Terrible Justice, A Book Review

Whitestone Hill, this image appeared in Harper's Weekly, based on a pencil drawing by Gen. Alfred Sully. 

Terrible Justice, A Book Review

No Detail Too Grim Left Out

By Dakota Wind

Chaky, Doreen. Terrible Justice: Sioux Chiefs and U.S. Soldiers on the Upper Missouri, 1854-1868. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. 2012. $39.95 (hardcover). 408 pages. Illustrations, maps, photographs, bibliography, and index.

Chaky’s Terrible Justice begins with the Ash Hollow conflict of 1854, as settlers migrated across the Great Plains to better lives on the west coast or in the Rocky Mountains. Her research was sparked after participating in an archaeological survey at Fort Rice, and she soon realized that as much as the story of adventure belonged to the soldiers, it was a story that ultimately belongs to the Sioux. She was not satisfied that so little was published about the military’s role in Manifest Destiny there at Fort Rice and across the plains.

An example of an outstanding feature in Terrible Justice is Chaky’s use of Little Crow’s actual name, which is Taóyate Dúta (His Red Nation), and her continued use of his real name throughout her book. She doesn’t mince words in her description of the punitive military campaigns – Generals Sibley and Sully were sent to make war, take prisoners, destroy food resources, and secure Dakota Territory for white settlement.

Chaky carefully constructs the 1863 Sibley campaign on the orders of General Pope and his orders to secure Dakota Territory from President Abraham Lincoln. Sibley’s march is an invasion, and the conflict between the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (the Great Sioux Nation) and Sibley's command began when his campaign left from Camp Pope on the Minnesota River, not when a young man from the band of Íŋkpaduta (Scarlet Point) shot and killed Surgeon Weiser.

Terrible Justice isn’t an apologist’s narrative. Chaky describes in great detail the gory violence and destruction committed by men, native and non-native; scalps taken by soldiers and warriors. But, she draws close when she includes brief remembrances of Pvt. Phebus, Sgt. Martin, and acting Gov. Hutchinson, several years after the Whitestone Hill massacre.

Federal “Indian Policy” has always been one of dispossession and displacement. As settlers advanced west into Indian Country, tensions erupted in an escalating conflict until the military came in to secure the peace by forcing first nations to sign treaties (land cessions and reservations). Treaties were generally signed by a majority of grown men, sometimes not even by that (ex. Treaty of New Echota).

The Sibley-Sully campaigns were pre-emptive. The Yanktonai, who, at that time yet lived in their homeland, were killed, imprisoned, and forced west across the Missouri River without ever signing a treaty to cede their lands. The land between the Missouri River and the James River is still unceded Yanktonai territory.

Chaky signed my copy, “Dakota, I hope I’ve represented the Sioux properly with this book. I enjoyed doing it very much. Doreen Chaky, 7/28/13.” It’s a book that’s not hard to read, but it’s straight content and elaborate description make it hard to read. These are my people. Chaky began her narrative that this was “the story of the Sioux.” A quick review of her bibliography reveals six recognizable works by first nations, and one hopes a second edition of Terrible Justice would draw on more the surviving oral tradition. 

Recognizing that there are many, many books available for purchase on the subject of the Little Bighorn conflict, Chaky brings her work to a tidy close, by barely mentioning that fight (one sentence). Wounded Knee receives no mention. That’s all right, not every history book about the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ needs to include that tragedy. Chaky focuses on the conditions of peoples, native and settler, of the Great Plains. 

It's a good book. Go get yourself a copy. The maps are a great visual aid.

Dakota Wind is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is currently a university student working on a degree in History with a focus on American Indian and Western History. He maintains the history website The First Scout.

The Tragic Love Of Flying Shadow Woman And Track Maker

"The Falls Of Saint Anthony" by Henry Lewis.

Love And Death Between Enemies
Flying Shadow Woman And Track Maker
Edited by Dakota Wind
The story of the love between the Dakȟóta warrior Track Maker and the young Anishinaabe woman Flying Shadow has appeared in print twice, once in Charles Skinner’s Myths And Legends Of Our Own Lands, 1896, and again in Terri Hardin’s Legends And Lore Of The American Indians, 1993. Both books are out of print. This story is retold here with edits. It has not been verified by living oral tradition, but it bears similarities (i.e tragic deaths of lovers, conflict) to living stories such as Painted Woods and Spirit Wood.

BDÓTE, M.N. - The Anishinaabe and Dakȟóta had come together at Bdóte (“Where Two Waters Converge*”) to cement friendships and celebrate. A young Anishinaabe, Flying Shadow Woman, was sad when the time came for the tribes to part, for a Dakȟóta man, Track Maker, had won her heart.

In those days, inter-tribal marriages were not unknown. If she married him and went to live with his people, it might well be possible that every Dakȟóta would be against her should the tribes wage war. War between the Anishinaabe and the Dakȟóta was closer than neither Flying Shadow Woman nor Track Maker anticipated.

The Anishinaabe left with feelings of good will. Flying Shadow Woman had received a token of love from Track Maker and kept it close.

"The Falls Of Saint Anthony" by George Catlin.

Two Anishinaabe warriors lingered behind their band, and for reasons of their own, killed a Dakȟóta man after this congenial gathering. News of the murder reached the Dakȟóta village which provoked an immediate retaliation, and a war party of 300 was swiftly formed. Track Maker counted himself first among the war party as it was his brother who was shot and killed, and though he loved Flying Shadow Woman, he could not remain behind. The war party descended upon the unsuspecting Anishinaabe who had made camp between Owámni (“Whirlpool,” aka St. Anthony Falls) and Wakpá Wakáŋ (“Spirit River,” aka Rum River).

The Anishinaabe camp was unaware of the murder of the Dakȟóta man. 

"Ojibwe Encampment" by Paul Kane.

The Dakȟóta fell upon them and exacted furious revenge. In the midst of the violence Track Maker beheld Flying Shadow Woman who rushed into his arms with a cry of relief, but serenity was denied her. Track Maker embraced her but for a moment until he bowed his head and fortified his will to annihilate her people for the murder of his brother. Track Maker abandoned Flying Shadow Woman to claim retribution. He never looked back. He did not kill her, but he refused to save her.

The Dakȟótas' thirst for vengeance was slaked only when the last Anishinaabe lay dead.

The war party took a hundred scalps that day, and upon their return celebrated their victory.

Track Maker returned with more scalps than any other warrior, and the Dakȟóta welcomed him home as a hero, but he kept a solemn distance from all, and refused to share in the celebration. The memory of Flying Shadow Woman’s face haunted him thereafter. He saw her in the river, in the leaves, in the clouds, and even in the faces of deer when he went hunting.

At last, one day, a war party was mustered. Track Maker was the first to join, and on the field of battle he was the first to engage the enemy by running directly into them. He laid his axe about the enemy until he fell, pierced by a several arrows.

He smiled as he died.

Though this is a very short story retold with edits, two people graciously offered guidance:

Lise Erdrich, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, lives and works in Wahpeton, ND, and has worked in American Indian health and education for over twenty years. She is the author of the children’s picture books Sacagawea, Bear Makes Rock Soup, and many other acclaimed works.

Dawí, Huhá Máza, is a lineal descendant of the Kap'óža Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ Oyáte. A traditional bow and arrow maker, and Dakȟóta language student, Dawí lives in occupied Bde Óta Othúŋwe (aka Minneapolis).
____________________

* Where the Wakpá Mní Šóta (Smoking Water River, aka “Minnesota River”) converges with the Ȟaȟá Wakpá (Falling Water River, aka “Mississippi River”).

Dakĥota Kaškapi Okicize Wowapi: The Dakota Prisoner Of War Letters, A Review

The Dakota Prisoner Of War Letters
A Review Of A Powerful Narrative
By Dakota Wind

BISMARCK, N.D. - I received my copy of Dr. Clifford Canku’s The Dakota Prisoner Of War Letters: Dakota Kaškapi Okicize Wowapi through the mail and I carefully removed it from the box it came in. I was excited to read it, but not joyous to do so. Its about a real life tragedy, the consequences of which the Dakota and Lakota are still living with today. 

My initial perception of the book, my judgment of the book based on its cover, was that I was getting a book in the vein of Albert White Hat’s Life’s Journey. In the case of White Hat’s book, the transcriber, Mr. John Cunningham, and White Hat took great pains to keep the oration of the book even as a translation into English as how a traditional Lakota would speak English. White Hat’s work retains the “flavor” of the language.

Canku’s book goes a step further. Not only did White Hat and his associates invest several years translating beautifully hand-written letters in Dakota to English, Canku keeps the original Dakota, but he adds a word for word translation, then a free translation into English which contains Dakota connotations.

Dr. Canku carefully reads a letter of a Dakota prisoner.

There are two things which reached out to me about this book. The first being that its about the Dakota who became prisoners of war following the Minnesota Dakota Conflict of 1862. The book contains letters, first-person accounts of innocent men and women who were wrongly accused and imprisoned. They weren’t US Citizens, so due process didn’t apply to them, so they were guilty and imprisoned until they were determined to be innocent or no longer a threat.

Part of the story of the letters involves a missionary to the Dakota people, Rev. Stephen Riggs.

Riggs, a missionary among the Dakota in the 1850s, was present when cases involving the Dakota were judged, as fast as the service at a fast food restaurant. In one day, Riggs saw forty Dakota cases judged and sentenced to death in about seven hours. Some of the cases took mere minutes.

The missionary Stephen Riggs.

Missionaries, including Riggs, visited the Dakota prisoners, and converted a captive audience, while writing their letters of appeal for them, letters to loved ones at different agencies and letters to military commanders pledging to never more resist the American expansion westward.

The second thing which reached out to me was that the book is bi-lingual. There aren’t many resources published in both Dakota and English. As a person whose first language is English, and being a Dakota-Lakota person, having the original Dakota language present for me to read and learn is wonderful.

The most intriguing part of this book is the scholar himself. Dr. Clifford Canku. He is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and a retired Presbyterian minister. Canku is a common man and his stirring introduction includes early efforts from the previous teams he worked with at Flandreau, SD, the Sisseton Wahpeton College, and then North Dakota State University. Even though his name is on the cover alongside Michael Simon, Canku is quick to acknowledge the efforts of others.

Taoyate Duta, His Red Nation, more commonly known as "Little Crow."

Before being brought on to earliest efforts of this translation project, Canku was visited by the spirit of Taoyate Duta (His Red Nation; aka Little Crow). Throughout the translation process, a spiritual presence was always present. When the project wrapped, Canku received another visitor through a dream. He was at a sundance in this dream and a old man was brought into the east gate where his name was announced four times. The grandfather’s name: Wakaŋboide (Sacred Blazing Fire). The grandfather came to Canku and said, “Hau, wičohaŋ ečanupi kiŋ de wašhté do.” (Yes, the work you are doing is good, it is so.)

Canku is deliberate in that the reader, casual or otherwise, clearly understands that the book is about the Dakota prisoners of war. There are plenty of books out there, and more so with the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War and the Dakota War, but Canku’s and Simon’s book is the only published primary resource from the perspective of the people who fought, the people who defended, and the people who were entirely innocent of the 1862 Minnesota Dakota Conflict.

Camp Kearny, where the Dakota prisoners of war were taken.

An excerpt of one of the letters places the reader in the first person. Wiŋyaŋ, or Woman, writes to her relative Pa Yuĥa, Curly Head, about starving and the heartbreak in the prison camp at Davenport, Iowa:

…my heart is so very broken, it is so. Last summer, we all know one terrible event has occurred, and always we are very heartbroken, because now again, my heart if broken very much, because this winter we are without, we are all suffering. I hate to live, it is so. And now where will they take us?...now we don’t know where they will take us, and therefore I thought maybe we will never see all of you, and therefore my heart is very sad.

Another letter by Stands On Earth Woman tells her relative His Country that she is recently widowed and with a new baby, at the prison camp. She asks for her relative’s assistance because she literally has nothing and she’s starving.

Get this book if you are interested in the “other” side, the forgotten side of the story. Get this book to support a native elder and scholar, but get this book so that we never forget what happened as a result of this terrible conflict. 

Sitting Bull And General Sibley At The Battle Of Big Mound

General Sibley's 1863 Punitive Expedition map. 

Sitting Bull And General Sibley
The Dakota Conflict Enters Dakota Territory

By Dakota Wind
Bismarck, ND - The summer of 1863 found many Santee Dakota displaced from their homeland in Minnesota, scattered across the plains of Dakota Territory, into Nebraska or across the Medicine Line, the 49° parallel, into Grandmother’s Land or Canada. The Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Conflict, of the previous year lay heavy in the hearts of Dakota and settlers as everyone braced for General Sully’s and General Sibley’s punitive campaign.

In Robert Utley's book The Lance And The Shield, 1863 is a year filled with angst, confusion and worry for the Indians and the whites. “Dakota refugees fleeing his [General Sibley’s crushing campaign against the Minnesota Dakota in 1862] offensive spilled onto the Dakota prairies, mixing with Sissetons who had taken no part in the uprising, with Yanktonais, and even with Lakota along the Missouri River. The influx of the Minnesota Indians not only added to the unrest of the resident Indians, who were still smarting over the summer’s emigration to the mines [in reference to miners ascending the Missouri River to Fort Benton and beyond in their quest for gold], but so frightened the settlers edging up the Missouri into Dakota Territory that one-fourth of them abandoned their homesteads.”

Chief War Eagle Park, Sioux City, Iowa. The Big Sioux River converges with the Missouri River just below the monument to War Eagle.

A terrible drought in the summer of 1863 drove the bison ganges north, west, south and east across the Mni Šhošhá (The Water A-Stir; Missouri River), the Thítĥuŋwaŋ (Teton Lakota) followed some of the ganges east into Ihaŋktówaŋa (Yanktonai) country. Many of the Teton and Yanktonai had fought alongside US Colonel Leavenworth’s command in the Arikara War of 1823 and many of the Santee under the leadership of War Eagle had protected US citizens in the Northwest Territory during the War of 1812 from tribes swayed by English trade. The Sioux who were “smarting” over the influx of miners also felt betrayed and parleys & treaties afterward were brittle efforts.

Some members of the Cherokee enlisted with the Confederates States of America.

In the first two years of the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America promised congressional representation to Indian nations who took up arms against the Union. The CSA’s promise was undoubtedly intended for tribes in south like the Cherokee, Creek and others. Bureau of Indian Affairs Commissioner William P. Dole got wind of the CSA’s offer and saw the implications of the CSA’s open offer to all Indian nations:

            The defiant and independent attitude they have assumed during the past season [in reference to the 1862 Minnesota Dakota Conflict] towards their agent, warns us that not a moment should be lost in making preparations to prevent, and, if need be, resist and punish any hostile demonstration they may make. They have totally repudiated their treaty obligations, and, in my judgment, there is an abundance of reason to apprehend that they will engage in hostilities next spring. Like the southern rebels, these savage secessionists tolerate no opposition in their unfriendly attitude toward the whites.

The Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires; The Great Sioux Nation) had only heard that there was a great fight between the whites of the North and South. They had never heard of the CSA’s offer of congressional representation. 

Inkpaduta (Red End; Red Cap; Red Point), Itancan (Chief) of the Wahpekute (Shooters Among The Leaves) Tribe of the Santee Dakota. Run a Google search of this guy and find out a little more about him for yourself. It was believed that one of his sons stole General Custer's horse, Vic.

Some of the Santee, Inkpaduta’s Band of Dakota, had wintered on an island in Mdewakanton, Spirit Lake (Devil’s Lake) after being chased out of Minnesota the previous fall. Spring broke and Inkpaduta’s band decided to follow Čhaŋsása Wakpa (White Birch Creek; James River) to one of the great directional stone markers just north of present-day Jamestown, ND, then west to the Missouri River and then south towards Fort Pierre with the hope that the Government had relieved them of responsibility for the Dakota Conflict. Since many of the Santee hadn’t participated in the conflict, they believed that they would be forgiven.

Clell Gannon, an artist from the Depression Era, painted this scene of General Sibley's command marching across the Great Plains in pursuit of the Sioux. The painting is a fresco within the south vestibule of the Burleigh County Courthouse in Bismarck, ND.

Sitting Bull, the Huŋkpapĥa and other bands of the Teton encountered the Santee Dakota west of the James River with General Sibley hot on their heels. General Sibley employed Santee Dakota men to serve as his scouts in Dakota Territory. These scouts caught up Sitting Bull’s camp and Inkpaduta’s camp, now one large impromptu congregation who had no intention of squaring off against Sibley’s command of 4000 soldiers. Besides, the Dakota-Lakota camp took the word of the Scouts that Sibley came to take only the Santee who had fought in the Dakota Conflict the previous year.

A beautiful wood engraving of anonymous US Indian Scouts.

It so happened that as the Scouts were in council with the Dakota and Lakota, one of Sibley’s officers foolishly crept away from Sibley’s command to watch the council from a nearby hill and made an easy target. The temptation proved too sweet for one warrior who took aim, shot and killed the officer. Historian, Alexander Adams supposed that this anonymous warrior was one of Inkpaduta’s party.

The impulsive action of one warrior committed the entirety of Inkaduta’s and Sitting Bull’s camps to action. Sibley’s command retaliated immediately and the warriors immediately took up the rear of the retreating camps to defend the hasty and masterful escape of the women and children around pothole lakes and serpentine movement back and forth over the Apple Creek, all of which slowed Sibley’s command.

Sitting Bull counts coup on General Sibley's man and steals a mule, from Sitting Bull's Hieroglyphic Autobiography in Stanley Vestal's Sitting Bull: Champion of the Sioux. The line coming from the figure on horseback's mouth denotes a name, the upright bison bull represents his name, in this case, Sitting Bull. The hairstyle arranged on this figure's head indicates a spiritual man, or medicine man.

The running battle began at the Big Mound on July 24, 1863. Sitting Bull flanked by friendly fire from behind and enemy fire ahead, dashed headlong into General Sibley’s wagon train, delivered a quick rap with a coup stick to the wagon master and made off with one of his mules.

The running battle continued west to where Apple Creek converges with the Missouri River, below present-day University of Mary, Bismarck, ND and concluded with the Dakota-Lakota civilians safely across the Missouri River, and a stand-off with General Sibley’s command which ended on August 1, 1863. 

In a correspondence with Ernie LaPointe, great-grandson of Sitting Bull, Leksi Ernie has no additional oral tradition to add to this story.Visit his website: Sitting Bull Family Foundation.

Read more about the Conflict at Apple Creek.

His Red Nation: A Tale of Little Crow

Little Crow's village on the Mississippi by Capt. Seth Eastman, 1846.

His Red Nation: A Tale of Little Crow
Dakota Leader And The Struggle For Survival

By Jerome Kills Small
GREAT PLAINS - Note: This was written for an issue of the North Dakota publication "On Second Thought" in 2012. Taoyate Duta, His Red Nation was born the winter that Little Beaver’s cabin burned down (1810), in the Dakota village of Kaposia, Not Encumbered With Much Baggage (St. Paul, MN), where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers converge. His Red Nation was named so by his father, a prominent Mdewakanton Dakota chief by the name of Cetan Wakhuwan Mani, Hawk Hunting Walks. Due to a mis-translation, and probably because of His Red Nation’s status as son to Hawk Hunting Walks, His Red Nation is more commonly recognized as Little Crow.

Little more than a toddler, His Red Nation's mother took him to the frozen Minnesota River in the middle of winter. There she broke the ice, took her son and proceeded to dunk him into the icy waters, and as she did so, she told him that he would grow into a man who would become a great leader. It sounds cruel, however, but His Red Nation never forgot his mother's words. Even as a man years later, he remembered what she did and as a result, what she said, as clearly as if it happened only yesterday.

His Red Nation, a pencil sketch by Frank Blackwell Mayer in 1851 at Traverse de Sioux, Minnesota Territory.

His Red Nation will forever be associated with the 1862 Minnesota Dakota Conflict, but the conflict was only the latest of terrible events. To understand the conflict and its consequences, one must examine the precarious circumstances in which the Eastern Dakota found themselves.

The Santee Dakota, or Eastern Sioux, had actively traded with the French and English since about 1640. The English pushed west, of what was considered then the Northwest Territory, or present-day Ohio. Colonel Robert Dickson, a British Trade Agent at the turn of 1800, became good friends with the Santee. His Red Nation was still a toddler when the War of 1812 broke out. Dickson recruited hundreds of Chippewa and Dakota and led them into Ohio to fight against Americans. Hawk Hunting Walks, was among those who fought for the English.

Taoyate Duta's father, Cetan Wakhuwan Mani (Hawk Hunting Walks) as painted by Charles Bird King, 1824. The painting is called or titled "Chetaii Wakan Mani, The Sacred Pigeon-Hawk Which Comes Walking."

After the War of 1812, England and the United States signed the Treat of Ghent, ending warfare between the two countries. The treaty also gave control of Minnesota to the United States. The Santee would now have to deal with an unforgiving country they had initially fought against. Hawk Hunting Walks was honored with several gifts and accommodations from Colonel Dickson, but Hawk Hunting Walks refused them and was said to have kicked them, saying, “Now after we have fought for you, endured many hardships, lost some of our people, and awakened the vengeance of a powerful nation, our neighbours, you make a peace for yourselves, and leave us to get such terms as we can. You no longer need our services, and offer us these goods as a compensation for having deserted us. But, no-we will not take them; we hold them and yourselves in equal contempt.”

Traditional warfare between the Santee and Chippewa resumed regardless that they briefly fought alongside each other in the War of 1812. In 1823, Colonel Leavenworth led the Missouri Legion in a campaign against the Arikara on the Missouri River. About 750 Dakota and Lakota warriors fought for the United States under Leavenworth against an age-old foe in the first US led military campaign against a Plains Indian tribe. It was an absolute crushing defeat for the Arikara, who abandoned their earthlodge villages and fled west. Their fields of corn, squash, and beans, were plucked clean by the Dakota and Lakota who recalled the year as “The Winter Corn was Taken.”

"The year corn was taken," or 1823, from the Long Soldier Winter Count.

Hawk Hunting Walks’ image was painted by Charles King Bird on a visit to President James Monroe in 1824. Monroe congratulated the Sioux for their participation in breaking the Arikara out west, this, as sentiment grew in DC that Indians should all be moved west of the Mississippi River. Hawk Hunting Walks returned to Minnesota, perhaps a little wary, and signed the Treaty of Prairie Du Chien of 1825 under the watchful eye of General William Clark, former captain of the Corps of Discovery. The treaty formalized tribal territories and sought to end generations of inter-tribal conflict.

In 1830, General Clark brought several bands of Sioux together to sign another Treaty of Prairie Du Chien, which ceded three large tracts of land to the United States for westward expansion into Minnesota. It was a treaty that the Dakota were hard-pressed to keep.

Little Crow, photo by Whitney, 1862.

The Sioux, Dakota and Lakota, had other concerns throughout the 1830s and 1840s. There was warfare with the Crow, Arikara, Pawnee, and Shoshone west of the Missouri River, and continuing warfare with the Chippewa up north. Smallpox took the lives of thousands of Indians across the Plains. A massive star fall is remembered in nearly all winter counts. In 1846, Hawk Hunting Walks had a gun mishap in which he accidentally shot himself and died.

Chieftanship of the Mdewakanton Dakota, whom Hawk Hunting Walks led, was in dispute. Hawk Hunting Walks had children with three wives. His Red Nation’s mother was a Wahpekute Dakota, and so his brothers from his father’s other wives conspired to keep the chieftanship within the Mdewakanton. All of Hawk Hunting Walks’ sons met at a tribal get together. His Red Nation’s brothers attempted to assassinate him, at the last moment however, a young man knocked the gun with his hatchet causing the bullet to strike His Red Nation in the arm, breaking it – it was never set properly and healed crookedly, and left an awful scar. The conspiring brothers were condemned to death and His Red Nation became the chief.

"Execution Of The Thirty Eight Sioux Indians" by John C Wise.

As a boy, His Red Nation engaged in sham fights to learn stealth and leadership. To gain a victory in a sham fight, a mock war party had to take the village by surprise, or it wasn’t a victory at all. When he was ten, His Red Nation took his village by surprise when he crept into it unseen with the aid of his dog. A few years later, a friend of his fell through the ice and His Red Nation risked his own life to save him with a line. He fell through the ice as well, but managed to save his friend. His Red Nation became known in his youth as a trusty messenger and a great hunter.

In 1851, after years of preparation, the untimely death of his father, and an attempt on his life, His Red Nation received his first test in American bureaucracy at the Treaty of Traverse De Sioux in which the southern half of Minnesota was ceded to the United States, and the Treaty of Mendota, in which permanent agencies were established for the Dakota in Minnesota. The Dakota were to receive payments for their land cession, and food supplements while they adjusted to a completely sedentary lifestyle.

"Mass Execution of 38 Dakota on the Day After Christmas" By John Stevens.

His Red Nation tried his best to placate the settlers and new Minnesota government by adopting the white man’s clothes. He also converted to Christianity and became an Episcopalian. His Red Nation even took up farming. In his best efforts to ensure peace in his homeland, which had become an island in the middle of non-native settlement, in 1860 His Red Nation went east to visit with President James Buchanan to remind him that the Dakota fought for the US under Leavenworth and had willingly signed and followed treaty stipulation.

The United States had other concerns. The Civil War.

Sibley-Indian-Expedition, Harpers Weekly 1863.

By 1862, the Civil War was drawing on all the resources of the states from able men to fields of crops. The Indian agents and traders were suddenly faced with little supervision in their work and as the saying goes, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Indian agents in Minnesota were selling their wards food, supplies and seed when it was supposed to have been distributed according to treaty. Meanwhile, a combination of drought, disease and infestation nearly put an end to the growing season leaving little to harvest. The Dakota began to starve while warehouses stood full. The situation became desperate and in bad times the only choices left are bad choices.

His Red Nation could not reassure his people, ease their anxiety, or feed them and his ability to restrain his people weakened.

"The Siege of New Ulm, Minn.", a painting by Henry August Schwabe. Schwab depicts an attack on New Ulm on August 19, during the Dakota War of 1862.

On August 4, 1862, a desperate and hungry party of Dakota men broke into the food warehouse at the Lower Agency on the Minnesota River. The Indian Agent, Thomas Galbraith, ordered the soldiers under his command not to fire and immediately called for a council with His Red Nation and his people. At this hastily called council, His Red Nation reminded Galbraith that the Dakota were owed money to buy food and supplies and warned the agent that “when men are hungry, they help themselves.” A representative of the traders, Andrew Myrick, smartly retorted, “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung."

With hunger abated for the moment, the Dakota returned home. A few days later, August, 17, five Dakota men were returning from an unsuccessful hunt and goaded one another to steal from a farmer on their return home. The theft turned into a gunfight which left five settlers dead. The hunters returned home and told of their exploit which rattled the Dakota community. Some were for turning in the five hunters, others were for outright war. His Red Nation was for keeping the peace but he was still their chief, and when an overwhelming number of his people wanted to fight, he reluctantly prepared for war.

"Attack on New Ulm during the Sioux Outbreak, Aug. 19-23, 1862," by Anton Gag, 1904.

His Red Nation led the war party to Myrick’s house. They killed Myrick and then stuffed his mouth with grass for his cutting words. His Red Nation led them on a campaign along the Minnesota River with victories at New Ulm, which they burned to the ground, but only a month into their campaign against the settlers and soldiers, His Red Nation took a severe defeat in the Battle of Wood Lake, September 23. The defeat was such that His Red Nation broke for Canada. Men who fought under his leadership in a war he did not want to fight, either fled for Canada as well, or journeyed west to Dakota Territory to live among their Teton relatives.

Internment camp at Pike Island on the Minnesota River below Fort Snelling, Minnesota by Benjamin Franklin Upton, 1862.

The Dakota who surrendered after the Battle of Wood Lake were taken to Mankato, MN. There, 303 Dakota men were convicted of murder and rape. The trials for many lasted five minutes or less. No one explained the proceedings, nor were any Dakota men represented. President Abraham Lincoln personally reviewed each case and commuted the death sentence of 264 of the Dakota men, and ordered thirty-nine to hang in the largest mass execution in US history on December 26, 1862. On January 1, 1863, just one week later, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Condemned prisoners in prison at Mankato, MN, 1862.

According to Kills Small, His Red Nation spent the winter and spring petitioning the Teton Lakota, petitioning even the Arikara, the Hidatsa, and the Mandan Indians to take up arms against the whites. The Teton Lakota had other concerns with warfare on other tribes, and defending their own lands. The Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan were too few and did not have the strength nor heart to take up arms against a country that they depended on since the last smallpox epidemic.

The following summer, His Red Nation decided to risk a return to Minnesota with his seventeen year-old son, Wowinape, Haven or Sanctuary but often translated as Place Of Refuge. His Red Nation and Haven decided to stop in a farmer’s field to gather raspberries. The farmer, Nathan Lamson, and his son engaged His Red Nation and Haven mortally wounding His Red Nation. His Red Nation shot and wounded Lamson. His Red Nation told his son to run, even as Lamson’s son ran to get help.

A Yanktonai Dakota camp is being invaded by Sully's brigade during the Dakota Wars at the Battle of White Stone Hill, North Dakota, September 3, 1863, Harper's Weekly, Oct. 31, 1863, p. 693. Killing and mutilating His Red Nation's body wasn't enough. General Sully was called in to attack a group of Sioux who had nothing to do with the 1862 conflict.

Lamson’s son ran about twelve miles to Hutchinson, MN, and returned with a posse. At first the posse didn’t recognize that the dead Dakota man was His Red Nation, but as realization dawned on them that they had the body of “Little Crow,” they mutilated his body, brought it back to Hutchinson where they dragged it down Main Street. The citizens placed firecrackers in the body’s ears and allowed their dogs to chew on the body, which was tossed in an alley where refuse was typically discarded.

The 8th Minn Infantry, again led by General Sully. This time, Sully and his command attacked an encampment of Teton Lakota who were led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Gall. As was the case this time around as it was at Whitestone Hill, this group of Sioux had nothing to do with what happened in Minnesota, 1862. Painting by Carl Ludwig Boeckmann.

Haven ran to Spirit Lake, Dakota Territory. He was captured around Fort Totten, tried and sentenced to hang. Haven was sent to prison in Davenport, Iowa. There, he converted to Christianity and took the name Thomas Wakeman. He was pardoned in 1865, after the Civil War, and settled in Dakota Territory.

In 1971, His Red Nation’s remains were returned to Jesse Wakeman, Haven’s son, for internment.

Jerome Kills Small, Sisoka (Robin) pictured here. Image from his CD Inikagapi.

Jerome Kills Small, Sisoka (Red Robin) is an Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, SD. Kills Small is the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award from the South Dakota Humanities Council, a Reconciliation Award from the Governor of SD, George Nickleson, and was selected by the University of South Dakota as the Poet of the Year in 1994. Kills Small has portrayed Tecumseh and Dr. Charles Eastman in the Chautauqua venue across the country. He is a traditional singer and storyteller. Kills Small can be heard on the CD "Inikagapi." Support a native author, storyteller, poet, and singer. Get your copy on Amazon or whatever.