The Minnesota Uprising

Another outbreak of violence involving the Sioux occurred far to the east, in Minnesota, among the Santee Dakota bands. The central issue that caused the Minnesota Uprising (or Little Crow’s War) was land, as more and more non-Indians settled along the rich farmlands of the Minnesota River. Some of the young Santee braves wanted war against the people who were appropriating their land. The Santee chief Little Crow argued for peace. But young militants forced the issue by killing five settlers. Little Crow then helped the other Santee chiefs organize a rebellion.

In August 1862, Santee war parties carried out surprise raids on settlements and trading posts, killing as many as 400 people. Little Crow himself led assaults on Fort Ridgely. The fort’s cannon repelled the Indians, killing many. Another group of Santee stormed the village of New Ulm. The settlers drove the attackers away, but then evacuated the village.

General Henry Sibley led a large force into the field. At Birch Coulee in September, the warriors attacked an army burial party, killing 23. But Sibley engaged the Santee at Wood Lake later that month and routed them with heavy artillery. Many warriors fled northwestward into the wilderness, Little Crow among them. Many others surrendered, claiming innocence in the slaying of the settlers.

Of those who stayed behind, 303 were sentenced to be hanged. President Abraham Lincoln took time out from his concerns with the Civil War to review the trial records, and he pardoned the large majority. Still, 33 Santee, proclaiming their innocence to the end, were hanged the day after Christmas in 1862, the largest mass execution in American history.

Of those Santee Dakota that fled, many settled among Teton Lakota and Yanktonai Nakota in Dakota Territory (the northern part that was soon to become North Dakota). General Henry Sibley and General Alfred Sully engaged Sioux from various bands at Big Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake, and Stoney Lake in 1863, and at Whitestone Hill and Killdeer Mountain in 1864. The Santee and the other Sioux who helped them paid a high price in suffering for their Minnesota Uprising. Little Crow himself died in 1863 on a horse-stealing expedition out of Canada into Minnesota. Settlers shot him and turned in his scalp for the bounty.