/dakota-homeland/oceti-#akowi"-seven-council-fires

Oceti !akowi": The Seven Council Fires

Tio!paye(Kinship)

Mitakuye oyasin: "All are related" From Oceti !akowi": The Seven Council Fires. MHS Collections.

Historically, there were seven major divisions, or council fires, of the “,” Courtesy of http://www.ndstudies.org. Graphic By: Cassie Theuer Studies Project State Historical Society of North Dakota each a distinct but similar culture. Mdewaka"to"wa", The Spirit Lake People (Mdewakanton), Wa#pekute, The Shooters Among the Leaves People (Wahpekute), Wa#peto"wa", The People Dwelling Among the Leaves (Wahpeton), and Sisito"wa", People of the Fish Village(s) (Sisseton), are referred to as the Santee or Eastern Dakota. Iha"kto"wa", Dwellers at the End (Yankton) and Iha"kto"wa"na, Little Dwellers at the End (Yanktonai) are referred to as the Western Dakota or often as the Nakota; and the Ti´to"wa", Dwellers on the Plains (Teton) are called Lakota. The historic alliance of these divisions is known variously as the Sioux, the Great Sioux Nation, or Oceti $akowi", The Seven Council Fires. Today, Dakota, Lakota and Nakota tribal governments and communities are located in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana in the United States, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.

Learn about and hear more from members of Dakota communities.

1 of 2 10/23/12 7:51 PM Land & Lifeways | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/dakota-homeland/land-lifeways

Land & Lifeways

Oral Tradition Bdote

St. Paul is the “White Rock;" Minneapolis is “the Place Where the Water Falls;" New Ulm is “the Place Where There is a Cottonwood Grove on the River;" was “the Soldiers’ House;" Birch Coulee was

called “Birch Creek.” Wambditanka (Big Eagle), Mdewakanton Dakota Village on the Mississippi near Fort Snelling, 1845-48 Dakota leader, 1894

Mni sota- Land of the cloud tinted waters.

The area now known as Minnesota has been called "home" by Dakota people for thousands of years. For hundreds of years the Santee (or Eastern) Dakota moved their villages and varied their work according to the seasons. They spent the winter living off the stores of supplies built up during the previous year. Women gathered wood, processed hides, and made clothes while men hunted and fished. In the spring, villages dispersed and men left on hunting parties, while women, children, and the elderly moved into sugaring camps to make maple sugar and syrup. During the summer months families gathered in villages and men hunted and fished while women and children cultivated crops such as corn, squash, and beans. Once the corn had been harvested, families focused on gathering wild rice along the rivers. In autumn, families moved to the year's chosen hunting grounds for the annual hunt. This traditional lifestyle of communal support was the basis for Dakota society and culture.

From Historicfortsnelling.org.

1 of 3 10/23/12 7:49 PM

Traders | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/traders

Traders

Kinship & Newcomers

American Indian nations traded for centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Over a 200-year span beginning in the mid-1600s, European traders exchanged manufactured goods for valuable furs with Indian people. Following the American Revolution, the United States competed fiercely with Great Britain for dominance of the North American fur trade. After the War of 1812 there were

A Fur Trader in the Council Tipi, about 1892 three main parties involved in the Northwest Territory's fur trade: Indians, fur trading companies, and the U.S. government.

Dakota and Ojibwe men were the primary trappers of fur-bearing animals (beaver being the most valuable) in the woodlands and waterways of the Northwest Territory. In exchange for these furs, French, British, and U.S. traders provided goods such as blankets, firearms and ammunition, cloth, metal tools, and brass kettles. For thousands of years, Dakota and Ojibwe people had used tools made from readily available materials. By the 1800s, however, trade goods were a part of daily life for many American Indian communities.

By the 1830s the fur trade had declined dramatically due to changes in fashion, the

1 of 3 10/23/12 7:55 PM Traders | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/traders

availability of less expensive materials for hat-making, and because available game in Dakota and Ojibwe hunting grounds had been reduced by competition with European immigrants. Many fur traders took the opportunity to become land speculators, and economics in the region changed forever. Since many Dakota and Ojibwe people had become increasingly dependent on the trade, it became a matter of survival to enter into exchanges of land for money, goods, and services; to maintain their welfare; and to pay off debts claimed by traders.

Mixed blood (Indian and French) fur trader, about 1870 Theme: Shared History

Topics: Fur Trade

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Anderson, Gary Clayton. Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650-1862. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Brown, Jennifer S. H. Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980.

Gilman, Carolyn. Where Two Worlds Meet: The Great Lakes Fur Trade. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1982.

Green, William D. A Peculiar Imbalance: The Rise and Fall of Racial Equality in Early Minnesota. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2007.

2 of 3 10/23/12 7:55 PM U.S. Government & Military | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/us-government-military

U.S. Government & Military

Indian Agencies Fort Snelling Federal Acts & Assimilation Policies

That those tribes cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. . . . Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.

President Andrew Jackson, Fifth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1833 From, in part, www.historicfortsnelling.org

From the late 1700s, when the United States won its independence from Great Britain, through the 1900s, U.S.

Andrew Jackson, about 1860. Courtesy of leaders focused on westward expansion. A system was the Library of Congress. created to assimilate and/or remove Indian peoples from their homelands in order to aid U.S. expansion. In 1823, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling authored by Chief Justice John Marshall declared that, "based on the Doctrine of Discovery, the European states, and the United States as their successor, secured a superior legal title to Indian lands."

The government created new federal offices, agencies, and posts to control trade and relationships between the United States and Indian nations, as well as those between Indian people and settlers.

The government's policy of assimilation would drastically alter traditional Indian cultural identities. Many historians have argued that the U.S. government believed that if Indians did

1 of 3 10/23/12 7:55 PM U.S. Government & Military | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/us-government-military

not adopt European-American culture they would become extinct as a people.

This paternalistic attitude influenced interactions between Indian nations and the U.S. government throughout the first half of the 1800s, and its effects continue to be felt today. Theme: Shared History

Topics: Military U.S. Government

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Anderson, Gary Clayton. Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650-1862. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984.

Newcomb, Steve. Five Hundred Years of Injustice:The Legacy of Fifteenth Century Religious Prejudice. Shaman's Drum. Fall 1992, p. 18-20.

Prucha, Frances Paul. American Indian Treaties: The History of a Political Anomaly. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1994.

Prucha, Frances Paul. Documents of United States Indian Policy. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

Prucha, Francis Paul. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. Abridged Ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.

Sheehan, Bernard W. Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonain Philanthropy and the American Indian. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1973. Spicer, Edward H. A Short History of the Indians of the United States. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company, 1969.

Wallace, Anthony F. C. Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Federal Acts & Assimilation Policies Fort Snelling Indian Agencies

2 of 3 10/23/12 7:55 PM Missionaries | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/missionaries

Missionaries

The Doctrine of Discovery

The Board is, pre-eminently, a society for preaching the gospel. This is. . . the grand object for which it exists. . . . The heathen are educated, and books are translated, printed, and distributed among them, that they may become

Father Hennepin at St. Anthony Falls, Douglas Volk, 1905 attentive, thoughtful, intelligent hearers of the gospel.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), 1833 By the 1500s, Christians from Europe were immigrating to American colonies to start anew. Missionaries attempted to convert Indians to Christianity and "civilized" European lifeways, believing it was their duty or because they thought acculturation was the only way for Indian peoples to survive.

This same story of religious and cultural encounter would eventually be repeated in the area that became Minnesota. All Indian nations, including the Dakota, were affected. By 1833 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), dedicated to spreading Christianity across America and abroad, had established five Dakota missions in Minnesota.

1 of 3 10/23/12 7:56 PM Missionaries | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/missionaries

Missionaries believed they had the best interests of Dakota people at heart. Their writings make it clear that they saw change as inevitable, and adopting the ways of the white man was the only path to survival for the Dakota.

Missionaries and schools.

Theme: Shared History

Topics: Christianity

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Maxfield, Charles A. "The 'Reflex Influence' of Missions: The Domestic Operations of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1810-1850." Dissertation, Union Theological Seminary. Richmond, Virginia, 1995.

‹ Settlers up War ›

Selected U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 commemoration projects and programs are made possible by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

2 of 3 10/23/12 7:56 PM Settlers | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/settlers

Settlers

Farmers, especially of New England, if they could but once see our lands, would never think of settling on the bilious bottoms and the enervating prairies south of us. What is fertility, what is wealth, without vigorous health and activity of body and mind?These are considerations that will weigh more in the future with the immigrants, than they hitherto have: a clear, bracing air, A lithograph advertisement of a Minnesota farm for sale, A.T. Andreas, 1874 an invigorating winter to give elasticity to the system—and water as pure and soft as the dews of heaven, gushing from hill and valley.

James M. Goodhue, editor of the Minnesota Pioneer, 1849 By 1849, when Minnesota became a territory, it was home to about 5,000 white settlers and approximately 31,000 Indian people. The white people were predominantly European immigrants drawn to the region by the fur trade, farming, and lumbering.

Just five years later, the Euro-American population of was more than 30,000, and just three years later, it topped 150,000. Lumber, hides, and furs were the primary exports, with sawmills and river commerce dominating the urban areas. By 1858, when Minnesota became a state, almost all Indian lands in Minnesota had been ceded, or set aside for future sale.

1 of 3 10/23/12 7:56 PM Settlers | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/newcomers/settlers

In 1862, the Homestead Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, allowed settlers easier access to these lands by offering free 160-acre segments to settlers with the requirement that they show improvement to their acreage after five years.

Western gold rushes, the Civil War (1861-65), and the completion of the transcontinental railroad system (1869) dramatically propelled white expansion westward. With the General Allotment Act of 1887, which gave small parcels of tribally held lands to individual Indians while opening up reservations for white settlement, the land held by Indian people continued to dwindle. Into the 1900s, and even down to today, public works projects and other development initiatives represent further encroachment on Native lands.

Theme: Immigration

Topics: Homestead Act Homesteading Immigration Immigration Experience Settler Life

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Andreas, A.T. An illustrated historical atlas of the State of Minnesota. Lakeside Building, Chicago. Chas. Shober & Co. Proprietors of Chicago Lith. Co. 1874

Gilman, Rhoda R. "Territorial imperative : how Minnesota became the 32nd state". Minnesota History Magazine, 1998. Volume 56:4. Pages 154-171.

Wingerd, Mary Lethert. North Country: The Making of Minnesota. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

‹ Indian Agencies up Missionaries ›

Selected U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 commemoration projects and programs are made possible by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

2 of 3 10/23/12 7:56 PM Minnesota Treaties | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/treaties/minnesota-treaties

Minnesota Treaties

The Traders' Paper

Suppose your Great Father wanted your lands and did not want a treaty for your good; he could come with 100,000 men and drive you off to the Rocky Mountains.

Luke Lea, U.S. negotiator, Treaty of Mendota, 1851

From MHS' Tales of the Territory: The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851 Treaty Story.

1805: In 1805 the Dakota ceded 100,000 acres of land at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. U.S. Army Lt. Zebulon Pike negotiated the agreement so the U.S. government could build a military fort there. Of the seven Indian leaders present at the negotiations, only two signed the treaty.

Pike valued the land at $200,000, but no specific dollar amount was written into the treaty. At the signing, he gave the Indian leaders gifts whose total value was $200. The U.S. Senate approved the treaty, agreeing to pay only $2,000 for the land.

Generally, the Indians who signed treaties did not read English. They had to rely on interpreters who were paid by the U.S. government. It is uncertain whether they were aware of the exact terms of the

1 of 4 10/23/12 7:57 PM What's in a Treaty? | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/treaties/whats-treaty

What's in a Treaty?

In 1851 the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, which, along with the subsequent Treaty of Mendota with the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands, ceded to the United States most of southern and central Minnesota. At Traverse des Sioux, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota ceded 21 million acres for $1,665,000, or about 7.5 cents an acre. Of that amount, $275,000 was set aside to pay debts claimed by traders and to relocate the Dakota. Another $30,000 was allocated to establish schools and to prepare the new reservation for the Dakota.

The U.S. government kept more than 80 percent of the money ($1,360,000), with the Dakota receiving only the interest on the amount, at 5 percent for 50 years. The terms of the Mendota treaty were similar, though with even smaller payments. The treaties of 1851 also called for setting up reservations on both the north and south sides of the Minnesota River. But when the treaties came before the U.S. Senate, the reservations were eliminated, leaving the Dakota with no place to live. Congress required that the Dakota approve this change before it would appropriate cash or goods, both desperately needed. President Millard Fillmore agreed that the Dakota could live on the land previously set aside for reservations, but only until it was needed for white settlement.

Examine the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux by clicking on each page in the Annotated Documents section in the upper right.

See the Trader's Paper.

Theme: Shared History

Topics:

1 of 2 10/23/12 8:01 PM Minnesota Treaties | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/treaties/minnesota-treaties

treaties they signed.

Minneapolis and St. Paul are located on land ceded in 1805.

1825: The U.S. government arranged the Prairie du Chien treaty between the Dakota and Ojibwe, as well as the Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, Iowa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa tribes. The treaty set the boundaries of tribal land. After that, it was simpler for the government to negotiate with the Indians for the purchase of their lands.

1837: At Fort Snelling in 1837, the Ojibwe ceded their land north of the 1805 area to the U.S. government in exchange for cash, the payment of claims made by traders, and annual payments of cash and goods, or annuities.

Later that year, a group of Dakota leaders was brought to Washington, D.C., having been told that they would be negotiating the settlement of their southern boundary. Instead, they were pressured into ceding all their land east of the Mississippi. The land was valued at $1,600,000, but the U.S. government agreed to pay far less. The Dakota were promised the interest on $300,000, invested at 5 percent. This amounted to $15,000 per year. The government kept control over one-third of this money, reserving (but not allocating) it for education. Another $200,000 was paid to friends and relatives of the tribe and to settle debts, and $16,000 was given to the Dakota leaders as an incentive to sign the treaty. Each year for 20 years, $23,750 was allocated for annuity payments, food, education, equipment, supplies, and government services.

1847: In 1847 the Ojibwe ceded land for Ho-Chunk and Menominee reservations. This land is west of the 1837 sale. The Ojibwe received $17,000 in cash for the land and the promise of $1,000 annually for the following 46 years. The Ho-Chunk and Menominee reservations were never established.

1851: Minnesota became a territory in 1849. White settlers were eager to establish homesteads on the fertile frontier. Pressured by traders and threatened with military force, the Dakota were forced to cede nearly all their land in Minnesota and eastern Dakota in the 1851 treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. At Traverse des Sioux, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota ceded 21 million acres for $1,665,000, or about 7.5 cents an

2 of 4 10/23/12 7:57 PM Minnesota Treaties | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/treaties/minnesota-treaties

acre. Of that amount, $275,000 was set aside to pay debts claimed by traders and to relocate the Dakota. Another $30,000 was allocated to establish schools and to prepare the new reservation for the Dakota.

The U.S. government kept more than 80 percent of the money ($1,360,000), with only the interest on the amount--at 5 percent for 50 years--paid to the Dakota. The terms of the Mendota treaty with the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands of the Dakota were similar, except that those payments were even smaller. The treaties of 1851 also called for setting up reservations on both the north and south sides of the Minnesota River. But the U.S. Senate changed the treaties by eliminating the reservations and leaving the Dakota with no place to live. Congress required the Dakota to approve this change before appropriating desperately needed cash and goods. President Millard Fillmore agreed that the Dakota could live on the land previously set aside for reservations, but only until it was needed for white settlement.

1854: The arrowhead region of northeastern Minnesota was purchased from the Ojibwe. Three small reservations were located on parts of this land.

1855: The Ho-Chunk ceded their land in Minnesota, except for one small reservation in the southeastern corner of the Territory. The Ojibwe ceded land in north-central Minnesota. Nine reservations were created on this traditional Ojibwe land.

1858: A month after Minnesota became a state, a group of Dakota traveled to Washington, D.C., to discuss their reservation. The Dakota were pressured to cede the lands on the north side of the Minnesota River. They received 30 cents per acre, estimated to be only about 5 percent of the land's value. When the funds were finally distributed in 1860, most of the $266,880 promised went to pay debts claimed by traders.

By 1858 the Dakota had only a small strip of land in Minnesota. Without access to the land upon which they had hunted for generations, they had to rely on treaty payments for their survival. The inadequate money and goods often arrived late. In 1862 the Dakota were starving. This was one cause of the 1862 war between the Dakota and white soldiers. After six weeks, the war ended. Almost 400 Dakota men were tried by a military commission, and 303 were sentenced to die. President Lincoln pardoned many, but 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato. The Dakota were sent to prison in Iowa or to reservations at Crow Creek in what is now South Dakota, and at Santee in Nebraska Territory.

In 1863 the Dakota were forced to give up all their remaining land in Minnesota. The U.S. government canceled all treaties made with the Dakota. The Ojibwe reluctantly ceded most of their remaining land in northwestern Minnesota in treaties of 1863, 1864, and 1867. In 1871 Congress ended the practice of making treaties with Indian nations. However, past treaties

3 of 4 10/23/12 7:57 PM

Causes of the War | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/war/causes-war

Causes of the War

A Hard Decision

I think the Dakota people said to themselves: "We've got to do something, necessity has to take precedence, we have to do something to keep our families alive and to maintain what we can of our culture, and this is the way we can do Prairie back of Fort Snelling, 1846-48 it."

Dr. Elden Lawrence, Sisseton Wahpeton

community of Dakota, 2010 Hunger was widespread throughout Dakota lands in Minnesota Territory. Since crops had been poor in 1861, the Dakota had little food stored for the “starving winter” of 1861-62. Their reservation supported no game and increasing settlement off the reservation meant growing competition with Euro-Americans hunting for meat. Reports about government agents' corrupt treatment of the Dakota were ignored. Factionalism continued to grow amongst the Dakota, as those who maintained traditional ways saw that only those who had acculturated were reaping government support. Finally, a delayed treaty payment made traders nervous, and many of them cut off credit to Dakota hunters. Indian Agent Thomas Galbraith refused to distribute food to the Dakota, and though Dakota farmers shared food with their relatives throughout the summer of 1862, it wasn’t enough.

1 of 3 10/23/12 8:14 PM Causes of the War | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/war/causes-war

Four Dakota hunters killed five white settlers at Acton Township, Meeker County, on August 17, 1862. Later, Wambditanka (Big Eagle) identified these young men:

"You know how the war started — by the killing of some white people near Acton, in Meeker County. I will tell you how this was done, as it was told me by all of the four young men who did the killing. These young fellows all belonged to Shakopee's band. Their names were Sungigidan (“Brown Wing”), Kaomdeiyeyedan (“Breaking Up”), Nagiwicakte (“Killing Ghost”), and Pazoiyopa (“Runs Against Something When Crawling”)."

Some Dakota seized that moment to declare war to reclaim their homelands from the whites who would not keep their promises. In the early morning hours of August 18, they went to war.

Theme: 1862

Topics: Causes of War

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Anderson, Gary Clayton and Alan R. Woolworth, eds. Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988.

Carley, Kenneth. The Dakota War of 1862. 2nd ed. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.

Clodfelter, Michael. The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862-1865. N.C.: McFarland, 1998.

Wingerd, Mary Lethert. North Country: The Making of Minnesota. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

A Hard Decision

2 of 3 10/23/12 8:14 PM During the War | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/war/during-war

During the War

The Dakota Peace Party Media Coverage on the War

“Makte sni , makte sni, damakota do, damakota do.” – It’s translated as, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me I’m Dakota, I’m a Dakota.” They shot him, killed him. Walter LaBatte, Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota community, 2010, about his ancestor François LaBatte who was killed during the war The , Dorothea Paul, 1975

The war was fought primarily by a relatively small group of Mdewakanton and Wahpekute men. Of the estimated 6,500 Dakota people living on Minnesota reservation land in 1862, historians think no more than 1,000 actually fought, including some who were coerced into the battles.

Before the war broke out, a group of Mdewakantons had formed a soldiers’ lodge. Traditionally, the soldiers’ lodge regulated hunting efforts within a village. Increasingly, though, this lodge attracted the young men among the traditionalists who resisted the U.S. government’s assimilation policies. Dakota farmers were not allowed to join.

Timeline of War:

August 17: Four young Dakota men murder five white settlers near Acton Township, Meeker County. Fleeing to their village, they beg for protection. Leaders of the soldiers’ lodge appeal to to lead them in war on the whites. Reluctantly, he agrees.

1 of 3 10/23/12 8:14 PM During the War | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/war/during-war

August 18: Mdewakanton warriors open fire on white traders and government employees at the Lower Agency and defeat a relief force sent from Fort Ridgely. Dakota warriors attack isolated farms and settlements in Renville and Brown counties. More than 200 settlers are killed in these raids, and more than 200 women, children, and mixed-race civilians are taken hostage.

August 19: The Upper Agency is evacuated and its white inhabitants are led to safety by A!petutokec! a (John Other Day). News of events at the Lower Agency reaches St. Paul; Governor Alexander Ramsey commissions Henry H. Sibley, a former trader, congressman, and governor, to lead a force of volunteer state militia against the Dakota. As thousands of refugees begin arriving in eastern Minnesota towns, bearing tales of atrocities real and imagined, panic sweeps the state.

August 20-22: The Dakota make two attacks on Fort Ridgely and are turned back. The Lake Shetek settlement is attacked, and the women and children taken hostage there are carried into .

August 19-25: Two Dakota attacks on New Ulm are repulsed, but the town is evacuated and its citizens flee to Mankato. Little Crow’s camp retreats to the Upper reservation.

August 25: Missionaries fleeing from the vicinity of the Upper Agency reach Henderson safely.

August 26: Upper Dakota form a soldiers’ lodge to oppose the war, crystallizing the Dakota Peace Party.

August 28: The force led by Sibley reaches Fort Ridgely, where some 350 refugees who have been under siege for ten days are gathered.

September 2: A burial party sent out by Sibley is attacked at Birch Coulee. The Peace Party opens negotiations with Sibley.

September 3-4: A Dakota force led by Taoyataduta fights a skirmish at Acton and attacks barricaded settlements at Forest City and Hutchinson. Fort Abercrombie on the Red River is attacked and surrounded. Sibley learns that the Dakota hold more than 250 hostages; he begins negotiating for their release.

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September 18: Sibley’s force leaves Fort Ridgely and advances up the Minnesota Valley.

September 23: Sibley defeats a Dakota force led by Little Crow at Wood Lake near the Yellow Medicine River. A relief force sent from Fort Snelling by way of St. Cloud reaches Fort Abercrombie.

September 24: Taoyetaduta and his followers flee westward.

September 26: The Dakota Peace Party surrenders hostages at Camp Release.

Theme: 1862

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Media Coverage on the War The Dakota Peace Party

‹ A Hard Decision up Media Coverage on the War ›

Selected U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 commemoration projects and programs are made possible by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

3 of 3 10/23/12 8:14 PM Immediate Consequences | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/war/immediate-consequences

Immediate Consequences

Settlers in the Immediate Aftermath Dakota in the Immediate Aftermath

Of the more than 600 white people killed during the war, just over 70 were soldiers, and about 50 more were armed civilians. The others were unarmed civilians--mostly young men, women, and children who were recent immigrants to Minnesota. Historian Curtis Dahlin, who has extracted figures from public and cemetery records as well as from media reports, estimates that 30% of the civilians killed were children aged ten and under. Another 40% were adults between the ages of 20 and 40.

Historians have names for 32 of the estimated 75-100 Dakota soldiers who died during the war (and before the executions on December 26). These names have been gleaned primarily from the testimony of Dakota eyewitnesses.

Detail, Milford Monument, Brown County, about 1930 More than one quarter of the Dakota people who surrendered in 1862 died during the following year.

Theme: 1862

Topics: Aftermath of War

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Dakota in the Immediate Aftermath Settlers in the Immediate Aftermath

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Forced Marches & Imprisonment | The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/forced-marches-imprisonment

Forced Marches & Imprisonment

Davenport Prison Letter

The mortality was fearful. The shock, the anxiety, the confinement, the pitiable diet, were naturally followed by sickness. Many died at Fort Snelling.

Reminiscence of Rev. Stephen Riggs, missionary to the Dakota,

1880.

On November 8th, 1862, Sibley and his military forces began the journey to move the 303 condemned men from the Lower Sioux Agency to a prison camp in Mankato Fort Snelling prison camp, 1862 where the executions were to take place. The prisoners, shackled together in horse-drawn wagons, were attacked by a mob on the outskirts of New Ulm on November 9. Two of the prisoners later died of their injuries. Sibley arrested several New Ulm men, accusing them of coordinating the attack and forcing them to accompany the convoy to Mankato in order to prevent further violence against the prisoners. Then he made them walk home.

On April 22, 1863, the prisoners convicted by the military commission who had been imprisoned at Mankato but were spared execution were sent by steamboat to a military prison in Davenport, Iowa. At least 120 Dakota men died during their imprisonment at Davenport.

For six days beginning November 7, 1862, about 1,700 Dakota people (mostly women, children, and older men) who had surrendered but had not been sentenced to death or prison, were removed from the Lower Agency to an internment camp along the river below Fort

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Snelling. As the group passed through Henderson, Minnesota, they were attacked by white settlers.

The Dakota spent the winter at the internment camp. Estimates of deaths in the camp that winter range from 102 to 300, most due to outbreaks of measles and other diseases that were also sweeping through St. Peter and other communities where war refugees were gathered. In May 1863, the interned Dakota--along with about 2000 Ho-Chunk who had no part

in the war--were loaded onto steamboats Steamboat Davenport at Winona, MN, about 1870 and moved to a camp at Crow Creek, in present-day South Dakota.

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The Trials & Hanging

The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that

White boy identifying Indian who took part in the Dakota uprising, status. from Harper's Weekly, 1862 Carol Chomsky, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School

On September 28, 1862, two days after the surrender at Camp Release, a commission of military officers established by Henry Sibley began trying Dakota men accused of participating in the war. Several weeks later the trials were moved to the Lower Agency, where they were held in one of the only buildings left standing, trader François LaBathe’s summer kitchen.

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As weeks passed, cases were handled with increasing speed. On November 5, the commission completed its work. 392 prisoners were tried, 303 were sentenced to death, and 16 were given prison terms.

President Lincoln and government lawyers then reviewed the trial transcripts of all 303 men. As Lincoln would later explain to the U.S. Senate:

Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I ordered a careful examination of the records of the trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females.

When only two men were found guilty of rape, Lincoln expanded the criteria to include those who had participated in “massacres” of civilians rather than just “battles.” He then made his final decision, and forwarded a list of 39 names to Sibley.

On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged at Mankato.

At 10:00 am on December 26, 38 Dakota prisoners were led to a scaffold specially constructed for their execution. One had been given a reprieve at the last minute. An estimated 4,000 spectators crammed the streets of Mankato and surrounding land. Col. Stephen Miller, charged with keeping the peace in the days leading up to the hangings, had declared martial law and had banned the sale and consumption of alcohol within a ten-mile radius of the town.

As the men took their assigned places on the scaffold, they sang a Dakota song as white muslin coverings were pulled over their faces. Drumbeats signalled the start of the execution. The men grasped each others’ hands. With a single blow from an ax, the rope that held the platform was cut. Capt. William Duley, who had lost several members of his family in the attack on the Lake Shetek settlement, cut the rope.

After dangling from the scaffold for a half hour, the men’s bodies were cut down and hauled to a shallow mass grave on a sandbar between Mankato’s main street and the Minnesota River. Before morning, most of the bodies had been dug up and taken by physicians for use as medical cadavers.

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Following the mass execution on December 26, it was discovered that two men had been mistakenly hanged. Wica!"pi Wasteda!pi (We-chank-wash-ta-don-pee), who went by the common name of Caske (meaning first-born son), reportedly stepped forward when the name “Caske” was called, and was then separated for execution from the other prisoners. The other, Wasicu!, was a young white man who had been adopted by the Dakota at an early age. Wasicu! had been acquitted.

Theme: 1862

Topics: Aftermath of War Mankato Hangings

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Meyer, Roy Willard. History of the Santee Sioux; United States Indian Policy on Trial. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1993.

‹ Punitive Expeditions up Today ›

Selected U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 commemoration projects and programs are made possible by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

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Punitive Expeditions

I hope you will not believe all that is said of "Sully’s Successful Expedition" against the Sioux. I don’t think he ought to brag of it at all, because it was, what no decent man would have done, he pitched into their camp and just slaughtered them, worse a great deal than what the Indians did in 1862, he killed very few men and took no hostile Part of General Sully's army near Fort Berthold, North Dakota, 1864 ones prisoners. . .and now he returns saying that we need fear no more, for he has ‘wiped out all hostile Indians from Dakota.’ If he had killed men instead of women & children, then it would have been a success, and the worse of it, they had no hostile intention whatever, the Nebraska 2nd pitched into them without orders, while the Iowa 6th were shaking hands with them on one side, they even shot their own

men. Samuel Brown, a language interpreter during Sully's expedition, 1863

The Battle of Whitestone Hill

On September 3, 1863, the Second Nebraska Cavalry, the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, and one company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, under thecommand of Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully, attacked a large Native American encampment in what is now extreme south-central North

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John Williamson, the son of missionary Thomas Williamson, accompanied the Dakota to Crow Creek and was instrumental in their survival. During the winter of 1863, he convinced Colonel Thompson to allow some of the Dakota men to go on a buffalo hunt, which furnished them with enough meat to last through the winter.

It is not starving to death here yet, but it is starvation Crow Creek Reservation, 1880s. Courtesy State Archives of the South Dakota Historical Society all the time. John P. Williamson, Crow Creek, Dakota Territory, January 6, 1863

By the time they were sent to Crow Creek, most of the people left were women. A lot died along the way, a lot died when they got here. I've read lots of journals from soldiers and missionaries. One of the soldiers mentioned that the women would go to the horse corrals each morning and pick grain from the horse feces to feed their children. A lot of honorable women also had to resort to prostitution to feed their children. These are the things they were forced to do. To us Dakota people, women are sacred, and should be treated as such. I want to make sure they're recognized for their strength, perseverance, wisdom, and intelligence. Peter Lengkeek, Crow Creek, 2011

Theme: 1862

Topics:

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Bounties

After the war, bounties were offered for Dakota scalps.

On July 4, 1863, in response to raids by Dakota in southern Minnesota, the state’s Adjutant-General, Oscar Malmros, issued a general order for the establishment of a mounted corps of “volunteer scouts” to patrol from Sauk Centre to the northern edge of Sibley County. The scouts provided their own arms, equipment, and provisions, were each paid two dollars a day, and were offered an additional $25 for Dakota scalps. A reward of $75 a scalp was offered to people not in military service; that amount was raised to $200 on September 22. Period newspapers described the taking of many scalps.

Taoyateduta (Little Crow) In September 1862, Little Crow and his small band of followers fled to Canada. In June of 1863, short on food, horses, and Sakpe and Medicine Bottle at Fort Snelling, 1864 provisions, Little Crow and a small party of family and close friends returned to Minnesota.

Late in the afternoon of July 3, 1863, while Little Crow gathered berries in a thicket northwest

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of Hutchinson with his son Wowinape, Nathan Lamson and his son, Chauncey, saw them and opened fire. The Lamsons were unaware of their victim’s identity until Wowinape, who had fled the scene, was captured by soldiers near Devil's Lake some weeks later. Nathan Lamson later received a $500 check from the State of Minnesota; his son, Chauncey, also collected a bounty.

On July 4, 1863, a group of settlers returned to the site of Little Crow’s death. They scalped the body, then took it to Hutchinson, where an Independence Day celebration was in progress. Debate ensued over whether the body was indeed Little Crow’s; during the debate, it was further mutilated.

After identification was certain, the scalp was turned over to the State of Minnesota, where it was displayed in the adjutant-general’s office until 1868. Little Crow’s skull and some of his bones were donated to the Minnesota Historical Society. The scalp, skull, and bones were exhibited at the Historical Society until 1915. Little Crow’s remains were finally interred in 1971 in a family plot near Flandreau, South Dakota.

I’ll never forget the day they brought him back. It was this beautiful September day. They brought him back in this little copper box and that was how he was buried. Right at the end of the service, this flock of little blackbirds--this whole flock--came flying up the hill and all around us. I think that was to let us know he was happy with the way things were, to be out of that museum and back here where he belongs. Billy Gilbert, a descendant of Little Crow, 1993

Medicine Bottle and Sakpe In January, 1864, Dakota leaders Medicine Bottle and Sakpe (Shakopee) were drugged and kidnapped near the Canadian border. They were brought to Fort Snelling, where they waited to be tried for war crimes. Witnesses called by the U.S. government provided only hearsay evidence; the Dakota men were not allowed to call witnesses on their behalf, nor to cross- examine the government’s witnesses. Sentenced to death, Medicine Bottle and Sakpe were hanged at the fort on November 11, 1865.

Theme: 1862

Topics:

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Exile & Diaspora

[Officials] built a box and put the beef in it and steamed it and made soup . . . and that is the reason these hills here are filled with children’s graves; it seemed as though they wanted to kill us.

Passing Hail, Mdewakanton Dakota, to a

congressional commission investigating

conditions at Crow Creek, 1865

Acts of Congress in February and March 1863 abrogated, or revoked, all treaties between the U.S. government and the Santee Dakota. As a result, all but a few protected groups of Dakota were exiled from Minnesota. Minnesota’s Ho-Chunk Indians living in Blue Earth County near Mankato--eleven of whom were tried for participation in the war--were also expelled from the state. This expulsion ushered in an era of bare survival for the Dakota, as well as the disintegration of many families.

In May of 1863 1,300 Dakota were loaded onto steamboats and sent to Crow Creek reservation. Crowded onto the boats and weakened by imprisonment, many died on the voyage. The new reservation was desolate and food was scarce. In the first six months at Crow Creek more than 200 Dakota people died, most of them children.

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Dakota. The location is referred to as the Whitestone Hill battlefield, but in tribal memory it is the Whitestone Hill massacre site. The attack resulted in more Native casualties than any other conflict in North Dakota, with losses on a larger scale that those at Wounded Knee in 1890. The oral history of Whitestone Hill tells us that many women and children were killed while the men were out hunting.

The Battle of Killdeer Mountain (also The Sioux War-cavalry charge of Sully's brigade at the Battle of known as the Battle of Tahkahokuty White Stone Hill, Harper's Weekly, 1863 Mountain)

This battle took place during Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully’s expedition against the Dakota in Dakota Territory on June 28, 1864. The location of the battleground is in modern Dunn County, North Dakota. With more than 4,000 soldiers involved, Sully’s expedition was the largest ever carried out by the U.S. army against Indians. The Indians in the encampment consisted mostly of Lakota (Teton) from the Hunkpapa, Sihasapa, Miniconjou, and Sans Arc bands, plus Yanktonais and a few Santees, of which about 40 were killed (though estimates go into the hundreds). Sully lost only about 10 men. The Indians in the encampment were armed mostly with bows and arrows and a few short-range muskets and shotgun. Most of them, especially the Tetons, had never been engaged in hostilities with U.S. forces before this encounter.

The day after the battle Sully detailed 700 men to destroy the abandoned encampment. This included tipis, large supplies of food, and thousands of dogs. A few people who were left behind in the camp, including children, were killed by Sully's men.

Most of the Dakota scattered through the Badlands to the west of Killdeer Mountain, but some remained near Sully. Several waved a white flag and requested talks but they were fired on by soldiers and fled. Though he was short on supplies, Sully decided to continue his pursuit of the Dakota and instigated the Battle of the Badlands.

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Ded Unkunpi: We are Here

The American Indian Movement

The Dakota have lived and traveled in what is now called the United States for thousands of years. Their values and many contributions have enabled life today. From science, food, medicine, artwork, and political organization, the Dakota created a model for sustainable life in the Upper Midwest and for its newcomers.

Foods like the Three Sisters--corn, squash, and beans--were staples of Dakota diet before contact with Europeans. The buffalo's meat, hide, and bones were used for food, tools, and clothing. Maple trees provided natural sugar for cooking, and one of the earliest forms of candy. Sustainable ways of hunting and farming were valued and provided a model for responsible stewardship of our earth.

The councils of the Oceti !akowi" were a form of democracy, maintaining a tradition that was upheld by Indian nations for thousands of years. Militarily, the Dakota have defended their homeland in the highest proportional numbers of any ethnic group.

Dakota artwork such as quilting, beading, and painting still speak to us today.

Dakota stories and scientists still inform us about human creation, evolution, and natural processes on earth and in Dakota Star Quilt space.

Dakota language informs us about the first names of places we see everyday, reminding us that the land we live on has an immensely broad history. Its words also remind us of the customs, relationships, and spirituality within language and connect us in a meaningful way to

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how we communicate with each other.

Theme: Life Today

Topics: Education Education for Understanding

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

Cash, Joseph H., and Herbert T. Hoover. To Be an Indian; an Oral History. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1971.

The American Indian Movement

‹ Today up The American Indian Movement ›

Selected U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 commemoration projects and programs are made possible by the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

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Initiatives

There is today a broad range of cross-cultural initiatives to teach the painful history of the U.S.-Dakota War, as well as Minnesota and national history. These efforts focus on life today, the survival and resilience of the Dakota people, and collaborative work for education and awareness.

Programs to revitalize the Dakota language Cultural awareness trainings and initiatives to bring Native and

non-Native peoples together in Photograph by Bradley Stuart Allen / Indybay.org taken at Coldwater Spring, 2008. understanding Emphasis on Indian education reform, with statewide initiative to create better teachers, improved learning environments for Native children, and more inclusive curriculum for all children Learning opportunities for Dakota cultural practices and lifeways Greater access to resources for genealogical and other research Commemorative ceremonies and marches De-colonization efforts and activism Action and awareness around museum collections items Education surrounding past and current assimilation policies, like boarding schools

Local and statewide events

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Memory & Commemoration

Changing Memorials

This painting depicts a Dakota man during the Hanblecha, or Vision Quest, where the man is set out on a ledge for four days and four nights in search of his spiritual calling. He is seeking an answer to the troubles of this physical world. It is not uncommon for a man to fall away from this world from lack of food

A Meeting of the Grandfathers, Lyle Miller, Sr., 2012 and water and protection from the elements and drift off into the spirit world, where he is given counsel over his new life. Lyle Miller is an artist and teacher of Dakota and Lakota heritage. He teaches Dakota language and culture classes to elementary students at Crow Creek.

Many commemorative activities have taken place and are planned for the future. Explore some here:

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Survival & Resilience

As the state commemorates the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, Dakota people celebrate their present, honor their past, and forge their future.

As the commemoration calls attention to important events in U.S. history, many people in Minnesota and globally desire to learn more about the formation and original inhabitants of the United States. It is a unique opportunity for Minnesotans to learn the history of the place they call home.

Some people refer to what occurred in both Minnesota and the nation as the genocide of America's indigenous people. It is a painful subject for many.

The Legacy of Survival Coming Home event in Pipestone, Minnesota, 2012 People have different ways of learning about the past. For many, it is through oral tradition. Others seek facts in written documents. As we navigate through controversial histories, it is important to honor all ways of knowing.

Scholars speculate that from 10 to 100 million people called North America home prior to contact with Europeans. According to the 2010 census, the United States has an American Indian population of about 5.2 million people, or 1.7% of the total U.S. population. Of this total, 2.3 million identified as Indian in combinations with other ethnicities. About 170,000 people, or about .04% of the population of the United States, identify as "Sioux."

Minnesota is a highly diverse place. Based on the 2010 data, Minnesota has a population of about 5.4 million people, of which:

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102,001 identify as American Indian, of which 55,000 were solely of Indian descent 247,000 are Asian 250,000 are Hispanic or Latino 328,000 are Black or African American 4.6 million are of European descent

Some of the statistics related to American Indian peoples are bleak: one of the highest proportional poverty rates in the nation, low access to health care and adequate education, language loss, and high rates of illness and suicide.

However, the stories of resilience and survival among American Indian in Minnesota and the nation are perhaps the most important. Tribes continually and increasingly assert their sovereign rights, fight for their languages, traditions, spirituality, and homeland. They also teach non-Indians about how to ally in the cause.

As Minnesota's demographic landscape continues to change, so must our willingness to listen to others' histories with open hearts and minds.

Theme: Life Today

Topics: Dakota Life Today Genocide Aftermath of 1862 Activism Dakota Hopes for the Future

Current Events Creating Awareness Healing Reconciliation Resilience

Sources Cited Resources for further Research Glossary Terms

The Center for Disease Control

The U.S. Census Bureau

The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council

The Bureau of Indian Affairs

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