Speakers discuss issues that led to 1862 conflict

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- A Dakota speaker and writer told lyceum attendees Saturday that had their been no Civil War at the time, the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862 would not have taken place.

Speaking at Dakota Culture, Spirituality, Conflict at Martin Luther College, John LaBatte said that the bands of Dakota that broke away from the tribe and decided to attack white settlers did so due to effects of the Civil War.

They decided to attack after noticing that there were only about 60 settlers defending Fort Ridgely and that able-bodied young white men and half-breeds, who were hated by many Indians, marched off to the Civil War, LaBatte said.

"Some Indians thought things were desperate for the settlers, so they attacked," said LaBatte, who recently moved to New Ulm. "It's a complicated subject with many issues, but the Civil War was a big part of it.

Of course, there were many issues that caused the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, LaBatte explained. Among them were the lack of accountability of white fur traders, immoral and corrupt conduct of Indian agents and government soldiers and American Indians starving to death while warehouses were full of food.

Dr. Elden Lawrence of Sisseton, S.D. talked about how he viewed the American Indian mind set 142 years ago and told how he could relate to it.

"The Indians were in a state of helplessness," Lawrence said. "I spent a good part of my life like that. I know that feeling."

Speakers pointed out that some Dakota sought to eliminate white settlers while others were much more cautious about going to battle.

Lawrence recalled the words of Chief Little Crow.

"Fools, you'll die like rabbits to a hungry wolf, but Little Crow will die with you," Lawrence said. "Indians that went to war were not Christians. Instead, they wanted vengeance, an eye for an eye. They hadn't learned to forgive like American missionaries taught many American Indians."

Lawrence added that if there were ever two cultures diametrically opposed, it was the Dakota and white settlers.

LaBatte said the camp set up for Indians at Fort Snelling was not a "concentration camp," as some scholars have claimed, but was intended to be a humanitarian camp.

Fences at the camp were designed to protect innocent Indians from angry whites. LaBatte added that most of the Indians that died in camps were overcome by epidemics their bodies had never come in contact with before.

He explained why the Indians were taken to Fort Snelling.

"There weren't enough soldiers left to protect them (the Indians) from angry whites who thought all Indians should die," LaBatte said.

He noted that many Indians converted to Christianity because they viewed it as their only way to deal with the issues of the day.

Former MLC Professor Arnold Koelpin talked about some of the problems modern missions deal with. Resolving the paradox of world recovery and world affirmation is resolved by the full counsel of God, he said.

Koelpin recalled the movie "The Mission" in which the differences of Spain and Portugal tore a South American mission apart as an example of how divisive the issue can be.

Mark Goeglein, who served as a missionary in Columbia, Mexico and Latin America before coming to MLC to teach Spanish, religion and Minority Cultures and is currently serving on the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) Board for World Missions, said WELS missions guidelines note the importance of fully understanding and accommodating host cultures.

LaBatte said he is writing a book on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. He plans to create a web site that will chronicle the Dakota culture and history. Plans call for the site to include related essays and research.

Lawrence is writing "Dakota Peaceseekers," a book about Dakota Christians during the Uprising of 1862.

For more reading: Through Dakota Eye,Anderson and Woolworth; The Sioux Uprising of 1862, Carly; and The Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota As They Were in 1834, Pond. (These books are available through the Brown County Historical Society in New Ulm).