Dakota share

their story of

the 1862 conflict

at conference

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Few Native American Indians have visited New Ulm since the Dakota Conflict of 1862.

The ice was broken Monday as Dakota tribal members attended the opening day of Summer Institute centering on diabetes, new technology to deal with it, Dakota history, culture and reconciliation at Martin Luther College.

New Ulm Mayor Arnold Koelpin gave a welcome and introduction in German while the Rev. Clifford Canku spoke in his native tongue. Canku wore a t-shirt that read "Mitakuye Oyasin" (We are all related).

"We stand here in a significant place," Koelpin said. "This area lies on the northern edge of the Great Plains. Here on the Minnesota River begin hardwood oaks that end the prairie, leading northward towards the continental divide."

Koelpin said the week-long conference will nourish understanding like drops of rain that cool the land and the streams we all know.

"Little drops of rain form brooks that flow into rivers that empty into great oceans," Koelpin said. "Friendship and understanding is a growing process. It starts small but grows larger as time goes by."

Koelpin wished the audience a fruitful conference that seeks to unite technology with a quest for cultural understanding. He also hoped that the Native American's visit would be the first of many others here

New Ulm native Paul Wessel, a 1977 Martin Luther Academy graduate, who helped organize the event, urged participants to help a population that is being overcome by diabetes.

Wessel's own son Luke, has diabetes. Another son, Alex, suffered brain damage and is in a wheelchair.

Wessel said his own view of the world was narrow until he learned one of his sons was a diabetic and the other would never recover from brain damage.

Wessel and Koelpin presented gifts of sweet grass and tobacco to several Native American friends that are playing major roles in the conference.

The beautiful thing about diabetes is the control we have over it. By understanding it, diabetes can be prevented, Wessel said. "We have an obligation as a human race and individuals to stand and say we cannot afford to lose another life to diabetes," Wessel said. "We extend our hand to say we are here to help, we care and please use us as a resource because diabetes is bigger than cultural differences."

You could almost hear the pounding of horse hoofs, battle cries and gun shots as Dr. Angela Cavender Wilson, an Assistant Professor of American Indian History at Arizona State University, presented a Dakota perspective on the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862.

"It's never a pleasant task but I think the story needs to be told," Wilson said. "The War of 1862 meant the expulsion of Dakota people from our homeland, the abrogation (annulment) of our treaties, the big land grab and colonization."

She noted that the hanging of 38 Indian men in Mankato on the day after Christmas in 1862 was the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The event came from an executive order from President Abraham Lincoln.

Trails were held, some as short as five minutes, for the men before they were hung.

Wilson said there were about 500 white casualties in the war. The number of Dakota casualties is still unknown.

She said the war has been typically portrayed as a spontaneous uprising of Indians that massacred innocent white settlers.

Wilson said there were no such things as innocent white settlers since they settled on Indian land before treaties were effective.

"There were a lot of grey areas. The Dakota people were very divided in 1862," Wilson said. "It affected how the war played out."

Most government officials, especially treaty commissioners, deceived and bullied Indians into signing 1851 treaties that were not in their best interest.

"The government felt the ends justified the means," Wilson said. "They told the Dakota that the land would be taken by force and previous treaties would be denied if they didn't sign. One Dakota leader was arrested and jailed until there were enough signatures."

According to one treaty, a 20-mile strip of land bordering the Minnesota River, north of Mankato, was to be retained by the Upper and Lower Dakota Indians. The Dakota Indians were to give up 24 million acres of land. The Dakota were to receive $3,000,000 for the land, $2,700,000 of which would remain in a 50-year trust in Washington, earning five percent interest to be paid yearly in the form of cash and goods.

Wilson said terms like principal and interest on accounts could not even be converted into the Dakota language.

"Initially, it sounded good. The money would never run out," Wilson said. "At the end of the 50-year period, the principal amount would not be reverted back to he Dakota. The U.S. Senate later struck the clauses about reservation land near the river."

Wilson said Indians thought they were signing treaties when they were actually signing claims traders had against them due to extended credit, most of which were fabricated. Treaties enabled traders to get Indian money directly from the government.

White settlers laid out farms on Indian fields and ordered them off.

A crop failure due to cutworm in the fall of 1861 left many Dakota starving. When tribal leaders asked government officials to extend them credit for food to eat, they were refused.

On top of that, government treaty food and money due the Dakota never arrived in June of 1862.

The next month, 5,000 Dakota gathered at the Upper Sioux Agency and demanded that at least some of the rations be distributed.

"Some of the food had arrived and sat in warehouses," Wilson said. "The money had not arrived yet. There was a big debate in the Treasury about whether the Dakota should be paid in gold currency, which was very scarce due to the Civil War, or in paper currency."

By Aug. 1, 1862, 500 Dakota broke into a Lower Agency warehouse to get the food that was legally theirs.

Starving Dakota asked for food and extended credit again. They were told to eat grass or their own dung by government official Andrew Myrick. He died during the war and was found with grass stuffed in his own mouth.

The final spark that ignited the war happened on Aug. 17 when four Dakota men from the Rice Creek Village were out hunting for food for their families. They came upon a white settlement and got into a fight when one of the Dakotas took eggs from the settlers. Five settlers, two of them women, died.

Indian leaders gathered at Little Crow's Camp to decide what should be done. Little Crow, Wabasha and Big Eagle were against war, thinking it would be futile.

Little Crow reportedly made a speech against the war that foretold its outcome:

"Wait. You are like little children. You know not what you are doing. You are full of the white man's devil water (whiskey). You are like dogs that run mad after their own shadows under a hot moon.

"You may kill 10, but 10 times 10 will come to kill you. White men with guns will kill you faster than you can count. You will die like rabbits when the hungry wolves hunt them."

The Dakota attacked the Lower Sioux Agency first. With the element of surprise, they killed many and took many prisoners.

Wilson said it is usually depicted that whites were the only prisoners of war while it was often mixed bloods that chose not to fight that were taken prisoner by the Dakota.

Dakota prisoners were marched to Fort Snelling where many of them died. Those that survived were taken by paddleboat to Davenport, Iowa, where they were held for three years at which time many of them were taken to Nebraska.

"Reconciliation--A Bridge to Diabetes and Language/Culture Education Education runs through Friday at MLC. The public can register for $15 per day. For more information, visit www.interguidance.com/summerinstitute

Daily announcements and updates will be given 8-8:30 a.m. in the MLC auditorium.

Tuesday events include a keynote address: "History and Healing, Art and Storytelling: Powerful Expressions of Mdewakantan Women" by Dr. Barbara Feezer Buttes, Assistant Professor of American Studies at Arizona State University West.

Breakout sessions will be held 9:30-10:30 a.m.

including a children's panel on living with diabetes, moderated by New Ulm native Paul Wessel, who organized the event.

Wessel is now an entrepreneur living in Delano. Among his latest inventions is a Game Boy-inspired device that helps young diabetics monitor their blood sugar level.