The Dakota Conflict

<v Speaker>Dakota Conflict 3/8/93. <v Speaker>Producer Kristian Berg, length 56:39, Twin Citites Public Television. <v Host>On the day after Christmas 1862, 38 Dakota <v Host>men were hung together from a single gallows in Mankato, Minnesota. <v Host>It was the largest mass execution in the history of the United States, <v Host>a tragic end to what whites came to call the Great Sioux uprising. <v Host>And it marked the beginning of the exile of a people. <v Speaker>Major funding for the Dakota conflict is provided by the St. Paul companies providing

<v Speaker>insurance products and services throughout the world for 140 years. <v Speaker>Additional funding is provided by the Minnesota Humanities Commission, the Corporation <v Speaker>for Public Broadcasting, and by annual financial support from viewers like <v Speaker>you. <v Jack Weatherford>One of the tragic ironies of the hanging in Mankato in 1862 is <v Jack Weatherford>that it occurred within the same week that the Emancipation Proclamation was issued <v Jack Weatherford>freeing the slaves by Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator himself <v Jack Weatherford>oversaw the whole process. And that makes the ironies all the more cruel. <v Jack Weatherford>I think that the two most tragic chapters in American history have to be <v Jack Weatherford>the slave trade in the south and the holocaust of American Indians in the West. <v Jack Weatherford>And those two chapters came together in a tragic way at Mankato in 1862. <v Wicasta Duzahan (Swift Man) Actor>[Speaking a Native language] [music] <v Host 1>1862, in the midst of the Civil War, newspapers

<v Host 1>North and South reported of a terrible Indian massacre <v Host 1>in the remote state of Minnesota. <v Host 1>Of families, women and children murdered in their homes. <v Host 1>For years, white settlers told stories of the red savages <v Host 1>and their depredations on innocent people. <v Speaker>1862, the Dakota people still hold close to them the memory <v Speaker>of that year in 1862. <v Speaker>The lives of the people changed and would never be the same. <v Speaker>For years they had gone along with the whites believing their promises, <v Speaker>watching their children go hungry. <v Speaker>The Dakota name for white people is wasicu. <v Speaker>It means takes the fat. [music] <v Host 1>On the 8th of June, 1851, a young artist by the name of Frank <v Host 1>Blackwell Mayor boarded the steamship Excelsior in St. Louis, Missouri,

<v Host 1>bound for the city of St. Paul and the Minnesota Territory. <v Host 1>There he would witness the signing of a great treaty between the federal government <v Host 1>and the eastern tribes of the Dakota nation. <v Host 1>In six bound sketchbooks Mayor recorded his journey, a <v Host 1>journey that took him a world away from his native Baltimore. <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>As we near Lake Pepin, we first had intemation that we were emerging in a new region. <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>On one side civilization had advanced and the log cabin and neat frame of the New <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>England settler looked over the river to an Indian village where council smoke <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>is still seen. Frank Blackwell, Mayor. <v Host 2>The village was called Kaposia which in Dakota means traveling light <v Host 2>for the people moved with the seasons and the food supply. <v Host 2>Life was a struggle and a Dakota lived for the good of the people if <v Host 2>he was to live it all. <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>The Chief, Little Crow, is a man of some 45 years of age and of a very determined

<v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>and ambitious nature. But with all exceedingly gentle and dignified in his <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>deportment, his face is full of intelligence when he is in conversation <v Frank Blackwell Mayor Actor>and his whole bearing is that of a gentleman. <v Host 2>Little Crow's Dakota name was Thaoyate Duta which <v Host 2>means His Red Nation, a name which carried great responsibility. <v Host 2>His people were Bdewakhathunwan Dakota and their neighbors, <v Host 2>the Wahpekute. <v Host 2>On the edge of the plains near the big stone lake, lived the Sissetonwan and the <v Host 2>Wahpetonwan. <v Host 2>The four bands would come to talk with the whites. <v Host 2>The whites called them the Sioux. <v Host 2>But it's a word that means snake. <v Host 2>The true name is Dakota which means the allies. <v Philander Prescott Actor>I fixed my mind upon the old chief's daughter. <v Philander Prescott Actor>Her name is Spirit in the Moon. <v Philander Prescott Actor>So I took 10 blankets, one gun, five gallons of whiskey and a horse, <v Philander Prescott Actor>I went to the old chief's lodge and laid them down and told the old people my errand

<v Philander Prescott Actor>and went off home. The third day I received word that my gift had been accepted. <v Philander Prescott Actor>She came forward to be my wife or companion as long as I choose to live with her. <v Philander Prescott Actor>Philander Prescott. <v Host 1>Philander Prescott like many fur traders married to Dakota woman and <v Host 1>was accepted as one of the family by marriage, a trader could have the business <v Host 1>of an entire Dakota village. <v Host 1>Even Henry Hasting Sibley of the powerful American Fur Company <v Host 1>married the daughter of a chief and had a child by her years before he married <v Host 1>a white woman. <v Host 2>In truth, my brother the Beaver does everything to perfection, a Native hunter <v Host 2>once said. He makes for us Kettle's axes, knives <v Host 2>and gives us food without the trouble of cultivating the ground. <v Host 2>Many Dakota felt the same, and this new way of living seemed to make life <v Host 2>easier. <v Host 1>Since the time of Thomas Jefferson, fur traders had been encouraged by the government to <v Host 1>generate large debts from Indians.

<v Host 1>Eventually, Indian leaders would be persuaded to give up their lands to pay off the debt. <v Host 1>And in Minnesota, if the Dakota agreed to a treaty, the traders knew <v Host 1>they could settle their accounts at a substantial profit. <v Host 1>[music] <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>June 20th, 1851. <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>This morning at sunrise, we are landed at Traverse de Sioux, a beautiful <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>spot where the treaty is to be held being an inclined, expansive prairie <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>nearly surrounded by a band of the river. <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>And here we pitch our tents and await the arrival of the red Republicans. <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>The St. Paul Pioneer. <v Host 1>Up the winding Minnesota River came an eager delegation of white officials, <v Host 1>traders and missionaries ready to deal. <v Host 1>They brought with them cattle to supply great feasts, and people wondered how so <v Host 1>much champagne ever found its way to the wilderness. <v Host 1>But the stakes were high. Nearly 24 million acres

<v Host 1>of Dakota land. <v Host 1>They knew the Sisitonwan and the Wahpetonwan had suffered a hard winter, <v Host 1>and if they would sign a treaty the other tribes would be forced to <v Host 1>negotiate. [music] <v Host 2>A great host gathered for the meeting. <v Host 2>There were a contest of sport and celebration as people renewed their friendships. <v Host 2>Owning the land was a strange idea to the Dakota people. <v Host 2>Yet they knew the whites were coming like locusts on the trees. <v Host 2>The people had already sold the land used to the Mississippi. <v Host 2>Now the whites wanted the land to the West. <v Host 1>Leading the delegation was Alexander Ramsy, the territorial governor <v Host 1>of Minnesota. Young and ambitious, Ramsy's political future <v Host 1>was riding on a successful treaty. <v Host 1>He relied on the traders. Their kinship with the Dakota was a powerful

<v Host 1>influence. By 1850, Henry Sibley had boasted <v Host 1>the Indians are prepared to make a treaty and such a one as I may dictate. <v Host 1>Sibley's boast became reality as the Sisitonwan and the Wahpetonwan <v Host 1>signed the Treaty of Traverse de Sioux on July 23rd, <v Host 1>1851. <v Host 2>The talks moved downstream to Mendota, and for two days <v Host 2>the leaders of the Mdewakantonwan and the Wahpekute would not sign anything. <v Host 2>They sat and smoked their council pipes. <v Host 2>Finally Thaoyate Duta stood up and faced the council. <v Host 2>'These men sit still and say nothing,' he said. <v Host 2>'But you fathers are the cause of it being so. <v Host 2>They speak of some money that is due them. <v Host 2>We will talk of nothing else if it is until next spring.' The treaty <v Host 2>commisioner grew angry.

<v Host 2>The great father would come with 100,000 men, they said, and drive you off to <v Host 2>the Rocky Mountains. They were met with silence. <v Host 2>At last the price was raised, and though there was still argument <v Host 2>over what they do to step forward and signed his name in big letters. <v Host 1>The Dakota agreed to give up their lands in return for a reservation, <v Host 1>assistance for schools, farms and trades and yearly payments <v Host 1>in gold and food. Their new home would be 10 miles on either side of the Minnesota <v Host 1>River from Lake Traverse to just west of the Cottonwood River. <v Host 1>They were also promised a large sum of money to move their villages and to settle their <v Host 1>affairs with the traders. <v Host 1>500,000 dollars. <v Host 2>The traders claim most of that money, and they were determined to get it. <v Host 2>At the treaty signing, they set up a second table and made the Chief sign <v Host 2>a paper which allowed the government to pay the traders directly. <v Host 2>'I am not a white man. I do not know how to read and write,' said one chief.

<v Host 2>They pulled me by the blanket and made me sign another paper. <v Host 2>It was not explained to me at all.' The money would never touch Dakota <v Host 2>hands. <v Gary Clayton Anderson>There were laws that prohibited large payoffs to fur traders. <v Gary Clayton Anderson>This had happened time and time again. <v Gary Clayton Anderson>And the federal government finally decided we must put a stop to it. <v Gary Clayton Anderson>So they passed a law that said you cannot write into an Indian treaty <v Gary Clayton Anderson>any kind of a major payoff to Indian traders. <v Gary Clayton Anderson>Those were the directives that Ramsey worked under. <v Gary Clayton Anderson>And, of course, he fully intended to ignore both of them. <v Speaker>As Frank Meyer left for St. Lewis, his sketchbooks full, settlers started <v Speaker>moving across the Mississippi. <v Taoyateduta (Little Crow) Actor>[Speaking in a Native language]

<v Host 1>In Washington, the Senate struck out the article of the treaty giving the Dakota a <v Host 1>reservation in Minnesota. <v Host 1>The Senate decided the Dakota could just move farther west. <v Host 1>The Dakota could not believe it. <v Wabasha Actor>[Speaking in Native language] <v Host 1>The Dakota would never sign any piece of paper that left <v Host 1>them without a home so Ramsy had to save the deal. <v Host 1>He discovered the President could let the Dakota keep their reservation for 5 years <v Host 1>which he agreed to do. But Ramsey still needed Dakota approval in <v Host 1>writing, saying they didn't actually own the land. <v Host 1>Sibley and the traders marshaled all the support they could find among

<v Host 1>their Dakota relatives. <v Host 1>No one knows what promises were made, but enough signatures were found <v Host 1>and the treaties approved. <v Host 1>A year later, the U.S. Senate brought Alexander Ramsey up on charges of fraud. <v Host 1>But he was cleared and the Dakota slowly made their way to the Minnesota <v Host 1>River Valley and their new home. <v Philander Prescott Actor>After the treaty business was all over. I was taken sick. <v Philander Prescott Actor>Indians said it was a judgment upon me. <v Philander Prescott Actor>Good Road in particular said he wished I would die. <v Philander Prescott Actor>Philander Prescott. [music] <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>The news of the treaty accelerates our town, we behold now clearly <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>in no remote perspective, like an exhibition of dissolving views. <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>The red savages with their teepees, their horses and their famished dogs <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>fading, vanishing, dissolving away and in their places a thousand

<v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>farms with their fences and white cottages and waving wheat fields <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>and villages and cities crowned with spires. <v St. Paul Pioneer Actor>The St. Paul Pioneer. <v Host 1>White settlers flooded into the territory. <v Host 1>New towns sprang up almost overnight. <v Host 1>Towns with names like Redwing, Mankato, Shakopee. <v Host 1>All names of departed Dakota chiefs. <v Host 1>In 10 years, 160,000 Yankees and Europeans <v Host 1>rolled into Minnesota, clearing timber, plowing up fields <v Host 1>and fencing off their claims. <v Sebastian My Actor>Dear sister. Don't worry about us. <v Sebastian My Actor>We are living in peace as one family in our village. <v Sebastian My Actor>This helping each other it's one of the finest things. <v Sebastian My Actor>That's why we're making such progress here. <v Sebastian My Actor>Cattle raising gives us the least trouble. <v Sebastian My Actor>After milking the cows in the morning, they are driven them into the pasture. <v Sebastian My Actor>In the evenings, they are returned by themselves. <v Sebastian My Actor>You don't have to work yourself into a humpback as in Germany.

<v Sebastian My Actor>Your brother, Sebastian ?My? [music] <v Host 2>At the mouth of the Cottonwood River, a small group of Germans drew up the <v Host 2>town of New Ulm, Minnesota, sent by German immigration societies in Chicago <v Host 2>and Cincinnati. There were a hardy lot, weren't in much hurry to <v Host 2>embrace English, and they seemed to keep to themselves. <v Host 2>And one of the first things they did was to build a brewery. <v Host 2>The Dakota call the Germans the bad speakers, and many felt they were not good <v Host 2>neighbors. They did not learn Dakota words and did not share gifts and <v Host 2>food. And somewhere building their farms on land promised to the Dakota. <v Host 2>Government surveyors drew up new borders to allow the farms to stay. <v Host 2>8,000 Dakota people were now concentrated in the villages along the Minnesota River. <v Host 2>The four tribes were to be served by two agencies, providing craftsmen

<v Host 2>and teachers. But the promises in the treaties were not kept very well. <v Tatanka Najin (Standing Buffalo) Actor>[Speaking a Native language] <v Host 2>Most of the food shipments barely made it past St. Paul. <v Host 2>And what food did come was usually spoiled. <v Host 2>'I will leave these bones of my people on the prairie,' one chief said. <v Host 2>'And someday the Great Spirit will look the white man in the face and ask him what <v Host 2>has become of his red brother.' [singing] <v Host 1>In the strains of this familiar old hymn was heard an unfamiliar tongue.

<v Host 1>Working in the Dakota language, missionaries Stephen R. <v Host 1>Riggs and Thomas S. Williamson began a small enclave <v Host 1>of Christian Dakota. They called their missions the Hazelwood Republic <v Host 1>?inaudible? Or yellow medicine, and they worked in earnest to change <v Host 1>Dakota religion and culture. <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>At the reservation the general opinion was that all who changed their dress must change <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>their religion, and Little Crow assigned to this as the reason for doing neither. <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>Saying he would not give up his medicine sack, gourd shell and armor because he wished <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>when he died to go to the same place where his fathers are. <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>To this Superintendent Kollin replied that he might retain all these and worship what <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>and how he pleased if he would only have his haircut and put on a hat and pantaloons. <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>But that's only convinced Little Crow of his ignorance. <v Thomas S. Williamson Actor>Thomas S. Williamson. <v Host 2>The Dakota people were reluctant to leave their spiritual ways, which were the

<v Host 2>very fabric of their lives. <v Host 2>They saw that the missionaries cared about them, but only as long as a Dakota <v Host 2>would change. <v Wambdi Tanka (Big Eagle) Actor>[Speaking a Native Language] <v Joseph R. Brown Actor>Although less than three years have elapsed since the first attempt to change the <v Joseph R. Brown Actor>condition of the Sioux from hunters to agriculturists. <v Joseph R. Brown Actor>There are now over 200 families located in comfortable houses who have abandoned <v Joseph R. Brown Actor>their roving habits and are dependent upon agriculture pursuits instead of the chase <v Joseph R. Brown Actor>for subsistence. Of this, there are 50 who were they white would <v Joseph R. Brown Actor>be termed industrious, thrifty farmers and good citizens.

<v Joseph R. Brown Actor>Joseph R. Brown. <v Host 1>Joseph Renshaw Brown was a former trader whiskey seller newspaper <v Host 1>editor. He was also the Sioux agent for the upper and lower agencies. <v Host 1>Brown had married a Dakota woman, had a large family, and probably knew more about the <v Host 1>Dakota than any agent before him. <v Host 1>And he was determined to turn the Indians into self-sufficient farmers. <v Host 1>His efforts served to divide the Dakota. <v Wambdi Tanka (Big Eagle) Actor>[Speaking Native language] <v Lt. Timothy Sheehan Actor>Went out to see the country along the Minnesota River, a beautiful country too

<v Lt. Timothy Sheehan Actor>good for Indians to inhabit. Lieutenant Timothy Sheehan. <v Lt. Timothy Sheehan Actor>[music] <v Host 1>Washington, D.C., Saturday, March 13th, 1858, <v Host 1>the Washington Evening Star reported the 26 fine and stalwarts Sioux <v Host 1>from Minnesota arrived in our fair city to meet with the Great Father, President <v Host 1>James Buchanan. <v Host 1>The Dakota delegates weren't feeling so stalwart after six days of train travel. <v Host 1>They boarded W.P. Chandler's coaches and were conveyed to Mrs. Mayor's Union <v Host 1>Hotel, where the proprietor encouraged their drumming and singing. <v Host 1>Good for business! She said. <v Host 2>Indian delegations to Washington were meant to impress Native peoples with the power <v Host 2>of the white government in the winter of 1858. <v Host 2>There were delegates from 13 Indian nations in the city at one time. <v Host 2>So delegates were taken to military parades and artillery demonstrations.

<v Host 2>They were taken to the theater and shown off at parties. <v Host 2>Officials found the Chiefs easier to deal with away from their homes and the influence <v Host 2>of their young men. <v Host 1>On May 24th, 46 days later, the real purpose of their trip was made clear. <v Host 1>Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles E. <v Host 1>Mix Told the Dakota Chiefs that their 5 year lease had expired and the <v Host 1>government wanted all the land north of the Minnesota River, half their reservation. <v Host 1>They would be moved south of the river to live on 80 acre plots <v Host 1>doled out to individual families. <v Host 1>The Dakota were shocked to find they own nothing. <v Host 1>Thaoyate Duta objected. <v Host 1>The commissioner told him he was acting like a child. <v Taoyateduta (Little Crow) Actor>[Speaking in Native language] <v Host 2>In the end, the Dakota signed the treaty.

<v Host 2>By that time, they had been kept from their homes for 4 months. <v Host 2>They wished to go home. <v Host 2>The amount to be paid for their land was promised at 1.25 cents an acre. <v Host 2>Congress later dropped the figure to 30 cents. <v Host 2>And when all was done, the traders took all the money. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>As soon as the Indians receive their money each year, the traders surround <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>them saying, you owe me so much for flour. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>Another says, you owe me so much for sugar. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>And the Indian gives it all up never knowing whether it is right or not. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>I saw a poor fellow one day swallow his money. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>I wondered he did not choke to death, but he said they will not have mine, for I <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>do not owe them. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>Sarah Wakefield. [music] <v Edwin Lawton Actor>We passed by the Mission Chapel and several civilized Indian houses where the squaws <v Edwin Lawton Actor>are in the fields seated on a platform above the tops of the grain, engaged in the very

<v Edwin Lawton Actor>interesting occupation of scarecrows. <v Edwin Lawton Actor>Edwin Lawton. <v Host 1>In August of 1862, Adrian Ebell, a St. Paul photographer, and <v Host 1>his assistant, Edwin Lawton, traveled upriver, anxious to record <v Host 1>the work of civilization. Among the Dakota, they found a new agent, <v Host 1>Thomas J. Galbraith, busily recruiting men to take South to the war. <v Host 1>He was also dealing with some very hungry, very angry people. <v Host 1>Cut worms, destroyed last year's corn crop, followed by a hard Minnesota <v Host 1>winter. Since the whites moved in, deer and game had all but disappeared. <v Host 1>The treaty payment was late. The traders laid claim to the money, and this <v Host 1>time they clamped off credit. <v Host 2>On August 4th, Sisitonwan and Wahpetonwan warriors broke into the food <v Host 2>store at the upper agency and took a little food. <v Host 2>There were 5,000 people near starvation, but Agent Galbraith refused <v Host 2>to release the food because he knew that their hunger would force them to alter the

<v Host 2>trader's claims. <v Host 2>A council was gathered. <v Taoyateduta (Little Crow) Actor>[Speaking Native language] <v Host 2>Trader Andrew Jackson Meyrick turned away from the council in disgust. <v Host 2>He said, 'So far as I am concerned, if they're hungry, let them eat grass <v Host 2>or their own dung.' Everything was silent as Meyrick;s words were <v Host 2>told in Dakota.

<v Host 2>The council arose and left in anger. <v Host 2>The people were like tinder to a spark. <v Host 2>On Sunday, August 17th, four young men of shock pase band <v Host 2>had been hunting north of the reserve. <v Host 2>They were standing in a farmer's henhouse. <v Host 2>They argued whether to take the eggs. <v Eli Taylor>I guess some of them got pushed in the corner and there was a sitting hen on her eggs. And they stepped on her eggs, <v Eli Taylor>and the hen started to cackle. <v Eli Taylor>And of course, the lady heard it, so she comes out and sees these Indians <v Eli Taylor>in there, run back in and brought out a broom or whatever kind of right broom that <v Eli Taylor>they used to have tied together. <v Eli Taylor>She come out of that. And then hit them over the head, and they all laugh. <v Eli Taylor>She didn't hit them all. She just hit the one guy, and he ran. <v Eli Taylor>So then all the others left.

<v Eli Taylor>You let a woman <v Eli Taylor>chase you around with a broom. That's- that's funny. [laughter] So he goes back, <v Eli Taylor>and he kills that woman. <v Eli Taylor>And that's- that's how it's started. [night sounds] <v Host 2>That night, over 100 Dakota warriors descended on the brick house <v Host 2>of Thaoyate Duta. <v Host 2>4 of their men had killed a white family. <v Host 2>Now is the time they argued to strike. <v Host 2>The payments are late. Our people are starving. <v Host 2>Now is the time for war. <v Host 2>Thaoyate Duta disagreed. <v Host 2>He thought the idea foolish and refused to help them. <v Host 2>Someone in the crowd called him a coward. <v Host 2>His son, Wowinape, remembered his words. <v Taoyateduta (Little Crow) Actor>[Speaking Native language] <v Host 1>

<v Host 1>On the morning of August 18th, James Lind, the clerk at Andrew Meyrick store, <v Host 1>quietly left his writing. <v Host 1>He'd been troubled by a premonition all morning. <v Host 1>He stood in the east doorway and was shot down. <v Host 1>He was the first to die. [music] <v Host 2>Painted Dakota warriors descended upon the lower agency and killed as many traders <v Host 2>as they could find. Andrew Meyrick jumped from a second story window and tried to <v Host 2>escape. He was shot and killed. <v Host 2>His mouth was stuffed with grass. <v Host 1>At Fort Ridgely, Captain John Marsh gathered 46 men and marched toward the agency. <v Host 1>He ignored the warnings of terrified people running the opposite direction, <v Host 1>but ordered his men to the double quick. <v Host 1>He and his men were ambushed at the Redwood Ferry Crossing. <v Host 1>Marsh drowned, trying to escape. <v Host 1>Now in command of Fort Ridgely was Thomas P.

<v Host 1>Geer, an 18 year old lieutenant left with 30 men and a case of the mumps. <v Host 1>Geer sent a hastily scratched ink blotched letter to Governor Ramsey, pleading <v Host 1>for help while war parties swept through the valley. <v Host 1>The German settlement of Milford was built on land claimed by the Dakota people. <v Host 1>Vengeance was swift and terrible. <v Host 1>Warriors killed over 50 while. <v Host 1>The Dakota fought in the traditional way. <v Host 1>All were enemies. Your captives were taken. <v Host 1>They were the women and children. <v Alvina Eastlick Actor>I could not go without first seeing my husband. <v Alvina Eastlick Actor>I went to him and found him fallen over his side, probably having died without a <v Alvina Eastlick Actor>struggle. I could see no blood about him. <v Alvina Eastlick Actor>I kneel down beside him and there in the tall grass along with the dead, I took my <v Alvina Eastlick Actor>last farewell to poor John, eexpecting soon to follow <v Alvina Eastlick Actor>him. Alvina ?Eastlick? <v Mahpiyatowin (Blue Sky Woman) Actor>[Speaking Native Language] <v Dr. Barbara Feezor Stewart> When the uprising happened of course

<v Dr. Barbara Feezor Stewart>the the Dakota were split. <v Dr. Barbara Feezor Stewart>Some didn't know whether they wanted to fight. <v Dr. Barbara Feezor Stewart>Others were- thought, 'Well, I want to die like a man and <v Dr. Barbara Feezor Stewart>not die here like an animal,' because they were starving. <v Host 1>Governor Ramsy now turned to his old friend Henry Sibley. <v Host 1>Sibley had no military experience, but he knew the Dakota <v Host 1>and their language. He would lead a 1,400 man army to crush them. <v Wambdi Tanka (Big Eagle) Actor>[Speaking Native language] <v Host 1>Bolstered with reinforcements, mixed blood recruits, armed refugees, <v Host 1>the number of fort rigidly defenders rose to 180. <v Host 1>[gunfire] The Dakota attacked twice

<v Host 1>in 3 days with as many as 400 men coming from all sides. <v Host 1>The 45 cannons finally drove them back. <v Host 1>The fighting ending in a thunderstorm. <v Host 1>Ironically, the gold for the payment was hidden in the fort. <v Host 1>It arrived 24 hours too late to make any difference. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>The entire country was completely panic stricken. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>The settlers fled from 10 to 30 miles according to the height of their excitement, <v Adrian Ebell Actor>and stopped in some deserted house whose inhabitants in like excitement abandoned <v Adrian Ebell Actor>their homes and so on, like the waves on the sea, each <v Adrian Ebell Actor>falling where the other had risen from. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>Adrian Ebell. <v Host 1>Panic emptied the Minnesota River Valley. <v Host 1>At the upper agency, a Dakota named John Other Day gathered settlers and missionaries <v Host 1>and set out across the prairie. <v Host 1>Among them were the photographers, Ebell and Laughton, with glass negatives <v Host 1>in tow. They were running for their lives.

<v Host 1>August 23rd, having hidden his family in a grove of trees, a man named <v Host 1>Meyers swam the Cottonwood River and ran for New Ulm. <v Host 1>Arriving just in time for the biggest pitched battle of the war. <v Host 1>[music] 600 <v Host 1>warriors swept down the terraced slopes toward the town, the defenders fought from <v Host 1>street barricades while 1,200 unarmed people huddled in basements <v Host 1>like sheep and cattle. <v Host 1>The fight was at times desperate, fighting hand to hand. <v Host 1>But the German townsfolk held on when nighttime fell. <v Host 1>All the buildings beyond the barricades were set ablaze. <v Host 1>The next morning, 190 buildings lay in ashes. <v Host 1>Only the few blocks they defended stood in the center of town. <v Host 1>And though the battle was won, there was no food, and ammunition was low. <v Host 1>So New Ulm was evacuated.

<v Host 1>2,000 people made the journey down the valley, and many never returned <v Host 1>to Minnesota. <v Stephen R. Riggs Actor>Desolation reigns, the potato fields are un-dug. <v Stephen R. Riggs Actor>The crows are holding high carnival over the ungathered cornfields. <v Stephen R. Riggs Actor>What the Indians think they will do for a living next winter I don't know. <v Stephen R. Riggs Actor>Perish, they must. <v Stephen R. Riggs Actor>And they will have the consolation to know that they have accomplished their own <v Stephen R. Riggs Actor>destruction. Stephen R. Riggs. <v Host 1>After the fighting, came an awful silence. <v Host 1>Circling crows signaled burial crews of more bodies. <v Host 1>And Sibley's army moved forward, not knowing the strength or numbers <v Host 1>of his enemy, Sibley moved slowly, taking days to travel <v Host 1>what normally took hours. The public was outraged. <v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>Governor Ramsey, for God's sake, put some live man in command of the force <v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>against the Sioux and let Sibley have 100 men or thereabout in his undertaker's

<v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>core. Jane Grace Swisshelm <v Host 1>Jane Grace Swisshelm was the editor for the St. Cloud Democrat. <v Host 1>While she was a vocal champion for women's rights and freeing the slaves, Ms. <v Host 1>Swisshelm had no charity for the Dakota. <v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>Every Sioux found on our soil deserves a permanent homestead, <v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>6 feet by 2. Shoot the hyenas, exterminate the wild beasts <v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>and make peace with the devil and all his hosts sooner than with these red jawed <v Jane Grace Swisshelm Actor>tigers whose fangs are dripping with the blood of innocents. <v Host 1>On August 28th, Sibley finally arrived at Fort Ridgely. <v Host 1>It had been 10 days since the violence began. <v Host 2>The Dakota moved up to Valley, thinking the white soldiers would attack. <v Host 2>When the attack didn't come a party returned to their village to retrieve belongings. <v Host 2>Across the river, high on the prairie, they saw one of Sibley's burial parties <v Host 2>moving away toward Birch Coulee.

<v Host 2>200 warriors were chosen to follow them. <v Host 2>The attack began at dawn. <v Host 1>The soldiers were pinned down for over 30 hours. <v Host 1>The sounds of battle were heard at Fort Ridgley, some 16 miles away. <v Host 1>Sibley finally arrived to rescue his men. <v Host 1>17 died and dozens more were wounded. <v Governor Alexander Ramsey Actor>The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders <v Governor Alexander Ramsey Actor>of the state. The public safety imperatively requires it. <v Governor Alexander Ramsey Actor>Justice calls for it. The blood of the murdered cries to heaven for vengeance. <v Governor Alexander Ramsey Actor>Governor Alexander Ramsey. <v Host 2>Sissetonwan and Wahpetonwan chiefs ?inaudible? <v Host 2>refused to help those who fought. <v Host 2>Some of their men ran off to fight. <v Host 2>But they stood firm. <v Host 2>Thaoyate Duta would find no more help for this cause. <v Host 2>From his own ranks, members of a growing peace party were sending messages to Sibley <v Host 2>to bring an end to the fighting.

<v Host 2>Sibley's army was now at Boudette. <v Host 2>How would Lake. The Dakota mustered their forces for one last attack. <v Host 2>They would strike at dawn as the enemy broke camp. <v Wambdi Tanka (Big Eagle) Actor>[Speaking Native language]. <v Host 2> Most of the Dakota were over far out to fire <v Host 2>a shot. Chief ?Megoto? <v Host 2>was killed by a cannonball. <v Host 2>It is said the cannonball was nearly spent, and he was not afraid of it. <v Host 2>The Dakota were defeated. <v Host 2>As Warriors returned, they released over 100 white prisoners to those who wanted peace. <v Host 2>Some leaders like Wabasha and ?Wambadetonka? stayed to surrender. <v Host 2>But Thaoyate Duta and his people left toward the plains.

<v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>I was told to hurry and change my clothes for my own as the soldiers were coming, <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>and it would be wrong for them to see me in a squaw dress. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>At last we were ready, and we left our teepee and my Indian friends who had protected <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>me for 6 weeks. <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>The old women shook hands and kissed me and said, 'You are going <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>back where you will have good warm houses and plenty to eat, and we <v Sarah Wakefield (Actor)>will starve on the plains this winter.' Sarah Wakefield. <v Host 1>Sarah Wakefield was the doctor's wife from the upper agency. <v Host 1>She and her baby had been captured and protected from harm by a Dakota man named <v Host 1>Chaska. As Sibley's army entered the camp, she convinced Chaska <v Host 1>to give himself up. <v General John Pope Actor>It is my purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux. <v General John Pope Actor>They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts and by no means <v General John Pope Actor>as people. John Pope.

<v Host 1>Union General John Pope had just been humiliated at the second Battle <v Host 1>of Bull Run. His new assignment was to put down the Dakota Rebellion. <v Host 1>Sibley had promised the Dakota he would only punish those who killed settlers. <v Host 1>Pope had other ideas. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>Under the veil of darkness, the soldiers surrounded the Indian camp, closed in <v Adrian Ebell Actor>upon it and took all the men prisoners, brought them in and shut <v Adrian Ebell Actor>them up under guard. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>Chains were then forged upon their ankles. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>Side by side, the right foot of one was fastened to the left of another. <v Adrian Ebell Actor>Adrian Ebell. <v Host 1>Henry Sibley set up a military court to try the Dakota in France Wilabat's store. <v Host 1>Although he was still unsure of his authority. <v Host 1>Believing they would be treated as prisoners of war, the Dakota were proud to say <v Host 1>they had fought in battles, but that was all that was necessary <v Host 1>to prove their guilt. At one point, the prisoners were tried at a rate

<v Host 1>of 1 every 10 minutes. <v Host 1>The press criticized the commission as moving too slow. <v Host 1>392 Dakota men were tried, and 303 <v Host 1>were condemned to die. <v Host 1>In a column nearly three miles long 1700 mostly old men, <v Host 1>women and children were marched to Fort Snelling, guarded by three companies <v Host 1>as soldiers. They were attacked by hostile crowds as they passed <v Host 1>through the town of Henderson. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>I saw an enraged white woman rush up to one of the wagons and snatch a nursing Indian <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>baby from its mother's breast and dash it violently upon the ground. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>The soldiers restored the papoose to its mother, limp and almost dead. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>He died a few hours after. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>The body was quietly laid away in the crook of a tree. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>I witnessed the ceremony, which was perhaps the last of its kind within <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>the limits of Minnesota.

<v Samuel J. Brown Actor>Samuel J. Brown. <v Host 2>The Dakota were secured in a dark log prison in Mankato, a <v Host 2>place they called Camp Lincoln. <v Host 2>The president would be the one to sign the execution order. <v Host 2>Abraham Lincoln asked if someone else could take this burden from him, but he was told he <v Host 2>was the only one who could do it. <v Host 2>The whites in Minnesota demanded that all should hang. <v Host 1>With the death toll reaching over 500 whites. <v Host 1>The President was under tremendous pressure to approve the executions. <v Host 1>Lincoln was reluctant. He assigned two clerks with the task of reviewing <v Host 1>the trials of the 303 condemned Dakotah. <v Host 1>At first, Lincoln asked for them to list those guilty of molesting women, <v Host 1>but when they found only two. <v Host 1>Lincoln had them look again, this time for those who killed civilians. <v Host 1>The number rose to 38. <v Carol Chomsky>When he reported to the Senate, he said he wanted to act <v Carol Chomsky>not with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak, but not with so

<v Carol Chomsky>much harshness as to be considered cruel. <v Carol Chomsky>And so he compromised. <v Carol Chomsky>And- and in doing that, he was reaching, I think, a political <v Carol Chomsky>decision about what he could do under the circumstances. <v Host 1>By Christmas Day 1862, the ringing of hammers had stopped. <v Host 1>The gallows stood ready. <v Host 1>The people of Mankato, Minnesota, attended services and gathered in their homes <v Host 1>to celebrate Christmas. <v Host 1>The execution would be the next day. <v Host 2>A crowd of 3,000, had gathered to see how the Dakotas would meet their death. <v Host 2>The gallows was built so that all would hang at one time together. <v Eli Taylor>When they were walking up the steps there to the gallows, <v Eli Taylor>One Indian was walking up [talking Native language] He's walking up, they say, <v Eli Taylor>'What's he saying? What's he saying?' Nobody told

<v Eli Taylor>these people what he was saying. What he was saying was there <v Eli Taylor>a bunch of us here that we never did nothing wrong. <v Eli Taylor>We never touch no, but here you are hanging us. <v Eli Taylor>But our Creator can see this. <v Eli Taylor>You're going to answer to this in the future. <v Host 2>The 38 climbed the gallows and began to sing. <v Host 2>They sang their death song and called out their names saying, 'I am here, <v Host 2>I am here.' The drum was sounded three times and the rope <v Host 2>was cut. [crowd cheering and shouting] [music] <v Speaker>The

<v Speaker>38 were cut down, some still holding each other's hands. <v Speaker>They were buried under a willow on a sandbar. <v Speaker>That evening, physicians from as far as Chicago dug up the bodies <v Speaker>for medical use. <v Speaker>Among the executed was Chaska, the man who protected Sara Wakefield. <v Speaker>His captors assured Mrs. Wakefield he was home by mistake. <v Host 2>For the Mdewankanton Dakotah people, this place is where the world <v Host 2>began. Here at Mni Sota, where two great rivers joined <v Host 2>together. Here in ?Unci Maka? <v Host 2>Mother Earth gave birth to our ancestral grandmother and grandfather. <v Host 2>The land is Wakan, sacred. <v Host 2>For the Dakota, this was Eden.

<v Host 2>Here is where the whites built their Fort Snelling. <v Host 2>Here is where they imprisoned Dakota people. <v Tiwakan (Sacred Light, Gabriel Renville) Actor>[Speaking Native language]. <v Host 1>In <v Host 1>early April 1863, the steamer Favorite passed the city

<v Host 1>of St. Paul without stopping. <v Host 1>On board were the Dakota prisoners from Mankato on their way to prison at Camp <v Host 1>McClellan in Davenport, Iowa. <v Wambdi Tanka (Big Eagle) Actor>[Speaking Native language]. <v Speaker>The Davenport and the Northern were also loaded with human cargo. <v Speaker>The prisoners from Fort Snelling boarded at the levee. <v Speaker>The citizens of St. Paul gave them a sendoff with rocks and bottles. <v John P. Williamson Actor>Dear father, they expect to put us all on the same boat. <v John P. Williamson Actor>If they do, I think it will be nearly as bad as the middle passage for the slaves.

<v John P. Williamson Actor>But then folks say they are only Indians. <v John P. Williamson Actor>In the manifest of freight taken down by the Northerner. <v John P. Williamson Actor>They published 30 horses, 540 Indians. <v John P. Williamson Actor>John P. Williamson. <v Host 2>The Dakota people were taken to a new reservation called Crow Creek on the <v Host 2>Missouri River. It was a barren place. <v Host 2>Nothing would grow. There was very little rain. <v Host 2>And what water was there was salty, unfit to drink. <v Wicahpewastewin (Good Star Woman) Actor>[Speaking Native language] <v Host 1>In the spring of 1863, Brigadier General Henry Sibley began a punitive expedition

<v Host 1>against hostile Indians into Dakota territory. <v Host 1>From the South. General Alfred Sully brought units from Nebraska and Iowa. <v Host 1>The two forces to meet in a pincer movement to crush the Dakota between them. <v Host 1>Things didn't go exactly as planned. <v Host 1>The Dakota melted away before the oncoming armies with their <v Host 1>mule trains and heavy wagons. <v Host 1>There was little fighting to be found. <v Host 2>At a place on the Dakota Prairie called Whitestone Hill, the long knives <v Host 2>of Alfred Sully came upon the camp of a large Ihankthunwan <v Host 2>hunting oarty. If there were any Easterm Dakota in the camp, there were <v Host 2>very few. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>I hope you will not believe all that is said of Sally's successful expedition against the <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>Sioux. I don't think he ought to brag of it at all. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>He pitched into their camp and just slaughtered them. <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>It was a perfect massacre, and the worse of it, they had no hostile <v Samuel J. Brown Actor>intention, whatever.

<v Samuel J. Brown Actor>Samuel J. Brown. <v Speaker>In Washington, Congress declared the Dakota had violated the treaties <v Speaker>and therefore had no claims to any lands in Minnesota. <v Speaker>The treaty payments were canceled and used to aid white victims of the conflict. <v Speaker>In Minnesota, the state issued a notice for an increase in the bounty on Indian scalps. <v Speaker>It was dangerous for a Dakota to stay in Minnesota. <v Speaker>Even Other Day who rescued many whites, had to carry walking papers to keep <v Speaker>from being shot. <v Speaker>For almost a year, Thaoyate Duta looked for allies on the plains. <v Speaker>He had been to Fort Gary on the Red River to ask the British for help, <v Speaker>asking that they honor the alliance their people had made against the Americans in <v Speaker>the War of 1812. <v Speaker>When hope was exhausted, Thaoyate Duta returned to his homeland. <v Speaker>He decided that to everything there was an ending, so he had given <v Speaker>his medicine bundles for his son to carry.

<v Speaker>And together they traveled south. <v Host 1>From his cornfield near Hutchinson, Minnesota, farmer Nathan Lampson shot <v Host 1>at two Indians as they were picking raspberries. <v Host 1>One was hit and mortally wounded. <v Host 1>When Thaoyate Duta stood still, Wowinape put new <v Host 1>moccasins on his feet for the journey to the place of his ancestors <v Host 1>and left his father's body. <v Host 1>For his services, Nathan Lampson would receive a $75 bounty from the state <v Host 1>of Minnesota. He received five hundred dollars more when it was learned <v Host 1>the Indian was Little Crow. <v Host 1>The scalp and remains of Thaoyate Duta were put on public display <v Host 1>by the state. He was finally laid to rest in 1971. <v Host 2>Taking refuge in Canada, Chief Shakopee and Medicine Bottle <v Host 2>were drugged and spirited across the border to wating American troops. <v Host 2>Imprisoned at Fort Snelling, they were denied legal counsel, tried

<v Host 2>and hung on November 11th, 1865. <v Host 1>The Dakota people were divided and dispersed across the plains from the Missouri River <v Host 1>to the Rocky Mountains. Others made the journey into what is now Canada. <v Host 1>Refugees streaming into places like Fort Gary and the Middle settlement on the <v Host 1>Red River. When hunger became too great, most submitted to <v Host 1>reservation life. <v Host 2>Today, Dakota communities range from Montana to Winnipeg, Nebraska <v Host 2>and the Dakotas and even Minnesota. <v Host 2>Elders tell of the return to the Minnesota River Valley, of hiding <v Host 2>in ditches, of singing hymns to keep farmers from shooting in their tents. <v Host 2>The forced acculturation practiced in Minnesota was official government policy <v Host 2>by the turn of the century. <v Host 2>Government boarding schools and reservation life did much to change the Dakota. <v Host 2>But we are still here and our culture is still alive.

<v Host 1>The Dakota conflict was the opening chapter in a 30 year <v Host 1>struggle for the plains that continued with the Little Big Horn and <v Host 1>ended at Wounded Knee. <v Host 1>It was the clash of two great cultures who had first found <v Host 1>common ground, but then divided in fear, hatred <v Host 1>and misunderstanding. [jingling of shells] <v Host 2>The Dakota in their prayers may talk to Yay or Yassan. <v Host 2>We pray for all our relatives, for all living things. <v Host 2>The elders say we must live our lives and make our choices for the next <v Host 2>7 generations that the children might live. <v Host 2>So let our young men, our women and our children be made glad <v Host 2>and may peace subsist between us, so long as the sun, the moon, <v Host 2>the earth and the water shall endure.

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