Armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux
The Dakota War of 1862 ended with the largest mass execution in U.S. history and the forced exile of the eastern Dakota from Minnesota.
Key Facts
- Duration
- Five weeks (August–September 1862)
- Settler deaths
- 358 settlers killed
- Military casualties
- 77 soldiers and 36 militia/armed civilians
- Dakota men hanged
- 38 hanged on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, MN
- Dakota surrendered/captured
- Approximately 2,000
- Death sentences reviewed by Lincoln
- 303 sentenced; 39 approved; 38 executed
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Eastern Dakota bands had been pressured into ceding their lands through a series of treaties, confined to a narrow reservation along the Minnesota River, and encouraged to abandon their traditional hunting lifestyle. A crop failure in 1861, a harsh winter, depleted game, and withheld annuity payments by traders and Indian agents brought the Dakota to the brink of starvation, creating intense grievances that drove the conflict.
On August 18, 1862, following the killing of five settlers by four young Dakota men the previous day, Chief Little Crow led an attack on the Lower Sioux Agency and surrounding settlements in southwest Minnesota. The five-week war saw Dakota warriors kill over 500 settlers and take hundreds of hostages, until Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley defeated Little Crow's forces at the Battle of Wood Lake on September 23, 1862.
In the aftermath, 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato on December 26, 1862, in the largest single-day mass execution in U.S. history. Approximately 2,000 Dakota were interned at Fort Snelling, and in 1863 the eastern Dakota and Ho-Chunk were exiled to reservations in present-day South Dakota and Nebraska. The U.S. Congress abolished all eastern Dakota reservations in Minnesota, and the state confiscated and sold all remaining Dakota land.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley, Governor Alexander Ramsey.
Side B
1 belligerent
Chief Little Crow.