The Dakota War of 1862, Part Three: The Reckoning

This is the last of three posts on the Dakota War of 1862. The second, Six Weeks, followed the war to the Dakota surrender at Camp Release. By the end of September 1862 the fighting was over. The Dakota who surrendered had fought a war and expected to be judged as defeated soldiers. Minnesota had something else in mind: "The Sioux Indians of Minnesota," the governor declared, "must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State." Vengeance Military tribunals began immediately. Over several weeks, 392 Dakota men were tried, with the commission settling up to 40 cases in a single day with some trials lasting as little as five minutes. The first prisoner tried was Joseph Godfrey, known as Otakle, the son of a Black mother and a French-Canadian father, who had been married to a Dakota woman and had lived at the Lower Agency for five years. He was sentenced to hang. He then agreed to turn state's evidence, had his sentence commuted to 10 years, and testified in detail…