History of Survivance: Upper Midwest 19th-Century Native American Narratives

US-Dakota War

Title is listed in Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians. By W.H. Jackson of the Survey

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Jackson/id/2364

http://54.245.164.12:3000/mdl/items/MSS_1608_p66_b1_f9_98a.tif

The fight for the land came to a head in the mid-19th century in Minnesota, culminating in the US-Dakota War of 1862. While this conflict started and centered around the southern Minnesota city of Mankato – deep in Dakota lands – the conflagration spread to engulf Ojibwe lands as well, threatening the lives of every Native group in the state.
The reasons for the War are clear – Dakota bands in Minnesota were left to starve in the face of an increasingly uncaring and hostile Federal government. Relations between nations finally broke down in August of 1862, when a government trader Andrew Jackson Myrick refused to sell food to the Dakota at the Lower Sioux Agency. When the Dakota pleaded with him that their people were starving, Myrick reportedly replied, “…then let them eat grass or their own dung.” The unfortunate result is that there is distrust and enmity between Native and non-Native residents of the state of Minnesota to this day.

Conflict

Ancient Legacies

Colonization

Colonial Narratives

Reservation Era

Survivance

First Episcopal Church at the Lower Sioux Agency, Morton, Minnesota

This image may not be reproduced without written consent of the Renville County Historical Society.

View of the First Episopal Church under construction in the summer of 1862. This first church was known as St. John Evangelist, but was never completed. It was destroyed on August 18, 1862 during the Dakota Conflict of 1862. The church is now known as St. Cornelia's Church at Lower Sioux Agency.

Renville County Historical Society, 441 North Park Drive, Morton, Minnesota 56270; http://www.renvillecountyhistory.com

http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm/ref/collection/ren/id/337

http://54.245.164.12:3000/mdl/items/mhs07026.tif

The tensions that led to the 1862 US-Dakota War finally came to a head when a group of Dakota, their families pushed to the point of starvation due to the creeping encroachment of Whites on their lands, attacked farms in southern Minnesota in an attempt to drive settlers out of the region. During the US-Dakota War, two factions of Dakota became clear – the nativist Dakota who wanted the Whites gone, and the Christianized Dakota who refused to participate in the battles.
 This 1862 image depicts the beginning stages of St. John the Evangelist First Episcopal Church at the Lower Sioux Agency in Morton, Minnesota. The church was never completed, having been specifically targeted by the Dakota during the conflagration.