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The Dakota War began in August of 1862 as a fuck you for having their land stolen and being forcibly resettled. The war lasted a little over a month, and in the aftermath over 300 Dakota men were sentenced to death. President Lincoln, swell guy that he was, gave the thumbs up to hanging only a few dozen. It was still the largest one-day mass execution in American history.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: December 26, 1862--
Between 1837 and 1858 the government forced a series of treaties upon the Dakota that pushed them from their ancestral hunting grounds and onto reservations where they were told “Yeah we know you’ve been hunting here for many thousands of years but that’s over now. Time to be farmers because we want this land for our own pasty purposes.”
In 1861 there was a crop failure followed by a brutal winter, and the Dakota starved. What’s more, the U.S. government was late in sending the promised annuity payments, the meager funds paid for stealing their land. Wait. The American government violated a treaty made with Native Americans? I’m shocked. On top of this, traders refused to extend any credit to the Dakota to let them buy food. Continues below …
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It was a match tossed into a barrel of gunpowder. On August 17, four Dakota men from the Shakopee band were returning from a hunting trip and passed by the farm of a white settler near the township of Acton, Minnesota. There was a discussion about stealing eggs, one thing led to another, and the Dakota killed five settlers. The men returned home and told the chief what they’d done. There was a debate, and knowing that reprisals were certainly forthcoming, the decision was made that the Dakota would go to war.
Led by Chief Little Crow, the Dakota warriors attacked the settlers occupying their lands, killing hundreds and taking many women and children prisoner. With the Civil War raging, the government response was slow, but the outcome never in doubt. The final battle was at Wood Lake on September 23, a decisive defeat for the Dakota that led to a retreat followed by a mass surrender and turning over of hostages.
Many of the 2,000 Dakota who surrendered had been against the war. Following the surrender, military tribunals sentenced 303 to death. Some of the trials lasted only five minutes, with no legal representation for the defense. The white folk were pissed, and also racist. They wanted blood. Lincoln, with the help of White House lawyers, spent a month reviewing the transcripts of all the trials. His decision to commute 264 sentences had less to do with clemency and was more about not wanting to provoke another uprising. Minnesotans were furious at the lack of an even bigger mass execution and punished Lincoln’s party in the next election.
One of the 39 sentenced to die was spared by Lincoln last minute, but on December 26, 1862, under heavy military guard in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Dakota were hanged by the neck until dead in a public execution.
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white people SUCKKKKKKKK! Oh wait. I'm one. Well, I would never be a party to that brutal F'd up nastiness and murder. Specific white people SUCKKKKKKKKK!