Author: Gary Clayton Anderson Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press ISBN: 0806166029 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 385
Book Description
In August 1862 the worst massacre in U.S. history unfolded on the Minnesota prairie, launching what has come to be known as the Dakota War, the most violent ethnic conflict ever to roil the nation. When it was over, between six and seven hundred white settlers had been murdered in their homes, and thirty to forty thousand had fled the frontier of Minnesota. But the devastation was not all on one side. More than five hundred Indians, many of them women and children, perished in the aftermath of the conflict; and thirty-eight Dakota warriors were executed on one gallows, the largest mass execution ever in North America. The horror of such wholesale violence has long obscured what really happened in Minnesota in 1862—from its complicated origins to the consequences that reverberate to this day. A sweeping work of narrative history, the result of forty years’ research, Massacre in Minnesota provides the most complete account of this dark moment in U.S. history. Focusing on key figures caught up in the conflict—Indian, American, and Franco- and Anglo-Dakota—Gary Clayton Anderson gives these long-ago events a striking immediacy, capturing the fears of the fleeing settlers, the animosity of newspaper editors and soldiers, the violent dedication of Dakota warriors, and the terrible struggles of seized women and children. Through rarely seen journal entries, newspaper accounts, and military records, integrated with biographical detail, Anderson documents the vast corruption within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the crisis that arose as pioneers overran Indian lands, the failures of tribal leadership and institutions, and the systemic strains caused by the Civil War. Anderson also gives due attention to Indian cultural viewpoints, offering insight into the relationship between Native warfare, religion, and life after death—a nexus critical to understanding the conflict. Ultimately, what emerges most clearly from Anderson’s account is the outsize suffering of innocents on both sides of the Dakota War—and, identified unequivocally for the first time, the role of white duplicity in bringing about this unprecedented and needless calamity.
Author: Linda M. Clemmons Publisher: University of Iowa Press ISBN: 1609386337 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
Robert Hopkins was a man caught between two worlds. As a member of the Dakota Nation, he was unfairly imprisoned, accused of taking up arms against U.S. soldiers when war broke out with the Dakota in 1862. However, as a Christian convert who was also a preacher, Hopkins’s allegiance was often questioned by many of his fellow Dakota as well. Without a doubt, being a convert—and a favorite of the missionaries—had its privileges. Hopkins learned to read and write in an anglicized form of Dakota, and when facing legal allegations, he and several high-ranking missionaries wrote impassioned letters in his defense. Ultimately, he was among the 300-some Dakota spared from hanging by President Lincoln, imprisoned instead at Camp Kearney in Davenport, Iowa, for several years. His wife, Sarah, and their children, meanwhile, were forced onto the barren Crow Creek reservation in Dakota Territory with the rest of the Dakota women, children, and elderly. In both places, the Dakota were treated as novelties, displayed for curious residents like zoo animals. Historian Linda Clemmons examines the surviving letters from Robert and Sarah; other Dakota language sources; and letters from missionaries, newspaper accounts, and federal documents. She blends both the personal and the historical to complicate our understanding of the development of the Midwest, while also serving as a testament to the resilience of the Dakota and other indigenous peoples who have lived in this region from time immemorial.
Author: Gwen Westerman Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society ISBN: 0873518837 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 531
Book Description
An intricate narrative of the Dakota people over the centuries in their traditional homelands, the stories behind the profound connections that hold true today.
Author: Diane Wilson Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society ISBN: 0873516990 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 181
Book Description
A child of a typical 1950s suburb unearths her mother's hidden heritage, launching a rich and magical exploration of her own identity and her family's powerful Native American past.
Author: John Christgau Publisher: U of Nebraska Press ISBN: 0803240155 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 150
Book Description
In the days following the Battle of Birch Coulie, the decisive battle in the deadly Dakota War of 1862, one of President Lincoln’s private secretaries wrote: “There has hardly been an outbreak so treacherous, so sudden, so bitter, and so bloody, as that which filled the State of Minnesota with sorrow and lamentation.” Even today, at the 150th anniversary of the Dakota War, the battle still raises questions and stirs controversy. In Birch Coulie John Christgau recounts the dramatic events surrounding the battle. American history at its narrative best, his book is also a uniquely balanced and accurate chronicle of this little-understood conflict, one of the most important to roil the American West. Christgau’s account of the war between white settlers and the Dakota Indians in Minnesota examines two communities torn by internal dissent and external threat, whites and Native Americans equally traumatized by the short and violent war. The book also delves into the aftermath, during which thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged without legal representation or the appearance of defense witnesses, the largest mass execution in American history. With its unusually nuanced perspective, Birch Coulie brings a welcome measure of clarity and insight to a critical moment in the troubled history of the American West.
Author: Mary Butler Renville Publisher: U of Nebraska Press ISBN: 0803243448 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 407
Book Description
This edition of A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity rescues from obscurity a crucially important work about the bitterly contested U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Written by Mary Butler Renville, an Anglo woman, with the assistance of her Dakota husband, John Baptiste Renville, A Thrilling Narrative was printed only once as a book in 1863 and has not been republished since. The work details the Renvilles’ experiences as “captives” among their Dakota kin in the Upper Camp and chronicles the story of the Dakota Peace Party. Their sympathetic portrayal of those who opposed the war in 1862 combats the stereotypical view that most Dakotas supported it and illumines the injustice of their exile from Dakota homelands. From the authors’ unique perspective as an interracial couple, they paint a complex picture of race, gender, and class relations on successive midwestern frontiers. As the state of Minnesota commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Dakota War, this narrative provides fresh insights into the most controversial event in the region’s history. This annotated edition includes groundbreaking historical and literary contexts for the text and a first-time collection of extant Dakota correspondence with authorities during the war.
Author: Gary Clayton Anderson Publisher: Borealis Book ISBN: 9780873512169 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 316
Book Description
A collection of personal accounts chronicling the experiences of the Native Americans and soldiers who fought in the Minnesota Indian War of 1862.
Author: Paul Lundborg Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781482578102 Category : Dakota Indians Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This is a story of sacrifice and tragedy fueled by the long-held immigrant's dream for a new beginning in a new land. In 1861, a large extended family of Swedes settles on the far northwest edge of the new state of Minnesota. One year later, as the late-summer harvest is in, a group of Dakota warriors declares war on all the settlers. In a surprise attack, 13 members of this family are killed. Left behind are eight others who flee for refuge, joining hundreds of other terrified residents of the state. This is the story of my family--my great, great grandparents, their children, their cousins and their children. I write it to honor my ancestors and help my extended family know and understand it. I think others will appreciate this story as well, as it reveals the courage and persistence evoked in the face of a great tragedy in which at least 650 civilians were killed. The Dakota people also suffered deeply, but theirs is not my story to tell. I write in the hope that descendants of the Dakota and descendants of the White settlers will one day be able to share our stories with one another.
Author: Gwenyth Swain Publisher: Borealis Book ISBN: 9780873515030 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 101
Book Description
Looks at the life of the Dakota Indian chief, describing his childhood, his travels from the Mdewakanton, and his role in the Dakota War of 1862.
Author: Gary Clayton Anderson
Author: Linda M. Clemmons
Author: Curtis Dahlin
Author: Gwen Westerman
Author: Diane Wilson
Author: John Christgau
Author: Mary Butler Renville
Author: Gary Clayton Anderson
Author: Paul Lundborg
Author: Gwenyth Swain