In the midst of all the commemorations of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, there's another anniversary going on just north of Iowa in the Medium White North that's worth mentioning and that's the 150th Anniversary of the Dakota War of 1862. By late 1862 after years of late or unfair annuity payments not to mention treaty violations by the Federal Government, hardship and hunger amongst the Dakota of Minnesota were rife and tensions eventually broke out into full scale warfare that eventually lead to the defeat and expulsion of the Dakota from Minnesota. (It also lead to the largest mass execution in US History when 38 Dakota were hanged at Mankato on a site now occupied by the Blue Earth County Library.)
Today, in a ceremony near Pipestone, Minnesota, the Dakota were welcomed home.
I remember I was on my own for a couple of weeks after I moved to Mankato in August of 2006 and I did some poking around to see just what this Mankato place was all about. I was astonished and somewhat ashamed to find out that there had been a full blown war in a state right next door to my own that I had known absolutely nothing about. 4th Grade Social Studies was consumed with learning about the history of Iowa, so I remember Marquette and Joliet, the Sauk and the Fox and Zebulon Pike and the rest but this was a chapter of American history that I was ignorant of.
And that seemed silly to me as Minnesota was right next door.
The Star Tribune has done a fantastic six part series on the Dakota War, the start of which can be found here. Read it if you get the chance, kids. It's always nice to learn something about the country you're living in now and again.
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