Dakota War of 1862 The Dakota War of 1862 , also known as the Sioux Uprising , ( and the Dakota Uprising , the Sioux Outbreak of 1862 , the Dakota Conflict , the U . S . – Dakota War of 1862 or Little Crow ' s War ) was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux ( also known as eastern Dakota ) . It began on August 17 , 1862 , along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota . It ended with a mass execution of 38 Dakota men on December 26 , 1862 , in Mankato , Minnesota . Throughout the late 1850s , treaty violations by the United States and late or unfair annuity payments by Indian agent s caused increasing hunger and hardship among the Dakota . Traders with the Dakota previously had demanded that the government give the annuity payments directly to them ( introducing the possibility of unfair dealing between the agents and the traders to the exclusion of the Dakota ) . In mid - 1862 the Dakota demanded the annuities directly from their agent , Thomas J . Galbraith . The traders refused to provide any more supplies on credit under those conditions , and negotiations reached an impasse . On August 17 , 1862 , one young Dakota with a hunting party of three others killed five settlers while on a hunting expedition . That night a council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley to try to drive whites out of the area . There has never been an official report on the number of settlers killed , although figures as high as 800 have been cited . Over the next several months , continued battles pitting the Dakota against settlers and later , the United States Army , ended with the surrender of most of the Dakota bands . By late December 1862 , soldiers had taken captive more than a thousand Dakota , who were interned in jails in Minnesota . After trials and sentencing , 38 Dakota were hanged on December 26 , 1862 , in the largest one - day execution in American history . In April 1863 , the rest of the Dakota were expelled from Minnesota to Nebraska and South Dakota . The United States Congress abolished their reservations . Background . Previous treaties . The United States and Dakota leaders negotiated the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux on July 23 , 1851 , and Treaty of Mendota on August 5 , 1851 , by which the Dakota were forced to cede large tracts of land in Minnesota Territory to the U . S . In exchange for money and goods , the Dakota were forced to agree to live on a 20 - mile ( 32 km ) wide Indian reservation centered on a 150 mile ( 240 km ) stretch of the upper Minnesota River . However , the United States Senate deleted Article 3 of each treaty , which set out reservations , during the ratification process . Much of the promised compensation never arrived , was lost , or was effectively stolen due to corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs . Also , annuity payments guaranteed to the Dakota often were provided directly to traders instead ( to pay off debts which the Dakota incurred with the traders ) . Encroachments on Dakota lands . When Minnesota became a state on May 11 , 1858 , representatives of several Dakota bands led by Little Crow traveled to Washington , D . C . , to negotiate about enforcing existing treaties . The northern half of the reservation along the Minnesota River was lost , and rights to the quarry at Pipestone , Minnesota , were also taken from the Dakota . This was a major blow to the standing of Little Crow in the Dakota community . The land was divided into townships and plots for settlement . Logging and agriculture on these plots eliminated surrounding forests and prairies , which interrupted the Dakota ' s annual cycle of farming , hunting , fishing and gathering wild rice . Hunting by settlers dramatically reduced wild game , such as bison , elk , whitetail deer and bear . Not only did this decrease the meat available for the Dakota in southern and western Minnesota , but it directly reduced their ability to sell furs to traders for additional supplies . Although payments were guaranteed , the US government was often behind or failed to pay because of Federal preoccupation with the American Civil War . Most land in the river valley was not arable , and hunting could no longer support the Dakota community . The Dakota became increasingly discontented over their losses : land , non - payment of annuities , past broken treaties , plus food shortages and famine following crop failure . Tensions increased through the summer of 1862 . Negotiations . On August 4 , 1862 , representatives of the northern Sissetowan and Wahpeton Dakota bands met at the Upper Sioux Agency in the northwestern part of the reservation and successfully negotiated to obtain food . When two other bands of the Dakota , the southern Mdewakanton and the Wahpekute , turned to the Lower Sioux Agency for supplies on August 15 , 1862 , they were rejected . Indian Agent ( and Minnesota State Senator ) Thomas Galbraith managed the area and would not distribute food to these bands without payment . At a meeting of the Dakota , the U . S . government and local traders , the Dakota representatives asked the representative of the government traders , Andrew Jackson Myrick , to sell them food on credit . His response was said to be , " So far as I am concerned , if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung . " But the importance of Myrick ' s comment at the time , early August 1862 , is historically unclear . When Gregory Michno shared the top 10 myths on the Dakota Uprising in " True West " Magazine , he stated that this statement did not incite the uprising : " An interpreter ’ s daughter first mentioned it 57 years after the event . Since then , however , the claim that this incited the Dakotas to revolt has proliferated as truth in virtually every subsequent retelling . Like so much of our history , unfortunately , repetition is equated with accuracy . " Another telling is that Myrick ' s was referring the Native American women who were already combing the floor of the fort ' s stables for any unprocessed oats to then feed to their starving children along with a little grass . Myrick was later found dead with grass stuffed in his mouth . War . Early fighting . On August 16 , 1862 , the treaty payments to the Dakota arrived in St . Paul , Minnesota , and were brought to Fort Ridgely the next day . They arrived too late to prevent violence . On August 17 , 1862 , four young Dakota men were on a hunting trip in Acton Township , Minnesota , during which one stole eggs and then killed five white settlers . Soon after , a Dakota war council was convened and their leader , Little Crow , agreed to continue attacks on the European - American settlements to try to drive out the whites . On August 18 , 1862 , Little Crow led a group that attacked the Lower Sioux ( or Redwood ) Agency . Andrew Myrick was among the first who were killed . He was discovered trying to escape through a second - floor window of a building at the agency . Myrick ' s body later was found with grass stuffed into his mouth . The warriors burned the buildings at the Lower Sioux Agency , giving enough time for settlers to escape across the river at Redwood Ferry . Minnesota militia forces and B Company of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment sent to quell the uprising were defeated at the Battle of Redwood Ferry . Twenty - four soldiers , including the party ' s commander ( Captain John Marsh ) , were killed in the battle . Throughout the day , Dakota war parties swept the Minnesota River Valley and near vicinity , killing many settlers . Numerous settlements including the Townships of Milford , Leavenworth and Sacred Heart , were surrounded and burned and their populations nearly exterminated . Early Dakota offensives . Confident with their initial success , the Dakota continued their offensive and attacked the settlement of New Ulm , Minnesota , on August 19 , 1862 , and again on August 23 , 1862 . Dakota warriors initially decided not to attack the heavily defended Fort Ridgely along the river . They turned toward the town , killing settlers along the way . By the time New Ulm was attacked , residents had organized defenses in the town center and were able to keep the Dakota at bay during the brief siege . Dakota warriors penetrated parts of the defenses enough to burn much of the town . By that evening , a thunderstorm dampened the warfare , preventing further Dakota attacks . Regular soldiers and militia from nearby towns ( including two companies of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry then stationed at Fort Ridgely ) reinforced New Ulm . Residents continued to build barricades around the town . During this period , the Dakota attacked Fort Ridgely on August 20 and 22 , 1862 . Although the Dakota were not able to take the fort , they ambushed a relief party from the fort to New Ulm on August 21 . The defense at the Battle of Fort Ridgely further limited the ability of the American forces to aid outlying settlements . The Dakota raided farms and small settlements throughout south central Minnesota and what was then eastern Dakota Territory . Minnesota militia counterattacks resulted in a major defeat of American forces at the Battle of Birch Coulee on September 2 , 1862 . The battle began when the Dakota attacked a detachment of 150 American soldiers at Birch Coulee , from Fort Ridgely . The detachment had been sent out to find survivors , bury American dead and report on the location of Dakota fighters . A three - hour firefight began with an early morning assault . Thirteen soldiers were killed and 47 were wounded , while only two Dakota were killed . A column of 240 soldiers from Fort Ridgely relieved the detachment at Birch Coulee the same afternoon . Attacks in northern Minnesota . Farther north , the Dakota attacked several unfortified stagecoach stops and river crossings along the Red River Trails , a settled trade route between Fort Garry ( now Winnipeg , Manitoba ) and Saint Paul , Minnesota , in the Red River Valley in northwestern Minnesota and eastern Dakota Territory . Many settlers and employees of the Hudson ' s Bay Company and other local enterprises in this sparsely populated country took refuge in Fort Abercrombie , located in a bend of the Red River of the North about south of present - day Fargo , North Dakota . Between late August and late September , the Dakota launched several attacks on Fort Abercrombie ; all were repelled by its defenders . In the meantime steamboat and flatboat trade on the Red River came to a halt . Mail carriers , stage drivers and military couriers were killed while attempting to reach settlements such as Pembina , North Dakota , Fort Garry , St . Cloud , Minnesota , and Fort Snelling . Eventually the garrison at Fort Abercrombie was relieved by a U . S . Army company from Fort Snelling , and the civilian refugees were removed to St . Cloud . Army reinforcements . Due to the demands of the American Civil War , the region ' s representatives had to repeatedly appeal for aid before Pres . Abraham Lincoln formed the Department of the Northwest on September 6 , 1862 , and appointed Gen . John Pope to command it with orders to quell the violence . He led troops from the 3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment and 4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment . The 9th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment and 10th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment , which were still being constituted , had troops dispatched to the front as soon as Companies were formed . Minnesota Gov . Alexander Ramsey also enlisted the help of Col . Henry Hastings Sibley ( the previous governor ) to aid in the effort . After the arrival of a larger army force , the final large - scale fighting took place at the Battle of Wood Lake on September 23 , 1862 . According to the official report of Lt . Col . William R . Marshall of the 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment , elements of the 7th Minnesota and the 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment ( and a six - pounder cannon ) were deployed equally in dugouts and in a skirmish line . After brief fighting , the forces in the skirmish line charged against the Dakota ( then in a ravine ) and defeated them overwhelmingly . Among the Citizen Soldier units in Sibley ' s expedition : Iowa Northern Border Brigade . In Iowa alarm over the Santee attacks led to the construction of a line of forts from Sioux City to Iowa Lake . The region had already been militarized because of the Spirit Lake Massacre in 1857 . After the 1862 conflict began , the Iowa Legislature authorized “ not less than 500 mounted men from the frontier counties at the earliest possible moment , and to be stationed where most needed ” , although this number was soon reduced . Although no fighting took place in Iowa , the Dakota uprising led to the rapid expulsion of the few unassimilated Native Americans left there . Surrender of the Dakota . Most Dakota fighters surrendered shortly after the Battle of Wood Lake at Camp Release on September 26 , 1862 . The place was so named because it was the site where the Dakota released 269 European - American captives to the troops commanded by Col . Henry Sibley . The captives included 162 " mixed - bloods " ( mixed - race , some likely descendants of Dakota women who were mistakenly counted as captives ) and 107 whites , mostly women and children . Most of the warriors were imprisoned before Sibley arrived at Camp Release . The surrendered Dakota warriors were held until military trials took place in November 1862 . Of the 498 trials , 300 were sentenced to death though the president commuted all but 38 . Little Crow was forced to retreat sometime in September 1862 . He stayed briefly in Canada but soon returned to the Minnesota area . He was killed on July 3 , 1863 , near Hutchinson , Minnesota , while gathering raspberries with his teenage son . The pair had wandered onto the land of white settler Nathan Lamson , who shot at them to collect bounties . Once it was discovered that the body was of Little Crow , his skull and scalp were put on display in St . Paul , Minnesota . The city held the trophies until 1971 , when it returned the remains to Little Crow ' s grandson . For killing Little Crow , the state granted Lamson an additional $ 500 bounty . For his part in the warfare , Little Crow ' s son was sentenced to death by a military tribunal , a sentence then commuted to a prison term . Trials . In early December , 303 Sioux prisoners were convicted of murder and rape by military tribunal s and sentenced to death . Some trials lasted less than 5 minutes . No one explained the proceedings to the defendants , nor were the Sioux represented by a defense in court . Pres . Abraham Lincoln personally reviewed the trial records to distinguish between those who had engaged in warfare against the U . S . , versus those who had committed crimes of rape and murder against civilians . Henry Whipple , the Episcopal bishop of Minnesota and a reformer of U . S . policies toward Native Americans , first wrote an open letter and then went to Washington DC in the Fall of 1862 to urge Lincoln to proceed with leniency . On the other hand , General Pope and Minnesota Senator Morton S . Wilkinson told him that leniency would not be received well by the white population . Governor Ramsey warned Lincoln that , unless all 303 Sioux were executed , " [ P ] rivate revenge would on all this border take the place of official judgment on these Indians . " In the end , Lincoln commuted the death sentences of 264 prisoners , but he allowed the execution of 38 men . This clemency resulted in protests from Minnesota , which persisted until the Secretary of the Interior offered white Minnesotans " reasonable compensation for the depredations committed . " Republicans did not fare as well in Minnesota in the 1864 election as they had before . Ramsey ( by then a senator ) informed Lincoln that more hangings would have resulted in a larger electoral majority . The President reportedly replied , " I could not afford to hang men for votes . " Execution . One of the 39 condemned prisoners was granted a reprieve . The Army executed the 38 remaining prisoners by hanging on December 26 , 1862 , in Mankato , Minnesota . It remains the largest mass execution in American history . The mass execution was performed publicly on a single scaffold platform . After regimental surgeons pronounced the prisoners dead , they were buried " en masse " in a trench in the sand of the riverbank . Before they were buried , an unknown person nicknamed “ Dr . Sheardown ” possibly removed some of the prisoners ' skin . Small boxes purportedly containing the skin later were sold in Mankato . At least two Sioux leaders , Little Six and Medicine Bottle , escaped to Canada . They were captured , drugged and returned to the United States . They were hanged at Fort Snelling in 1865 . Medical aftermath . Because of high demand for cadaver s for anatomical study , several doctors wanted to obtain the bodies after the execution . The grave was reopened in the night and the bodies were distributed among the doctors , a practice common in the era . The doctor who received the body of " Mahpiya Okinajin " ( He Who Stands in Clouds ) , also known as " Cut Nose " , was William Worrall Mayo . Mayo brought the body of " Mahpiya Okinajin " to Le Sueur , Minnesota , where he dissected it in the presence of medical colleagues . Afterward , he had the skeleton cleaned , dried and varnished . Mayo kept it in an iron kettle in his home office . His sons received their first lessons in osteology from this skeleton In the late 20th century , the identifiable remains of " Mahpiya Okinajin " and other Native Americans were returned by the Mayo Clinic to a Dakota tribe for reburial per the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act . Internment . The remaining convicted Indians stayed in prison that winter . The following spring they were transferred to Camp McClellan in Davenport , Iowa , where they were held in prison for almost four years . By the time of their release , one third of the prisoners had died of disease . The survivors were sent with their families to Nebraska . Their families had already been expelled from Minnesota . Pike Island internment . During this time , more than 1600 Dakota women , children and old men were held in an internment camp on Pike Island , near Fort Snelling , Minnesota . Living conditions and sanitation were poor , and infectious disease struck the camp , killing more than three hundred . In April 1863 the U . S . Congress abolished the reservation , declared all previous treaties with the Dakota null and void , and undertook proceedings to expel the Dakota people entirely from Minnesota . To this end , a bounty of $ 25 per scalp was placed on any Dakota found free within the boundaries of the state . The only exception to this legislation applied to 208 Mdewakanton , who remained neutral or assisted white settlers in the conflict . In May 1863 Dakota survivors were forced aboard steamboats and relocated to the Crow Creek Reservation , in the southeastern Dakota Territory , a place stricken by drought at the time . Many of the survivors of Crow Creek moved three years later to the Niobrara Reservation in Nebraska . Firsthand accounts . There are numerous firsthand accounts of the wars and raids . For example , the compilation by Charles Bryant , titled " Indian Massacre in Minnesota " , included these graphic descriptions of events , taken from an interview with Mrs . Justina Krieger : " Mr . Massipost had two daughters , young ladies , intelligent and accomplished . These the savages murdered most brutally . The head of one of them was afterward found , severed from the body , attached to a fish - hook , and hung upon a nail . His son , a young man of twenty - four years , was also killed . Mr . Massipost and a son of eight years escaped to New Ulm . " " The daughter of Mr . Schwandt , " enceinte " [ pregnant ] , was cut open , as was learned afterward , the child taken alive from the mother , and nailed to a tree . The son of Mr . Schwandt , aged thirteen years , who had been beaten by the Indians , until dead , as was supposed , was present , and saw the entire tragedy . He saw the child taken alive from the body of his sister , Mrs . Waltz , and nailed to a tree in the yard . It struggled some time after the nails were driven through it ! This occurred in the forenoon of Monday , 18th of August , 1862 . " Continued conflict . After the expulsion of the Dakota , some refugees and warriors made their way to Lakota lands . Battles continued between the forces of the Department of the Northwest and combined Lakota and Dakota forces through 1864 . Col . Henry Sibley with 2 , 000 men pursued the Sioux into Dakota Territory . Sibley ' s army defeated the Lakota and Dakota in four major battles in 1863 : the Battle of Big Mound on July 24 , 1863 ; the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake on July 26 , 1863 ; the Battle of Stony Lake on July 28 , 1863 ; and the Battle of Whitestone Hill on September 3 , 1863 . The Sioux retreated further , but faced a United States army again in 1864 . General Alfred Sully led a force from near Fort Pierre , South Dakota , and decisively defeated the Sioux at the Battle of Killdeer Mountain on July 28 , 1864 . Conflicts continued . Within two years settlers ' encroachment on Lakota land sparked Red Cloud ' s War ; the US desire for control of the Black Hills in South Dakota prompted the government to authorize an offensive in 1876 in what would be called the Black Hills War . By 1881 , the majority of the Sioux had surrendered to American military forces . In 1890 , the Wounded Knee Massacre ended all effective Sioux resistance . Minnesota after the war . The Minnesota River valley and surrounding upland prairie areas were abandoned by most settlers during the war . Many of the families who fled their farms and homes as refugees never returned . Following the American Civil War , however , the area was resettled . By the mid - 1870s , it was again being used for agriculture . The Lower Sioux Indian Reservation was reestablished at the site of the Lower Sioux Agency near Morton . It was not until the 1930s that the US created the smaller Upper Sioux Indian Reservation near Granite Falls . Although some Dakota opposed the war , most were expelled from Minnesota , including those who attempted to assist settlers . The Yankton Sioux Chief Struck by the Ree deployed some of his warriors to this effect , but was not judged friendly enough to be allowed to remain in the state immediately after the war . By the 1880s , a number of Dakota had moved back to the Minnesota River valley , notably the Good Thunder , Wabasha , Bluestone and Lawrence families . They were joined by Dakota families who had been living under the protection of Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple and the trader Alexander Faribault . By the late 1920s , the conflict began to pass into the realm of oral tradition in Minnesota . Eyewitness accounts were communicated first - hand to individuals who survived into the 1970s and early 1980s . The stories of innocent individuals and families of struggling pioneer farmers being killed by Dakota have remained in the consciousness of the prairie communities of southcentral Minnesota . Monuments and memorials . The Camp Release State Monument commemorates the release of 269 captives at the end of the conflict and the four faces of the 51 - foot granite monument are inscribed with information about the battles that took place along the Minnesota River during the conflict , the Dakota ' s surrender , and the creation of the monument . Large stone monuments at the Wood Lake Battlefield and in the parade ground of Fort Ridgely commemorate the battles and members of the military killed in action . Located at Center and State Streets , Defender ' s Monument was erected in 1891 by the State of Minnesota to honor the memory of the defenders who aided New Ulm during the Dakota War of 1862 . The artwork at the base was created by New Ulm artist Anton Gag . Except for being moved to the middle of the block , the monument has not been changed since its completion . In 1972 , the City of Mankato , Minnesota removed a plaque that had commemorated the mass execution of the thirty - eight Dakota from the site where the hanging occurred . In 1992 , the City purchased the site and created Reconciliation Park . There is purposely no mention of the execution , but several stone statues in and around the park serve as a memorial . The annual Mankato Pow - wow , held in September , commemorates the lives of the executed men , but also seeks to reconcile the European American and Dakota communities . The Birch Coulee Pow - wow , held on Labor Day weekend , honors the lives of those who were hanged . A number of local monuments honor white civilians killed during the war . These include the : Acton , Minnesota monument to those killed in the attack on the Howard Baker farm ; Guri Endreson monument in the Vikor Lutheran Cemetery near Willmar , Minnesota ; and Brownton , Minnesota monument to the White family , and the Lake Shetek State Park monument to 15 white settlers killed there and at nearby Slaughter Slough on August 20 , 1862 .