On This Day: In 1862 303 Sioux were sentenced to death and convicted of rape and murder for fighting to protect their lands and people during the Dakota War of 1862. The Dakota War of 1862 (also called the Sioux Uprising of 1862) was the first major armed engagement between the U.S. and the Sioux. After six weeks of fighting in Minnesota, lead mostly by Chief Taoyateduta (aka, Little Crow), more than 500 U.S. soldiers and settlers died in the conflict, though many more may have died in small raids or after being captured. The number of Sioux dead in the uprising is mostly undocumented, but after the war, 303 Sioux were convicted of murder and rape by U.S. military tribunals and sentenced to death; the tribunals were conducted in the English language and the Sioux had no representation. The Dakota War of 1862 began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota and ended with a mass execution of 38 Dakota men on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. Previously the Sioux had signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and the Treaty of Mendota in 1851, which promised them reservations in exchange for ceding large tracts of land in Minnesota Territory. However, the U.S. Senate deleted Article 3 of each treaty, which set out the reservations, during the ratification process, and as a result, the U.S. military claimed that the Sioux had to stay on a small 20 mile wide stretch of the upper Minnesota River. As a result of the so-called war, more then 1,600 women, children and elders were forcefully held in an internment camp over the winter on Pike Island, near Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Living conditions and sanitation were so poor that by the following spring, over 300 had died.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 14:38:17 +0000
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