The Concentration Camp
The concentration camp at Fort Snelling was set up on the floodplains of the Bdote, where the heavens touched the earth and Dakota life began. The prospect of being confined to this sacred place of earth, a place formerly of sacred ceremony was certainly a huge affront to the Dakota People.
In the very first days of their imprisonment, the Saint Paul Pioneer newspaper ran reports of a shooting at the camp. This shooting, officially labeled as an "accident," involved the death of a Dakota woman at the hands of not just one, but several soldiers stationed at the fort. The report went as far to imply that there would "be many such accidents if Abraham [Lincoln] don't consent to let them hang." Although the official reports did vary, at least one innocent Dakota woman was indeed brutally murdered at the hands of her captors. The newspaper soon after ran a correction on their article, saying that a Dakota woman had been raped, not murdered.
This set the stage for an unspeakable winter of deplorable living conditions and harsh sentiments from their captors. In the first month alone, fifty-seven Dakota died, with no official reports put forward to explain their deaths. A letter written by a Red Wing woman, dated November 1862, describes these ongoing conditions. "There are a few squaws killed up at the fort every week... [their throats cut] by running against a knife." These murders were carried out by soldiers whose captains proclaimed the innocence of the imprisoned Dakota, yet that did not appear to stop the deaths that surrounded the camp.
Killings were not the only form of death present at the camp, however. In February of 1863, there was a large measles outbreak among the soldiers and captives alike. There are no official reports on the death toll from illness at the camp, but a low estimate of measles-related deaths among the Dakota ranges anywhere from 130-170. The threat of starvation was also constant, and the crowded enclosure was not conducive to maintaining a natural, hygienic environment.
Constant attempts were made to evangelize and coerce the Dakota into accepting Christianity as their religion through the winter as well. There were numerous bishops, missionaries, and others at the encampment working to "educate" the Dakota imprisoned there. This all happened in one of the Dakota's most sacred sites - essentially they were being forced to give up their religion in the same place that gave birth to it.
Altogether, the Dakota were held at Fort Snelling for over six months - from November 1862 to May 1863 - before being crowded onto steamboats for removal from Minnesota. Officially, there were 160 deaths recorded at Fort Snelling. However there are independent reports from missionaries and others which cite upwards of two-hundred deaths during these months of imprisonment. In either regard, between 10-15% of all Dakota sent to Fort Snelling died while imprisoned there.
