Benjamin Franklin Upton. 1863. From the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society

Back in August, My Own True Love and I spent a History Nerd Holiday in the Twin Cities. I came back with a lot of stories, but I left an important one for later: the concentration camp the United States government built at Fort Snelling at the end of the U.S. -Dakota War of 1862. I didn’t have a firm grasp on the details of the war itself[1] and, quite frankly, I found it difficult to write about. I think it’s time to tell the story.

The U.S. – Dakota War of 1862 was a short-lived, violent conflict between white settlers and the Dakota people in the Minnesota River Valley that was a precursor to the later so-called “Indian Wars” in the west. Tensions between the settlers and the Dakota were already high, as happens when two different peoples claim the same land. Then the U.S. Government failed to keep its treaty obligation to send annuity payments, leaving the Dakota to starve. The attempt by a small band of the Dakota to take some eggs from a homestead escalated into violence and then war. During the six weeks of the war, hundreds of white settlers, American army soldiers, and the Dakota people died.

More Dakota died after the war was over.

After the Dakota surrendered, a military commission tried 392 Dakota men for their participation in the war. They were not allowed legal representation and most of the trials were brief. Some lasted less than five minutes. More than 300 of the defendants were sentenced to death. Even at the time, people questioned the legal authority of the commission and the procedures it used, publicly and loudly.[2] As a result, President Lincoln personally reviewed the convictions. He decided that only those men who had killed civilians should be executed. He allowed the death sentence to stand for 38 of the convicted men.  They were executed on December 26, 1862—the largest single execution in American history. The rest of the men received commuted sentences and were interned at Camp Kearney in Iowa for four years.

Meanwhile, almost 1700 Dakota non-combatants—most of whom were women, children and the elderly—were removed to a river bottom below Fort Snelling. Soon after they arrived, the army enclosed the area with a twelve-foot tall wooden stockade,  which they patrolled to control movement in and out. Several hundred people died that winter due to disease and harsh conditions.

In February, 1863, Congress passed an act that annulled all existing treaties with the Dakota people and stated that their lands and all annuities still due them were forfeit to the United States. A bill passed in March called for their removal from the area that was their ancestral homeland. The surviving captives at Fort Snelling, along with 2000 members of the Ho Chunk nation, who were not involved in the war, were put on steamers and taken to a desolate reservation in the Dakota Territory. [3]

Today a major immigrant detainment center[4] stands on the site of the camp. In a particularly ugly echo of the past, members of the Lakota nation are reported to have been held there in recent weeks.

[1] A pivotal event in American history that neither My Own True Love or I had heard of prior to our visit to Fort Snelling.

[2] As far as I’m concerned, this is the only point of light in this story. Even in the midst of the Civil War,which presumably took most of America’s bandwidth,  people stood up and questioned actions of questionable authority taken by men in power.

[3]I  wish I could say this was an isolated incident in American history, but we all know that is not true.

[4] The official description, not mine.