38 Men Executed December 26, 1862

"The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. 
The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language,
and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized
that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in
accordance with that status." Carol Chomsky, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School

DAKOTA WAR OF 1862

After the Treaty of 1851, the Dakota are restricted to a reservation along the Minnesota River.

The United States creates two primary agencies to administer control and assimilate Dakota people,
these are the Upper Sioux and Lower Sioux Agencies.
The Untied States breaches the terms of the treaty, failing to provide food and services promised.
Local traders refuse to give out food from their stores. With rampant disease, failing crops 

and starvation threatening, Dakota people revolt against the United States of America.

The War of 1862 begins.

Chief Taoyateduta becomes head war chief. Villages are split on the war.

A group of Christian converts object to the war, helping local farmers escape attack.
Others join the war effort and start attacking local towns
and the regional military post, Ft Ridgely.
After two months of fighting, the Dakota begin to lose the war.
Thousands of non-combatants (women, children, elders) begin to flee Minnesota.

The war ends on December 26th, 1862 with the largest mass hanging in US history.
38 Dakota warriors are executed in Mankato, MN.
The state of Minnesota proclaims all Dakota people illegal within its boundaries.

More Details: 

On December 26, 1862, following the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the federal government hanged
38 members of the Dakota tribe in Minnesota.

It was the largest mass execution in United States history.
Two days after the Dakota surrendered at Camp Release on September 26, 1862,
a military commission began trying Dakota men accused of participating in the war.
The rapid trials—some no more than five minutes—of 392 prisoners were completed in November.
According to the Minnesota Historical Society, 303 men were sentenced to death and 16 received
prison terms. After reviewing the trial transcripts,

President Abraham Lincoln provided a list of 39 names of prisoners to be executed.
One received a last minute reprieve.

On the morning of December 26, 1862, in front of an estimated crowd of 4,000 spectators
and on a specially constructed mass-hanging scaffold,
the men were executed. They were left dangling from the scaffold for a half hour.

After the execution, it was discovered that two men had been mistakenly hanged.

The Minnesota Historical Society reports that "Wicaƞḣpi Wastedaƞpi (We-chank-wash-ta-don-pee),
who went by the common name of Caske (meaning first-born son), reportedly stepped forward when
the name 'Caske' was called, and was then separated for execution from the other prisoners.
The other, Wasicuƞ, was a young white man who had been adopted by the Dakota at an early age.
Wasicuƞ had been acquitted."  

Information credit:

https://dakotawicohan.org/dakota-of-minnesota-history/

https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/the-largest-mass-execution-in-us-history

wnctimes December 2021 Marjorie Farrington