Revisiting a war that shaped Minnesota, 150 years later
July 2, 2012 at 5:39 am in Grand Forks Herald
The Minnesota Historical Society has been thinking long and hard about how to tell the story of one of the most divisive turning points in state history. Continue Reading
In the winter of 2010-2011 I read everything for the non-specialist reader I could lay my hands on about the 1862 Dakota War. I found this well-written article to be generally in agreement with what I found out. Obviously the article had to stick to basic facts given the small space available. I found nothing in the article that was new or enlightening. I would like to see deeper issues explored. One, for example, might be why Little Crow – an intelligent and knowledgeable leader – agreed to lead the Dakota into a war in which he must have known the odds heavily favored the settlers? Was it something cultural? Or did he believe, for whatever reason, he could take on the US Army in open battles to the extent of being able to drive the white settlers out of Minnesota? There are many such questions that arise that have not been seriously addressed in much of what I have read. I hope the historical society will address them in detail in the near future.
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” One, for example, might be why Little Crow – an intelligent and knowledgeable leader – agreed to lead the Dakota into a war in which he must have known the odds heavily favored the settlers?”
Tbat one is easy: warrior ethos and politics. Like Bush into Afghanistan the people demanded it.
The Sioux were being marganilized and they had had enough. The people demanded their leaders take a stand. To do otherwise would have invited being removed.
This is not a Native American cultural phenomena. Look at the South during the Civil War a few short years before. Anyone with common sense knew the South was doomed to failure, yet Robert E. Lee, one of the best military minds of the generation chose to roll the dice and try the impossible.
Why? The people demanded it.
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