U.S. Dakota Relations Pre Contact to Mass Execution

1
U.S. / Dakota RelationsPre Contact to Mass
Execution

• Pre Contact
• Fur Trade
• Treaty of Traverse des Sioux
• Annuities
• U.S./Dakota War
• Mass Execution

2
Who is this guy and why is he talking to me?

• Ben Leonard, Director of NCHS
• Euro-American from NC
• BA, MA in History
• 4 ½ years with MHS
• 4 ½ years with NCHS

3
Where we got our information?

• Dakota Elders Joe Williams, Sisseton Wapheton
  Oyate Tom Ross, Upper Sioux Community
  Pejuhutazizi Oyate and Maureen Aakre-Ross
  
• Ella Delorias Speaking of Indians
• Gary Clayton Andersons Kinsmen of Another Kind
  and Through Dakota Eyes
  
• David Nichols Lincoln and the Indians
• Carol Chomskys United States-Dakota War Trials
  A Study in Military Injustice

4
"There are good and bad men everywhere -- could
not point to any nation where all were
good."Mazakutemani, 1857

• Today we will make certain assumptions and
  assertions based on historical evidence. What we
  cannot do is lump all individuals together.

5
This area has been a gateway and a gathering
place for thousands of years.
6
Dakota Way of Being

• Odakota philosophy of peace. Basis for world
  view and governance
  
• Way of Being marriage, ceremonies, and blood
  relations shape society
  

Peace is implied by the very name of the people,
Odakota, a state or condition of peaceWe Dakotas
love peace within our borders. Peace-making is
our heritageEven as children we settle our
little fights through Kinship that we might live
in Odakota. Ella Deloria, Speaking of
Indians
7
Governance

• Dakota society is based on family, social
  relationships, and the idea of reciprocity

8
Strangers Became Relatives

• Hunka Ceremony - joins individuals and their
  families, to other individuals and their
  families, to create new extended families
  
• Dakota used Hunka to forge trading relationships
  with other Indian Nations
  
• Outsiders, accepted through the Hunka, were
  considered Dakota

9
Hunka and the Fur Trade

• Many Euro-American fur traders married into
  Dakota families. This gave them access to new
  trading networks.
  
• For the most part early relationships were fairly
  equal. Traders participated in Dakota Way of
  Being and idea of reciprocity.

10
System breaks down

• Americans predominate trade
• Shortages of fur-bearing animals
• Changes in European fashion
• Timber sales and land speculation become
  profitable

11
Debt

• Dakota furs in the spring not enough to
  compensate for gifts of trade goods the
  previous fall. Dakota go into debt with traders.
  
• American government actively promoted trade debt
  as a way to expedite treaty process and acquire
  more Indian lands.

12
Treaty of 1851

• Dakota hoped treaty will create a sustainable new
  economy
  
• Signed at Traverse des Sioux July 18, 1851
• 24 million acres, roughly 40 percent of
  modern-day Minnesota, for 1,665,000

"The Indians are all prepared to make a treaty
when we tell them to do so, and such a one as I
may dictate. Henry Sibley to P. Chouteau Jr.
and Company, November 3, 1850
13
Treaty of 1851 cont.

• Total cost 1,665,000
• 1,360,000 put in an annuity
• 5 yearly payout (68000) for fifty years (3.4
  m)
  
• Civilization fund 12K
• Education fun 6K
• Goods/Provisions 10K
• Cash annuity 40K
• Principal itself is never paid by design
• Remaining 305,000
• 30K to build farms, schools, mills, blacksmith
  shops
  
• 275,000 left . . .

14
Treaty of 1851 cont.

• 305 K to be paid to the Chiefs of said bands,
  to enable them to comply with their present just
  engagements
  
• As each chief signed the treaty, they were
  directed pulled by the blanket to another
  barrel to sign what many assumed was another copy
  of the treaty (Folwell)
• 210,000 was divided up by the various traders
  (including Sibley, who received over 66K, JB
  Faribault 22.5K, Bailly Dousman, 15K)

15
Broken Promises

• Traders Paper illegal but enforced document
  that sent payments bound to Dakota directly to
  Euro-American traders.
  
• Congress ratifies the treaty but strikes the
  portion that guarantees Dakota Minnesota River
  Reservation.
  
• Monies withheld funds diverted to physical
  improvements or traders, balance owed put in
  trust and only paid interest.

16
Bureaucracy

• Agency needed to facilitate payment of annuities
  and supervision of reservations.
  
• Commission on Indian Affairs created 1824 to
  civilize and educate Indians as well as
  administer treaty negotiations, regulate trade,
  and regulate land disputes.

17
Commission on Indian Affairs in Minnesota

• Department became intertwined with local
  government, traders, and interests
  
• Though not everyone was corrupt, there was
  corruption
  
• There was mismanagement that led to late
  payments
  

I have discovered numerous violations of law and
many frauds committed by past agents and a
superintendent. George Day to Abraham Lincoln,
January 1, 1862
18
Stood to Benefit

• Indian Agents and others in the Commission had an
  opportunity to benefit greatly
  
• Reimbursement for expenses
• Political Favors
• No bid contracts
• Not all levels participated, but system was
  complacent to graft

19
Situation for Dakota Deteriorates

• Forced to give up traditional way of life
• Forced to give up reservation lands in 1858
• Never received
• Late payments
• Rancid rations
• Little game
• Failed crops

20
Dakota War

• Began August 17, 1862 at Lower Sioux
• Ended at Wood Lake September 23rd.
• Estimates vary from 350 to 900 Euro-American
  civilians killed.
  
• Number of Dakota dead from the fighting not
  known, but probably a few hundred
  
• The war sent panic to Euro-American settlers and
  most fled western MN

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Dakota War, cont.

• Only a few hundred Dakota actively participated
  in battles against Euro-Americans.
  
• The vast majority of Dakota did not support the
  war and many actively assisted Euro-Americans and
  protected them.

22
Three Seasons of Harvest

• Treaty Season
• Annuity Season
• War
• Many people on both sides were victimized, but
  its also fair to say some Euro Americans
  profited and Dakota people as a whole fared much
  worse.

The Indian Traders and Indian Speculators had
three great seasons of harvest. George A.S.
Crooker to Abraham Lincoln, October 7, 1862
23
Public Attitudes

• A significant portion of the general public
  called for the extermination of the Dakota
  
• Still more called for the removal of Dakota from
  Minnesota
  
• A few vocal Euro-Americans, including George Day,
  George Crooker, Thomas Williamson, Stephen Riggs,
  and Bishop Whipple criticized the Government and
  defended the Dakota people.

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• There will be no peace in this region by virtue
  of treaties and Indian faith. It is my purpose
  utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the
  power to do so and even if it requires a campaign
  lasting the whole next year. Destroy everything
  belonging to them and force them out onto the
  plains, unless, as I suggest, you can capture
  them. They are to be treated as maniacs or wild
  beasts, and by no means as people with whom
  treaties or compromises can be made. General
  John Pope to Sibley September 28, 1862

25

• If such a commission to investigate the causes
  of the US/Dakota War is got up I should very
  much like to be one of its members and would do
  my best endeavors to lay bare the conduct of a
  set of villians government agents whose work
  has not only cost a large sum of money but has
  deluged our western frontier in blood Each of
  the Statements including the last is true and I
  can well afford to wait and let the truth of
  history vindicate my Statements. George
  Crooker to William Seward October 8, 1862

26
Government Action in MN

• Removal over extermination
• Cultural genocide
• Placate those that called for extermination
• Continue status quo
• Civil War
• Tacitly support profits of influential friends
• Ties that bind

27
The Trials

• 392 Dakota were tried by military tribunal
• As many as 42 were tried in one day
• Most charged with murder, rape, or robbery.
• Charges were most often not specific, instead
  gave the dates for the war and accused
  participation

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The Military Tribunal

• Sibley appoints 5 members William Marshall,
  William Crooks, Hiram Grant, Hiram Bailey, and
  Rollin Olin.
  
• All had fought against the Dakota.
• Evidence mostly circumstantial, based on hearsay,
  or of questionable value
  
• Trials did not differentiate between raids or
  pitched battles
  
• Enemy soldiers had never before been charged with
  civilian crimes.
  

29
The Convictions

• 323 of 392 were convicted by November 3rd
• 303 were sentenced to death by hanging
• 20 were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from 1
  to 10 years
  
• Unknown to Sibley, relatively new federal
  statutes required Presidential approval of all
  executions.

30
Lincoln and the Dakota

• General Pope, state government, and many of the
  general public urged the hanging of all 303.
  
• However others, including Commissioner of Indian
  Affairs William Dole felt the executions would be
  more of the character of revenge than of
  punishment.
• Many feared mob violence a wagon train of
  Dakota prisoners headed to Mankato was stoned by
  an angry crowd in New Ulm.

31
Lincoln and the Dakota, cont.

• Unrest and violence against the prisoners
  continued.
  
• On December 6th Lincoln announced his decision to
  the Senate, anxious not to act with so much
  clemency as to encourage another outbreak, on the
  one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real
  cruelty, on the other.
• He ordered that only those found guilty of
  participating in massacres, not those who took
  part in battles, should be executed.

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The Execution

• Dakota prisoners were not told of Lincolns
  decision until December 17th
  
• 39 were moved on Dec 22nd
• Tatimima was released on Dec 23rd after new
  information questioned his guilt
  

33
The Execution, cont.

• Tell our friends that we are being removed from
  this world over the same path they must shortly
  travel. We go first, but many of our friends may
  follow us in a short time. I expect to go
  directly to the abode of the Great Spirit and to
  be happy when I get there but we are told that
  the road is long and the distance great
  Tazoo
• The execution of 38 Dakota took place in Mankato
  at 730am on December 26th 1862
  

34
The Aftermath

• Those convicted and not executed were interned at
  Fort Snelling until late March. They were then
  sent to Camp McClellan in Davenport, IA
  
• The acquitted were not freed. They were reunited
  in late April 1863 with 1,600 civilian Dakota
  still held at Fort Snelling and moved to the Crow
  Creek Reservation in SD
• Lincoln continued to issue pardons for remaining
  Dakota prisoners until his death

35
Conclusion

• The executions display the failings of the
  American justice system, inherent racism of the
  period, and a public wave of sentiment that
  favored genocide against the Dakota.
• However there were personal instances where
  individuals advocated for the Dakota, or in the
  case of Lincoln, attempted to steer towards a
  slightly less horrible finality in Minnesota.