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In September of 1862, in the final days of the Minnesota Dakota Indian War, the warring Indians, who were retreating north, learned of Col. Sibley and 1,400 men camped near Wood Lake and decided to make a last-ditch effort to take them by surprise and stop their advance. They were able to field only about 700 braves. They were discovered, and their surprise failed. This was the last consequential battle after which the warring parties broke up, surrendered or fled north and west. In the meantime, the “friendly” Indians had taken control of the hostages and agreed to release them to Sibley, cease hostilities and surrender, as Sibley promised that only Indians who killed noncombatants would be punished. Nevertheless, Indian fears of the anticipated white reaction were soon to be realized. By November about 400 Indians were tried by a military tribunal with nearly 300 condemned to be hanged. Any Indian admitting to being at a battle or firing a gun was condemned.

Defendants had no lawyers, could bring no witnesses, did not have time to prepare (some 40 cases a day were handled by the court) and interpreters were not even sworn in. The remaining prisoners, chained together, and their families — about 1,600 in number — were marched to Mankato, Henderson and St. Paul and subjected to abuse and assaults (at times bricks and stones) by frontier townspeople along the way. On Dec. 26, government authorities placated the people by hanging 38 convicted Dakota men in Mankato. It would have been far more hanged if it were not for Abraham Lincoln intervening, charging lack of due process and overly harsh sentences for most defendants.

Remaining prisoners were set to a prison camp in Davenport, Iowa, and their families to the Crow Creek Reservation in south central Dakota territory. Even many mixed and full-bloods who assisted in saving the hostages from being slaughtered and helped end the war were imprisoned. In time, many were released and made it back to Minnesota and various reservations.

If this story sounds familiar it is because it’s hard not to see the parallels in many ways with the Hamas/Israeli war today — but affecting millions not thousands. Palestinians were displaced from their land by Jewish settlement and forced onto reservations of sorts — Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian culture has been disrespected, disrupted and undermined, subjected to discrimination and deprived of support from the Israeli government and Palestinians forced to survive with inadequate food, health care, education or economic opportunity. Then Hamas, like the extremist Dakota resistors, sparked an incident that quickly led to a general conflict — a conflict that most Palestinians didn’t want. Innocents were killed. Hostages were taken. There were massacres and atrocities on both sides, but also compassion and heroism. The war against Hamas became the excuse to wage war on a whole people. The Dakota War could have developed similarly except for the efforts of anti-war tribes to reach peace. And, just as the sensed need to stand together for your people recruited men to the war for the Dakotas, it’s most likely the war in Gaza will stimulate recruitment for Hamas.

As the Dakotas had to flee north to avoid Sibley, Palestinians had to flee south away from the IDF. Hostages were a factor in both cases in negotiating a secession of hostilities. And, just as President Lincoln intervened to stem the excessive judgments against the Dakotas, President Biden is calling out Israeli excessive force and civilian deaths and insisting on ceasefire and provision of humanitarian aid.

It’s easy to label these reactive moments the acts and initiative of terrorists. No doubt the Dakota braves and “soldier’s lodge” would have been considered terrorists in their day, but these events develop over time with objective circumstances and arise from the grievances of the people that usually have no political recourse to resolve their problems. They find themselves watching their families and communities suffering deprivation and injustice. It’s no wonder there are “explosions.”

Mike Kelly
Albert Lea