The Hanging of 38 Sioux In 1862

[Dietmar]

Sara,

the pictures I have posted were copied from various internet sources over the past years. Many appeared on auction sites (like Cowan´s). I think most of the originals can be found at the Minnesota Historical Society Archives, the best source for pictures of Dakota Indians.

I have the two photos of the unidentified man and One Who Forbids His House for a long time on my computer... Honestly, I´m not sure if I took the identification from another site, however, to me he looks like him. Do you think that is not correct?

Greetings

Dietmar

[Dietmar]

Haha, we are two persons but I think we are like brothers in spirit.

Actually Grahame is British and I am German.

Please let me know if I can do something for you.

[Dietmar]

Welcome to my home! But come in spring, it´s snow everywhere right now.

[gregor]

With regard to the hanging in 1862 I recommend the following books:

A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity Dispatches from the Dakota War by Mary Butler Renville / Edited by Carrie Reber Zeman (University of Nebraska Press)

and

38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End by Scott W. Berg (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group,2012)

and

What Does Justice Look Like? by von Waziyatawin (Living Justice Press, 2013)

[gregor]

There are many who blame Lincoln for the 38/39 hanged Dakotas. But I think it is not that simple.

On September 28, 1862, two days after the surrender of Dakotas, Colonel Sibley appointed a five-member military commission to "try summarily" Dakota and mixed-bloods for "murder and other outrages" committed against Americans. Whether Sibley had authority to appoint such a commission is a matter of substantial dispute. But I suppose with the consent of Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey – who had made a fortune cheating the Sioux.

The trials were quick affairs, getting quicker as they progressed. The commission heard nearly 40 (!) cases on November 3, the last day it met. I think we all agree that not a single Dakota had a fair trial.

Out of the 392 or 394 people that the military commission tried, only seventy-two received a verdict of not guilty. 303 were sentenced to death by hanging, and 16 were given prison terms. The numbers vary in the sources.
General John Pope, having been sent to Minnesota after his defeat at Bull Run (Civil war) and appointed commander of U.S. troops in the Northwest, campaigned by telegraph for the speedy execution of all the condemned. On November 7, Pope telegraphed to Lincoln the names of the 303 Sioux who had been sentenced to death for their role in the uprising.

On November 10, Lincoln requested that Pope send him the complete records for all the cases. Lincoln reviewed the cases of over three hundred who were to be executed. He ordered two of his best lawyers to study the trial transcripts (fragments of files at best), and based on their findings had commuted most of the condemned men’s death sentences to prison terms. Ok, 38 remained. But in my view it would be fair to say that Lincoln – against Ramsey’s objections - saved nearly 300 Dakotas.
Alexander Ramsey threatened that if the president didn’t hang all the condemned, the citizens of his state would. In my view Lincoln acted more as a court of appeal, than a blood thirsty avenging angel.

The executions at Mankato had been originally scheduled for December 19, 1862 but on December 16 Lincoln authorized a postponement until December 26. An estimated 4,000 spectators crammed the streets of Mankato. Following the execution it was discovered that two men had been mistakenly hanged. Again, these executions will forever be a dark blot in the American History.

Still there were about sixteen hundred men, women & children in the Indian Camp at Fort Snelling. Pope recommended removing these prisoners immediately upon the opening of the navigation on the Mississippi, to some spot to be selected by the Secretary of the Interior, outside of Minnesota. Later the prisoners were transported on the steamboat "Favorite" down the Mississippi to Camp McClellan, near Davenport, Iowa.

On Saturday, April 30, 1864 Lincoln pardoned 25 more “Minnesota Indians”. The Indians in question were Sioux who had been sentenced to death after the Minnesota uprising of 1862. They had been confined at Davenport, Iowa, since November 1862. It was alleged in a letter to Lincoln by Thomas S. Williamson, a missionary to the Sioux, that these particular natives had surrendered the white captives taken during the uprising as well as themselves to General Henry Sibley, and that they had therefore expected friendly treatment rather than imprisonment and death sentences.

[gregor]

Mr. Thomas Fleming, an author of more than forty books, offers some strange views on Indian wars and terrorism.

historynewsnetwork.org/article/427

Fleming compares Dakotas, who fought for their lives and Lifestyle with islamistic terrorists, who are "not so different from the Indian shamans who told their warriors divine magic made them immune to the white man's bullets". Very strange!

"... an outbreak of Indian violence in Minnesota killed an estimated 10,000 white settlers". Really? Who estimated the number?

We only have ballpark figures about the casualties, which range from "over 600 victims" to "not less than 800" victims (in Lincolns second annual adress).

[grahamew]

That's got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

[cinemo]

Remember, shortly before the prisoners were hanged, they sang an old Dakota tune. This tune is known today as the „Dakota Hymn“ ( Many and Great, O God , Are Thy Works )

This hymn was originally written in 1842 in the Dakota Native American language by Joseph R. Renville. Its Dakota title is "Wa­kan­tan­ka ta­ku ni­ta­wa". The first and last of the original seven verses were translated to English by Philip Frazier in 1929 .

Renville is generally credited with turning three traditional Dakota tunes into Christian hymns in the Dakota language, including this one. 

This song first appeared in the "Dakota Odawan", also known as "Dakota Dowanpi Kin" published in Boston in 1842). Of the hymns published in that book, this is the only one for which the original melody is known to have been a traditional Dakota tune.

Some assume, the song was a death or funeral song.

Therefore, it is uncertain what text the condemned sang at that time.



cinemo

[lgarcia]

Hymn Number 141 is in Dakota Odowan used in all the Dakota Presbyterian (Ohdeptecena [Short Coat] Churches.
Although there is no proof, tradition says this is the song sung by the 38 condemned as they climbed the
steps to be hung. It is a "native tune" that can be sung with a drum.
The you-tube group is singing an English version called Many and Great that can be found in the Presbyterian Hymn Book.
Louie G. Hunkayapi in the Bdecan Okodakiciye Tokio, ND

[chicheman]

Here a short Video, the song to hear in it :



Sung in Dakota by a Dakota elder


Have a happy new year all !

chicheman

[lgarcia]

Here are the words to the first verse to Hymn 141 written by Joseph Renville:

Wakantanka taku nitawa tankaya qa ota;
Mahpiya kin eyahnaka ca,
maka kin he duowanca,
mniowanca sbeya wanke cin,
hena oyakihi.

A very rough translation is:

What belongs to God are many and great
Even the heavens and all the earth,
the oceans deep obey him.

There are seven verses.

[cinemo]

Thank you very much, lgarcia and chicheman, for these additional information.

[Mitchell BigHunter]

Here some oral from my A'te Albert Taylor Jr. Father Ab.sr - His Name is " Last Attack Before Dawn".

www.usdakotawar.org/stories/contributors/albert-taylor

Here is Albert Sr. A'te Amos Acting as Interpreter At Brandon 1901.

[brmac]

On the Dakota 38 that were hung in Mankato, MN, has anyone seen any documentation along with the names, that shows which Dakota band each of the 38 belonged to? My gg-grandmother was a Sisseton Dakota living at the Yellow Medicine agency when the 1862 war broke out. She had a relative named Sunkaska/White Dog that some of my relatives have tried to link to the Sunkaska/White Dog that was hung at Mankato. From what I have read about the 1862 history, it appears to me that he was Mdewakanton and not a Sisseton. Thanks for any help and information.