A Tragedy in Minnesota (Article 98)

In August, 1862, the Civil War was not going well for President Abraham Lincoln. Instead of the quick victory and re-unification of the country he had hoped for, the eleven Southern states of the Confederacy had won significant battles and had stalled the Northern forces attempts to push into those states. The President was focusing his attention on that wide-spread conflict, as well he should. 

But trouble was brewing on another front; and the President seemed un-informed.

Perhaps the bureaucrats in Washington were too busy with the Civil War to keep track of treaty promises made to Native Americans, or maybe funding was tied up in the war effort; but the fact was that supplies and payments to the Dakota (Eastern Sioux) in the former Minnesota Territory were consistently late or inadequate. Tensions had been rising since Minnesota had been admitted into statehood in 1858, as more White settlers were moving in, encroaching on Dakota lands, clearing forests for farms, and building small communities. There were Federal Indian Agents assigned to the area, but they were sometimes complicit in the problem as they syphoned off, for their own benefit, portions of the treaty obligation goods and funds which did manage to reach Minnesota. As a result, some native families were starving. A few Chiefs and elders cautioned against war and attempted to negotiate with the Indian Agency, and in one case, travelled to Washington in hopes of ending the treaty violations. But other Chiefs and young warriors were running out of patience and were ready to fight for what was rightfully theirs.

And, they were about to present President Lincoln with one of the most difficult decisions of his Presidency!

The United States and Native Dakota leaders had negotiated several treaties in the summer of 1851, under which the Dakota (also known as Eastern Sioux) ceded large tracts of land in Minnesota Territory to the U.S. in exchange for promises of perpetual supplies and funding. Of course, these were not bi-lateral negotiations, nor agreements, which the Dakota had willingly sought, but were accepted by them as necessary to the Tribes’ survival against a more powerful enemy. As a result of the treaties, the Dakota were to live on a 20 mile-wide by 150-mile-long reservation along the Minnesota River. However, groups within the United States Congress deceptively deleted certain boundary data from the treaties before approval, without prior notice or an explanation to the Dakotas.

It was a classic land grab!

When Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858, representatives of several Dakota bands led by Chief Little Crow went to Washington DC to try to re-negotiate the existing treaties.  He failed at his mission and the Dakota found that nearly half of their land had now been allocated to White settlers. The land was divided into counties and plots for distribution to settlers, and the resulting farming eliminated surrounding forests and prairies. Hunting by the settlers (and traders) also reduced the wildlife available to the Dakotas. Understandably, Little Crow’s standing among the tribes was diminished.

Further, as time passed, the compensation promised under the treaties was often late, less than expected, or never arrived at all. This was due to corruption and/or indifference in the Federal Office of Indian Affairs, by the local designated Indian Agents, and by traders who billed for supplies never delivered or grossly overpriced.  And compounding the problem, White settlers continued to move onto lands originally promised to the Dakota, with no attempt to control the migration by government agents.

By the summer of 1862, the tension was palpable.

There were several Dakota tribes who lived in different sections of the reservation and the Government had established two Indian Agencies, one in the northern part and one farther south, purportedly to assure adequate services. However, if that was the mission, the government badly failed! On August 4th, Chiefs of two of the Dakota tribes were successful in getting some supplies from their Indian Agent in the north; however, Chiefs of two other tribes were turned away by the Indian Agent in the southern region. It was reported that the Southern agent said, "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung.”  He may have been misquoted, or he may have been referring to the fact that Indian mothers were cleaning out stables to find scattered grain, dropped while feeding horses; to which they would add some prairie grass as filler. In any event, the statement was relayed to Little Crow, who was infuriated (rightfully so). He communicated to Colonel Henry Sibley, the local military commander, that the deprivations and the insults could now mean war unless rectified. Sibley was hopeful that a new shipment of supplies, which he expected soon, could avert the disaster; however, the wagons arrived too late.

On August 17, 1862, four years after Minnesota had been admitted as a state and over ten years since the signing of the initial treaties (which the government never honored), one young Dakota warrior, with a hunting party of three others, killed five White settlers who they encountered. That night, a council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River Valley to try to drive Whites out of the area. Chief Little Crow at first opposed a larger war, but agreed to lead the force after several of the younger warriors questioned his courage and reminded others of his failure to renegotiate the treaties. (It seems pride and ego are universal character traits!)

While not all of the various tribes agreed with the commitment to war, and some of the Northern tribes tried to stay neutral, even they would become caught in the turmoil and chaos that always accompanies war. However, on August 18, Little Crow led a force of about 100 warriors in an attack against the southern Indian Agency Office ran by the agent who reportedly said the Dakota could “eat grass or dung”. The agent was killed and later found with grass stuffed in his mouth.

The Dakota War had officially begun.

There were dozens of war parties scattered throughout the Minnesota River Valley and they were effective fighting forces. In one clash, over twenty White militia members were killed, including the unit commander, with much lighter casualties among the warriors. The raids continued throughout the coming weeks as numerous settlements were raided, and the inhabitants killed or ran-off. Unfortunately, some of the younger warriors considered their attacks as vengeance, and not only killed the White men they encountered, but the women, children, and even infants as well. While not common, in a few cases, the women and young girls were raped and the corpses mutilated. Outraged and frightened, White settlers organized into groups and retaliated against Dakota settlements.

It was a horrendous time!

As they honed their tactics, the Dakota attacked stage coach terminals and steam boat ports along the river, which interrupted mail service and supply lines throughout the region. In late August and early September, one large raiding party even attacked Fort Abercrombie, a well-fortified U.S. military installation near Fargo (now in North Dakota). Although the Dakota failed to capture the fort, it was a demonstration of the confidence they had gained; and, it became clear that the settler groups and the state militia were not going to be able to gain control of the situation.

There has never been an official report on the number of settlers killed, although newspaper reports indicated over a thousand and President Abraham Lincoln later clarified that at least 800 White men, women, and children had died. The number of Dakota casualties was never officially reported, but oral legends left by native survivors indicate several hundred died in battle; however, many more would soon die in the aftermath!

Finally, learning of the seriousness of the situation, President Lincoln created a new military command, called the Department of the Northwest, in early September, 1862. General John Pope was selected to lead the new department with orders to end the violence at all costs. Pope literally raised a small army in just a matter of days and had many of the troops in place within a week.  Over the next few days, there were several more raids on settlements by Dakota warriors; but the U.S. Army, with their larger force and better weapons, was usually able to quickly track down the raiders, killing many and capturing others. 

Except for a few small skirmishes, the “War Within the Civil War” was over.

A few of the warriors escaped into Canada; however, by late September, General Pope reported that over 1,000 Dakota were held in stockades, and that trials had already begun by military tribunals. There were literally hundreds of quick trials, at which the Dakota were not provided legal counsel, their individual “crimes” were not detailed with most charges the same for all defendants, and the presiding officers simply established the prisoners’ native names. And then, most of them were quickly sentenced to death. This process continued until November 3, and in his final report of the proceedings, General Pope stated that 392 Sioux had been tried, 89 had been sentenced to prison terms and 303 had been convicted of rape and murder and were to be executed.

But to General Pope’s consternation, President Abraham Lincoln intervened. Lincoln wrote to Pope on November 10th, "Please forward, as soon as possible, the full and complete record of these convictions. And if the record does not indicate the more guilty and influential, of the culprits, please have a careful statement made on these points and forwarded to me." Pope and the Minnesota Congressional delegation urged the President to continue with the executions because the White citizens of Minnesota demanded it. A statement was made that Lincoln could lose votes and therefore not carry the state in the next election if he granted any leniency. Further, they warned, Minnesota settlers would take revenge out on the Dakotas who had not been charged.

However, Lincoln would not budge. For a month, he reviewed the files on all 303 Dakota warriors who had been condemned and, on December 11th, announced his decision to Congress. He wrote: "Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on the one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I caused a careful examination of the records of trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females. Contrary to my expectations, only two of this class were found. I then directed a further examination, and a classification of all who were proven to have participated in massacres, as distinguished from participation in battles. This class numbered forty, and included the two convicted of female violation. One of the number is strongly recommended by the commission which tried them for commutation to ten years' imprisonment. I have ordered the other thirty-nine to be executed on Friday, the 19th instant." One of the men condemned by President Lincoln had his sentence reduced before the scheduled execution; however, on December 26, 1862, the remaining 38 Dakota warriors were executed.

It was, and still is, the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

As to the threat by Minnesota politicians that offering leniency would cost him votes in the 1864 election, Lincoln did lose a substantial number of votes but still carried the state.  Later, Lincoln reportedly said, "I could not afford to hang men for votes."

Those Dakota warriors who had been convicted, but not sentenced to death, were held in make-shift prisons until April 1863 when they were transferred to another prison in Iowa where they languished another four years. The prisoners were then expelled to Nebraska where the rest of the other living Dakota had been earlier resettled from Minnesota. When the final Dakota survivors were out of Minnesota, the U.S. Congress abolished their reservation and voided all treaties with the tribes; then, the rest of their former lands were re-allocated to White settlers.

But General Polk’s troops had not been able to capture Little Crow or several other prominent Chiefs. Earlier, in September 1862, soon after hostilities broke out, Little Crow had retreated from battle against the U.S. Army and moved with his wife and children to an area of Minnesota outside the Dakota reservation. However, if he hoped to live in peace, he was very wrong. The Minnesota legislature passed a law which authorized the non-judicial killing (read murder) of any Dakota male found off the reservation. Further, the law also offered a $25.00 reward for each scalp and then increased that offer to $50.00 for the scalp of Little Crow.

It is unknown how many Dakota men and young boys were killed under that law, nor how many were really off the reservation when they were murdered, or how many were innocent of any hostilities.

What we do know, is that several chiefs who had fled to Canada were later captured and executed; the last in 1865. However, earlier on July 3, 1863, Little Crow was tracked down by White settlers and was shot and killed. His body was taken to the authorities to confirm the identification and, in an unnecessary act, was then mutilated to claim the $50.00 reward. The Minnesota legislature subsequently awarded an additional $500.00 bounty to the settler who fired the fatal shot.

Unfortunately, the government’s sole focus was on ending the uprising and punishing those Dakota who may have been involved. There was no similar investigation into the inappropriate actions of White settlers (and there were atrocities committed), nor was there an attempt to charge anyone for the graft and/or incompetence within the Indian Agencies, which had initially caused the conflict. Seventy-five later, in a gesture intended to put the matter to rest, the federal government and state of Minnesota provided a small reservation for the descendants of the dis-enfranchised Dakota; however, few returned to their ancestral lands.

In essence, the 1860s land grab had worked!