The Curriculum
This page is the one page from Northern Lights - the 6th grade Minnesota Studies textbook - that deals directly with the incarceration at Fort Snelling. There is an abundance of rhetoric that hides true implications of circumstances and conditions of the Dakota incarceration at Fort Snelling. We have included a few below:
-The conditions at Fort Snelling were difficult.
The word difficult is greatly understated. A better word might be terrible or inhumane.
-The Dakota were encamped on the river banks surrounded by a wooden wall.
The word encamped, although technically correct, is also understated. A better word might be imprisoned.
-They were guarded and fed by U.S. soldiers.
The word guarded suggests that the U.S. soldiers’ primary interests were to protect the Dakota against outside forces such as angry mobs. Although this might have been true, they were also monitoring the Dakota, or guarding them in a carceral sense, so that they could not leave. Typically, guards are not accused of "accidentally" murdering those which they are watching.
All together, there are several things of note which we must address:
- The section about the concentration camp at Fort Snelling is four paragraphs (one page) in length.
- Passive language such as “were guarded” and “were fed” is used persistently in sentences where the Dakota are the subject. This effectively victimizes the Dakota and indirectly places less accountability on the other parties involved.
- The words “died” and “were killed” are used in cases that could be considered murder.
