Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts Of The Minnesota Indian War Of 1862

by Gary Clayton Anderson (Editor), Alan R. Woolworth (Editor)

"This volume brings together an invaluable collection of vivid eyewitness accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862 and its aftermath. Of greatest interest is the fact that all the narratives assembled here come from Dakota mixed-bloods and full-bloods. Speaking from a variety of viewpoints and enmeshed in complex webs of allegiances to Indian, white, and mixed-blood kin, these witnesses testify not only to the terrible casualties they all suffered, but also to the ways in which the events of 1862 tore at the social, cultural, and psychic fabrics of their familial and community lives. This rich contribution to Minnesota and Dakota history is enhanced by careful editing and annotation."—Jennifer S. H. Brown, University of Winnipeg

Praise for Through Dakota

"For anyone interested in Minnesota history, Native-American history, and Civil War history in this forgotten theater of operations. Through Dakota Eyes is an absolute must read. . . . an extremely well-balanced and fascinating book that will take it's place at the forefront of Indian Historiography."—Civil War News

"An important look at how the political dynamic of Minnesota's southern Dakota tribes erupted into a brief, futile blood bath. It is also a vital record of the death song of the Dakota's traditional, nomadic way of life."—Minnesota Daily

"An appreciation for the diversity and complexity of Dakota culture and politics emerges from Through Dakota Eyes. . . . captures some of the human drama, tragedy, and confusion which must have surely characterized all American frontier wars."—American Indian Quarterly

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Native American, War, Indigenous, Native American History

328 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 1988

About the author

A specialist in American Indians of the Great Plains and the Southwest, Gary Clayton Anderson is a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a really good companion piece to the excellent Over the Earth I Come, also about the Minnesota-Indian War of 1862, which I recently read. While Over the Earth I Come was a well-researched and fascinating history book about the war, Through Dakota Eyes is a collection of first hand accounts from those who took part or were directly affected by the war, and not just from the Sioux, but also a number of mixed-bloods and white settlers. Many of these accounts were interviews which appeared in the newspapers of the day.

This bloody chapter in Minnesota history took place over 38 days. The Dakota as a whole were upset due to unkept promises by the American government and late payments of gold and food, some of this due to the constraints felt due to the ongoing US Civil War. Indians were starving and their pleas were met with more empty promises and indifference. When a group of young Indians attacked and killed a white family, some in the Dakota leadership decided it was time to push the whites out. It was thought to be good timing as the US military in Minnesota was thin due to their involvement in the Civil War. The Dakota warriors led by Little Crow killed over 450 whites and took a couple hundred more as prisoners. The US forts in the area were undermanned and under armed due to the stresses of the war and Minnesota and Washington’s response was slow. Towns such as New Ulm and Hutchinson had to fend for themselves against hundreds of Dakota warriors. Settlers on the prairie were approached by Indians who they recognized personally as they had been friendly to them and who they shared food with only to be murdered and dismembered. Even weeks after the war, the US soldiers who did finally arrive to defeat the Dakota found starving and badly injured settlers laying in houses or wandering around in shock. Sadly, the war pretty much marked the end of the Sioux way of life in Minnesota.

Through Dakota Eyes is broken down in to ten parts, arranged chronologically starting with the causes of the war all the way to the final chapter which describes its aftermath. Each chapter begins with a short historical setup and goes on to feature the accounts of the persons who lived through it. The book also contains helpful maps and illustrations of 30 of the people featured in the book. Each chapter finishes with pages of notes. The book concludes with an appendix which lists the narratives of the sixty-three Dakota full-bloods and mixed-bloods who were known to have produced accounts of the war and its aftermath.

Since the chapters are organized chronologically, the editors chose to snip and divide accounts to fit the particular chapters' timelines. This didn't work so well for me. I would've rather have read the accounts in whole. There were notes in later chapters pointing back to where previous information was so you could go back and re-read accounts if a refresher was needed or if you forgot someone's biographical information.

Many of the accounts are fascinating. It is hard for me to fathom that this bloody war occurred here in Minnesota. Much of the accounts were difficult to read as it was a bloody event and savagery was carried out by both sides. There were factions of the Dakota who were against the war and refused to join in. Indian and American relations had been friendly for the most part and some Indians even traveled as representatives of their tribes to Washington DC prior to the war to meet with American leadership. Seeing US military might and technology first hand on their trips east, these representatives knew that they had no chance to win a war against the Americans and warned the Dakota leadership. But the pro-war Indians thought that if they could push the whites out of the State they would give up not return.

One of the most interesting narratives was told by an Indian woman named Snana. During the war, she was given a white captive girl named Mary Schwandt, whose settlement was overrun and family killed. She took care of Mary as one of her own children and hid Mary in a hole covered with a blanket when mean and angry "bad" Indians came out about looking for captives to kill. She turned Mary over to Sibley's army when it arrived and drove the Indians out. Thirty-two years later Snana, who lived on a reservation in Nebraska, learned that Mary was married and living in St. Paul and went to visit her and reported she was respected and treated well, and it felt like she was visiting her own child. Ohhhh......

This was an excellent collection of first hand accounts of the ugliest chapter in Minnesota history. Being that I read Over the Earth I Come previously, some of the history was review and some of the information in the individuals' accounts was repetitive but all were fascinating and candid, although sometimes very bloody and brutal. I'm happy to have read Through Dakota Eyes as it put me in the heads of those who participated in and survived the war, some of whom were sadly unjustly shipped out of State and suffered for the remainders of their lives.

[Jaybird Rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Let them eat grass" said the trader when hearing of starving Indian children. When they found his body, the mouth was stuffed with ...you guessed it.

Not technically a war (but then, neither was 'Nam), the Dakota Conflict pitted starving Dakota Indians against Scandanavian settlers and, later, drink-soaked US cavalrymen. The book presents mainly native accounts of the Minnesota/Dakota Territory war and ends up painting an insightful and emotional portrait of what went on. Good and bad guys on both sides. Certainly a fine companion to any colonialism reading list.

[John Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most defining events of Minnesota history is the Dakota Uprising of 1862 (not like the title states above, 1863). In driving from my home in western MN to my parents' home in South Central MN, I often drove through the places where most of the events in this was took place. When this war was done, 38 Dakota warriors were all hung at the same time at Mankato, MN. Most of the previous histories before this one had been written from a white perspective. This book takes various narrations from Dakota and mixed blood Dakotas who were in different ways caught up in the events of the conflict. While it would seem that the Dakota were all on one side and the whites on another, this book brings out the nuances within the whole Dakota community. While I liked the strength of these primary sources, the excellent maps and timelines, I often felt that it was hard to understand the full story as you were "in the weeds" with each of these people. I would suggest reading another history of this conflict along with this book to fully understand what happened.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of my German ancestors were living near New Ulm at that time. Hard to imagine what it was like. However, it is very important to hear the Natives side of the story. It was their land that they settled on.

[Thomas Isern · Rating 3 out of 5]

This compilation is a valuable work, but not a particularly readable one. The error in its construction was to break up narratives and publish fragments in chronological sections. This has a tendency to reduce content to information, whereas the value of the narratives is as, well, narratives. I would prefer to see each narrative presented unto itself, with annotation and, where appropriate, analysis. I found myself breaking the order of chapters as I read in order to finish the narrative by a particular individual. Some of the most interesting material, to me, comes from the Renvilles, including references to the Dakota scouts.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book in that it attempts to show the different perspectives of the Dakota Sioux regarding the 1862 uprising against the traders and the white settlers who were cheating them and starving them through the corrupt annuity system. Every year the annuity (payment in foodstuffs and gold for land confiscated from them) came later and later. When the annuities arrived the traders would either overcharge them or say they owed money from past credit. Some of the Dakota would end up with nothing. The summer of 1862 was especially difficult. The previous year’s harvest had been destroyed by cutworms and many families went hungry. There were rumors that the annuity would not be paid at all and the traders would not give any credit. One trader even said “Let them eat grass if they are hungry”. Four Dakota braves went hunting but could not find anything to hunt. They managed to get ahold of some whiskey, got into a dispute with a farmer over stolen eggs, and killed the farmer and his whole family. Then they returned to their village and confessed to the crime. They persuaded Little Crow to lead them in a rebellion against the whites. Other young men agreed. Little Crow was supposed to be the leader but few followed him. The men went on a rampage killing whoever they pleased. Some killed all whites, some killed only those who insulted them in the past, some took only women and children as hostages, some didn’t want to fight but were forced to otherwise their families would be killed, and some didn’t fight at all and later joined a peace camp. Eventually they were defeated, most of the Dakota who committed the atrocities fled with Little Crow and others surrendered and gave up the captives. General Sibley lied when he said that those who surrendered would be treated as prisoners of war like the Confederate soldiers. Instead he convened military tribunals where the defendants were not allowed defense lawyers, not allowed to call witnesses, and had to rely on an interpreter who knew the army wanted as many convictions as possible. More than 300 were sentenced to be hanged. President Lincoln cut the list to 38 who presumably committed crimes against civilians. After the men were hanged, the rest of the men were sent to prison. All the Indians were exiled from Minnesota except for those who worked as scouts for the army.
This book includes the testimony of thirty-six full blooded or half-blooded Dakota with different points of view about the uprising. Some of them even testified against others during the trials. I question the veracity of some of these statements. For example, case 1, Joseph Godfrey admitted committing atrocities, was sentenced to hang but got a reprieve because he testified against others. Others seemed more interested in saving themselves than telling the truth. An example of this is Samuel J. Brown who testified that one of the braves bragged about roasting a baby in an oven after killing its parents. This sounds more like a young man who is drunk sitting around a campfire where everyone is trying to out gross the other rather than the truth. Why would someone do that when they are running from place to place. It would take too long. The book would have been more helpful if the authors listed the names of those who were hanged, what they were charged with, and if they were the right men. The army admitted later that they hanged at least two men by mistake. The most famous case was that of Chaska AKA Liked by the Stars, who was charged with killing George Gleason on the first day of the war. Although the only witness , Sarah Wakefield, testified he was not the killer, he was sentenced to hang, received a reprieve, but was hanged anyway. Sarah believed it was because of the rumors that they were lovers. Whatever the reason, this showed a complete indifference to human life. It didn’t matter to them who was killed as long as it was an Indian. However the authors did whatever they could with the evidence they had in 1988. New evidence is coming to light everyday.

[Jeff Keith]

THROUGH DAKOTA EYES: NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS OF THE MINNESOTA INDIAN WAR OF 1862 By Gary Clayton Anderson and Alan R. Woolworth (Editors)
JEFF KEITH’S COMMENTS
[five stars] I’m giving this book five stars, because this is such an important episode for people to learn about. However, it’s sometimes difficult to read because the story jumps around quite a bit, being the writings of a lot of different people.
I bought the book in 2016 when I was in St. Paul, Minnesota, my grandmother’s hometown. She was the matriarch of our large clan of cousins, and was proud of being descended from pioneers who settled Minnesota in the 1850s and 60s. Her maternal grandmother, Rebecca Marshall Cathcart, wrote a well-known short memoir about Minnesota in the 1850s. Rebecca’s brother, William Rainey Marshall, was one of the military leaders who put down the Dakota rebellion in 1862. (William R. Marshall went on to become a governor of Minnesota, so there is plenty of information available about him.) So my family’s links to this story are more or less “zero degrees of separation.”
The cause of the rebellion was White people breaking treaties, as they did over and over in the history of this country. They wanted the land where Dakota people were living, and promised that if the Dakotas would live on a reservation, they would give them food and other supplies to live on. Then the Civil War happened, and the supplies failed to arrive in the summer of 1862. The White government agent was not apologetic, and even made light of the desperate situation. The Dakotas were in danger of starvation, and some of their men started attacking nearby White settlements in anger. In some cases they killed whole families of White farmers who were simply living too close to the reservation. White Minnesotans were outraged, and a war broke out between the Whites and the Dakotas.
The book has some accounts by full-blooded Dakota people and others by mixed-blood people. Those with the latter sort of ethnicity might have divided loyalties; some joined the White side of the war, and others didn’t want to. Some of the Dakota warriors advocated that mixed-blood people should be killed for being disloyal to their Dakota cousins.
After the Whites defeated the Dakotas, they imprisoned and executed the main leaders of the rebellion, and forced thousands of Dakotas to leave the state of Minnesota. They gave them new reservation land in a desolate part of South Dakota, where many of the Native Americans starved or died of diseases.
I think it’s terribly important for non-Native Americans to read books like this. First-hand accounts like this are a treasure when we can find them.

[IAN]

Ian All Runner

Language Arts, Block 3

Date: 1/14/21



The Title of the book is called Through Dakota Eyes, Made by Gary Clayton Anderson. The Book takes place around The Dakota War, Peace Treaties, and Attack on The Redwood Agency, including a bunch of other amazing stuff to read. Notes that are put in some of the chapters which are pretty cool. It all takes around 1850 - 1862. It takes place at and near the Lower Sioux Agency in Minnesota.

The Main Idea of this book is to tell you about the tribes like the Dakota, Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Ojibwe from the 1860’s, their culture, they tell you how things work in the tribe. This book tells you more about the characters like Big Eagle, Wabasha, Little Crow, White Spider. Incidents like The Attack of Redwood Agency, The Attack of Yellow Medicine Agency. “YOU KNOW how the war started -- by the killing of some white people near action, in Meeker County.” Pg. 35 Big Eagle’s Statement. “ “TA-O-YA-TE-DU-TA is not a coward, and he is not a fool! When did he run away from his enemies? When did he leave his braves behind him on the war-path and turn back to his teepees?” -Little Crow Pg. 40


My Recommendation about this book is, Definitely read that book. In my opinion it feels like you learn more in this book more than you do in Social Studies. The quality of the paragraphs are great. Great details about what happens in the book. Also the details are also very informing. This book is a long book to read but easy to read also can be sometimes confusing but at times not really that confusing. The ending was good. My favorite parts are the statements and interviews about the characters in the book and what they think about what’s going on.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not used to reading first hand accounts from which history is made. It was an interesting experience. In the introduction it was mentioned that these Native narratives contradict the usual European history of the Minnesota War of 1862; I did not know even the European version. So it was all new information.

The book is arranged chronologically, so the narratives are divided among the sections. Also at the end of each section is the page number of the following segment. It was good to have a choice of how to proceed. I chose to read whole narratives. One advantage of reading chronologically would have been that the more detailed and clear narrative segments were placed first in each section. However the pieces fit together as I read more and more.

Editorial apparatus introduces each speaker in the first of their segments and summarized the action of each book section. Sometimes I read those summaries before reading segments, sometimes after. I preferred after where it could alert me to something I had missed but not color my reading.

My rating relates to my appreciation of the book; I am not able to evaluate it as a historian.

[Theodore Kermes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read much this year so this is me getting back into the swing of reading.

Pretty solid collection of letters, accounts, journals/diaries, speeches, and testimonies about the Dakota War of 1862 in southwestern Minnesota.

This humanized the traditional narrative that is more popularly taught at schools. This conflict is kind of forgotten about so to read the words of the people that lived through it is notable to me. This area was really special when the war broke out. There were a bunch of Dakota, mixed race, and white people all mingling about in the area. There were familial and kinship ties between Dakota and whites that kept communications going while the war depopulated the area.

This collection puts a human face on the conflict and I'm left being sad.

[Marlene Chabot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the narrative account of the Minnesota Indian War through Native American's eyes gives a person a different perspective on what took place and why. So many Indians didn't want war and when it broke out they tried to save white settlers they had befriended. Misunderstandings on both sides and promises not kept are both to blame for what took place. It took a long time to read for me. I think basically because of the way the chapters were laid out. One reads an account by a certain person for a few pages and then you find you have to look to another chapter for the continuation of their story. This book contains narratives from 63 Dakota full and mixed blood.

[Koren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Translated accounts of what Indigenous Americans went through in the mid 1800's and some accounts from the white people that lived there at the time. I think this would have been much better as an account written by the author instead of copying the narrative accounts because after a while the stories started to all sound the same. But as a true account and not a white-washed fairy tale it is very good.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book two different ratings. As a resource for narrative accounts of the Dakota war and primary sources, 10/10 5/5 A+++. For readability and for an interesting historical read, 2/5. The way the narrative were formatted is interesting. I understand what the authors were going for but I would've preferred to just read the full accounts, personally.

[Beckie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very hard to read the way it was set up in the ebook which I got through Libby and read on Kindle. It jumped around with links to each account of the person giving it so I didn't know if I should read it linearly or jump to the rest of the account. It was difficult to get a true sense of the accounts also. Will definitely want to learn more.

[Krystal Melius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Minnesota history, and living in the Minnesota River Valley, I am just intrigued by the Dakota uprising on 1862. Having already read Dakota Dawn, I figured u had to read this book.

[Steven Rehome · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best resource I have found regarding the 1862 Dakota war

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second time through this book. This is an edited collection of narratives about the US-Dakota conflict, gleaned from newspaper interviews with various Dakota individuals, mostly in the late 19th century. As the title suggests, this collection provides an account that is not often heard...not only during the 1862 battles, but especially how the Dakota were treated before and after the Conflict.

[Randy Wurm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enjoyable to read accounts from native Americans that were there. I've learned a lot about that war and time period and honestly can sympathize with the Natives and their struggles. The only frustrating part is the way some of the accounts are written can be a little hard to follow difficult to read but I appreciate them in the original format and not someone else's rendition.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot believe I grew up in SE MN and didn't learn about this in school.

[Christopher Hagen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting snippets from eyewitness accounts during the Indian Wars of the 1860s. The book jumped the individual stories however, making the reading at times confusing.