Dakota Indians Mark Hangings of 1862 with 300 mile Horseback Ride

I just read a really good Reuters article published on Yahoo by David Bailey. Below is an excerpt from that article. It would be worth reading the entire article - just click on the Reuters article link.

Today, the day after Christmas, will be somber for Dakota Indians marking what they consider a travesty of justice 150 years ago, when 38 of their ancestors were executed in the biggest mass hanging in U.S. history.

Overshadowed by the Civil War raging in the East, the hangings in Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862, followed the often overlooked six-week U.S.-Dakota war earlier that year -- a war that marked the start of three decades of fighting between Native Americans and the U.S. government across the Plains.

Over the next three years, Americans will commemorate the 150th anniversary of a host of Civil War battles. Almost forgotten are the conflicts with Native Americans that occurred in the second half of the 19th century as the United States rapidly expanded west.

Few of those conflicts are well known, with the exception of "Custer's Last Stand" -- when flamboyant officer George Armstrong Custer and his men were killed by Sioux leader Crazy Horse and his warriors in 1876 -- and the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890, which many historians consider a massacre and the end of the Indian wars.

Thousands of Native Americans, white settlers and U.S. soldiers were killed in the Indian wars. Native Americans were coerced to cede their lands and then forced onto reservations. In the Upper Plains, that included members of the Great Sioux Nation, which comprises Lakota to the west, Nakota in the middle and Dakota to the east around Minnesota.

Under treaties in 1851, the four main Dakota bands ceded about 35 million acres of what is now southern Minnesota, parts of Iowa and South Dakota. In exchange, the U.S. pledged payments and allowed the Dakota a narrow tract of land about 10 miles wide on either side of the Minnesota River. Settlers swarmed onto the newly opened lands.

In 1858, just after Minnesota became a state, Dakota chiefs were summoned to Washington, D.C., and told they would have to give up the northern half of that narrow reserve, said St. Cloud State University historian Mary Wingerd.

By summer 1862, the Dakota, now largely dependent on government treaty payments that were long delayed, were starving. On August 17, young Dakota men out hunting killed five white settlers. The hunters pressed Chief Taoyateduta, known as Little Crow, to back a war. Some Dakota, but not all, fought soldiers and settlers in the short, bloody war in August and September 1862.

Hundreds of settlers were killed and hundreds more taken hostage in the war during attacks on forts, federal Indian agencies, cities and farms around southwestern Minnesota. Thousands of settlers fled east, fueling a statewide panic, and federal troops marched in to quell the Dakota fighters.

The U.S. was victorious on September 23, 1862, and Little Crow left Minnesota. Afterward, more than 2,000 Dakota were rounded up, whether they fought or not. Almost 400 men faced military trials, which often lasted just a few minutes, and 303 were sentenced to die.

President Lincoln demanded a review limiting the death sentences to those Dakota who raped or killed settlers. The number sentenced to hang was reduced to 38, but even in these cases the evidence was scanty, said Dan Stock, history center director at the Minnesota Historical Society.

The 38 condemned men stood on a large square gallows surrounded by soldiers. Thousands watched as a single blow with an ax cut a rope and dropped the scaffolding.

This month, in an annual event that started in 2005, some Dakota are making a 300 + mile trek on horseback in frigid winter temperatures to revive the memory of this footnote in U.S. history.

This all started in the spring of 2005, when Jim Miller, a Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history,...... "When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator... As any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn't get it. I tried to put it out of my mind, yet it's one of those dreams that bothers you night and day."

This year's ride began on December 10 in Crow Creek, South Dakota, the reservation the Dakota were exiled to from Minnesota after the executions. It ends on December 26 in Mankato, where riders will attend a ceremony to remember the hangings.

Riders travel east across South Dakota, crossing the border into Minnesota and heading southeast to Mankato. Some ride the entire route, others join as their schedules permit. Support vehicles follow them.

The ride was captured in the documentary film "Dakota 38," which won a special jury award this year at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival. Take an hour out of your day and watch the video application of "Dakota 38", I don't think you'll regret it.

Buffalo Soldiers

In 1866, through an act of Congress, legislation was adopted to create six all African American Army units. The units were identified as the 9th and 10th cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st infantry regiments. The four infantry regiments were later reorganized to form the 24th and 25th infantry regiments.

These fighting men represented the first Black professional soldiers in a peacetime army. The recruits came from varied backgrounds including former slaves and veterans from service in the Civil War. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, coming to be known as Buffalo Soldiers, these Black-Americans were assigned to the harshest and most desolate posts in the West and Southwest.

The nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" began with the Cheyenne warriors in 1867. The actual Cheyenne translation was Wild Buffalo. The nickname was given out of respect and the fierce fighting ability of the 10th Cavalry. Overtime, Buffalo Soldiers became a generic term for all African American soldiers. Some attribute the name “Buffalo Soldiers” to the Indians likening the short curly hair of the black troopers to that of the buffalo. Another possibility for the nickname was the heavy buffalo robes the soldiers wore on winter campaigns.

During the 1870-1880’s, the Buffalo Soldier wore a flannel shirt, and a blouse of dark blue with light blue trousers tucked into over-the-knee boots. Also, civil war kepi (hat) adorned with crossed sabers bearing regimental and troop designation. He was armed with a 45-70 Springfield carbine (rifle), a Colt Army .45 (1873 model) caliber pistol and a saber. He was outfitted with a slouch ‘campaign’ hat, black at first and a light grayish-brown by 1874, with a four way crease that became known as the Montana crease. The Buffalo Soldiers were not issued a neckerchief but generally wore one of his own color of choice anyway. Sometimes yellow was worn more often red or white. These were real necessities, especially for the men riding further back in the column needing protection from the thick clouds of dust kicked up by the front ranks.

1866-1891, The Indian Wars - The 5,000 blacks who served in the all-black 9th and 10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments constituted about 10% of the total troops who guarded the Western Frontier for a quarter century. The 10th Cavalry Regiment is one of the unique regiments in U.S. Military history. Moving west from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas within a year after its activation in 1866, the 10th began its march into immortality becoming the original Buffalo Soldiers.

Locations like the Great Plains and in the mountains and deserts of New Mexico and Arizona were a formidable challenge. Ten years of near constant campaigning were required before conflicts with numerous Indian nations subsided. Buffalo Soldiers were also assigned to the Texas border in harsh and desolate posts, where they also subdued Mexican revolutionaries and Outlaws. Buffalo Soldier on Horseback from the 9th Cavalry below.

1898, The Spanish-American War - The four regular regiments fought in Cuba , making up about 12% of the forces on the Island. The 10th Cavalry regiment distinguished itself in Cuba at Santiago and Las Guasimas, and in the famous charge up San Juan Hill . What most people do not know is that the brunt of the fighting was borne by the soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments. One eyewitness has written: "If it had not been for the Negro Cavalry, the Rough Riders (and future President Teddy Roosevelt) would have been exterminated." The 10th Cavalry fought for 48 hours under fire from Spaniards who were in brick forts on the hill. Photo below depicts Buffalo Soldiers in Cuba.

An interesting fact is that then First Lieutenant John Pershing fought with the 10th Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers) on Kettle and San Juan Hills in Cuba and was cited for gallantry, later known as “Black Jack” Pershing, given his nickname because of his service with Buffalo Soldiers, and becoming a famous General while leading a Expeditionary Force against the Mexican Rebel Pancho Villa, as well as leading troops during World War I.

1899-1902, The Philippines War - In addition to the four Black regular regiments, two volunteer regiments composed of Blacks help wage this colonial campaign.

1916, The Mexican Punitive Expedition - The all-black 10th Cavalry comprised 12% of the forces sent in pursuit of Pancho Villa. The regiment suffered over half (10 men killed) of the casualties sustained against the Villistas.

Note: This post is focused on the African –American service members during the Indian Wars until The Mexican Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa. It is not intended to convey that the only African American military service worthy of mention was the aforementioned time periods. Black service members contributed as fighting men as early as the American Revolution and continued to this day fighting against Islamic fundamentalist and terrorists in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. I am lucky and proud to have served with, and under, some of these modern day “Buffalo Soldiers.”