38 Dakota Men Hanged in Minnesota: December 26, 1862
Today is another horrible anniversary in US history: the legal lynching of 38 Dakota Sioux. This was ordered by President Abraham Lincoln. The Minnesota Uprising had begun because agents of the federal government refused to honor the treaties and wouldn't give the promised food rations to the people. Some left to find food, and they (and others who had done nothing at all) were brutally punished for it.
Governor Alexander Ramsey had declared on September 9, 1862 that "The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state." The treatment of Dakota people, including the hanging in Mankato and the forced removal of Dakota people from Minnesota, were the first phases of Ramsey's plan.
His plan was further implemented when bounties were placed on the scalps of Dakota people which eventually reached $200. Punitive expeditions were then sent out over the next few years to hunt down those Dakota who had not surrendered and to ensure they would not return. After 38 of the condemned men were hanged the day after Christmas in 1862 in what remains the largest mass hanging in United States history, the other prisoners continued to suffer in the concentration camps through the winter of 1862-63.
That quote is from United Native America.
Indian Country Media Network provides more details.
A series of treaties restricted the living space of the Dakota people to an area that could no longer sustain their traditional hunting economy. Promised payments and other remittance to compensate for the concessions were slow to emerge, withheld all together, or syphoned off by unscrupulous traders and others, leaving the Dakota people with nothing to live on—many facing starvation heading toward the long Minnesota winter.
The accused had often committed no crimes (they were the ones who surrendered with the idea of keeping the peace), they had no attorneys, and many of them spoke no English.
Witnesses, who testified in multiple trials, often were themselves facing charges and possible execution. One defendant-turned-witness gave evidence in 55 cases, though he himself was later sentenced to hang (but was not among the 38).
“It was a sham,” EagleWoman summed up the proceedings.
@RuthHHopkins has a powerful thread and much more information about this history. I encourage you to read it and to follow her.
Dakota 38+2 Annual Ride
To commemorate this atrocity and to reunite the Dakota nation, every year since 2005 young Dakota warriors ride their horses from the Lower Brule reservation to Mankato, a distance of 330 miles. You can check out the hashtag #Dakota38 for pix and other info. The images below are from this year's ride.
A movie has been made, which is available online. https://youtu.be/1pX6FBSUyQI
More firsthand information is available here.
In 2012, a memorial was unveiled to honor the Dakota who were wrongly executed.
Comments
I am very familiar with this incident so please forgive me for
not reading your essay - it's very painful for many of us.
This must never be forgotten or forgiven and thanks for posting it.
The widespread private ownership of land is not that old of a practice in western Europe and is even more recent in Russia where it was estimated that the last Tsar & his family, the Romanovs, owned 2 Billion acres. Serfs were bound to the estates and owned nothing.
What we know that "private property" was a new concept brought to North America by the colonists. American Indians for the most part held the land in common and the tribal boundaries changed depending on the state of hostilities, or detente, among neighboring tribal groups. We all know American Indians were confined to reservations, usually through treaties, when they weren't the victims of genocide. What is not as well known is that the federal government, in the institution of the Department of Interior and its agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, have never ceased to close out as many reservations as possible. One of the ways is through getting a tribe to accept an allotment system whereby registered tribal members would be given title to a certain amount of land in their name. This not only tended to diminish the collective power of the tribe but made making a deal - like mineral extraction - easier because the BIA would be dealing with a deed holder instead of the tribe in its entirety. Usually the BIA would act as a front for the oil company(say).
I hope I have not been seen to hijack your timely essay; I only want to say that the federal government has not slowed down its cultural war on native Americans.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Jesus!
This was mentioned in this moening's open thread, but no commentary. Thank you for enlightening me, yet again.
A "military court" sentenced more than 300 men to death
if I recall correctly. President Lincoln commuted the sentences of the others, or the carnage would have been even greater.
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
Please don't minimize this travesty
To me, your comment sounds like you're saying that we should be grateful that more people weren't slaughtered that day in the name of "law."
Is the goal to falsely accuse greater and greater numbers so that the ones who are executed by the state are seen as not that many? "It was only 38, could have been 300+." No.
4000 (!!) "good Americans" watched these lynchings and cheered. Lincoln gets no points for not murdering more that day.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
Diminishing the travesty is not at all my intention.
I'm certainly not implying that anyone should be "grateful" regarding this event. I'm only pointing out that the original intention was much worse.
"The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles. -- Bob Dylan"
as I recall, the number originally schedule for execution...
was much higher. As if "only 38" could be considered merciful.
see my reply to non-prophet jim
I don't know what purpose it serves to point out that it could have been worse that day. It was (and is) awful on a lot of other days too.
The 38 does not, of course, include the hundreds of thousands of Dakota and other indigenous people who were killed at other times by the European invaders and who were sent on forced marches, confined to concentration camps, raped, scalped, sold, and mutilated by the agents of the US government and the colonizers.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
People tend to think that was a long time ago,
it really wasn't. My grandmother's grandmother was alive at that time.
Thank you for the reminder
Although Lincoln has been transformed into some sort of saint, no matter how bad the Civil War was going, he could always spare troops to oppress Native Americans.
More racism, brutality and bad faith in treaties/contracts.
Exceptionalism, indeed.