The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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April 26, 2012

Your View: Dakota, settlers were all victims

By Lavonne Craig, North Mankato

— First, I wish to say that I firmly believe that both the Dakota people and the white settlers were victims. Victims of events and powerful forces beyond their control.

These forces set up that fateful, bloody conflict.

But I also want us to remember some facts of history that we all need to be aware of. After the battles here in Minnesota stopped in the fall of 1862, they continued into the Dakotas.

Many Dakota prisoners were sent to an internment camp at Davenport, Iowa. At least 150 prisoners would die there, in a camp called a  “pig pen.”

That fall back here in Minnesota, 1,600 women, children and old people were marched to Fort Snelling. That hard winter, due to poor shelter and lack of food, 300 of them died. This was a terrible example of collective punishment.

That spring, the survivors were put on boats and sent to Nebraska and points west.

In 1862, here in Minnesota, and in 1863, at the federal level, the Dakota expulsion acts were put into law. These laws are still on the books and have not been repealed.

I am very ashamed of this fact.

 

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