Lincoln Orders the Largest Mass Execution in U. S History
The Dakota 38 are hung the day after Christmas
photo credit: https://tribalcollegejournal.org/abraham-lincolns-dakota-legacy-part-one/
Following the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, President Lincoln ordered the hanging and convictions of the Dakota 38 on the day after Christmas. More than 3000 Dakota tribal members were expelled from Minnesota and 265 were subjected to judicial injustices and inhuman treatment (Schilling, 2020).
The war resulted from federal restrictions on Dakota tribal movement from unsustainable land and facing probable starvation while heading into a harsh winter. Dealing with unlivable conditions, broken government promises, and racism - violence erupted with four young Dakota members killing five settlers on August 17th, 1862. War was then officially declared by the tribal council and lasted 37 days. In the end, 77 American soldiers, 29 citizen-soldiers, 358 settlers and 29 Dakota warriors had died (Schilling, 2020).
Chomsky (1990) explains the Dakota people are part of conglomerate of seven politically distinct tribes referred to as the Sioux Nation. The war included predominately four of these tribes representing the Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, and Wahpeton. In 1862, the 7000 member Sioux Nation occupied a thin strip of land along the Minnesota River that measured approximately 120 miles long and 10 miles wide. The rest of their land had been taken by the U.S. between 1805 and 1858 for cash payments and, promises to build essential infrastructure facilities. The federal government also maintained agency offices on the reservation (Chomsky, 1990).
By the summer of 1862, tensions between the tribes and white settlers were beginning to boil over. A cash settlement with the Dakotas had been agreed to in 1851 and eleven years later, the government still had not made good on their payment. Meanwhile, white settlers had begun establishing homes on reservation property and eventually squeezed out the Dakota community, both economically and geographically. Government agents were criminally mishandling tribal financial interactions and commerce. Agents favored traders or tribal members who were willingly assimilating into the white community. With the pending Civil War, transactions that were supposed to be based on gold, were rumored to be shifting to paper or possibly no payment at all (Chomsky, 1990).
The composite mistreatment of the Dakotas was reaching a breaking point that launched an unprovoked attack that killed five white settlers on their homesteads. This attack served as a rallying cry for a first strike approach by young Dakota members who saw an opening to jump ahead of the anticipated white response. The next day, the Dakota members attacked a federal agency and killed thirteen onsite, seven more were killed while fleeing, and ten were captured. Forty-seven settlers escaped and sought federal support at a nearby army outpost. With only 46 soldiers on hand, the army arrived at the agency where the troops were outnumbered by the Dakotas. By the time the army left, 24 troops were dead. Other skirmishes continued with the Army, militia, and local residents over the next month. It was rumored that the Dakotas were killing the men, capturing the women and children, and committing mass mutilation but, it is unclear if this is factually based (Chomsky, 1990).
Barely a month after the war started, support was dwindling. Three of the tribal leaders fled and the remaining tribal chiefs decided to negotiate a surrender. Nearly 400 Dakota men were tried for murder, rape, and robbery in a military court (instead of criminal) with all but 70 convicted. The trial was conducted by soldiers from the very same war. Of the 303 convicted Dakotas sentenced to death, 38 were hung on the day after Christmas making it the largest U.S. mass execution in history (Schilling, 2020). The U.S. Dakota War organization posits the trials unfairly used sparse evidence, biased testimony, and had a lack of authority for convening a tribunal. The trial was conducted in English and native interpretations for the accused were not provided. Additionally, the Dakota tribe was a sovereign nation, but they were not provided their rights accordingly.
The sentences given, with the approval of President Lincoln, were not for the criminal crime of murder but for murder while committing warfare . A Brigadier General in the Union Army, Henry Silbey, was appointed the head of the trial commission with five appointed military members serving on the commission. Major General John Pope, Sibley’s commanding officer wrote to Sibley on Sept. 28,1862 and stated, “It is my pursue utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power to do so and even if it requires a campaign lasting the whole of next year. Destroy everything belonging to them and force them out to the plains, unless, as I suggest, you can capture them. They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromises can be made” (Chomsky, 1990).
Executions at the time required presidential approval prior to being completed according to federal statutes. Commission members, concerned that President Lincoln may not go through with a mass execution, began to pressure the President with threats of mass retaliation and brutal vigilantly responses from the locals. Even Minnesota Senator Wilkinson pushed through a resolution requiring a briefing on the sentencing from the president in the Senate. The Dakotas were kept vulnerable to retribution, including innocent ones still on the reservation (Chomsky, 1990).
On December 6, Lincoln sorted out the crimes and the sentences and issued his verdict with a recommendation to execute thirty-nine prisoners. The locals and the officials were concerned that this number was too low and there would be a rebellion by the local white settlers. Added to this, it is alleged that some of the Dakota names were similar and created confusions about who should be executed. One of the designated for execution was given a reprieve by the President on December 23rd due to questions of guilt (Chomsky, 1990).
Replica of Dec. 26, 1862 hanging at Mankato, Minnesota. Gary Huffenberger | News Journal
Lincoln personally approved who would be convicted and sentenced based on recommendations from the Commission and on participating civilian “witness testimony.” This testimony was suspect at best and coerced at worse. One witness provided testimony in 55 of the cases (Schilling, 2020). President Lincoln signed off on 39 executions (one was ultimately spared) but also commuted 264 other Dakota combatants, even in the face of strong white opposition. President Lincoln's commutation has not convinced legal scholars that he used appropriate judgement in deciding on the executions. The decision to convict and execute the Dakotas has been considered by many legal experts and historians to be more political than judicial (Chomsky, 1990). Two of the executed were allegedly accidental with one being the result of a misidentification and the other, a white man who had been acquitted. The men were hung in a public square before 4000 cheering whites. The bodies were left dangling for half an hour and then dumped in a mass grave but were shortly excavated to be used as medical cadavers. More than 25% of the remaining tribe would be dead within the year (Schilling, 2020).
Citations:
Chomsky, Carol. The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice. Stanford Law Review, November, 1990.
Schilling, Vincent. “The Traumatic True History and Name List of the Dakota 38.” Indian Country Today. Indian Country Today, December 26, 2020. https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/traumatic-true-history-full-list-dakota-38?fbclid=IwAR1fWVSq4z3XR2CgScft5GBheyZm03rTQVPTcguQGOKADXpUhiDRvRZyrs.
https://tribalcollegejournal.org/abraham-lincolns-dakota-legacy-part-one/
https://www.wnewsj.com/news/99139/a-frontier-war-and-38-hangings
https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging
Additional Recommended Reading:
Brown, Dee Alexander. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971.
Heard, Isaac V. D. History of the Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1863.
Isch, John. The Dakota Trials: The 1862-1864 Military Commission Trials : Including the Trial Transcripts and Commentary. New Ulm, MN: Brown County Historical Society, 2012.
Meyer, Roy Willard. History of the Santee Sioux; United States Indian Policy on Trial. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1993.