In Minnesota, after five weeks of hastily conducted military trials following the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, more than 300 Santee Sioux (Eastern Dakota) men are convicted for their roles in the conflict and are sentenced to hang. A month later, after reviewing the cases, President Abraham Lincoln commuted all but 39 of the death sentences. One of the Native Americans was granted a last-minute reprieve, but the other 38 were hanged simultaneously on December 26 in a mass execution witnessed by a crowd of more than 3,000 people.
The Dakota were found guilty of joining in the so-called “Minnesota Uprising,” part of the wider Indian wars occurring throughout the West during the second half of the 19th century. For nearly half a century, Anglo settlers expanded into Dakota territory in the Minnesota Valley, and government pressure gradually forced the Native peoples to relocate to smaller reservations along the Minnesota River.
On their reservation, many Dakota faced severe hardship as treaty violations, delayed annuity payments and corruption among federal agents and contractors left Native families on the brink of starvation. When traders refused to extend food on credit, tensions reached a breaking point.
On August 17, 1862, after four Dakota hunters killed five settlers following a confrontation over stolen eggs, some Dakota leaders concluded that war with the United States had become unavoidable. Fighting quickly spread across southwestern Minnesota as Dakota warriors attacked settlements, military outposts and trading posts while taking some settlers captive. The violence varied widely: while some Dakota spared or protected settlers they knew, others carried out deadly attacks, and tribal leaders struggled to maintain control as the conflict escalated.
The subsequent trials, which gave little consideration to the conditions leading up to the conflict or the different actions individuals took during the conflict, largely catered to settlers' demands for retribution. Conducted by a military commission, the proceedings moved rapidly (some trials took just minutes), defendants lacked legal representation and many did not understand the language or procedures. According to Carol Chomsky, associate professor of the University of Minnesota Law School, "The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking."
Lincoln commuted the vast majority of the death sentences after personally reviewing the trial records, determining that execution should be reserved for those he believed had participated in massacres of civilians.
Abraham Lincoln’s Uneasy Relationship With Native Americans
Lincoln signed laws that gave away millions of acres of tribal land. And he approved the mass execution of 38 Dakota Sioux warriors.
Lincoln signed laws that gave away millions of acres of tribal land. And he approved the mass execution of 38 Dakota Sioux warriors.
