1862 – Dec 26, mass hanging of Dakota Natives accused of 1862 war massacres, Mankato, MN–38

–38 Childs. A History of the [U.S.] In Chronological Order…1492 to…1885. 1886, p. 184.
–38 Heard, Isaac. History of The Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863. 1864, p. 292.
–38 MN Historical Society. The US-Dakota War of 1862. (Also known as Sioux Uprising and Dakota Uprising.)
–38 Wastvedt. “History we don’t teach: Mankato hangings an uneasy topic for MN schools.” 6-9-2017.
–38 Zenn Education Project: Teaching People’s History. “This Day in History: Dec. 26, 1862:
Mass Execution of Dakota Indians.”

Narrative Information

Childs: “Late in the summer the State of Minnesota was the scene of Indian cruelties and atrocities, so much so as to compel the Governor of the State to call an extra session of the legislature for means to be adopted to stop them. United States troops under General Pope were also dispatched in the emergency. In September, a large body of the Indians was overtaken at Wood Lake and, after a sharp battle, about five hundred of the savages were taken prisoners, and after being tried by court-martial, three hundred of them were sentenced to be hung, but the President [Lincoln] directed that but thirty-eight of them should be executed, and the remainder placed in confinement. By this insurrection it was estimated that not less than three hundred whites were killed, and two and a half millions of dollars in property destroyed. For some months between six and seven thousand persons, mostly women and children, were dependent upon charity.” (Childs 1886, 184)

Minnesota Historical Society: “On September 28, 1862, two days after the surrender at Camp Release, a commission of military officers established by Henry Sibley began trying Dakota men accused of participating in the war. Several weeks later the trials were moved to the Lower Agency, where they were held in one of the only buildings left standing, trader François LaBathe’s summer kitchen.

“As weeks passed, cases were handled with increasing speed. On November 5, the commission completed its work. 392 prisoners were tried, 303 were sentenced to death, and 16 were given prison terms.

“President Lincoln and government lawyers then reviewed the trial transcripts of all 303 men. As Lincoln would later explain to the U.S. Senate:

“Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I ordered a careful examination of the records of the trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females.”

“When only two men were found guilty of rape, Lincoln expanded the criteria to include those who had participated in ‘massacres’ of civilians rather than just ‘battles.’ He then made his final decision, and forwarded a list of 39 names to Sibley.

“At 10:00 am on December 26, 38 Dakota prisoners were led to a scaffold specially constructed for their execution. One had been given a reprieve at the last minute. An estimated 4,000 spectators crammed the streets of Mankato and surrounding land. Col. Stephen Miller, charged with keeping the peace in the days leading up to the hangings, had declared martial law and had banned the sale and consumption of alcohol within a ten-mile radius of the town.

“As the men took their assigned places on the scaffold, they sang a Dakota song as white muslin coverings were pulled over their faces. Drumbeats signaled the start of the execution. The men grasped each others’ hands. With a single blow from an ax, the rope that held the platform was cut. Capt. William Duley, who had lost several members of his family in the attack on the Lake Shetek settlement, cut the rope….

“Letter from Hdainyanka to Chief Wabasha written shortly before his execution:

“You have deceived me. You told me that if we followed the advice of General Sibley, and gave ourselves up to the whites, all would be well; no innocent man would be injured. I have not killed, wounded or injured a white man, or any white persons. I have not participated in the plunder of their property; and yet to-day I am set apart for execution, and must die in a few days, while men who are guilty will remain in prison. My wife is your daughter, my children are your grandchildren. I leave them all in your care and under your protection. Do not let them suffer; and when my children are grown up, let them know that their father died because he followed the advice of his chief, and without having the blood of a white man to answer for to the Great Spirit.”

“Source: Isaac V. D. Heard, History of the Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863, NY: Harper & Bros., 1863.”

Site includes comment by Carol Chomsky, Associate Professor, University Law School:

“The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status.”

Site also includes, under “Related Documents,” 4th entry from left, the names of all those who were hanged.

Wastvedt: “It’s a troubling piece of Minnesota’s past: Thirty-eight Dakota men hanged from a Mankato gallows in December 1862. Their deaths scarred generations of native people and cemented Minnesota as home to the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

“Despite that infamy, if you’re a Minnesotan in your 30s or older, it’s likely you were never taught about the hangings — or the prairie war between the United States and the Dakota that led to them. Minnesota didn’t require students to study that tragic chapter in the state’s history….

“…updated standards don’t mention the hangings at Mankato specifically. They do say students must learn ‘reasons for the [war]; compare and contrast the perspectives of settlers and Dakota people before, during and after the war.’ A widely used sixth grade social studies textbook published by the Minnesota Historical Society describes how U.S. Army officers ‘rushed through’ trials of the Dakota men who ‘had no lawyers to present their case’ and calls it ‘the largest mass execution in U.S. history, before or since.’

“But while it’s made it into textbooks, responsibility for teaching everything in the standards rests with individual school districts…. There’s no state social studies test, as there is for reading, math and science. And the U.S.-Dakota War itself isn’t required in social studies outside of sixth grade….” (Wastvedt, Solvejg. “History we don’t teach: Mankato hangings an uneasy topic for MN schools.” Minnesota Public Radio, 6-9-2017.)

Zenn Education Project: Teaching People’s History: “On Dec. 26, 1862, 38 Dakota Indians were executed by the U.S. government during the U.S. Dakota War of 1862 (also known as the Sioux Uprising, Dakota Uprising). Jon Wiener provides some background in ‘Largest Mass Execution in US History: 150 Years Ago Today’ in The Nation.

Minnesota was a new frontier state in 1862, where white settlers were pushing out the Dakota Indians—also called the Sioux. A series of broken peace treaties culminated in the failure of the United States that summer to deliver promised food and supplies to the Indians, partial payment for their giving up their lands to whites.

“The Indians responded in the Santee Sioux uprising, killing 490 white settlers. The Dakota were executed for their role in the war of self-defense. As Wiener notes,

[President Abraham] Lincoln’s treatment of defeated Indian rebels against the United States stood in sharp contrast to his treatment of Confederate rebels. He never ordered the executions of any Confederate officials or generals after the Civil War, even though they killed more than 400,000 Union soldiers.

To learn more, we recommend the U.S. Dakota War website and an edition of This American Life, Little War on the Prairie, by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University….”
(“This Day in History: Dec. 26, 1862: Mass Execution of Dakota Indians.” Accessed 12-26-2022.)

Sources

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Heard, Isaac V. D. History of The Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1864. Google digital copy accessed 12-26-2022 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_the_Sioux_War_and_Massacres_o/nCsFw3vCLiMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=isaac+heard+history+of+the+sioux+war+and+massacres+of+1862+and+1863&printsec=frontcover

Minnesota Historical Society. The US-Dakota War of 1862. Accessed 12-26-2022 at: https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging

Wastvedt, Solvejg. “History we don’t teach: Mankato hangings an uneasy topic for MN schools.” Minnesota Public Radio, 6-9-2017. Accessed 12-26-2022 at: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/06/08/mankato-hangings-an-uneasy-topic-for-minnesota-schools

Zenn Education Project: Teaching People’s History. “This Day in History: Dec. 26, 1862: Mass Execution of Dakota Indians.” Accessed 12-26-2022 at: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/execution-dakota/