Dakota History , People and Place

Today was a really great day. I am feeling VERY greatful to be here, and really feeling like I made a great choice in this program. I feel as if I am exactly where I should be right now, and learning so much thats is going to stay with me forever and help me in my future career.

Today we spent the morning in the classroom learning about the Dakota conflict and exile. The Dakota people originally lived in Minnesota. They at first lived peacefully with the settlers, making kinship ties with fur traders, etc. However, eventually, the settlers and government wanted their land. They signed the Treaty of Traverse-de-Sioux, giving up some of their land for reservation land, annual annuities (food, monetary payments) , aid with education, etc. However, the whites did not fulfill this promise, and the Dakota lived with no money, no hunting rights and no food. Eventually they were told they had to give up even more of their land, and the BIA manager of the area said if they were starving they could eat grass. The money promised never made it to the Native people, fur traders took it all because it was arranged that it had to go through them first. Eventually, there was a conflict. Many whites and Natives died, but it was seen as a brutal native attack on white settlers. Little Crow, a Dakota Chief, did not support the fighting but he said he would die with his people. Throughout his entire life, despite many bribes, pressures, etc, Little Crow never abandon his culture, changed his way of life, dressing, or his spirituality. Finally, the Dakota people had to flee; some went to Canada, some to Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota. Today the Dakota people are in all of these places, never able to return to their ancestral homeland in MN.

After the conflict 300+ Dakota people were sentanced to death for crimes against whites during the conflict. Some of these men had actually protected whites at certain points. Lincoln was suppposed to sign the sentances, but did not want to condemn that many men. After demanding much more research, Lincoln only signed the death sentances of 38 men. They were all hung together, it was the largest mass execution in US history, the day after Christman. Lincoln signed the sentances the same day he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

After the morning in the classroom and learning this sad story, we visited the grave of Little Crow. It was in a small roadside graveyard in eastern SD, no pomp and circumstance surrounding it or any effort to memorialize him for the heroic person he was. Chief little Crow was killed by a farmer while he and his son were picking berries, attempting to return to MN to face what would befall them there. At the time, there was a bounty for killing native people, $75. The farmer who killed Little Crow was given $500 more when they realized who he was. Then, the body of Little Crow was on display in the state of MN, until he was finally laid to rest in 1973, over 100 years after his death.We spent a while there, discussing such things, paying respects, etc.

Then we visited an Indian Boarding School, one of the only ones left, run by the BIA. We had earlier discussed the disastrous cultural affects of Boarding schools as they were in the late 1800s, attempts to assimilate and squash the culture out of Native children. Eventually this changed, and this boarding school is of course not like that. American Indian children come from all over the country to get an education there. The school has a partnership with SDSU in hopes that the students will continue their education.

Then we drove to Pipestone, MN. This is the site of Pipestone National Monument, run by the NPS. This is the nationally known place where the stone used in making sacred pipes is found. Some of you may know these as the peace pipes, which is what white settlers called them because they only saw them used in times of peace making. The pipe was actually used for much more than that and has significance in almost every native culture in the country. Although it is run by the NPS, Native people that get permits are allowd to still dig for the stone there, and we saw where that happens. We hiked there for a while. It was a beautiful, sunnny day, probably at least 50 degrees, so we were lucky there!

After pipestone we traveled home, and tired after a long day I will probably go to bed shortly!
Sorry this was a long one. I like recapping what i learn for two reasons. 1) if people reading this do not have a background in American Indian history they can learn it and 2) it helps me
remember it!

PS the picture is Chief Little Crow