Dakota Uprising 1862

     On August, 1862, a Dakota hunting party killed five white settlers along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota. A war between white settlers and the Dakota broke out. The Dakota, under Chief Little Crow, cited broken treaties. By the end of November, 1862, an estimated 800 white settlers had been killed.
     President Abraham Lincoln sent General Pope to put down the uprising. The Dakota were defeated and more than a thousand Dakota were captured by the U.S. Army.
     On December 26, 1862, after President Lincoln signed the order, 38 Dakota were hung in the largest single day execution in American history. The following year, Chief Little Crow, picking raspberries with his son, was killed by Nathan Lamson, a white settler. Lamson also killed Little Crow's son.
     Lamson received a $500 bounty for the scalps. 
     For readers who appreciate history's side notes, especially about Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, here is a revealing article by Ron Soodalter at the New York Times:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/lincoln-and-the-sioux/?emc=eta1
     View complementary short history of the 1862 Dakota war at Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_War_of_1862
     (Siege of New Ulm painting courtesy of Wikipedia.)