The other side of this annual story

Every year about his time we hear the left trot out the 'shame' of Minnesota's history, the mass execution of 39 Dakota Sioux Indians in Mankato the day after Christmas, 1862.  The Strib in particular likes to stroke this meme of white guilt, but local lefty bloggers carry the water for it as well.

I have posted previously on the disparity between December 1862 and July 1863, when Minnesota soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice in historic numbers to turn the tide at Gettysburg.  But the last semester of college included history of the American Indian.  From my research paper for the class-

In 1851, the Dakota Sioux and the US government signed several treaties that gave large areas of present day Minnesota to the US government, while giving the Dakota money, goods, and a guarantee to a large reservation along the Minnesota River in western Minnesota.  Little of the money and goods actually reached the Dakota, and in 1858 when the Minnesota territory became a state, several Dakota chiefs tried to persuade Washington to enforce the treaties as written.  The US agreed, but required the Dakota to cede some of the reservation, mostly prime hunting and agricultural land, back to the state of Minnesota.  This left the Dakota dangerously dependent on cash payments from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to purchase food and supplies. 

In 1862, after several years of unreliable payments from the government, food shortages and massive crop failure on the reservation, the Dakota were facing starvation.  When a government agency refused to sell them food on credit until their government payment arrived, some Dakota turned to violence and killed nearby white settlers in order to steal their food.  With the excitement of their success, and possibly also because the US military was preoccupied with the ever expanding Civil War, the Dakota held a war council and approved the use of force and violence to drive the white settlers out of land that had traditionally belonged to the Dakota.  In the minds of the Dakota, the treaty with the US was no longer in effect because the government had not lived up to its side of the bargain.  The Dakota Uprising of 1862 had begun.

On August 18^th, the Dakota attacked the government building where they had been refused in their attempt to buy food and supplies.  They killed several officials and burned the building down.  After a Minnesota militia unit sent in to quell the uprising was routed with heavy casualties, the war parties ravaged several towns in the area of the lower Minnesota River, killing settlers and burning whole towns.  Over the next several days, large war parties attacked and temporarily laid siege to the town of New Ulm and attacked the nearby Fort Ridgely.  They also attacked settlers in a large area of western Minnesota and into the Dakota Territory.  Other Dakota tribes attacked trading and stagecoach routes north of Saint Paul and on the Red River in north western Minnesota.  Estimates on the number of settlers killed vary, from as low as 400 to as high as 1000.

While small American military units were sent in as reinforcements wherever available, the bulk of the reinforcements sent by Washington did not arrive in the area until late in September.  The majority of these units were Minnesota volunteers that had been training in preparation for the Civil War.  Two full regiments, approximately 700 men and one small canon were finally able to engage the main Dakota war party on September 23^rd.  The Dakota were decisively defeated, and the uprising quickly ended.  Three days later, most of the surviving warriors surrendered, and they were held until military tribunals were held in November.

By early December, 303 Sioux had been found guilty of various charges of rape, murder, and warfare against the United States and sentenced to death.  But because of the lax standards used during the tribunals (some lasted as little as five minutes and were not translated for the Indians accused), President Lincoln personally intervened and commuted 264 death sentences and granted one reprieve.  The remaining 39 Dakota were hanged the day after Christmas in 1862, in the town of Mankato.  It remains the largest mass execution in American history.

The aftermath of the uprising would be no less than devastating to the Dakota.  Over 1600 men, women and children were interned in a camp near Fort Snelling over the winter of 1862-1863.  Hundreds perished from disease.  The following April, Congress declared all treaties with the Dakota Sioux to be null and void and ordered the banishment of all Sioux from the state of Minnesota.  The internees were relocated to the Dakota Territory and were warned that they would be shot on sight if they set foot in Minnesota again.

Revisionist historians like to point to the mass execution as proof of the guilt that all white men should feel towards Native Americans, but completely lost is the fact that Indians drew first blood.  And second, and third.  This Indian uprising came during the midpoint of the civil war, when many of the men in the area had been mustered into federal service.  This left the settlers in southern Minnesota weak and vulnerable to Sioux attacks.

It is also important to note that 10 times as many settlers were killed by Indian attacks than were executed in Mankato almost 150 years ago.  White men, white women, and white children were slaughtered by roving bands of Dakota men, yet no lefty bloggers weep for them.  The left would have us believe that the Indians were innocent of any wrongdoing, while the white man deserves all the blame.  In truth, each side is to blame, and each side suffered for it.

The research paper, by the way, got an A, 98 out of 100.

Minnesota history

Today is a 'dark day' in Minnesota history, according to the radio news on KTLK, MPR and WCCO, as well as the StarTribune. 146 years ago today 38 Dakota Indians were executed after four months of open warfare. This 'dark day in history mantra' gets brought up every now and then, mostly to remind us white Americans how evil we are.

But if Dec 26th, 1862 was a dark day in Minnesota history, then it needs to pointed out that just six months later would see one of Minnesota's brightest days in history. July 3rd, 1863 near the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg.

The 1st Minnesota Regiment was the first state volunteer regiment to officially respond to President Lincoln's call for volunteers. Four months before the Dakota uprising began, more than 1300 men left their homes and families to fight for the Union. (A fact not lost on the Dakota when they decided to fight, no doubt) After several small engagements, the 1st Minnesota found their purpose on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg.

"We roused before day, but late in the morning, July 3^rd, everything was quiet as death along the whole line, but not even the private soldier was deceived, he knew it presaged a storm which at last broke upon us with all its fury. We lay behind a ridge of land about three feet in height. All at once the guns opened and from morn till middle of afternoon it raged with terrific violence. Flat upon the ground we lay, while the vertical rays of the July sun rendered the heat almost intolerable. "

-SGT Alfred Carpenter

From the official citation on the memorial at Gettysburg-

"Late in the afternoon of July 3, after the collapse of the Union line at the Peach Orchard, Confederate infantry in front of you threatened to pour through a gap in the Union line here. When Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, commander of the Union Second Corps, rode up to assess the situation, only one regiment was at hand to stop the Confederate tide -- the 1st Minnesota.
"My god, are these all the men we have here?" Hancock asked. It was, but they would have to do. "Charge the lines!" shouted Hancock, and immediately the lone regiment swept down the slope "double quick." With levelled bayonets, the Minnesotans crashed into Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox's Alabamians who outnumbered them 4-to-1.

"Every man realized in an instant what that order meant - death or wounds to us all, the sacrifice of a regiment to gain a few minutes' time ..." Lt William Lochren

"For two hours we had fought desperately. The men seemed inspired and fought with a determination unconquerable. I believe they would have died or taken on the spot before yielding. Men fell about us unheeded, unnoticed; we scarcely knew they were falling, so great was the intensity of attention to approaching foe. Our muskets became so heated we could no longer handle them. We dropped them and picked up those of the wounded. Our cartridges gave out. We rifled the boxes of the dead. Artillerymen from the disabled pieces in our rear sprang forward, and seizing guns and cartridges from the wounded, fought by our side as infantrymen. Many of the men became deaf, and did not recover their hearing for a day or two. It was a grand and terrible scene. I wish I could paint it to you as I was and felt it." -SGT Carpenter

The charge broke the Confederate ranks and stalled the Southerners long enough for Union reinforcements to arrive. The Union line was saved, but at a terrific cost. According to a regimental officer, of the 262 Minnesotans in the charge, only 47 escaped death or injury."

On July the 5th, the regiment was left with a captain in command. He sent an action report to the governor back in Minnesota-

Our loss of so many brave men is heartrending, and will carry mourning into all parts of the state. But they have fallen in a holy cause, and their memory will not soon perish. Our loss is 4 commissioned officers and 47 men killed; 13 officers and 162 men wounded, and 6 men missing, - total 232 – out of less than 330 men and officers engaged. I send herewith a list of killed and wounded.

Several acts of heroic daring occurred in this battle; I cannot now attempt to enumerate them. The bearing of Colonel Colvill and Lieutenant Colonel Adams in the fight of Thursday was conspicuously gallant. Heroically urging on the attack they fell nearly at the same moment (their wounds completely disabling them), so far in the advance that some time elapsed before they were got off the field. Major Downie received two bullets through the arm before he turned over the command to Captain Messick. Color Sergt. E. P. Perkins, and two of the color guard successively bearing the flag, were wounded in Thursday’s fight. On Friday Corporal Dehn, of Company A (the last of the color guard), when close upon the enemy, was shot through the hand, and the flag staff cut in two; Corp. Henry D. O’Brien, of Company E, instantly seized the flag by the remnant of the staff and waving it over his head rushed right up to the muzzles of the enemy’s muskets. Nearly at the moment of victory he too was wounded in the hand, but the flag was instantly grasped by Corp. W. N. Irvine, of Company D, who still carries its tattered remnants. Company L, Captain Berger, supported Kirby’s battery throughout the battle, and did very effective service. Every man in the regiment did his whole duty. With great respect , I am, your obedient servant,

H. C. Coates

Captain, Commanding First Regiment Minnesota Volunteers.

His Excellency, Alexander Ramsey,

Governor of the State of Minnesota

So on this dark day in Minnesota history, don't let the media convince you to hang your head in shame.