Fort Snelling

Internment Camp

What to call the 1862/1863 Dakota camp at Fort Snelling is hotly debated.  Should it be called an “Internment Camp,” as it is officially referred to, or should it be called a “Concentration Camp” or “Prison Camp?”  Historically, the term internment camp has been used to describe places of temporary imprisonment, whereas the term concentration camp has been used to describe places designed for permanent imprisonment and/or execution.  It is difficult in the case of Fort Snelling because, even though the camp was only intended to be temporary, hundreds of people died within its confines from starvation and disease (the first of which could have been avoided).
What to call the 1862/1863 Dakota camp at Fort Snelling is hotly debated.  Should it be called an “Internment Camp,” as it is officially referred to, or should it be called a “Concentration Camp” or “Prison Camp?”  Historically, the term internment camp has been used to describe places of temporary imprisonment, whereas the term concentration camp has been used to describe places designed for permanent imprisonment and/or execution.  It is difficult in the case of Fort Snelling because, even though the camp was only intended to be temporary, hundreds of people died within its confines from starvation and disease (the first of which could have been avoided).

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