The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862
Dakota land after these treaties was limited to a narrow reservation along the Minnesota River that by the 1860s was already being reduced in size, depleted of natural resources, and broken of natural systems. Annuities often were not paid because the federal government was concentrated on the Civil War. This caused the Dakota to suffer from starvation, and ultimately unlivable conditions. The tipping point came when a government-endorsed trader named Andrew Myrick infamously remarked that the Dakota could “eat grass or their own dung” if they were hungry. Shortly after this remark, a small group of Dakota men attacked a family of white settlers, and the Dakota in response held an emergency war council.
As a result of this war council, Chief Little Crow reluctantly agreed that he would lead the Dakota into war, despite the fact that he knew it could not be won. Over the course of approximately one month, several hundred white settlers, several dozen United States soldiers, and an estimated 150 Dakota were killed. The war came to an end with the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men in the town of Mankato on December 26, 1862, after 264 other Dakota men had been pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln and marched to a prison camp in Iowa.
1,700 Dakota who surrendered and were pardoned of any and all crimes, were forcibly marched over one-hundred miles to a winter concentration camp below Fort Snelling. These 1,700 Dakota, 95% of which were women and children, were placed into a concentration camp immediately adjacent to the Bdote.
Video courtesy of Uptake Media - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYT9CO4OMv4