The 'Fool Soldiers' of the Lakota

[rug]

January 29, 2013
Michael J. Bayly

- snip -

As to what's been called both the Sioux Uprising and the Dakota Conflict, here's an excerpt from the Minnesota History Center's website:

- snip -

The war ended with hundreds dead, the Dakota people exiled from their homeland and the largest mass execution in U.S. history: the hangings of 38 Dakota men in Mankato on December 26, 1862.

2012 marks 150 years since the U.S.-Dakota War. It was waged for six weeks in southern Minnesota over the late summer of 1862, but the war’s causes began decades earlier and the profound loss and consequences of the war are still felt today.

One of the aspects of this conflict that I find particularly interesting concerns a group of Lakota men known as the "Fool Soldiers." At the Minnesota History Center's exhibit their story is highlighted in the display at right, one which also focuses on the plight of three white women and eight children from Lake Shetek, Minnesota who on August 20, 1862 were taken captive by Santee Chief White Lodge and his band.

http://thewildreed.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-fool-soldiers-of-lakota.html

More at link.

http://moh.tie.net/content/docs/2010/Research/FoolSoldierBand.pdf

What he talks about at 2:51 should not be surprising.

[dballance]

1. Interesting History Lesson

I'm glad to see we're finally starting to refer the horrible atrocities committed against Native Americans as a "disastrous chapter in ____________ (fill in the blank with state or territory name or use 'US') history" and the acknowledgement of "the broken treaties and promises."

[Democracyinkind]

7. It's quite heartening and depressing at the same time

There were people saying the same thing back then. I wonder how long they figured it would take society to see them as prophets ahead of their time. Now that we actually acknowledge these things for what they were - do we feel liberated and content that we're finally here or do feel ashamed that it took so long? Or do we simply spend the evening musing about what we would have done then, had we been a part of the "disastrous chapter in ________ (fill in the blank with state or territory name or use 'US') history"?

Free-floating thoughts, I suppose.

[handmade34]

2. rec n/t

[petronius]

3. Great post, thank you! Fascinating read... (nt)

[Adsos Letter]

4. Much food for thought there, rug.

The fact that "Following the rescue (and a later rescue of starving Lakota on Medicine Creek), they were not greeted as heroes by either side of the conflict" speaks volumes about the meaning of doing the right thing.

[newfie11]

5. Thank you for posting this

I worked on a medical mobile unit going to Cheyenne River Rez for 15 years. I had never heard about this.
Love the people of Cheyenne River/Eagle Butte.

[tama]

6. X-posted to Native American nt