0:00

Are you looking for brand new episodes of a short

0:02

how Stuff Works podcast that explains

0:04

the everyday world around us, Then

0:06

check out brain Stuff with me Christian

0:09

Sager. New episodes hit every

0:11

Monday and Wednesday on iTunes, Google

0:13

Play, Spotify, or anywhere else you

0:15

get your podcasts. Welcome

0:19

to Stuff you missed in History Class

0:21

from how Stuff Works dot Com.

0:29

Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

0:32

I'm Tracy Wilson and I'm Holly

0:34

Frying. We are having a

0:36

little bit of an unplanned mini series

0:38

on historical events that are tied directly

0:41

to ongoing news. So previously

0:43

it was our recent two parter on the Attica

0:45

prison uprising, which came up over and

0:47

over in coverage of the United

0:50

States prison strike that started in September,

0:52

and today it is history that's connected

0:55

to the standing Rock Sioux and other Indigenous

0:57

people's and the ongoing protests against

0:59

the the Dakota Access Pipeline. Two

1:02

nights before we recorded this episode,

1:05

events in North Dakota once again

1:07

made headlines and what the authorities

1:09

described as an ongoing riot and

1:12

water protectors described as a peaceful

1:14

effort to dismantle a barricade that's

1:16

been blocking access to a highway for several

1:18

weeks. Law enforcement used

1:20

tear gas and other less than lethal weapons

1:23

to try to disperse the crowd, as

1:25

well as water from a fire hose or

1:27

a water cannon, even though the temperature

1:30

at that point was below freezing. Law

1:32

enforcement originally claimed that the water was

1:34

only being used to put out fires, which

1:37

the protesters had said had been

1:39

lit only to stay warm and not to cause damage,

1:41

but later law enforcement acknowledged

1:44

that it had used water to quote

1:46

repel some of the protest activities.

1:50

So, given this episodes relevance

1:52

to what is happening right now, we

1:54

decided to move it up from its originally

1:56

scheduled time later in November to the

1:58

next episode we had on our calendar.

2:01

This history that we're talking about today happened at

2:03

the same time as the United States Civil War,

2:06

and it was a series of brutal, brutal

2:08

and violent clashes between North America's

2:10

indigenous population and the United

2:12

States Army. And while the first

2:15

of these started after murders

2:17

were committed by a group of young Native

2:19

American men, what followed became

2:21

a multi year campaign against the region's

2:23

indigenous population at the hands

2:25

of US military forces. So

2:27

parts of the history that we're telling today are

2:30

truly horrific. Although

2:33

the history that we are talking about in

2:35

this episode uh ends in the

2:37

Dakotas, it actually starts in Minnesota.

2:40

Minnesota Territory was established in

2:42

eighteen forty nine, largely from land

2:44

that had been part of the Louisiana Purchase,

2:47

and when the territory was established, it was almost

2:49

twice as big as the state of Minnesota

2:51

is today, and at its founding,

2:54

about five thousand predominantly white

2:56

settlers and thirty one thousand

2:58

indigenous people lived are Many

3:01

of the indigenous people were Dakota. The

3:04

Dakota are part of the Chetti Shikohan,

3:06

which I have also heard speakers

3:09

of various Dakota dialects and languages

3:12

pronounced more like a Chetti chakoheen

3:15

that translates into the seven council

3:17

fires. The Chetti Shakohen

3:19

are made up of several divisions, which

3:21

each have their own unique linguistics, social,

3:24

political, and cultural distinctions, as

3:26

well as their own histories and original

3:29

territories. These indigenous

3:31

peoples are often collectively called

3:33

the Sue or the Great Sioux Nation, and

3:36

the term Sue actually comes from a French

3:38

translation of an Ojibwe word for

3:40

snake rather than a Dakota word,

3:43

and for that reason some people prefer not to use

3:45

the word sue, but others do, and

3:48

a number of tribal governments do use

3:50

it to refer to themselves, as

3:53

is so often the case. In the history

3:55

of the United States, the relationship between

3:57

the US government and the Dakota people, as

4:00

well as the other indigenous peoples of the

4:02

region, was primarily governed

4:04

by a series of treaties, and many

4:06

of these treaties were questionable at

4:09

best. The indigenous population

4:11

signed many of them under durests or

4:13

without being given a clear understanding

4:15

of what the documents actually said. On

4:18

top of that, many of the treaties actual

4:21

terms, which usually heavily favored

4:23

the United States over the native population,

4:25

were later undermined and even completely

4:28

ignored, so that what few protections

4:30

the native nations had were

4:32

then eroded or stripped away entirely.

4:35

The series of treaties between the Dakota

4:38

and the United States started in eighteen

4:40

o five, and in most of them,

4:42

the Dakota ceded land to the United

4:44

States in exchange for money, often

4:47

a lot less money than that land was actually

4:49

worse in negotiation that

4:51

included everything from coercion to threats

4:54

of military force on the part of the United

4:56

States. In eighteen

4:58

fifty one, two different treaties

5:01

turned over thirty five million acres

5:03

of land, primarily in central

5:05

and southern Minnesota, to the United

5:07

States. This was basically all of

5:09

the Dakota's remaining territory in Minnesota.

5:12

One treaty, the Treaty of Traverse to

5:15

Sue, was an exchange for more than one

5:17

point six million dollars. The

5:19

other, the Treaty of Mendota, was in

5:21

change for. It was an exchange for a little

5:23

more than one point four million dollars. However,

5:26

and neither treaty where the Dakota

5:28

actually getting that money itself.

5:31

They were to be paid the interest on it

5:33

periodically for fifty years.

5:36

The Traverse to Sue signing also

5:38

included what came to be known as a quote

5:40

trader's paper, which diverted

5:42

payments from the Dakota to traders,

5:45

most of whom were white or part Indigenous,

5:47

to pay off debts. Because

5:49

the trader's paper had not been read, allowed,

5:52

or translated, many who signed it

5:54

believed it was just another copy of the treaty

5:57

not a separate document, and had no

5:59

idea that it involved diverting money

6:01

out of their payments, because

6:03

the traders themselves were the ones who kept

6:06

the records of how much money they were owed.

6:08

This also created ongoing questions

6:10

about whether the traders were patting

6:12

the bill. In addition

6:15

to all of that, the treaties

6:17

called for land along both the north

6:19

and south sides of the Minnesota River to

6:21

be set aside as a reservation for

6:23

the Dakota to live on. However,

6:26

once the treaties were actually approved by

6:28

the U. S. Senate, the provisions for the reservation

6:31

were removed. This left

6:33

the Dakota with nowhere to go. Eventually,

6:36

President Millard Fillmore agreed that

6:38

the Dakota could live on that reservation

6:40

land, but only until white

6:42

settlers needed it. The

6:45

United States decided it needed

6:47

that land north of the river in eighteen

6:49

fifty eight, leading to another treaty.

6:52

However, white settlers rushed

6:54

into the area before that treaty was ratified,

6:57

including a portion of it that was supposed to

6:59

be set as side for the Dakota, and

7:01

many refused to leave. Once

7:04

again, the payment for this piece of land was

7:06

a fraction of what it was actually worse.

7:10

Following this series of treatise in eighteen

7:12

sixty two, about six thousand,

7:14

five hundred Dakota were living in a narrow

7:17

strip of land south of the Minnesota River,

7:19

which was divided into an Upper and Lower

7:21

Agency, and many of them,

7:23

especially in the Lower Agency, were starving.

7:27

The previous winter had been hard, and even

7:29

though it was now late summer, the season's

7:31

harvests had not been enough to really support

7:33

the population, and they definitely

7:35

were not enough to prepare for the upcoming

7:37

winter. There was no game

7:40

to hunt on the reservation itself, and

7:42

the white population of Minnesota had

7:44

increased dramatically to more than one hundred

7:46

and seventy thousand people. This

7:49

was thanks in part to government incentives

7:51

like the Homestead Act, so competition

7:54

for hunting around the reservation, which

7:56

the Dakota weren't really supposed to be doing,

7:59

was fear. I

8:01

should note that it wasn't literally a hundred

8:04

percent white population, but in terms

8:06

of newcomers, it was uh much

8:09

much bigger population than it had been even

8:11

a decade before. On

8:13

top of this huge shortage of food,

8:16

in August of eighteen sixty two, the annuity

8:18

payment from the government that was due to

8:20

the Dakota from those eighteen fifty one treaties

8:23

had been delayed, so that meant

8:25

that people living on the reservation didn't

8:27

have money to buy food either. Dakota

8:31

leader Little Crow went to Thomas Galberri's,

8:33

the Indian agent responsible for the Lower

8:35

Agency, to ask for help. In

8:38

his words, quote, we have waited

8:40

a long time. The money is ours,

8:42

but we cannot get it. We have no

8:45

food, but here these stores are filled

8:47

with food. We ask that you, the

8:49

agent, makes some arrangements so we

8:51

can get food from the stores, or else

8:53

we may take our own way to keep ourselves

8:56

from starving. When men are hungry,

8:58

they helped themselves. Galbraith

9:02

declined to order distributions on

9:04

credit, and in the words of trader Andrew

9:06

Myrick, quote, so far as I

9:08

am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat

9:10

grass. Things

9:12

came to a head on August sevent eighteen

9:15

sixty two, when four young Dakotamen

9:18

killed five white settlers. It's

9:20

not exactly clear what led to these murders.

9:23

The story told most often is that they were

9:25

stealing eggs from outside the house where the settlers

9:27

were, and an argument started

9:30

that escalated into violence. After

9:33

returning to their their village,

9:35

the four young men convinced

9:37

Little Crow to declare war, and

9:39

this was something that Little Crow was really reluctant

9:41

to do, but he also recognized

9:44

that they were sure to face retribution,

9:47

especially since some of the white people who had

9:49

been killed were women. He assembled

9:51

a fighting force and raids, many of them

9:54

against civilian communities and not

9:56

military targets, started the next day.

9:59

Soon the death toll from these attacks

10:01

rose to about two hundred white settlers

10:04

killed and more than two hundred more taken

10:06

hostage. The fighting

10:08

spread from there. It's estimated

10:10

that about one thousand of the Dakota people

10:13

participated, and some of them under

10:15

duress. Others, however,

10:17

organized an active resistance, leading

10:19

evacuations of settlers from the area

10:21

and forming the Dakota Peace Party to

10:24

oppose the war and try to negotiate

10:26

for the release of the hostages. When

10:29

Minnesota's governor Alexander Ramsay

10:31

heard of what was going on, he commissioned Henry

10:34

H. Sibley to lead a military force

10:36

to western Minnesota to try to take care of

10:38

it. Sibilly had no military

10:41

experience. He was a fur trader, so

10:43

he did have connections to some of the Dakota

10:45

through that trade, but his lack of strategic

10:48

experience meant that he wasn't really able

10:50

to efficiently pursue the Dakota fighting

10:52

force or to protect the white population.

10:55

By this point, the area's white settlers

10:57

were just in a complete panic. Dakota

11:00

raids on civilian settlements and attacks

11:02

on forts and other military outposts

11:04

continued until September twenty

11:06

three, when Sibley's force defeated Little

11:09

Crows. Little Crow and his

11:11

force fled westward the following day,

11:13

although Little Crow would eventually return to

11:15

the Dakotas, where he would be shot

11:17

and killed in eighteen sixty three. On

11:21

September, the Dakota Peace

11:23

Party surrendered the hostages

11:25

and the war came to an end. By

11:27

then, it had gone on for six weeks, and it

11:29

was horrible. During that time, more

11:32

than six hundred white people had been killed,

11:34

overwhelmingly civilians, with a huge

11:36

number of those being children under

11:39

the age of ten. Between seventy

11:41

five and a hundred Dakota soldiers

11:43

had died, and more than seventy

11:45

white soldiers. However,

11:48

what happened after this heaped one atrocity

11:51

after another onto multiple Native American

11:53

people's, including some who

11:55

had absolutely nothing to do with any

11:57

of this. We will talk ab out

12:00

it uh and what happened after the Dakota

12:02

people moved to South Dakota. After

12:04

we pause for a sponsor break,

12:09

this Christmas, give the gift of Carnivore

12:11

Club. Carnivore Club is a monthly subscription

12:14

to premium artisanal meat like Italian

12:16

saloni, Spanish therezo, duck

12:18

breast, prescudo, and delicious panchatta.

12:21

It is the secret to going from

12:23

oh thank you to whoa thank

12:26

you? I'm not kidding. We just got one of these

12:28

boxes at our house and it was full

12:31

of a number of humanely

12:33

raised, delicious cured

12:35

pork products. I ate priscudo

12:38

and cheese for breakfast today. It was great.

12:41

So now, for a limited time during this

12:43

holiday season, Carnival Club is getting wilder

12:45

than ever. For foodies who aren't

12:47

easily impressed, you have the option

12:50

to upgrade your classic box to the new Exotic

12:52

Meat Box, which gives you the chance to experience

12:55

cured meats like kangaroo, emu, alligator,

12:58

and more. And Carnival Club has

13:00

something for everyone as long as do

13:02

you actually eat meat. Carnivore Club

13:04

has both one time gift orders and long term

13:06

subscriptions available, and if you go to carnivore

13:09

Club dot co now in

13:11

place your order using our promo code

13:13

history fifteen, you'll get fifteen percent

13:16

off. You can finally win a given

13:18

Christmas presents with the gift of unforgettable

13:20

cured meats. Had to carnivore

13:23

Club dot Co to discover the latest

13:25

and greatest on offer from the only club

13:27

for true meat lovers. Use the promo

13:29

code history fifteen to get fifteen

13:32

percent off. It's the best Christmas Present

13:34

idea you've ever stolen from a podcast.

13:40

After the fighting between the Dakota

13:42

and the US Army had ended, government

13:45

forces captured a number of dakotamens

13:47

suspected of being involved and put them on

13:49

trial. These trials were speedy

13:51

and they were heavily biased, with nearly four

13:54

hundred of them happening in only six

13:56

weeks and the accused having no legal

13:59

representation. Three hundred

14:01

three men were sentenced to death and sixteen

14:03

were sentenced to prison. President

14:06

Abraham Lincoln intervened to prevent

14:08

all three hundred and three from being summarily

14:11

executed after Henry Whipple,

14:13

the episcopal Bishop of Minnesota,

14:15

went to him to explain what had led

14:17

up to the violence. Lincoln

14:20

recommended a punishment that would deter further

14:22

violence, but without quote so much severity

14:25

as to be real cruelty.

14:27

He narrowed the execution order to cover

14:29

only two men who had been found guilty

14:31

of rape, plus thirty seven who

14:33

had participated not just in battles

14:35

against military forces, but in

14:38

the massacre of civilians. One

14:41

man was given a last minute reprieve

14:43

and the other thirty eight were executed in

14:45

a public mass hanging on December eighteen

14:48

sixty two. This was the largest

14:50

mass execution in the United States

14:52

history. All the bodies were buried

14:54

in a mass grave, but they were shortly dug

14:56

up to be used as medical cadavers.

14:59

Two the men, it was later discovered, were

15:01

hanged in error, and one of those was just

15:03

a case of mistaken identity. The

15:07

following April, the condemned prisoners

15:09

who had not been executed were sent to a

15:11

military prison in Davenport, Iowa,

15:14

where one and twenty of them died

15:16

due to disease and poor living conditions.

15:19

President Andrew Johnson would order the

15:21

release of the survivors on March twenty two,

15:24

eighteen sixty six, after which

15:26

point they were moved to a reservation in Nebraska.

15:30

But the consequences of the war were not just

15:32

confined to the men who had been found guilty

15:35

of participating in it. On

15:37

November seven, eighteen sixty two, about

15:39

one thousand, seven hundred Dakota, most

15:42

of them women, children, and elderly people,

15:44

were removed via forced march

15:46

to Fort Snelling on the Mississippi River.

15:49

Along the way, they were attacked by a mob

15:51

of white settlers, where many of them were beaten

15:53

and one of the babies was killed. The

15:56

surviving Dakota were then held in internment

15:58

camps. In February

16:01

and March of eighteen sixty three, Congress

16:03

revoked all of the treaties between the

16:06

United States and the Dakota and passed

16:08

the Dakota Expulsion Act, which

16:10

made it illegal for Dakota to live in Minnesota.

16:13

It wasn't the only expulsion act that was passed

16:16

at around this time. A Winnebago

16:18

Removal Act was also passed in February

16:21

of eighteen sixty three. So in

16:23

May of eighteen sixty three, Minnesota's surviving

16:25

Dakota, along with about two thousand

16:27

ho Chunk who had not been part of this war

16:30

at all, were forcibly expelled

16:32

from the state and moved west into Dakota

16:34

Territory in what's now South Dakota.

16:37

The Dakota Expulsion Act has never

16:39

been repealed. The

16:42

US government and local authorities

16:44

were concerned that the Dakota would retaliate,

16:47

especially after some smaller raids and skirmishes

16:50

crossed back over the border into Minnesota,

16:53

and in spite of the executions, the

16:55

expulsion from Minnesota, the internment

16:57

camps, and all of that, their worst

17:00

people who had lost family members in the

17:02

Dakota War who wanted further revenge

17:04

and retribution. As a

17:06

result, two different expeditions

17:08

moved into Dakota Territory in eighteen

17:11

sixty three. One was led by

17:13

General Sibley, who crossed into Dakota

17:15

Territory from Minnesota, and the

17:17

other was led by General Alfred Sully,

17:19

who followed the Missouri River up from the

17:21

south. The plan was for

17:23

the two forces to catch the remaining Dakota

17:26

in a pincer from two different directions,

17:30

but this plan did not work out. Though

17:32

the river was drier than normal, which caused

17:35

a delay in General Sully's riverboat

17:37

journey northward. By the time

17:39

he got to the Upper Missouri area in what's

17:41

now North Dakota, General Sibley

17:43

had already moved through the area and then gone

17:46

on. However, on September

17:48

three, eighteen sixty three, three

17:51

men led by Colonel Albert E. House, who

17:53

were part of Silly's force, spotted un

17:55

encampment of Native Americans at white

17:57

Stone Hill. This was a really

18:00

large, multi tribal gathering of people

18:02

who were hunting, trading, celebrating,

18:04

and preparing for winter. They

18:07

had about four hundred thousand pounds

18:09

of bison meat drawing on racks, and

18:11

about half of the men when he spotted them were

18:14

away from the encampment hunting. Although

18:17

some of the people there were refugees from the

18:19

Dakota War, none of them had actually

18:21

participated in the fighting there. Instead,

18:24

they were predominantly yank Tonay,

18:26

as well as hunk Papa Lakota and

18:28

Seahasapa Lakoda, which

18:31

are also known as Blackfeet. Like the

18:33

Dakota, all of these are part of the Seven

18:35

Council Fires. House

18:37

centimetis trader named Frank

18:39

La from Wise and another man back

18:42

to Sally to get reinforcements. While

18:44

they were gone, Household the assembled camp

18:46

that he wanted to talk, and he asked them to

18:48

surrender all of their chiefs. Although

18:51

they did offer to send some of the chiefs,

18:53

they didn't offer to send all of them,

18:55

and House, not sure whether these

18:57

particularly these particular chief

19:00

were actually important or not, refused

19:02

that offer. This led

19:05

to about three hours of negotiations,

19:07

ending in a standoff. During

19:10

all this time, many in the encampment were packing

19:12

up and preparing to leave. It

19:14

was towards the end of the gathering anyway, and

19:16

it just seemed safer to go. Preparations

19:19

became even more hurried when they spotted

19:21

Sully and his force approaching

19:23

from about a mile away.

19:26

When he got there, which was as the sun was

19:28

setting, Sully found House attempting

19:30

to surround the encampment, although he didn't

19:32

really have enough men to do it. Even

19:35

though a man named Patanka or big Head,

19:37

was waving a white flag, Sully

19:39

and his force charged through the middle of

19:41

the encampment. Most of the people who

19:43

were killed in this first charge were women, children,

19:45

and elderly men, and his companies

19:48

split up and then tried to surround

19:50

the fleeing people, including many who

19:52

were trying to escape down a near a nearby

19:54

ravine. Efforts

19:57

to cut off and encircle the fleeing people

19:59

included cavalry and artillery,

20:02

and while some managed to scather in other directions,

20:05

many fled into a ravine that then became

20:07

the scene of a massacre. Estimates

20:10

range from one hundred to four hundred Native

20:12

Americans killed and about one

20:14

hundred and fifties surrendered. Because

20:17

it was dark by the time the shooting was over, many

20:20

who were wounded wound up being left

20:22

untended. Overnight, the

20:25

U. S Army saw about twenty fatalities,

20:27

many of whom had been caught in crossfire.

20:30

Then, under Sully's command,

20:33

the soldiers gathered up everything that was

20:35

useful from the encampment, wagons,

20:38

food tools, tepees,

20:40

and all of that drying bison meat, and

20:43

they set it on fire. In

20:45

the words of soldier Effie Caldwell quote,

20:48

Sully ordered all the property destroyed,

20:50

tepees, buffalo skins, and all their

20:52

things, including tons and tons

20:54

of dried buffalo meat and tallow. It

20:57

was gathered in wagons, piled in a hollow

20:59

and burned and the melted tallow ran

21:02

down the valley into a stream.

21:04

Hatchets, camp kettles, and all

21:06

things that would sink were thrown into

21:09

a small lake. This

21:12

obviously left everyone who

21:14

had been gathered there completely destitute, and

21:16

on the next day Silly sent scouts to round

21:18

up people who had escaped.

21:21

He took all the prisoners he found to Crow Creek,

21:23

which is essentially a pow camp

21:25

turned into a reservation. Conditions

21:28

at Crow Creek were deplorable, with the

21:30

primary source of food being a max a

21:32

mix of entrails, flour, beans,

21:35

and meat of questionable quality cooked

21:37

together in a cottonwood vat, which

21:39

became known as cottonwood soup. A

21:42

lot of people died there from starvation

21:44

and digestive diseases. On

21:47

September five, the fighting continued

21:49

at Apple Creek, with the surviving

21:52

Native force pushing the U. S. Cavalry

21:54

back until they could cross the water, getting

21:56

women and children to safety. Ongoing

22:00

skirmish has continued until July of

22:02

eighteen sixty four, which saw an incredibly

22:04

similar encounter between the U. S. Army

22:07

under Sully and the Native American forces

22:09

in the Killed Deer Mountains. On July

22:12

three, with the aid of artillery. The army

22:14

killed about a hundred Indigenous people and

22:16

then once again burned all of their food,

22:19

equipment, and supplies. Treaties

22:23

signed in October of eighteen sixty

22:24

five officially ended the fighting.

22:28

All of these events also eventually

22:30

led into the Treaty of Fort Laramie

22:33

in eighteen sixty eight, which we talked about in

22:35

more detail in our podcasts on Calamity

22:37

Jane. That treaty established

22:39

the Great Sioux Reservation, which included

22:41

territory known as the Black Hills, but

22:44

after gold was found in the Black Hills, the United

22:46

States went back on that agreement. This

22:48

eventually went to the Supreme Court in the United

22:51

States versus Student Nation of Indians, in which

22:53

the court ordered that the United States financially

22:55

compensate the Student Nation, but the

22:58

nation refused that payment, saying what

23:00

it wanted was the originally promised

23:02

land. And we're going to talk

23:04

about how perspectives on this incident

23:07

changed over the next one years.

23:09

But first we're gonna take a little break and

23:12

hear from one of our fantastic sponsors.

23:16

In some ways, we're all losers. I know that's difficult

23:19

to hear, but it's maybe not what

23:21

you're thinking. What I'm saying is that we all have a

23:23

tendency to misplace things. Newsweek

23:25

reports the average American wastes fifty

23:27

five minutes a day looking for things that they

23:29

own but they cannot find. That's for sure,

23:32

just scrabbling around. I know,

23:34

I do it all the time. I have the key problem we've

23:36

all discussed. Uh. Tracker,

23:38

however, makes losing things a thing of the past,

23:40

and I'll tell you how to get one for free in just

23:42

a moment. So Tracker is a coin sized device

23:45

that locates your misplaced keys while

23:47

it's bags, computers, anything in seconds.

23:50

So just pare your Tracker to your smartphone,

23:52

attach it to anything, and find that thing's

23:54

precise location with the tap of a button. It is

23:56

that simple. So if you lose your phone, you can

23:58

press the button on your tracker in your phone

24:00

rings even when it's on silence. Tracker

24:03

is finding more than a million misplaced items each

24:05

day. Order yours and you will never lose anything

24:07

again. Listeners to this show get a free

24:09

Tracker Bravo with any order. Go to the

24:11

Tracker dot com t h E tracker

24:14

dot com and enter promo code history. The

24:16

hardest thing you're ever going to have to find is their

24:18

website. So again, go to the tracker

24:20

dot com right now, enter promo

24:22

code history for your free Tracker

24:25

Bravo with any order. Again,

24:27

that's the Tracker dot Com promo code

24:29

history. In

24:34

the immediate aftermath of the white

24:36

Stone Hill massacre, the U. S. Army's

24:39

position was that it was an important

24:41

and decisive victory over the Dakota,

24:45

which, as a reminder, was

24:47

not even the people who were

24:49

really there. Sully and his men

24:52

were praised for their efforts, and

24:54

in Sally's word, quote it is

24:56

to be regretted that I could not have had

24:58

an hour or two more of daylight,

25:01

for I feel sure if I had, I could

25:03

have annihilated the enemy as

25:05

it was. I believe I can safely say I

25:07

gave them one of the most severe punishments

25:10

that the Indian have ever received. But

25:13

in November of eighteen sixty three,

25:16

Sam Brown, who was working as an interpreter

25:18

at Crow Creek, wrote a letter to

25:20

his father in which he said, quote, I

25:23

hope you will not believe all that is said

25:25

of Sully's successful expedition against

25:28

the Sioux. I don't think he ought

25:30

to brag of it at all, because it was what

25:33

no decent man would have done. He

25:35

pitched into their camp and just slaughtered

25:37

them worse a great deal than what

25:40

the Indians did in eighteen sixty two.

25:42

He killed very few men and no hostile

25:44

ones prisoners. And now

25:46

he returned saying that we need fear no more,

25:49

for he has wiped out all hostile Indians

25:52

from Dakota. If he had killed

25:54

men instead of women and children, then

25:56

it would have been a success. And the worse of

25:58

it, they had no hostile

26:00

intention whatever. The Nebraska

26:03

second pitched into them without orders,

26:05

while the Iowa six were shaking hands

26:07

with them. On the other side, they

26:10

even shot their own men. Then,

26:13

in nineteen fourteen or nineteen fifteen, a

26:15

man named Takes his Shield, who had

26:17

survived the massacre, directed Richard

26:20

Cottonwood and creating a pictograph.

26:23

This was the first real documentation

26:25

of the Native Americans perspective

26:28

on what had happened, although most

26:30

interpretations of it today are based on

26:32

the writing of Reverend Aaron mcgaffee

26:34

Bead, who was an Episcopal missionary,

26:36

which was done in nineteen thirty two. Bead

26:39

acknowledge that his ability to interpret

26:41

it was not nearly as robust as

26:43

an actual member of the tribes

26:46

would be. The pictograph,

26:48

which we will link to in the show notes, depicts

26:51

a large camp of two groups of Sue,

26:53

one who typically fought with spears and

26:55

the other who fought with arrows, all

26:58

camped together in one circle beside

27:00

a small lake. Then a

27:02

large army of mounted soldiers sweeps

27:05

through the camp. Most try

27:07

to flee, with a woman hitching a trevois

27:09

to a horse and using it to pull

27:12

children away. The pictograph

27:14

continues to show the soldiers sweeping

27:16

through and surrounding targets, who in turn

27:19

are not trying to fight back. They're trying to

27:21

flee and get women and children to safety.

27:24

The pictograph definitely shows the event

27:26

as a massacre, not a battle, with

27:28

none of the indigenous people depicted as fighting.

27:31

According to Bede's interpretation, the pictograph

27:33

only shows the portions of the incident that

27:36

happened in daylight, since after dark

27:38

the events could be heard and not seen.

27:41

In more recent times, La Donna

27:44

Brave Bull Allered standing Rock

27:46

Sue, tribal historian whose land is

27:48

home to the Sacred Stone Camp,

27:50

protesting the Dakota access Pipeline

27:53

has researched, written, and spoken extensively

27:56

about the history of this battle and how

27:58

it fits into the greater history of the Standing

28:00

Rock, Sue and other divisions of the

28:02

Sioux Nation. In a series of

28:04

videos, she notes that at least three

28:06

quarters of Sully's expedition were

28:08

people who had family members who had been killed

28:11

in the Dakota Uprising, and we're seeking

28:13

revenge. Another thing that she

28:15

notes is how much effort was put into trying

28:17

to get women and children to safety, tying

28:20

them to horses and dogs, and trying to get

28:22

the animals to simply flee the camp with

28:24

them. Alert has descended from Mary

28:27

Big Moccasin, who was nine during

28:29

the white Stone Hill massacre and was shot in

28:31

the leg or hip but survived.

28:34

Uh So, that's not

28:37

the most fun episode we've ever done.

28:40

Well, I feel almost guilty, going, hey, let's

28:43

talk about listener mail. Well, and our

28:45

listener mail is also a little more

28:47

on the serious side today. It

28:50

is from Samari. Tomari

28:52

says, Dear Holly and Tracy, my name's Tomari, and

28:54

a as a keen stuff you missed in history class,

28:56

listener often thought about writing in

28:58

with episode suggestions in spite of the fact

29:00

that you have a long enough list as it is.

29:03

But today my letter takes a different note.

29:06

I know this is a dark time for anyone who believes

29:08

in truth and justice in the face of oppression,

29:10

fear, and hatred. I

29:12

wanted to thank both of you for providing myself

29:15

and the other podcast listeners with knowledge and

29:17

perspective on historical injustices.

29:21

If I hadn't heard your episodes about the Tulsa

29:23

in New Orleans race riots and the ongoing

29:25

mistreatment of activists who should have been seen

29:27

as heroes in their time, like Buyard Rustin

29:30

and Sylvia Rivera, I doubt very

29:32

much I would have realized the strength and

29:34

support people need to overcome ignorance. The

29:37

most acceptable story format of linear

29:40

progress good overcoming evil

29:42

is not a simple reality. What history

29:44

has shown us is that every time humanity makes

29:46

a social achievement, it can also counter

29:49

this change with hateful backlash driven by

29:51

what people are most afraid of. Yet

29:53

in the face of this, it is a dedication to

29:55

carrying on spreading truth and generating

29:58

thought and empathy for other humans,

30:00

which will always triumph. Thank you for

30:03

making us stronger and wiser by

30:05

the dedication you show to the subjects of

30:07

your podcast, and for always being a beak,

30:09

a bright beacon of education to

30:11

show us the way out of darkness.

30:14

She she thanks us then, and so she's

30:16

always looking forward to our next episode, and

30:19

then suggests a couple of episode

30:22

suggestions. So, first of all, thank

30:24

you, tomari I'm

30:27

trying to pull myself together to say

30:30

that's one of the nicest things someone's ever said

30:32

to me. Me too,

30:34

So Tomorrow sent us this mail on

30:36

a day I will candidly say, you

30:39

and I were both having a real hard time. So

30:42

thank you tomari Uh

30:45

for sending us the kind of message that that makes

30:48

us feel like the work we are doing is important.

30:50

But the other reason that I wanted to

30:53

read this message today is to say

30:55

candidly something that we have been doing since

30:58

Holly and I came onto the show in two thousd in thirteen,

31:01

which we haven't really talked specifically

31:04

about, which is selecting

31:07

episodes that are

31:09

either tied to things that

31:11

are specifically happening right now, which today's

31:13

episode obviously does, but

31:16

also episodes that shine more

31:18

light onto the

31:20

bigger arc of what's happening

31:23

in the world and especially in the United

31:25

States, which is where we live. The

31:29

first time I think we ever did that. We

31:31

we came on the show in March, and

31:34

the first episode that that fit

31:36

into this was in

31:38

April, so the following month when we did our

31:41

two part series on Loving versus Virginia,

31:43

which was a story about injustice

31:46

and of overcoming injustice

31:48

that we talked about because it kept being

31:50

cited as a precedent in Supreme

31:53

Court cases about same sex marriage.

31:56

Um,

31:58

I just want to say, we

32:00

are going to continue to do episodes like

32:02

this. We're going to continue

32:05

to talk about the things that shed light

32:07

onto why the world is the way it is and

32:10

the things that we as a nation are struggling

32:12

with. We are still gonna do weird,

32:15

silly episodes like Margarine. Also,

32:18

you know, we will still have all of our unearthed episodes

32:21

at the end of the year. We will still have stuff

32:23

that we think is just goofy and cool.

32:26

But we are also definitely going to continue

32:28

to talk about things that are related to

32:30

universal human rights that everyone deserves,

32:34

uh, and to the

32:36

the idea that justice is important

32:39

and is something that the United States

32:41

as a nation should be standing

32:43

for. So thank you again.

32:45

So much tomorrow again, this was uh

32:48

some note we got on on a real hard day

32:51

and it made that real hard day a little

32:53

bit better. If you would like to

32:55

write to us about this or any other podcast,

32:58

where a history podcast at how stuff work dot com.

33:00

We're also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash

33:03

mss in history, and we're on Twitter at miss in history.

33:05

Are tumbler because miss in history dot tumbler dot

33:07

com. We're on Pinterest at pinterest dot com

33:09

slash miss in history and Instagram at

33:11

ms in history. You can come to our parent

33:14

companies website, which is how stuff works dot com

33:16

and learn about just about anything your heart desires.

33:18

You can come to our website missed in history

33:21

dot com. We will put a link to that

33:23

pictograph in the show notes all of our

33:25

other research on this episode in the show notes,

33:27

Uh, there will, of course, and the list of sources be

33:30

the links to the videos we were talking about toward the end

33:32

all of that. So you can do all that and a

33:34

whole lot more at how stuff works dot com

33:36

or miss than history dot com

33:42

for more on this and thousands of other topics.

33:44

Is it how stuff works dot com.