December 26th: Today in 1862 a group of 38 Dakota Indians were killed in the largest mass hanging in United States history. The Dakota had been part of the Sioux uprising, a brief but bloody uprising in which some two hundred white settlers were killed over broken promises and missed payments to the tribe. Originally over three hundred were supposed to be hanged but Lincoln pardoned all those who could not be directly linked to rape or murder. Lincoln’s move was very unpopular on the frontier where the common opinion was that all even remotely related to uprising should hang, feelings were a little more raw out where the actual danger was, and there were attacks on the prisoners by civilians. A good history of the uprising and history of the Dakota nation can be found at the Dakota Blues site as well. For a detailed look at the trials see this site which has a great write up. The only thing close a Dakota version of the events I could find is at Native News Online.

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