The Dakota War of 1862, Part One: When Patience Ran Out

In the summer of 1862, a Dakota leader named Little Crow warned his people that war with the United States would destroy them. Then he led them into it anyway, because he would not let them face it without him. Six weeks later, the largest mass execution in American history proved him right. The Minnesota I live in today was built on the ground his people were driven from, and most of us were never taught how. This is the first of a three-part series drawn from a college paper I spent many months on, about Henry David Thoreau and the Dakota people, which you can now read as a blog post. There is considerable factual overlap, but my intention with the series is less interpretive. I wrote it well after the original paper, from my scattered notes and references. In June of 1861, a steamboat named the Frank Steele pulled up to the Redwood Agency along the Minnesota River carrying Minnesota's governor, territorial dignitaries, and a collection of curious observers. The boat had been named…