And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>From NAF News
A Day of Sorrow:
by NACF Kilia
Today, let us take a moment to remember the anniversary of the largest
mass execution in the history of the United States. It was on December 26,
1862, in Mankato, Minnesota.
By 1862, the Dakota Sioux were peacefully coexisting with the whites
that had settled into the Minnesota region. As a result of two treaties, the
Natives had given up nine-tenths of their land, and depended on government
annuities for survival. This year, the game was scarce and the crops had
failed, so the Sioux desperately needed the annuities in order to purchase
provisions to feed their families.
In July, several thousand Santee/Dakota gathered at the Upper Agency to
collect their annuities. They were told that the money had not arrived and to
return in several days. Upon returning, the money had still not arrived and
Little Crow, the chief of the Mdewakantons, spoke for the people saying,
"....make some arrangements by which we can get food from the stores, or else
we may take our own way to keep ourselves from starving..."
The reply, by one of the traders was, "So far as I am concerned, if they
are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung." Following this remark, the
Santees arose and left the council.
These words proved to be the spark that light an already combustible
situation. Little Crow had been trying to keep his people from going to war
against the settlers, but the sentiment of his people was turning away from
peace.....they were hungry.
In August, four young teenage boys went to a farm, and stole some eggs.
This seemingly innocent event turned deadly when, because of a dare, one of
the boys shot and killed the farmer. This shot was the beginning of the
"Dakota Wars."
The next month saw intense fighting between the Dakota and the settlers.
The Santee took many prisoners, which they hoped to use as a bargaining tool.
Unfortunately, the head of the military unit, General Sibley, had other plans.
The only solution that he would accept was total surrender by the Natives.
Following a lengthy council, the Dakota that had not fought, decided to
surrender, believing that they would not be imprisoned by Sibley. So, on
September 26, about 600 males were chained and imprisoned, and the 1700 women
and children were also imprisoned. Sibley then convened a "kangaroo court."
He believed that since the Indians had no legal rights, they had no right to
council.
Before the proceeding ended, 303 Santee had been sentenced to death by
hanging. Many of those sentenced were convicted by rumor that they had
participated in the killing of whites. Sibley, not wanting to have this many
deaths on his conscience, turned the final decision over to the Military
Department, who then turned it over to Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln decided that he wanted a full record of the trial. In an attempt
to distinguish between those who had murdered and those that had just engaged
in battle, he hired two lawyers to examine all of the records. This angered
the Governor of Minnesota, who demanded authority from Lincoln to have a
speedy execution of all 303 prisoners.
While waiting for Lincoln's reply Sibley decided to move the women and
children, whose only "crime" was being born Indian. By this time, the press
had managed to create a "lynching mentality" among the citizens of Minnesota.
All along the way, the women and children were stoned and clubbed. In one
town, a white woman snatched a child from it's mother's arms and beat it to
death!!!!!
On December 6, Lincoln notified Sibley that 39 of the 303 prisoners were
to be executed. Execution date was the twenty-sixth of December in the "Moon
When the Deer Shed Their Horns. It was to take place in Mankato, Minnesota.
That morning the town was filled with angry, morbid citizens. At the
last minute, one of the 39 was given a last minute reprieve. Then, at about
10:00, the thirty-eight condemned men were marched to the scaffold. While
singing their death songs, the 38 were hanged. One spectator boosted that
this was, "America's greatest mass execution."
It was later discovered that two of those hanged, were not even on the
death list (a fact that was not made public until nine years later). The rest
of the prisoners were held for years by the US Government.
Editors note: In 1987, on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of
the hanging, the Blue Earth County Museum, in Mankato, wanted to put the
scaffold on display. Hearing of this, a noted anthropologist got involved,
and the scaffold was turned over to Amos Owen, a Dakota spiritual leader. It
is rumored that he found that it made good firewood.
Also, in 1987, the Lower Sioux Community, in Morton, Minnesota began a
process of repatriating the remains of Dakota that had not been given a proper
burial. Unfortunately, those from Mankato had had their graves robbed, among
the graverobbers were the Mayo Brothers.
In September, the Dakota community has a Wacipi to honor and remember
those men, whose only crimes were trying to feed their families and
participating in a war---crimes that are replayed daily throughout the world.
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