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DECEMBER 26:
December 26, 1862:  The Santee Sioux condemned for their actions in the "Santee Uprising" were hanged at Mankato, Minnesota, on this date. This will be the largest mass hanging in American History.
 
 

BACKGROUND:
To view a collection of documents and records pertaining to the trial, including letters written by some of those condemned, shortly before their execution, please go to this site.  Be warned; these are not easy reading.
 

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From a post by Ishgooda, at
http://www.mail-archive.com/nativenews@mlists.net/msg01057.html
 
 

A Day of Sorrow:
 by NACF Kilia

Today, let us take a moment to remember the anniversary of the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.  It was on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota.

By 1862, the Dakota Sioux were peacefully coexisting with the whites that had settled into the Minnesota region.  As a result of two treaties, the Natives had given up nine-tenths of their land, and depended on government annuities for survival.  This year, the game was scarce and the crops had failed, so the Sioux desperately needed the annuities in order to purchase provisions to feed their families.

In July, several thousand Santee/Dakota gathered at the Upper Agency to collect their annuities.  They were told that the money had not arrived and to return in several days.  Upon returning, the money had still not arrived and Little Crow, the chief of the Mdewakantons, spoke for the people saying, "....make some arrangements by which we can get food from the stores, or else we may take our own way to keep ourselves from starving..."

The reply, by one of the traders was, "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung."  Following this remark, the Santees arose and left the council.

These words proved to be the spark that light an already combustible situation.  Little Crow had been trying to keep his people from going to war against the settlers, but the sentiment of his people was turning away from peace.....they were hungry.

In August, four young teenage boys went to a farm, and stole some eggs. This seemingly innocent event turned deadly when, because of a dare, one of the boys shot and killed the farmer.  This shot was the beginning of the "Dakota Wars."

The next month saw intense fighting between the Dakota and the settlers. The Santee took many prisoners, which they hoped to use as a bargaining tool. Unfortunately, the head of the military unit, General Sibley, had other plans. The only solution that he would accept was total surrender by the Natives.

Following a lengthy council, the Dakota that had not fought, decided to surrender, believing that they would not be imprisoned by Sibley.  So, on September 26, about 600 males were chained and imprisoned, and the 1700 women and children were also imprisoned.  Sibley then convened a "kangaroo court."  He believed that since the Indians had no legal rights, they had no right to council.

Before the proceeding ended, 303 Santee had been sentenced to death by hanging.  Many of those sentenced were convicted by rumor that they had participated in the killing of whites.  Sibley, not wanting to have this many deaths on his conscience, turned the final decision over to the Military Department, who then turned it over to Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln decided that he wanted a full record of the trial.  In an attempt to distinguish between those who had murdered and those that had just engaged in battle, he hired two lawyers to examine all of the records.  This angered the Governor of Minnesota, who demanded authority from Lincoln to have a speedy execution of all 303 prisoners.

While waiting for Lincoln's reply Sibley decided to move the women and children, whose only "crime" was being born Indian.  By this time, the press had managed to create a "lynching mentality" among the citizens of Minnesota. All along the way, the women and children were stoned and clubbed.  In one town, a white woman snatched a child from its mother's arms and beat it to death!!!!!

On December 6, Lincoln notified Sibley that 39 of the 303 prisoners were to be executed.  Execution date was the twenty-sixth of December in the "Moon When the Deer Shed Their Horns.  It was to take place in Mankato, Minnesota.

That morning the town was filled with angry, morbid citizens.  At the last minute, one of the 39 was given a last minute reprieve.  Then, at about 10:00, the thirty-eight condemned men were marched to the scaffold.  While singing their death songs, the 38 were hanged.  One spectator boasted that this was, "America's greatest mass execution."

It was later discovered that two of those hanged, were not even on the death list (a fact that was not made public until nine years later).  The rest of the prisoners were held for years by the US Government.
 

(Editor's note: In 1987, on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the hanging, the Blue Earth County Museum, in Mankato, wanted to put the scaffold on display.  Hearing of this, a noted anthropologist got involved, and the scaffold was turned over to Amos Owen, a Dakota spiritual leader. It is rumored that he found that it made good firewood.

Also, in 1987, the Lower Sioux Community, in Morton, Minnesota began a process of repatriating the remains of Dakota that had not been given a proper burial. Unfortunately, those from Mankato had had their graves robbed, among the graverobbers were the Mayo Brothers.

In September, the Dakota community has a Wacipi to honor and remember those men, whose only crimes were trying to feed their families and participating in a war---crimes that are replayed daily throughout the world.)
 

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From http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/News2001/0106/MatoNunpa010609Violence.htm
 

Violence, Executions, and Entertainment Guest commentary by Chris Mato Nunpa, PhD Wahpetunwan Dakota Upper Sioux Community, Granite Falls, Minnesota 56241 the People's Voice ~ Saturday, June 9, 2001

Copyright © 2001 Mato Nunpa All Rights Reserved
 

On December 26, 1862 the largest mass execution in the history of the United States occurred in Mankato, Minnesota. Thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged as war criminals, instead of as prisoners of war. Thousands of white Minnesotans watched this execution.

It is curious to observe today the furor, controversy, and extensive debate occurring among U.S. society on whether or not it is appropriate for anybody, especially the survivors and relatives of those killed to watch the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the convicted bomber. My wondering is why there is so much debate.

In my mind, violence is a white American tradition, from the genocide of the native peoples of the U.S. to the slavery and lynching of black people, from the violence against women to the current gun violence and gun-toting mentality in schools and in the streets.

On December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota, 1,400 soldiers were on hand to keep order among the thousands of white Minnesotans who eagerly gathered to see the killing of the thirty-eight Dakota men. According to one account, "Many curious citizens (white, my addition) crowded the streets for a glimpse of the condemned and more onlookers stared from roof tops and windows (Carley, The Sioux Uprising of 1862, p, 73-75). As the platform fell, "There was one, not loud, but prolonged cheer from the soldiery and citizens" (Carley, p. 75), thus satisfying the blood-lust of the white Minnesotans. These same white Minnesotans, many of them good Christians, no doubt, were singing "Silent Night" and celebrating the birth of their Savior the day before and killing Dakota men the next.

This mass execution was one of the culminating events of a series of events such as bounties, warfare, forced removal, genocide, and concentration camps (Mankato & Ft. Snelling) in an atmosphere of "extermination or removal," a savage and blood-thirsty cry uttered by white Minnesotans from the top, Governor Ramsey and other state officials, to the bottom, the thousands of whites who gathered to observe this mass execution.

Roy Meyer in his book, The History of the Santee Sioux, (1967, 1993), refers to this execution of the thirty-eight Dakota, this act of violence, as "legalized murder" (p. 138). Gary Anderson in his book, Little Crow (1986), refers to "the white citizenry of Minnesota" who "flocked into Mankato days before the mass execution" (p. 165). This was an event not to be missed by the white Minnesotans. Anderson talks about "the vast crowd of spectators rose up in one long, protracted cheer at the scene" (p.165) as the hanging was over. William W. Folwell in his book, A History of Minnesota (1924, 1961, 1978), describes the mass execution of 38 Dakota men thusly, "the spectacle was witnessed by a great crowd" (p. 210).

Chris Mato Nunpa, PhD
Associate Professor
American Indian Studies &
Dakota Studies (AISDS)
Southwest State University
Marshall, MN 56258
(507) 537-6118 (O)
matonunpa@kilowatt.net
matonunpa@ssu.southwest.msus.edu