Historic Dakota

Most of the people listed below were involved in the Minnesota Conflict, which started at the Lower Sioux Agency in August 1862. It lasted less than six weeks and in that time many people were displaced from their homes. For their crime of fighting for survival 38 Dakota men were hung on December 26th 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. Two others, Shakopee and Medicine Bottle were hung there later. Little Crow was shot by a farmer while collecting berries in a field, and his body was put on show for many years, eventually being buried in Flandreau 100 years later. The Dakota were taken to Fort Snelling and then transported to places such as Crow Creek, which was a desolate area compared to the area along the Minnesota River.

There are today various areas where the Santee Dakota reside, Pipestone is just one place. The closest to Pipestone is Flandreau in South Dakota, and the Lower Sioux and Upper Sioux Reservations in Minnesota.

Little Crow (Mdewakanton)
War Chief of the Dakota bands at the time of the 1862 Conflict. He left and went to Canada for safety but returned and was killed by a farmer in a field. Eventually his remains were buried with ceremony in Flandreau by his family over a hundred years later. Today people still leave offerings at his grave that is marked by a staff and a stone fit for a Chief after all those years.

Wabasha (Mdewakanton)
Hereditary Chief of his band at the time of the 1862 Conflict, he was sent to Santee Nebraska in 1862, and stayed there with many of his band. His descendant Ernie Wabasha is the latest hereditary Chief of the Mdewakanton at the Lower Sioux. He also has two other descendents living in Santee. Wabasha is buried in a small cemetary in Santee. His grave is hardly noticable except for the staff that has been placed next to the small granite block with his name engraved in it.

Shakopee (Mdewakanton)
A Chief at the time of the 1862 Conflict. He was hung in 1863 along with Medicine Bottle (Big Eagle's brother), after they had been captured, drugged and brought back to Minnesota from Canada, in complete disregard for international law.

Black Dog (Mdewakanton)

Mankato (Mdewakanton)
War Chief of the Mdewakantons during the 1862 Conflict. He was killed at the Battle of Wood Lake.

Travelling Hail (Mdewakanton)
He had been elected as Chief of the Mdewakanton's in place of Little Crow prior to the Conflict, and although he was a Chief of his band the people chose Little Crow to lead them during the Conflict. Travelling Hail had gone to Washington in 1858 with a group of Chiefs, (including Little Crow, Mankato and Big Eagle) to sign a Treaty with the President, he was a well respected man. The treaty the Chiefs signed was soon broken.

Big Eagle (Mdewakanton)
Sub-chief at the time of the 1862 Conflict. He wrote his views of the Conflict in the early 1900's. He was one of the founders of the Flandreau reservation. He moved between Minnesota and South Dakota quite a few times after he was released from the Davenport prison he was sent to for two years for his part in the Conflict. Owning a farm close to Brookings, SD for many years, he eventually went back to his homeland in Minnesota and is buried at the Upper Sioux, (Doncaster cemetary) his grave is marked by a small white obelisk giving his name Wamditanka, the date of his death and a small prayer in Dakota. The marker is crumbling as are many from that era.

Scarlet Plume (Sisseton-Wahpeton)

Red Iron (Sisseton-Wahpeton)

John Otherday (Sisseton-Wahpeton)
Was a friend to many white settlers at the time of the Conflict, and was given a reward for saving so many lives by the government. He was also allowed to stay in Minnesota when most other Dakota were forced out.

Paul Mazakutemani (Sisseton-Wahpeton)
Also a friendly to the settlers, helped many escape from the area. He stated to Little Crow, "Stop fighting. No one who fights with the white people ever become rich, or remains two days in one place, but he is always fleeing and starving."

Red Legs (Wahpekute)

 

Our Family

This is a photo of our ancestors in the early 1900's. When she was a small child, the lady on the left, (Grandma Amos) was in Pipestone with her family in the summer of 1862. They came each year to quarry for the stone and would then take it back to make Pipes for the tribe to use. As they were on their way home they saw smoke on the horizon, and wondered what it was. When they got closer they found it was houses burning and the Dakota - US Conflict of 1862 had started. They left Minnesota at that point for a few years and went up to Canada. Returning to their homeland (Upper Sioux Agency area) once it was safe to do so.

 

A more formal photograph of the family, the child in the front center is Estella Pearsall who married Moses Crow and moved to Pipestone in 1927. She and Moses met at the Pipestone Indian School when they were children, eventually running away from there to get married. They returned to Pipestone years later after Moses had found work at the school, soon after leaving the military.