Battle of Birch Coulee's 140th anniversary marked

Battle site has meaning to descendants of both sides

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

MORTON -- The Battle of Birch Coulee was one that left both settler and Dakota with some deep scars after it ended in September of 1862.

Now, some 140 years later, interest in both the Birch Coulee battlefield and the overall conflict still brings people of all creeds and colors to this place, which is just off Renville County Road 2.

Saturday afternoon saw two crowds there. On top of the hill, a mostly white group of tourists wound up a driving tour of the sites that played a role in the struggle.

Coincidentally, The Gathering Kinship of Dakota held its annual pow-wow in the county park just beyond the trees and across the stream.

"In early history, it was called a massacre," said Forest Leith, a Dakota from Redwood Falls who manned the pow-wow's souvenir button table. "But it was just people fighting for their land."

Dan Fjeld, a Minnesota Historical Society site technician from the Lower Sioux Agency, echoed Leith. He said the conflict wasn't simply "Indian versus white" but rather one that engulfed settlers, traders, government employees, Christian Dakota farmers, Dakota who were half white and the Dakota who led the uprising.

"This was the summary of many different points of view," Fjeld said. "Here is where it makes the difference."

It was on the morning of Sept. 2, 1862 that a two companies of fresh, inexperienced Army infantrymen were taken by surprise by bands of Dakota warriors, whom the soldiers were assured were nowhere nearby only a few hours before. The recruits had been sent to the field for burial detail. They chose to circle their wagons and camp in a spot that in 1862 was "low-lying and open to gunfire," according to one historical marker there.

These days, the site where that battle took place has gradually grown back to being a farm field, with the exception that it is dotted with historical markers, foot trails and informational kiosks at certain places. To most of the people that took the MHS's latest driving tour, the place looks very much like the other places that figured in that conflict. Prairie grass and trees have grown and spread, obscuring the vantage points that the two sides had then, making the battlefield somehow less historical to the three MHS tour guides.

But to the ancestors of the 38 Dakota who were later hanged in Mankato, it is a place to come to let those old spirits go on. Shannon Blue is a young Dakota woman. She lives on the Lower Sioux Agency in Morton. She said she remembers the first pow-wow, which was held in 1994. Although most of the people who danced and sang and sat in drum circles came from the Mdewakanton band, Blue said the pow-wow is a combination of people from all Dakota tribes.

"This battlefield was where a lot of our ancestors died," she said. "A lot of my ancestors were killed at Birch Coulee."

Randy Kvam, an assistant site technician from Fort Ridgely, said the outcome of the attack, which lasted 36 hours, helped worsen relations between the two warring factions. Some of the Dakota who fought there later turned themselves in. Others went on to fight at places like Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee.

Fjeld said there are other misconceptions about the conflict. He said some people think that the U.S.-Dakota conflict was over in six weeks; it wasn't. He said settlers in Minnesota were still being killed as late as 1865. The overall conflict between the two peoples didn't end until around 1890.

Another error that seems to particularly get under Fjeld's skin is the remark made by a trader -- not an Indian agent -- named Myrick, which is now famous. Myrick is the one who famously said "Let them eat grass" in the months leading up to the conflict. Fjeld quickly points out that it was an offhand remark that Myrick was kicking himself for moments after the words escaped his lips.

"We get quite a few people that come in that have old data or incomplete data," he said. "I mean, these days we've got all kinds of different research methods...new sources have come to light. They're all helping to better understand what happened here."

But Fjeld also pointed out earlier that a complete, accurate account might never happen. Accounts from soldiers who fought for the two Army captains differ from one another. And the official versions also give different stories.

"What exactly happened here we may never know entirely," Fjeld told tourists.

Kvam said Birch Coulee was the turning point for the Dakota from aggressors to defenders. The Dakota were completely on the defensive during the Battle of Wood Lake, which started on Sept. 23.

The Battle of Birch Coulee was the second to last battle fought with the Dakota in Minnesota. Army and Dakota forces had already met at the Redwood Ferry, New Ulm, and Fort Ridgely before the attack began. The Battle of Wood Lake followed on Sept. 23.