The Dakota 38 +2, the largest mass lynching in US history happened on December 26, 1862 by the order of President Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Dakota War of 1862.
Our Dakota ancestors of the eastern Santee division were threatened with starvation and went to war with the United States for not keeping their promises to provide our people with food.
The war was initiated by Dakota warriors and then supported by our Chief Little Crow. After capturing 38 and later 2 more Dakota warriors and executing them, the United States forced the remaining Dakota people off of our land, Minnesota,
onto prisoner of war camps(reservations) and onto so called “Fort Snelling” a concentration camp where hundreds of our people died. Many fled to Canada to seek refuge.
A bounty was issued for our people in Minnesota and white settlers were rewarded for returning the scalps of Dakota men, women, and children. It was written in law that it was illegal to be Dakota in Minnesota, and although it isn’t an active law, it still exists today.
It is important to understand how our people suffered beyond the war, being forced onto prisoner of war camps, unable to leave. Indigenous people could not leave the reservation and were not considered citizens until 1924.
Extreme poverty and assimilation through boarding schools plagued the reservations across the states. Our spirituality was prohibited. We weren’t legally allowed to pray and practice our spiritual ceremonies until 1978.
The Dakota 38 +2 memorial ride finishes on this day, December 26, and the horseback riders arrive in Mankato, Minnesota where the hanging site is, from Lower Brule, South Dakota.
Ceremony is held and our ancestors are remembered and honored. Such a powerful, spiritual journey back to our homeland.
We remember the Dakota 38 +2
We remember the Dakota 38 +2
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