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38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
In August 1862, after suffering decades of hardship, broken treaties, and relentless encroachment on their land, the Dakota leader Little Crow reluctantly agreed that his people must go to war. After six weeks of fighting, the uprising was smashed, thousands of Indians were taken prisoner by the US army, and 303 Dakotas were sentenced to death. President Lincoln, embroiled in the most devastating period of the Civil War, personally intervened to save the lives of 265 of the condemned men, but in the end, 38 Dakota men would be hanged in the largest government-sanctioned execution in U.S. history.
Writing with uncommon immediacy and insight, Scott W. Berg details these events within the larger context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota people and the subsequent United States–Indian wars, and brings to life this overlooked but seminal moment in American history.
In August 1862, after suffering decades of hardship, broken treaties, and relentless encroachment on their land, the Dakota leader Little Crow reluctantly agreed that his people must go to war. After six weeks of fighting, the uprising was smashed, thousands of Indians were taken prisoner by the US army, and 303 Dakotas were sentenced to death. President Lincoln, embroiled in the most devastating period of the Civil War, personally intervened to save the lives of 265 of the condemned men, but in the end, 38 Dakota men would be hanged in the largest government-sanctioned execution in U.S. history.
Writing with uncommon immediacy and insight, Scott W. Berg details these events within the larger context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota people and the subsequent United States–Indian wars, and brings to life this overlooked but seminal moment in American history.
384 pages, Paperback
First published December 4, 2012
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About the author
Scott W. Berg
3 books29 followersBorn and raised in the Twin Cities, SCOTT W. BERG holds a BA in architecture from the University of Minnesota, an MA from Miami University of Ohio, and an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University, where he now teaches nonfiction writing and literature. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post.
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April 26, 2016
The Great Sioux Uprising (as it is commonly known) of 1862 has always held a particular interest for me. It occurred, first of all, in my home state of Minnesota, so I am personally familiar with many of the massacre and battle sites. When I was young, my dad took me on a weekend’s tour of the Upper and Lower Sioux Agencies, Fort Ridgely, and the town of New Ulm.
For me, a second early attraction of the uprising was its generally horrific nature. Before you demand that I go back in time and see a child psychologist, hear me out. Violence has an unmistakable allure. The Dakota Uprising was a paroxysm of pent-up anger, frustration, and desperation. In a short period of time, it cut a wide swath of bloodstained devastation. I was forbidden from watching R-rated movies in my youth; but I had full access to Kenneth Carley’s The Sioux Uprising of 1862, with its graphic pen-and-ink sketches of places like “Slaughter Slough.” History was an entrée into the forbidden world of adult knowledge.
Finally, as an adult, I’ve come to appreciate the complicated context of this event. The older you get, and the more compromises you make, tends to instill in you a realization that the world is gray. That nothing is all right or all wrong. The Dakota Uprising is so much more than poor white settlers getting murdered in their cabins and fields; it is also so much more than Cooper’s noble savages enacting justified revenge. It is the extreme consequence of hundreds and thousands of conversations, decisions, rationalization, interactions, slights, misunderstandings, competing sovereign interests, and competing self-interests.
The Dakota Uprising is significant in both its local impact – resulting in the deportation of hundreds of Indians – and in numerical terms, as the bloodiest such uprising in our nation’s long Indian Wars.
Yet the event is mostly unknown.
This past August was the 150th anniversary of the uprising. Outside of Minnesota, the sesquicentennial passed quietly. I probably would have missed it, were it not for a fortuitous visit to mom’s house, and a Minnesota Public Radio symposium on the uprising. Compare this to the battle of Antietam, which reached 150 years of age almost exactly a month after the Dakota Uprising. The Antietam sesquicentennial made the New York Times, NPR, and resulted in new books by acclaimed authors.
As far as I can tell, Scott Berg’s 38 Nooses is the only major publication timed to coincide with the uprising’s anniversary. It is also, to its credit, a bit unusual in its approach. This is not simply a more-modern retelling of an already-told story. Rather, it has its own unique angle, one that ties the Dakota Uprising (and its leader, Little Crow) to the rest of the nation (and its leader, Abraham Lincoln).
To be honest, I was a bit hesitant of Berg’s strategy. After all, Abe Lincoln has never been more in vogue. It seems almost cynical to graft the 16th president onto a story in which he played only a secondary role: that of determining which of the convicted Dakota Indians would be executed (out of 265 condemned Indians, 38 were hanged, hence the title).
But I was pleased with the end result.
Berg’s book provides only the most general overview of the Dakota Uprising. To be sure, he takes you through the seminal moments of the uprising, from the murder of a handful of settlers in Acton, Minnesota, to Little Crow’s assault on Fort Ridgely, to the battle of Birch Coulee and the hangings of 38 Dakota warriors in Mankato. However, none of these incidents are handled in any great depth. If you are a newcomer to the chronology – or more interested in the day to day drama of the uprising – you are better served by starting with Duane Schultz’s Over the Earth I Come, which is the standard work on the subject.
Instead, Berg views the events through the prism of several different historical characters, some of them direct participants, others connected only at a distance. The viewpoints Berg has chosen include Little Crow, chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota; Henry Benjamin Whipple, a bishop and Indian advocate; Sarah Wakefield, a white captive; and, of course, Lincoln.
Little Crow is the man chosen by history as the leader of the uprising. In actuality, he was not a warlike man, only a man who wanted to hold onto his slice of the pie. Following the murder of several settlers in Acton, Minnesota, and with retribution sure to come, Little Crow was forced to make a choice: lead the rebellion or lose his primacy as a leader. He chose unwisely.
Bishop Whipple was a rarity, a white man concerned with Indian affairs while the frontier was still in flux. Whipple was passionate in his advocacy. Unfortunately, he was trying to get Lincoln’s attention at the worst possible moment: while the North was losing the Civil War.
Sarah Wakefield is chosen by Berg to be the spine of the uprising narrative. She escaped the Upper Sioux Agency only to be captured and protected by the warrior Chaska. She survived the uprising under Chaska’s auspices, and later wrote one of the classic captivity narratives, Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees. As you might expect, with prevailing 19th century racial and sexual attitudes, her homecoming to the whites was not seamless. Her savior, Chaska, was hanged by mistake in Mankato.
Looming over these characters is Lincoln. As I mentioned above, including Lincoln is a bit of a stretch. I understand Berg’s intent, but Lincoln’s connection to the Dakota Uprising is as a distracted, distant observer. Indeed, one of Lincoln’s chief moves in response to the disaster was sending Minnesota the disgraced General John Pope. Pope had recently lost the Second Battle of Bull Run (perhaps the greatest of all Union catastrophes) and Lincoln needed a place to store him. So he gave him to Minnesota (instead of the Federal troops that were requested).
More resonant, of course, is Lincoln’s decision regarding the execution of 265 Indians. After the uprising had been quelled, Henry Sibley held rushed, quasi-legal (quasi-legal being extremely generous) military tribunals to ferret the guilty from the innocent. Some of transcripts of these trials are online, and they are not exemplars of the adversary process.
There is a reason that attorneys love to claim Lincoln as one of their own. He was pragmatic. He was diligent. He was concerned with questions of jurisdiction and precedent, even as he tested the limits on both.
He was also a Clintonian triangulator, a more subtler practitioner of Solomonic wisdom. He was a compromiser and an incrementalist. (Ex. A: the Emancipation Proclamation). Those qualities shine through in this incident. Lincoln assigned his aides to go through every transcript and ferret out the truly heinous crimes. First they tried rapes, but found only two. Next they looked for murders. Combining the two gave them 38. (Many of the original convicts had merely participated in the battles at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm). For those, like Whipple, who thought the Indians had been played a bad hand (lied to, cheated, starving on their shrinking reservation), 38 deaths were barbaric. For the white settlers on the frontier, 265 dead Indians didn't even amount to a good start.
Berg’s story extends beyond the uprising and hangings (attended by Dr. Charles Mayo, who wanted corpses for science) and to the exodus of the Dakota. He follows Little Crow as he attempts to escape, describes how Fort Snelling was turned into a concentration camp (interestingly, I never saw that mentioned as a kid, when I used to buy rock candy at the sutler’s), and even includes some of the aftershocks of the uprising, including Colonel Sibley’s incursion into the Dakota Territory, resulting in the little known massacre at Whitestone Hill.
Berg intercuts the frontier bloodshed with eastern digressions, to visit the First Minnesota at the battle of Antietam. I think I understand Berg’s point in tying together these two stories. History, after all, is not comprised of mutually exclusive events. All this bloodletting was occurring simultaneously. And really, it didn't lessen my enjoyment. Still, 38 Nooses is the newest mainstream book about the Dakota Uprising, and possibly the first on the subject for many readers. For them, these cutaways might prove annoying.
When I was growing up, one of my many tactless uncles pointed to a hill and told me it was an Indian mound. An Indian mound?. Yeah, he said. Underneath it is dead Indians. Thus, for much of my youth, whenever I saw a rolling hills, my mind took on x-ray vision, so that I could see beneath the grass, to the bleached white skeletons beneath.
Now I see the figurative truth in that assertion. Minnesota is a state marked by old Indian names and built on old Indian villages and roiled by the political clout of casino-rich, newly-resurgent Indian tribes. It’s a complicated past leading to a complicated present. Berg’s interpretation, focusing as it does on a handful human beings (the greatest complication of all), does justice to that reality.
For me, a second early attraction of the uprising was its generally horrific nature. Before you demand that I go back in time and see a child psychologist, hear me out. Violence has an unmistakable allure. The Dakota Uprising was a paroxysm of pent-up anger, frustration, and desperation. In a short period of time, it cut a wide swath of bloodstained devastation. I was forbidden from watching R-rated movies in my youth; but I had full access to Kenneth Carley’s The Sioux Uprising of 1862, with its graphic pen-and-ink sketches of places like “Slaughter Slough.” History was an entrée into the forbidden world of adult knowledge.
Finally, as an adult, I’ve come to appreciate the complicated context of this event. The older you get, and the more compromises you make, tends to instill in you a realization that the world is gray. That nothing is all right or all wrong. The Dakota Uprising is so much more than poor white settlers getting murdered in their cabins and fields; it is also so much more than Cooper’s noble savages enacting justified revenge. It is the extreme consequence of hundreds and thousands of conversations, decisions, rationalization, interactions, slights, misunderstandings, competing sovereign interests, and competing self-interests.
The Dakota Uprising is significant in both its local impact – resulting in the deportation of hundreds of Indians – and in numerical terms, as the bloodiest such uprising in our nation’s long Indian Wars.
Yet the event is mostly unknown.
This past August was the 150th anniversary of the uprising. Outside of Minnesota, the sesquicentennial passed quietly. I probably would have missed it, were it not for a fortuitous visit to mom’s house, and a Minnesota Public Radio symposium on the uprising. Compare this to the battle of Antietam, which reached 150 years of age almost exactly a month after the Dakota Uprising. The Antietam sesquicentennial made the New York Times, NPR, and resulted in new books by acclaimed authors.
As far as I can tell, Scott Berg’s 38 Nooses is the only major publication timed to coincide with the uprising’s anniversary. It is also, to its credit, a bit unusual in its approach. This is not simply a more-modern retelling of an already-told story. Rather, it has its own unique angle, one that ties the Dakota Uprising (and its leader, Little Crow) to the rest of the nation (and its leader, Abraham Lincoln).
To be honest, I was a bit hesitant of Berg’s strategy. After all, Abe Lincoln has never been more in vogue. It seems almost cynical to graft the 16th president onto a story in which he played only a secondary role: that of determining which of the convicted Dakota Indians would be executed (out of 265 condemned Indians, 38 were hanged, hence the title).
But I was pleased with the end result.
Berg’s book provides only the most general overview of the Dakota Uprising. To be sure, he takes you through the seminal moments of the uprising, from the murder of a handful of settlers in Acton, Minnesota, to Little Crow’s assault on Fort Ridgely, to the battle of Birch Coulee and the hangings of 38 Dakota warriors in Mankato. However, none of these incidents are handled in any great depth. If you are a newcomer to the chronology – or more interested in the day to day drama of the uprising – you are better served by starting with Duane Schultz’s Over the Earth I Come, which is the standard work on the subject.
Instead, Berg views the events through the prism of several different historical characters, some of them direct participants, others connected only at a distance. The viewpoints Berg has chosen include Little Crow, chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota; Henry Benjamin Whipple, a bishop and Indian advocate; Sarah Wakefield, a white captive; and, of course, Lincoln.
Little Crow is the man chosen by history as the leader of the uprising. In actuality, he was not a warlike man, only a man who wanted to hold onto his slice of the pie. Following the murder of several settlers in Acton, Minnesota, and with retribution sure to come, Little Crow was forced to make a choice: lead the rebellion or lose his primacy as a leader. He chose unwisely.
Bishop Whipple was a rarity, a white man concerned with Indian affairs while the frontier was still in flux. Whipple was passionate in his advocacy. Unfortunately, he was trying to get Lincoln’s attention at the worst possible moment: while the North was losing the Civil War.
Sarah Wakefield is chosen by Berg to be the spine of the uprising narrative. She escaped the Upper Sioux Agency only to be captured and protected by the warrior Chaska. She survived the uprising under Chaska’s auspices, and later wrote one of the classic captivity narratives, Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees. As you might expect, with prevailing 19th century racial and sexual attitudes, her homecoming to the whites was not seamless. Her savior, Chaska, was hanged by mistake in Mankato.
Looming over these characters is Lincoln. As I mentioned above, including Lincoln is a bit of a stretch. I understand Berg’s intent, but Lincoln’s connection to the Dakota Uprising is as a distracted, distant observer. Indeed, one of Lincoln’s chief moves in response to the disaster was sending Minnesota the disgraced General John Pope. Pope had recently lost the Second Battle of Bull Run (perhaps the greatest of all Union catastrophes) and Lincoln needed a place to store him. So he gave him to Minnesota (instead of the Federal troops that were requested).
More resonant, of course, is Lincoln’s decision regarding the execution of 265 Indians. After the uprising had been quelled, Henry Sibley held rushed, quasi-legal (quasi-legal being extremely generous) military tribunals to ferret the guilty from the innocent. Some of transcripts of these trials are online, and they are not exemplars of the adversary process.
There is a reason that attorneys love to claim Lincoln as one of their own. He was pragmatic. He was diligent. He was concerned with questions of jurisdiction and precedent, even as he tested the limits on both.
He was also a Clintonian triangulator, a more subtler practitioner of Solomonic wisdom. He was a compromiser and an incrementalist. (Ex. A: the Emancipation Proclamation). Those qualities shine through in this incident. Lincoln assigned his aides to go through every transcript and ferret out the truly heinous crimes. First they tried rapes, but found only two. Next they looked for murders. Combining the two gave them 38. (Many of the original convicts had merely participated in the battles at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm). For those, like Whipple, who thought the Indians had been played a bad hand (lied to, cheated, starving on their shrinking reservation), 38 deaths were barbaric. For the white settlers on the frontier, 265 dead Indians didn't even amount to a good start.
Berg’s story extends beyond the uprising and hangings (attended by Dr. Charles Mayo, who wanted corpses for science) and to the exodus of the Dakota. He follows Little Crow as he attempts to escape, describes how Fort Snelling was turned into a concentration camp (interestingly, I never saw that mentioned as a kid, when I used to buy rock candy at the sutler’s), and even includes some of the aftershocks of the uprising, including Colonel Sibley’s incursion into the Dakota Territory, resulting in the little known massacre at Whitestone Hill.
Berg intercuts the frontier bloodshed with eastern digressions, to visit the First Minnesota at the battle of Antietam. I think I understand Berg’s point in tying together these two stories. History, after all, is not comprised of mutually exclusive events. All this bloodletting was occurring simultaneously. And really, it didn't lessen my enjoyment. Still, 38 Nooses is the newest mainstream book about the Dakota Uprising, and possibly the first on the subject for many readers. For them, these cutaways might prove annoying.
When I was growing up, one of my many tactless uncles pointed to a hill and told me it was an Indian mound. An Indian mound?. Yeah, he said. Underneath it is dead Indians. Thus, for much of my youth, whenever I saw a rolling hills, my mind took on x-ray vision, so that I could see beneath the grass, to the bleached white skeletons beneath.
Now I see the figurative truth in that assertion. Minnesota is a state marked by old Indian names and built on old Indian villages and roiled by the political clout of casino-rich, newly-resurgent Indian tribes. It’s a complicated past leading to a complicated present. Berg’s interpretation, focusing as it does on a handful human beings (the greatest complication of all), does justice to that reality.
January 21, 2013
The sweep of the American Frontier is in many ways the story of the sweeping away of the American Indian. Although Scott W. Berg does not use the term genocide in this new book it is the overall power of that crime that fills his pages. Here we learn of what I believe may be an event many readers have not heard of. That in 1862 during the hard fought early days of the Civil War a band of young Dakota warriors went on a killing spree in the new state of Minnesota savaging several hundred white settlers who happened to be living on land given the Dakota by treaty. Little Crow found he had little choice but to lead his tribe in rebellion. Six weeks later the war was over and over 300 Dakota were tried by a military tribunal and condemned to be hanged. Eventually charges for many were commuted by President Lincoln and only 38 Dakota were hung. A mistake lead to one Indian being hung despite the fact the President had commuted his sentence. This hanging became the largest mass execution in American history.
Much of the story hangs on the story of two individuals. The first being Sarah Wakefield who along with her Children became captives of the Dakota’s. She was seen as an “Indian lover” by her fellow captives. Berg asks if this was truly the case. The other individual is Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple who defended the Indian side of the story and met with Lincoln in an attempt to save the condemned from hanging. These two separate narratives elevate Berg’s very interesting and somewhat sad and disturbing book.
The book does a great job weaving the reader back and forth from the Indian war in Minnesota and the Civil War battlefields indicating the Dakota Rebellion was a sideshow and distraction. When you read of the hate, the mistreatment, government corruption and lies and as Scott put’s it the need for “private revenge” you are almost brought to tears that so many could have been so wrong, immoral, and unjustified all in the name of manifest destiny resulting in a deadly clash of cultures.
The Dakota uprising and what other Indian tribe’s learned from watching Little Crow’s destruction and his Dakota tribe’s treatment such as the hanging, murder, and relocation lead to better inform future strong anti-settler Indian leaders like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Always outnumbered and knowing they could never win they still would not bend to the will of history for over 40 more years. In the end they became players in Wild West Entertainments and as to the Frontier it was left with very few buffalo and Indians that got in the way of “progress”. This is a grand book about an important small piece of the puzzle that no American should take lightly as just Frontier entertainment.
Much of the story hangs on the story of two individuals. The first being Sarah Wakefield who along with her Children became captives of the Dakota’s. She was seen as an “Indian lover” by her fellow captives. Berg asks if this was truly the case. The other individual is Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple who defended the Indian side of the story and met with Lincoln in an attempt to save the condemned from hanging. These two separate narratives elevate Berg’s very interesting and somewhat sad and disturbing book.
The book does a great job weaving the reader back and forth from the Indian war in Minnesota and the Civil War battlefields indicating the Dakota Rebellion was a sideshow and distraction. When you read of the hate, the mistreatment, government corruption and lies and as Scott put’s it the need for “private revenge” you are almost brought to tears that so many could have been so wrong, immoral, and unjustified all in the name of manifest destiny resulting in a deadly clash of cultures.
The Dakota uprising and what other Indian tribe’s learned from watching Little Crow’s destruction and his Dakota tribe’s treatment such as the hanging, murder, and relocation lead to better inform future strong anti-settler Indian leaders like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Always outnumbered and knowing they could never win they still would not bend to the will of history for over 40 more years. In the end they became players in Wild West Entertainments and as to the Frontier it was left with very few buffalo and Indians that got in the way of “progress”. This is a grand book about an important small piece of the puzzle that no American should take lightly as just Frontier entertainment.
December 29, 2012
I began reading this book on December 26th, the 150th anniversary of the largest mass hanging in the United States. Being a Minnesotan, I was familiar with the story of the Dakota War, but this well written account gave me a much deeper insight into the motivations, events and people involved in the conflict. This summer, I visited a couple important places in this conflict, and I know most of the places mentioned in the book, so again, as a Minnesotan, I really connected to the geography of the uprising.
I think it also gives the reader a better understanding of the complexity of the Native Ameican experience. I've heard people wonder why, 150 years later, Native Americans "can't just get over it." I can't imagine reading this book and still wondering why there is still pain and a feeling of incompleteness.
Besides what was just stated, I would also recommend this book for those interested in Ameican history, Lincoln, the Civil War period or Minnesota history.
I think it also gives the reader a better understanding of the complexity of the Native Ameican experience. I've heard people wonder why, 150 years later, Native Americans "can't just get over it." I can't imagine reading this book and still wondering why there is still pain and a feeling of incompleteness.
Besides what was just stated, I would also recommend this book for those interested in Ameican history, Lincoln, the Civil War period or Minnesota history.
May 3, 2013
A revealing look at Minnesota history, Scott Berg's work is a true eye opener as to the reality behind the events of the Dakota War and all of the famous names associated with it. As the old saw goes,"[H]istory is written by the victors." However in this case, Berg does a great job of presenting the view of events from all sides through an extensive knowledge of the people and places involved. I was absolutely stunned by the breadth and depth of his research of an enormous series of intertwined events.
This book goes well beyond simple historical finger-pointing as to the events leading up to the first clash in this war, and explains how Abraham Lincoln's background may have shaped how he handled it while being in the midst of the bloody Civil War. There is significant background included about the native tribes, Abraham Lincoln and his family, and all of the main characters involved whether in Minnesota, in Washington D.C., or on the battlefields of the East. With this detailed background information, it is much easier to understand many of the actions taken during this time (1862, and the aftermath reaching to 1864 and later).
This is one of the most detailed history books I have read in a long time; it is not for the faint of heart or for the casually interested. All of the concentric circles of history that Berg links together create an intricate exploration of 19th Century Native American, political, and military figures. Berg's conversational tone and clear writing, however, make it the type of book that once you figure out what's going on, you have to keep reading. This is also a must-read for those interested in history who live in or around Minnesota, or who have, and want to know what really happened. There are no soothing tones of Dave Moore's voice discussing past architecture and events as in "Lost Twin Cities," nor the all-too-perfect recountings of figures such as Henry Sibley, Alexander Ramsey, or William Mayo in other local history productions. Sibley, Ramsey, Mayo, and Alexis Bailly are four locally well-known names; Berg pulls no punches and reports both the bad actions (quite a few) and the good (not nearly enough) of these well-known Minnesotans. (Mayo, a doctor, was involved in the grave-robbing of the 38 executed men* and kept the bones of Cut Nose for many years in a cast-iron rendering pot to use for lessons in osteology for his sons, founders of the Mayo Clinic; they later put the bones on display in their new clinic. Bailly kept slaves and young mixed-blood Native American servants which his wife beat "...to keep the household running smoothly.") Berg further recounts the actions of Civil War Generals Pope, McClellan, and Hooker and paints a remarkable portrait of each that at times includes stunning incompetence and irresponsibility. (Pope's reporting of the Dakota War to Lincoln transcends irresponsibility as all-out lying.)
This is an excellent book that I was recommending to others while I was in the middle of reading it. I feel well-prepared to read other history books on any of a number of specific topics relating to 1850's-60's Minnesota.
*Grave-robbing was something that many physicians of the 19th Century participated in, not only to get cadavers for dissection and learning, but also to get a skeleton for the explanation of diagnoses to patients. But it doesn't make it any less shocking that a name as big as Mayo became, dug up, stole, and desecrated one of these bodies, does it?
This book goes well beyond simple historical finger-pointing as to the events leading up to the first clash in this war, and explains how Abraham Lincoln's background may have shaped how he handled it while being in the midst of the bloody Civil War. There is significant background included about the native tribes, Abraham Lincoln and his family, and all of the main characters involved whether in Minnesota, in Washington D.C., or on the battlefields of the East. With this detailed background information, it is much easier to understand many of the actions taken during this time (1862, and the aftermath reaching to 1864 and later).
This is one of the most detailed history books I have read in a long time; it is not for the faint of heart or for the casually interested. All of the concentric circles of history that Berg links together create an intricate exploration of 19th Century Native American, political, and military figures. Berg's conversational tone and clear writing, however, make it the type of book that once you figure out what's going on, you have to keep reading. This is also a must-read for those interested in history who live in or around Minnesota, or who have, and want to know what really happened. There are no soothing tones of Dave Moore's voice discussing past architecture and events as in "Lost Twin Cities," nor the all-too-perfect recountings of figures such as Henry Sibley, Alexander Ramsey, or William Mayo in other local history productions. Sibley, Ramsey, Mayo, and Alexis Bailly are four locally well-known names; Berg pulls no punches and reports both the bad actions (quite a few) and the good (not nearly enough) of these well-known Minnesotans. (Mayo, a doctor, was involved in the grave-robbing of the 38 executed men* and kept the bones of Cut Nose for many years in a cast-iron rendering pot to use for lessons in osteology for his sons, founders of the Mayo Clinic; they later put the bones on display in their new clinic. Bailly kept slaves and young mixed-blood Native American servants which his wife beat "...to keep the household running smoothly.") Berg further recounts the actions of Civil War Generals Pope, McClellan, and Hooker and paints a remarkable portrait of each that at times includes stunning incompetence and irresponsibility. (Pope's reporting of the Dakota War to Lincoln transcends irresponsibility as all-out lying.)
This is an excellent book that I was recommending to others while I was in the middle of reading it. I feel well-prepared to read other history books on any of a number of specific topics relating to 1850's-60's Minnesota.
*Grave-robbing was something that many physicians of the 19th Century participated in, not only to get cadavers for dissection and learning, but also to get a skeleton for the explanation of diagnoses to patients. But it doesn't make it any less shocking that a name as big as Mayo became, dug up, stole, and desecrated one of these bodies, does it?
July 6, 2023
As a native son of the State of Minnesota, with a degree in history, a minor in American Indian Studies and someone who is hooked on anything on Lincoln and the Civil War, I felt compelled to check this book out.
Mr. Berg's book covers the history of the war between the white settlers in the central and western portion of the state of Minnesota and the Native Sioux tribesmen that lived in that region in 1862. After years of poor treaty agreements, mismanagement and mistreatment by the whites, and during a hard spring and summer in 1862 a band of the Sioux, led by Little Crow decided enough was enough and began a war to drive away the whites and reclaim the land that had been taken from them. This is the story of that fight and the ramifications that came in its aftermath.
Bates does a good job covering the whole story, looking at it from multiple angles: the Native, the Settlers, Bishop Whipple (quite an interesting character he turns out to be), President Lincoln, a Minnesotan trader, turned politician, turned military leader Henry Sibley, Brigadier General and failed civil war general John Pope, the native Chaska, and more. All of this was well placed in the zeitgeist of the Civil War and mid 19th century frontier life.
Backed by factual events, Scott Berg weaves the tale from the beginning of the story, well before a shot had been fired, to its end near the conclusion of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
I would say this is a great work of history and one that should not be ignored or relegated to good regional history. This is a story for everyone, everywhere, in any time. It is a tale of warning to the victors as much as it is to the losers, and to all the those who thought themselves too fringe to be worried about being affected, and its affect on the future White/Native relations and wars.
Mr. Berg employs well written prose, though the audio book narrator was so stiff it distracted from the actual story.
As a "local" and an arm-chair scholar on the topics, I found this to be a great book and one I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone.
Mr. Berg's book covers the history of the war between the white settlers in the central and western portion of the state of Minnesota and the Native Sioux tribesmen that lived in that region in 1862. After years of poor treaty agreements, mismanagement and mistreatment by the whites, and during a hard spring and summer in 1862 a band of the Sioux, led by Little Crow decided enough was enough and began a war to drive away the whites and reclaim the land that had been taken from them. This is the story of that fight and the ramifications that came in its aftermath.
Bates does a good job covering the whole story, looking at it from multiple angles: the Native, the Settlers, Bishop Whipple (quite an interesting character he turns out to be), President Lincoln, a Minnesotan trader, turned politician, turned military leader Henry Sibley, Brigadier General and failed civil war general John Pope, the native Chaska, and more. All of this was well placed in the zeitgeist of the Civil War and mid 19th century frontier life.
Backed by factual events, Scott Berg weaves the tale from the beginning of the story, well before a shot had been fired, to its end near the conclusion of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century.
I would say this is a great work of history and one that should not be ignored or relegated to good regional history. This is a story for everyone, everywhere, in any time. It is a tale of warning to the victors as much as it is to the losers, and to all the those who thought themselves too fringe to be worried about being affected, and its affect on the future White/Native relations and wars.
Mr. Berg employs well written prose, though the audio book narrator was so stiff it distracted from the actual story.
As a "local" and an arm-chair scholar on the topics, I found this to be a great book and one I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone.
January 9, 2013
“38 Nooses, Lincoln, Little Crow, and the beginning of the Frontier’s End”, by Scott W. Berg, published by Pantheon Books.
Category – History
Three hundred Dakota Indians were sentenced to be hanged, but Abraham Lincoln intervened and only upheld the death sentence for forty while the rest were given jail sentences. Of the Forty, thirty eight were hanged, the largest government sanctioned execution in American history.
One could say it call began when the white man continued to break promises and treaties with the Dakota tribe. The continual late payment, if they received it at all, of the government promised annuities, the increasing encroachment of Dakota land, and the general feeling that the Indian was just a step ahead of the black slave, sparked the Dakota uprising of 1862. Although Little Crow became the leader of the uprising he did so reluctantly, he preferred to try and work with the United States Government, to no avail, and was swept up by the young Dakotas to go to war. This came at a very bad time for the United States and Abraham Lincoln because their attention was directed toward the Civil War. It is interesting to note that even though Little Crow did cause havoc, his exploits were so over exaggerated that a mere skirmish became a major battle. When he had but a few hundred warriors it was made out to be in the thousands.
Little Crow was not one of the thirty eight hanged; he was still trying to evade capture and finally was shot to death in a raspberry patch.
A very good read for those interested in history and Indian Affairs. The book really gives an excellent overview of the plight of the Native American.
Category – History
Three hundred Dakota Indians were sentenced to be hanged, but Abraham Lincoln intervened and only upheld the death sentence for forty while the rest were given jail sentences. Of the Forty, thirty eight were hanged, the largest government sanctioned execution in American history.
One could say it call began when the white man continued to break promises and treaties with the Dakota tribe. The continual late payment, if they received it at all, of the government promised annuities, the increasing encroachment of Dakota land, and the general feeling that the Indian was just a step ahead of the black slave, sparked the Dakota uprising of 1862. Although Little Crow became the leader of the uprising he did so reluctantly, he preferred to try and work with the United States Government, to no avail, and was swept up by the young Dakotas to go to war. This came at a very bad time for the United States and Abraham Lincoln because their attention was directed toward the Civil War. It is interesting to note that even though Little Crow did cause havoc, his exploits were so over exaggerated that a mere skirmish became a major battle. When he had but a few hundred warriors it was made out to be in the thousands.
Little Crow was not one of the thirty eight hanged; he was still trying to evade capture and finally was shot to death in a raspberry patch.
A very good read for those interested in history and Indian Affairs. The book really gives an excellent overview of the plight of the Native American.
July 1, 2013
This excellent historical account of America in the 1860s belongs in every public and academic library in the country. No reading of Abraham Lincoln's presidency is complete without this account of his role in the events leading up to the largest public hanging in American history and no history of minority cultures in America should be told without this thoroughly researched narrative of Little Crow and the plight of the Dakota Sioux in Minnesota.
This is as straight-forward and neutral a telling as is possible. None of the players come out unscathed, either white or Lakota. But they are presented as objectively as possible. In other words they are human - both humane and inhumane.
I grew up on these lands 100 years after the "uprisings", always curious of what it must have been to be a settler there at the time. My direct ancestors were among the German settlers who acquired land within 10 years of the hangings. I was particularly fascinated with impact the Civil War had on the outcome of the "northwest frontier" although the lack of honesty in what was reported to Washington by white people of power in Minnesota did not surprise me in the least. We all know Native Americans were never given a fair chance and were grossly misunderstood. I would like to thank Scott Berg for the insight he has provided with this book.
This is as straight-forward and neutral a telling as is possible. None of the players come out unscathed, either white or Lakota. But they are presented as objectively as possible. In other words they are human - both humane and inhumane.
I grew up on these lands 100 years after the "uprisings", always curious of what it must have been to be a settler there at the time. My direct ancestors were among the German settlers who acquired land within 10 years of the hangings. I was particularly fascinated with impact the Civil War had on the outcome of the "northwest frontier" although the lack of honesty in what was reported to Washington by white people of power in Minnesota did not surprise me in the least. We all know Native Americans were never given a fair chance and were grossly misunderstood. I would like to thank Scott Berg for the insight he has provided with this book.
June 10, 2015
As interesting as I found the subject matter - and I really did find it fascinating - I had trouble staying focused for the books entire length. While it's hardly the authors fault that the events of the Dakota War didn't neatly fall into a three act narrative, there's still no excuse for the book to be so... Flat. I was bored reading it, the entire time, and had to force myself to finish. It's a cool story, but I don't believe Scott Berg did a good job telling it.
January 12, 2024
Berg writes a well-researched book about the Dakota uprising in 1862 Minnesota, led by a reluctant Little Crow. Ultimately close to 400 Dakota were sentenced to death, after 10 minute per person trials. Rules required President Lincoln to have a final say. In the midst of the worst days for the Union in the Civil War and as he was preparing to release the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln became a lawyer and reviewed every case. In the end he selected 38 for hanging based on what they did and the evident against them.
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June 12, 2019A sad tale of Manifest Destiny. 1862 Sioux war that was a continuation of eastern wars and the start of the of the western.
February 25, 2020
A little disjointed trying to figure out the connections listed in the title. Cut short by Kindle Return. Maybe you will feel differently. Enjoy!
February 4, 2024
Excellent scholarship.
The Dakota War must be studied in conjunction with the Civil War, but it often gets overlooked.
The Dakota War must be studied in conjunction with the Civil War, but it often gets overlooked.
August 11, 2024
There is A LOT of information in this book but a necessary read for all Americans, especially those of MN.
March 2, 2017
Scott Berg weaves the Native American situation in the upper midwest with the background of the Civil War and even the Mexican-American war to show the prejudices and possibilities of that intensely political time.
The center of the story is the raids on American settlements in southern Minnesota, raids that were, at once, brutal and shocking and utterly understandable. The result, predictably, was the beginning of the end of any hope that the first people might have harbored about resisting the invasion.
Berg is a very good writer who paints pictures with his words and gives the reader just enough information to truly understand the events from the perspective of the human beings who were involved. He frames the story with that of a woman who was taken hostage, and the characters -- the real people -- are drawn with such precision that the reader understands their thinking and their personalities.. My favorite section, of course, was about President Lincoln...a truly remarkable human being.
The center of the story is the raids on American settlements in southern Minnesota, raids that were, at once, brutal and shocking and utterly understandable. The result, predictably, was the beginning of the end of any hope that the first people might have harbored about resisting the invasion.
Berg is a very good writer who paints pictures with his words and gives the reader just enough information to truly understand the events from the perspective of the human beings who were involved. He frames the story with that of a woman who was taken hostage, and the characters -- the real people -- are drawn with such precision that the reader understands their thinking and their personalities.. My favorite section, of course, was about President Lincoln...a truly remarkable human being.
April 22, 2014
This is a new entry into the “Bury My Heart…” genre, enumerating and illustrating the tragic history of American/Indian relations. Obviously you know who loses from jump, but it is still a fascinating story weaving events and people from far and wide in the scope of American history. Lincoln and his cabinet are certainly familiar figures and military buffs will recognize many of the principals but this is history on the local scale. It is a small, but important, slice of the history of the settling of southwest Minnesota and the names of the towns and families are recognizable today. I found it interesting to follow the events using a Google map of the area and zooming in to find the creeks and coulees still bearing the names used in 1862. That the insurrection takes place during the Civil War adds another element to the complicated stew of person, place, time and tide. The author thoroughly researched and documented all aspects but does not footnote the text which, for me, makes for smooth reading since I am not tempted to interrupt my reading to refer to the notes. The notes are organized by chapter at the back of the book so they are available if you want to look but I enjoyed not being bedeviled by those “little numbers”. Certainly Minnesotans interested in the history of their home state will find this an enjoyable read.
December 28, 2022
This is a competent and enjoyable history that gives us a good sense of how Native war leaders like Little Crow thought and felt about the Dakota War, as well as the perspective of white captives.
Unlike Pekka Hämäläinen's Lakota America, Berg's book does not fall into the trap of privileging only native sources.
That said, if this were your only source for the Dakota war, the 38 executions at Mankato, Minnesota, would seem somewhat arbitrary (although, in any light, they are legally questionable - were the Indians treasonable rebels, or legitimate enemy combatants?)
What is missing from this book is a detailed account of the alleged and real atrocities committed by Dakota Indians, except for the fact that almost 500 whites and mixed-bloods were killed, and that this may have been the largest massacre of whites during the entire era of the Indian wars.
I don't say that these massacres need to be related in mind-numbing detail, but I felt that a little more time spent on them would have added balance. The crimes of both sides of any conflict must be fairly presented. We would think poorly of any history of the air war in WWII that didn't mention Dresden alongside the Blitz, for example.
All in all, however, this book is crucial for understanding a key moment in Minnesota (and national) history.
Unlike Pekka Hämäläinen's Lakota America, Berg's book does not fall into the trap of privileging only native sources.
That said, if this were your only source for the Dakota war, the 38 executions at Mankato, Minnesota, would seem somewhat arbitrary (although, in any light, they are legally questionable - were the Indians treasonable rebels, or legitimate enemy combatants?)
What is missing from this book is a detailed account of the alleged and real atrocities committed by Dakota Indians, except for the fact that almost 500 whites and mixed-bloods were killed, and that this may have been the largest massacre of whites during the entire era of the Indian wars.
I don't say that these massacres need to be related in mind-numbing detail, but I felt that a little more time spent on them would have added balance. The crimes of both sides of any conflict must be fairly presented. We would think poorly of any history of the air war in WWII that didn't mention Dresden alongside the Blitz, for example.
All in all, however, this book is crucial for understanding a key moment in Minnesota (and national) history.
February 9, 2013
I had not heard of this event until I saw a panel discussion on C-Span about the Dakota War. I wanted to know more. I have read a lot about Lincoln and have come to think he may be our greatest president ever. To find out that something this horrific happened during his tenure and that he actually approved these hangings motivated me to find out more about the event. This book helped me to better understand the time and the event. I also read this book right after reading "Rise to Greatness", which I also strongly recommend. Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year They both cover the same time period but from different perspectives. The history shared in "38 Nooses" is sad and disturbing. America is a great country but we have not always acted as such. This story is about one of those times. The really sad thing is, many of the beliefs and actions described in the book are still present today. When will we learn that we are all equal? Read this book!
August 2, 2013
Details the 1862 Dakota War in Minnesota. Berg does a fine job sketching in the conflicts background, where tensions between Little Crow's Dakota tribe and intrusive white settlers grew intolerable, and a random act of violence by drunken Indians led to wholesale massacre of settlers and inevitable retaliation. Berg's most interesting conceit is contrasting Abraham Lincoln's moral high-mindedness re: the Civil War and emancipation with his patronizing indifference towards Indian matters - though one must concede Southern secession endangered the country far more than a skirmish on the American frontier. Like many popular histories though, Berg's apt to leave the narrative with digressions that obfuscate as much as illuminate. Some are interesting (Henry Whipple's pro-Indian agitation), others more opaque (digressions on Antietam and Gettysburg); together they lead to a sloppy book.
January 14, 2015
38 Nooses is a good primer on the relationship between the FED.GOV and the Native Americans. It explains the failure of FED.GOV to honor existing treaties with the Native Nations, and to control the corruption that grows up around every Fed.Gov institution.
One topic I was very surprised to see included was a discussion of the plans for dealing with the freedmen after the Civil War ended. Very few authors will touch this subject at all because it exposes the Union's hypocrisy, and lays bare the attitude of the "Great Emancipator" for all to see.
One topic I was very surprised to see included was a discussion of the plans for dealing with the freedmen after the Civil War ended. Very few authors will touch this subject at all because it exposes the Union's hypocrisy, and lays bare the attitude of the "Great Emancipator" for all to see.
September 1, 2013
This is a very good review of the little known war / revolt / insurrection (??) in Minnesota over a few weeks in the Fall of 1862. Berg does a nice job of integrating the events in Minnesota with the ongoing Civil War. He makes the characters real (Little Crow, Sibley, Ramsey, Pope, Whipple and Sarah Wakefields). I truly enjoyed the book but it was a bit difficult to read.
January 30, 2016
This book looks at a series of individual stories from the US-Dakota war and ties them in to the events of the conflict, and the greater arena of United States history. The author tells the tale with digestible and easy to read prose, and most importantly manages to rein in Eurocentric bias far more than many other scholarly works relating the war's events and aftermath.
February 28, 2019
Heartbreaking. A tlo yi hv. Looking far into the distant past with eyes that have seen eternity.
November 15, 2022
This is a great book. Mr. Berg has done a lot of digging to get into the gritty details and offer personal insights regarding the key people involved in the unfolding of 'Little Crow's War' and its aftermath, particularly Sarah Wakefield and Chaska.
Berg brings excellent insights regarding the intersection of native and black policy of America, without just falling back on trendy tropes and jaded straw men.
One comes away with the idea that Lincoln was one of the few decent men holding political power in his day.
One comes away wondering about the hypocrisy and gullibility of humanity. The success of the conspiracy theory that the Sioux uprising was just an arm of a vast Confederate conspiracy, the biting atrocity of a Minnesota mob attacking babies and old people, the brazen racism in editorial columns responding to Lincoln's pardons, the fact that even those stayed of execution languish for so long afterward.
In the Minnesotans who desire the massive gallows to remain and get more use we see the American reflection of the spirit of Charles Dickens's Jacques Three from the French Revolution.
In the deceptions used to arrest and separate Santee men we see the same ruses used in the Armenian Genocide and especially the Holocaust. "We need to separate you to register everyone."
Best quote from the author:
"Many tribes . . . refer to the president as 'Great White Father'. . .and understood in substance, if not in detail that the American government, for all its talk about the consent of the governed, had been structured its inception such that one man often had a monarchical influence on their freedoms and fortunes."
My two favorite primary source quotes are:
"The proper status of the negro in our civilization was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."--Cornerstone speech of Confederate VP Alexander Stephens
Why would requote this? Because it shows with great clarity that the Confederate leadership themselves attributed the secession to slavery, despite the vogue of arguments to the contrary.
'God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present Civil War it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.'--Abraham Lincoln
Berg brings excellent insights regarding the intersection of native and black policy of America, without just falling back on trendy tropes and jaded straw men.
One comes away with the idea that Lincoln was one of the few decent men holding political power in his day.
One comes away wondering about the hypocrisy and gullibility of humanity. The success of the conspiracy theory that the Sioux uprising was just an arm of a vast Confederate conspiracy, the biting atrocity of a Minnesota mob attacking babies and old people, the brazen racism in editorial columns responding to Lincoln's pardons, the fact that even those stayed of execution languish for so long afterward.
In the Minnesotans who desire the massive gallows to remain and get more use we see the American reflection of the spirit of Charles Dickens's Jacques Three from the French Revolution.
In the deceptions used to arrest and separate Santee men we see the same ruses used in the Armenian Genocide and especially the Holocaust. "We need to separate you to register everyone."
Best quote from the author:
"Many tribes . . . refer to the president as 'Great White Father'. . .and understood in substance, if not in detail that the American government, for all its talk about the consent of the governed, had been structured its inception such that one man often had a monarchical influence on their freedoms and fortunes."
My two favorite primary source quotes are:
"The proper status of the negro in our civilization was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."--Cornerstone speech of Confederate VP Alexander Stephens
Why would requote this? Because it shows with great clarity that the Confederate leadership themselves attributed the secession to slavery, despite the vogue of arguments to the contrary.
'God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present Civil War it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.'--Abraham Lincoln
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 5, 2022
This narrative history is a balanced and nuanced account of a complex conflict. There are many villains and victims in this story, but Mr. Berg avoids the pitfalls of political correctness to bring us their stories as they occurred and as they were perceived in 1862. His skillful presentation allows us to understand and appreciate all the actors in this tragic drama, especially our sixteenth President. Overall, this is an excellent book. Like many writers of narrative history, Mr. Berg sometimes errs when he strays outside the boundaries of his chosen subject, but those instances are few and minor. (On pg. 171 he shows poor understanding of the motives and goals of the First Crusade [1096-9] .) Recommended for anyone interested in U.S. history who wants to comprehend the past, rather than simply cast blame and draw pointless inferences about the present from the mistakes of our ancestors. Good intentions are never enough to make good policy, as Indian Agencies and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School demonstrated, two sides of the same sad coin. Edward Stanton's words about Bishop Whipple still ring true today: "The Government never reforms an evil until the people demand it." Sadly, we often wait a long time before doing so. It's fitting that the final chapter recounts the popularity of a lurid panorama of the Crow War that traveled the nation (like hundreds of Civil War panoramas). This now forgotten form of entertainment along with captivity narratives dominated popular media in the decade following the Civil War, demonstrating that it has always been dangerous to 'learn' history from entertainment. Hopefully most people will read books like this one and not believe movies and TV portray the history of the frontier accurately.
August 25, 2020
This book describes the conflict between the Native American population of Minnesota and white settlers and the subsequent removal of the native population from their ancestral lands. This is a familiar story that played out time and time again in American history as "Manifest Destiny" played itself out across the country and the nation's non-white population was removed to make room for settlement by Europeans. What makes this story different was that it played out in the background of the Civil War and was presided over by a president who is known more as an emancipator rather than for taking away native lands or the largest mass execution in the nation's history.
The author does a good job of pulling together all of the source material as well as the disparate personalities in the story and humanizing them. He tells the story from several different perspectives and makes sure to contrast the perceptions of those involved with the reality of the situation that we now know to be true. As with a lot of issues dealing with the white settlement of the west, there were conflicting motives and beliefs about people's rightful place in a rapidly changing system. Unfortunately, as the title suggests this would not be the end of the strife or even the middle of it but rather the beginning of a decades-long process in which a group of people would be dispossessed and all but eliminated from the land of their birth.
The author does a good job of pulling together all of the source material as well as the disparate personalities in the story and humanizing them. He tells the story from several different perspectives and makes sure to contrast the perceptions of those involved with the reality of the situation that we now know to be true. As with a lot of issues dealing with the white settlement of the west, there were conflicting motives and beliefs about people's rightful place in a rapidly changing system. Unfortunately, as the title suggests this would not be the end of the strife or even the middle of it but rather the beginning of a decades-long process in which a group of people would be dispossessed and all but eliminated from the land of their birth.
January 6, 2018
It was interesting reading Mr. Berg's account-clearly trying to be balanced, but just as clearly quite different from the accounts through the eyes of the First People of MN. I was privileged to take part in a workshop "from Genesis to Genocide" visiting sacred sites near the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, hearing this tragic history from the native perspective. There was a great deal of "understanding" of the white perspective in this book-and an emphasis on "it could have been so much worse" -if Lincoln had not commuted the sentences of most of the accused. Rather lame IMHO. Also, there was no good explanation of why women, children and elderly were marched a circuitous route (in November in Minnesota!) through towns with easily anticipated angry mobs. The many many deaths on this march as well as in the internment camp at Ft. Snelling are rather brushed over. It does focus a bit on one innocent victim of the hangings-but the whole process was so biased and bogus from start to finish that this focus on the one takes away from the potential/probable innocence of others. I happened upon this book accidentally, but I was left wanting to read more from someone who doesn't feel the need to "balance" or defend this stain on our history.
October 18, 2025
I read this book after reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership: In Turbulent Times. Goodwin focuses on Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and bring his cabinet to support it.
This book, at first glance, seems to be about a failure on Lincoln’s part, when he signed off on the largest mass execution in U.S. history during the same period.
The author, Scott Berg, does an excellent job of telling the story of the Minnesota Dakota War. He focuses on individuals, victims, witnesses, military and religious leaders as well as what is happening in Lincoln’s White House and the political pressures. Berg brings in Native American voices from oral tradition with a clear explanation of the sources (who is sharing the information and their connection to the events, when the information was written down, what language was spoken).
Berg keeps the reader turning the pages.
This book, at first glance, seems to be about a failure on Lincoln’s part, when he signed off on the largest mass execution in U.S. history during the same period.
The author, Scott Berg, does an excellent job of telling the story of the Minnesota Dakota War. He focuses on individuals, victims, witnesses, military and religious leaders as well as what is happening in Lincoln’s White House and the political pressures. Berg brings in Native American voices from oral tradition with a clear explanation of the sources (who is sharing the information and their connection to the events, when the information was written down, what language was spoken).
Berg keeps the reader turning the pages.
December 17, 2018
I'm on a mission! This is the second book I've recently read on the Indian war in Minnesota. It feels wrong calling it the Indian war, but since it was during the time of the acknowledged Civil War I will call it the Indian war. I was unaware that it was severely more than an 'uprising'. Anyway, this book was somewhat easier to understand (than The Dakota War of 1862) although there was great detail to military structure. I feel cheated having never been taught much about this. I get that the Civil war was raging during the same time but this was definitely a civil war as well. It changed history, cultures and political fabric of our country and religions. I could not shake the feeling that the history of the Indian tribes were changed and lost forever.
This book is more targeted to the average person who's interested in knowing about the time. I really enjoyed it. It is a long read. It is not a novel but reads more like a history book. I got antsy over a few time jumps.
This book is more targeted to the average person who's interested in knowing about the time. I really enjoyed it. It is a long read. It is not a novel but reads more like a history book. I got antsy over a few time jumps.
May 1, 2019
This is a very comprehensive telling of the 1862 Sioux Uprising. As a Minnesotan I thought I knew most of the story, but discovered I knew very little.
Scott Berg expertly presents both sides of the issue with insight from Sarah Wakefield, who lives for six weeks with the Sioux, Abraham Lincoln, General Pope, General Sheridan, Henry Sibley and Alexander Ramsey.
He presents the war in the context of the Civil War so presenting a nice historical backdrop.
The book has many pages of footnotes, acknowledgements and bibliography.
I didn’t give it 5 stars because I think some of the chapters seemed to contain multiple scenes which at times seem unrelated.
Highly recommend to any reader of Minnesota history, Native History or Civil War History.
Scott Berg expertly presents both sides of the issue with insight from Sarah Wakefield, who lives for six weeks with the Sioux, Abraham Lincoln, General Pope, General Sheridan, Henry Sibley and Alexander Ramsey.
He presents the war in the context of the Civil War so presenting a nice historical backdrop.
The book has many pages of footnotes, acknowledgements and bibliography.
I didn’t give it 5 stars because I think some of the chapters seemed to contain multiple scenes which at times seem unrelated.
Highly recommend to any reader of Minnesota history, Native History or Civil War History.
November 14, 2021
A very detailed account of a complicated conflict which provides plentiful context not only to the events in Minnesota, but how they shaped policy in Washington DC. The atrocities described are a grim reminder of Manifest Destiny and the United States' treatment of Native Americans. This book does not present historical figures on any side as strictly good and strictly evil, which I appreciated. One issue I had, however, was the sheer amount of names. There are so many people and stories happening, it's easy to get lost. Some parts of the book were also dizzying with detail. However, it is a good read for anyone interested in an often forgot about war, and the context behind the largest mass execution in US history.
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