The Dakota War of 1862, Part Two: Six Weeks

This is the second of three posts on the Dakota War of 1862. The first, When Patience Ran Out, traced how a decade of broken treaties and starvation brought the Dakota to the morning the war began. Little Crow had warned his people that war with the United States would destroy them. When they chose it anyway, he chose to lead them, unwilling to let them go without him. The fighting began at dawn on August 18, 1862, and over the next six weeks the Minnesota River valley became a killing ground, leaving the Dakota who surrendered at the end to the mercy of a state that wanted them gone. Dakota warriors attacked the Lower Sioux Agency that morning, killing traders and employees and setting buildings ablaze. Smoke rose over the Minnesota River valley as word spread to isolated farms. Hundreds of settlers fled toward Fort Ridgely and New Ulm, some making it, others caught on the roads. The warriors looted and burned the farms the families left behind, though a federal commission later…