The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862-- Part 1

From the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 site www.usdakotawar.org

The year 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the war, yet this tragedy is largely unobserved even though it "had a profound impact on shaping Minnesota as we know it today."  The problem is that it was overshadowed by the bigger Civil War.  "Mni Sota," according to oral histories, had been the Dakota homeland for thousands of years.

Beginning in 1805, Indians living in Minnesota began making concessions to whites.  In 1862, the US government made even more incentives to cause "newcomers," as whites were called, to move onto Indian land with the Homestead Act.

The war only lasted six weeks in southwestern Minnesota.  In the years leading up to it, there had been much hunger in the Minnesota-Dakota lands. A poor crop production in 1861 had led to the "Starving Winter 1861-1862.

Reservations had little or no food and Indians began moving off them and came into conflict with whites.

A Tragedy Preparing to Happen.  --Old Secesh