US–Dakota War of 1862

US–Dakota War of 1862. . The US-Dakota War of 1862 was a violent and divisive period in Minnesota history. Between 1837 and 1858, the Dakota nation signed treaties transferring more than 24 million acres of land to the United States, only to find agreed upon payments drained away to cover inflated traders' debts. Struggling to survive on reduced hunting lands, the Dakota people faced shortages of supplies and food., Following the murder of white farmers by four Dakota hunters on August 17, some akicita, or warriors, resolved to drive white settlers from the Dakota homelands. In the ensuing days, akicita attacked government agencies, homesteads, and towns, killing hundreds, and forcing almost 30,000 settlers to flee., Col. Henry Sibley led volunteers from Fort Snelling to fight against the Dakota people. In September 1862, six weeks after the fighting began, the war ended at the Battle of Wood Lake. Though estimates vary, at least 500 white settlers and close to 100 Dakota people were killed. More than one-quarter of the Dakota who surrendered in 1862 died during the following year., Families and communities were divided over the conflict and many continue to seek to heal from the ongoing trauma and impacts of this era. As a result of the war, the United States nullified its treaties with the Dakota, voiding annuities that had been granted as part of the terms of the treaties, and exiled nearly all Dakota (as well as nearly 2,000 Ho-Chunk people, who had not participated in the war) from what is now the state of Minnesota., People escaping from fighting during the US-Dakota War of 1862. Photograph by Adrian John Ebell, Taoyateduta's wife and children at Fort Snelling, 1864. Photograph by Benjamin Franklin Upton