Thread by @msprairierose

Remember the #Dakota38, hanged in Mankato, MN on Dec 26, 1862, under the orders of President Abraham Lincoln. It is the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

Art by Travis Blackbird

The hanging of 38 Dakota came at the culmination of the Dakota War, which started because of a treaty broken by Congress. The Dakota people were being starved to death.

#Dakota38

“Let then eat grass or their own dung,” Andrew Myrick, a trader & store owner who withheld their rations.

Andrew Myrick was among the first to die. He was found with grass in his mouth.

#Dakota38

The imprisoned Dakota subjected to sham trials in English (a language foreign to them), and no legal representation. They were not allowed to discuss the broken treaty, or treaty law. Many were innocent. They were hanged on a custom made scaffold, in front of a cheering mob.

Dakota women & children were forced to watch the hanging. One Dakota infant was reportedly snatched from the arms of a mother and killed on sight.
#Dakota38

Around 1,700 Dakota, mostly women and children, were held as prisoners at Fort Snelling. Disease & death were rampant.
#Dakota38

Chief Little Crow, a leader during the Dakota War, was later assassinated. His remains were mutilated by townspeople & displayed. They stuffed firecrackers in his nose & ears and lit them. Local doctors eventually took his body parts to study. #Dakota38

Two more Dakota leaders, Shakopee (Little Six) and Medicine Bottle, were later captured and executed.
#Dakota38 + 2

After hanging #Dakota38 the Dakota were exiled from their stolen homelands in MN. Banned from entering, unable to return to. The governor put a bounty on their scalps. The Dakota people were separated & sent to prison camps in other states where the women were raped by soldiers.

No one knows for sure how many died on the march. 150 to 300 died in the place some soldiers called “the squaw camp.” Gabriel Renville, a mixed-blood Dakota held prisoner there, wrote:

Gabriel Renville, a mixed-blood Dakota Prisoner of War #Dakota38

Although fighting for women’s rights Jane Swisshelm editor of the St. Cloud Democrat, wrote about exterminating the Indigenous people.

Advocating genocide #Dakota38

“I am Dakota” can seem radical in a place where, following a bloody war, no Dakota was permitted, where the state paid bounties for Dakota scalps. Don’t let observances of the war and its punishments obscure truths about MN, the culture and history of Indigenous people. #Dakota38