One hundred and sixty years ago, on December 26, 1862, in the largest mass execution in American history, the U.S. government hanged 38 Santee men for their actions in Minnesota’s so-called Dakota War. The struggle did not involve all of the Santees, but rather those driven to war in August 1862 after the U.S. government, financially strapped by the Civil War, did not appropriate the money necessary to pay for the food promised to the Santees by treaty. Nine years before, in 1851, settlers had poured into the territory demanding land to farm, and the government had forced the Santees onto a reservation too small to feed their people. The government promised the Santees provisions to make up for the loss of their economic base not as a one-time payment but as a fifty-year contract. Then, when Minnesota became a state in 1858, its leaders took even more Santee land.
Thank you, Professor. This is the truth of history that must be shared so that we don’t repeat past mistakes. Growing up in suburban Philly, precious little history of our treatment toward indigenous peoples was shared in our American history curriculum. Moving to Florida when my kids were young, I learned from them the story of the forced march of native Americans from the Everglades-shared briefly in their classes but new info to me. Now watching Desantis further sanitize educational policies here (raising, according to experts, a next generation of ignorant racists who will be part of his base), I lament the outcome that will only ensure further division, racism, bias, and hatred toward people of color or anyone who isn’t white, wealthy, mostly male, hetero. He can NEVER attain national office.
Again, thank you-you help me continue to grow and inspire me to learn more. Good teachers invite a thirst for knowledge-and you are the BEST. Thanks.
My take-away: that northerners were as racist as southerners. If Germany can pay reparations to survivors of Holocaust survivors while providing a good social safety net for their citizens, the US should do something similar for Native Americans.
I remember 8th Grade Colorado History, where Sand Creek was "the Battle of Sand Creek" and the genocidaires were "the founding fathers of Colorado, led by militia leader Colonel Chivington." When I raised my hand and said the account was much more like a massacre than a battle, it was another of those days I spent "polishing the vice principal's bench" in my 12 year war without quarter with the Public Miseducation System. Nowadays, Colorado now has a sign at the site of the massacre, calling it a massacre and describing the crimes committed, and such is now what contemporary 8th graders read in their Colorado History books, and homicidal maniac Colonel Chivington and the rest of the genocidaires he led that day are no longer on the list of Official Colorado Heroes.
Once again, as we consider America’s treatment of its Native People, we must hang our heads in shame. We must also learn all we can - and thank you, Heather, for helping us in that pursuit - so that atrocities like these are recognized as the abominations they are and thus less likely to happen again. As we have been taught, “history rhymes,” and I believe that truly understanding all that history has to teach us will help free us from the evil and stupidity of repeating the societal madness which so sadly characterizes a significant part of the track record (history) of our species. Even as we hang our heads in bitter recognition of past (and present) horrors, we must continue to seek light and peace. Therein lies hope and faith.
Murder is the third leading cause of death of Native American women. Murder is the third leading cause of death of Native American Women. Murder is the third leading cause of death of Native American Women. In no other population statistic is that so. Across the nation, Native American Women are disappearing. It has become systematic. It is terrifying. One in every three who die will be abducted and murdered. This is the most appalling mass murder going on in this country and it goes unspoken.
Such painful history. I used to believe we were evolving and becoming better people with every generation, as we learn more about each other and about our planet. Now…, I think there are decent people in every generation and greedy people. There is knowledge, ignorance, wealth, poverty, ability and disability. We have to look for the good in humanity and sing about it from the mountaintops. We need to know all of our history and keep teaching it and reading it.
In his examination of the history of violence: "less than human: Why We Demean, Enslave, And Exterminate Others" author David Livingstone Smith quotes Aldous Huxley on page 21: "Most people would hesitate to torture or kill a human being like themselves. But when that human being is spoken of as though he were not a human being, but as the representative of some wicked principle, we lose our scruples...All political and nationalistic propaganda aims at only one thing; to persuade one set of people that another set of people are not really human and that it is therefore legitimate to rob, swindle, bully, and even murder them."
Huxley's explanation of the roots of human violence and bigotry is applicable to any time in human history.
The United States of American is a country founded on slavery and genocide of the American Indian. Our original sin still haunts us and will continue to do so until we as a nation come out of denial, in the same way Germany dealt with the holocaust after WWII. Today, instead of confronting our primary sin, we are banning books in libraries and teaching our children a false narrative of our true history.
The only way to truly evolve as a nation is to face all of our bedrock truths, no matter how painful or shameful. Just as "personal evolution is the only game in town," so as real historical truth is our only salvation.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” said the philosopher George Santayana.
Professor Richardson has publicized yet another event that shows the world just how brutal the United States as a nation was, and still is in the persons of Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott and their ilk.
To quote an unknown (to me) Native American source....
"The only time the US Government kept its word, treaties or otherwise, to Native American Tribes was when they promised to take all of their land".
But so few times in American history have the Native Americans been treated in line with the 1776 " Declaration of Independence" and benefiting from ....
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.".......
and we won't even get into their rights to hold their own property. They had the temerity to often successfully resist and fight against rape and pillage of the life, limb and wellbeing.
Lincoln's other contributions to the land theft and consequent genocide were all in 1862.
1/The Homestead Act giving 160acres to anyone who wished to claim it from their buffaloe ranges and other hunting lands
2/The Myers Land Act giving extensive and "well placed" land grants to the States from "Federal" terriotories for the development of local agricultural colleges without consulting the original occupants.
3/The Pacific Railways Act extending massively the gift of 175 million acres (bigger than Texas) of land to fund the advance of rail companies developing new lines in previously indian tended lands.
Not one treaty was ever respected.
Not Lincoln this time but once again the the non-voting representation of the Cherokee people in Congress promised in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota is "set for a hearing". It has been "talked about sporadically with result or action for the last 187 years! So much for promises.
Heather, a fantastic history lesson. I was really moved by Lincoln’s humanity. The history of whites and Native Americans is so stained with blood and misery, I can barely absorb it all. But learning it is a major goal of mine before I pass on. Thank you, Dear Friend.
What a sad reminder about that history of how our nation annihilated whole nations of indigenous people, even as we traversed the excruciating process of recognizing the immorality of slavery. We'll continue to struggle with the near impossible task of making things right for their ancestors for years to come. We don't have to wear the hair-shirt alone however. I just learned that Brazil received more African slaves than any other country in the Americas and did not abolish slavery until some years after the USA. They continue to destroy habitat of indigenous people today and drive them from their historic lands. I think perhaps there is no other species that preys on its own members to the degree that we humans do. There's so much sorrow in the world, carried forward with us for decades and even centuries; it's hard to see how we have made much progress across time in creating a better world in which to live.
The Zinn Education Project has posted an ink drawing of the 1862 thirty-eight (38) mass executions at zinnedproject.org sourced to the Minnesota Historical Society. The Project has a searchable database. Input "1862 mankato".
This type of thing is at the root of a lot of the white supremacy of this country. Some educated supremacists, who know about these things, have found ways to avoid cognitive dissonance where these behaviors are concerned. It's tricky because a lot of their actions are based on the theory that they are of superior morals and so forth and between the lord and manifest destiny, their actions are righteous in order to do the 'hard things' needed for a better life. A whole lot of folks have benefited from these actions and are living their heaven on earth while others are told that they will be rewarded - if they do what they are told on earth - after death.
Keep in mind, the Minnesota settlers and the US Army units that prevailed against the Santees all had God on their side, so the outcome was really God’s will and thus right and proper.
You see? The good guys won.
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition!
Make America great again, like in Minnesota in 1862!
Thank you, again, HCR, for the history we didn’t know that we need to know. That’s what “woke” is all about.
I’ll be noshing on this for a while, and lamenting that this significant piece of our national and world history will likely remain largely unknown - and worse, dismissed as Critical Race Theory.
Thank you, Professor. This is the truth of history that must be shared so that we don’t repeat past mistakes. Growing up in suburban Philly, precious little history of our treatment toward indigenous peoples was shared in our American history curriculum. Moving to Florida when my kids were young, I learned from them the story of the forced march of native Americans from the Everglades-shared briefly in their classes but new info to me. Now watching Desantis further sanitize educational policies here (raising, according to experts, a next generation of ignorant racists who will be part of his base), I lament the outcome that will only ensure further division, racism, bias, and hatred toward people of color or anyone who isn’t white, wealthy, mostly male, hetero. He can NEVER attain national office.
Again, thank you-you help me continue to grow and inspire me to learn more. Good teachers invite a thirst for knowledge-and you are the BEST. Thanks.
My take-away: that northerners were as racist as southerners. If Germany can pay reparations to survivors of Holocaust survivors while providing a good social safety net for their citizens, the US should do something similar for Native Americans.
I remember 8th Grade Colorado History, where Sand Creek was "the Battle of Sand Creek" and the genocidaires were "the founding fathers of Colorado, led by militia leader Colonel Chivington." When I raised my hand and said the account was much more like a massacre than a battle, it was another of those days I spent "polishing the vice principal's bench" in my 12 year war without quarter with the Public Miseducation System. Nowadays, Colorado now has a sign at the site of the massacre, calling it a massacre and describing the crimes committed, and such is now what contemporary 8th graders read in their Colorado History books, and homicidal maniac Colonel Chivington and the rest of the genocidaires he led that day are no longer on the list of Official Colorado Heroes.
Once again, as we consider America’s treatment of its Native People, we must hang our heads in shame. We must also learn all we can - and thank you, Heather, for helping us in that pursuit - so that atrocities like these are recognized as the abominations they are and thus less likely to happen again. As we have been taught, “history rhymes,” and I believe that truly understanding all that history has to teach us will help free us from the evil and stupidity of repeating the societal madness which so sadly characterizes a significant part of the track record (history) of our species. Even as we hang our heads in bitter recognition of past (and present) horrors, we must continue to seek light and peace. Therein lies hope and faith.
Murder is the third leading cause of death of Native American women. Murder is the third leading cause of death of Native American Women. Murder is the third leading cause of death of Native American Women. In no other population statistic is that so. Across the nation, Native American Women are disappearing. It has become systematic. It is terrifying. One in every three who die will be abducted and murdered. This is the most appalling mass murder going on in this country and it goes unspoken.
Such painful history. I used to believe we were evolving and becoming better people with every generation, as we learn more about each other and about our planet. Now…, I think there are decent people in every generation and greedy people. There is knowledge, ignorance, wealth, poverty, ability and disability. We have to look for the good in humanity and sing about it from the mountaintops. We need to know all of our history and keep teaching it and reading it.
In his examination of the history of violence: "less than human: Why We Demean, Enslave, And Exterminate Others" author David Livingstone Smith quotes Aldous Huxley on page 21: "Most people would hesitate to torture or kill a human being like themselves. But when that human being is spoken of as though he were not a human being, but as the representative of some wicked principle, we lose our scruples...All political and nationalistic propaganda aims at only one thing; to persuade one set of people that another set of people are not really human and that it is therefore legitimate to rob, swindle, bully, and even murder them."
Huxley's explanation of the roots of human violence and bigotry is applicable to any time in human history.
The United States of American is a country founded on slavery and genocide of the American Indian. Our original sin still haunts us and will continue to do so until we as a nation come out of denial, in the same way Germany dealt with the holocaust after WWII. Today, instead of confronting our primary sin, we are banning books in libraries and teaching our children a false narrative of our true history.
The only way to truly evolve as a nation is to face all of our bedrock truths, no matter how painful or shameful. Just as "personal evolution is the only game in town," so as real historical truth is our only salvation.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” said the philosopher George Santayana.
Professor Richardson has publicized yet another event that shows the world just how brutal the United States as a nation was, and still is in the persons of Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott and their ilk.
To quote an unknown (to me) Native American source....
"The only time the US Government kept its word, treaties or otherwise, to Native American Tribes was when they promised to take all of their land".
But so few times in American history have the Native Americans been treated in line with the 1776 " Declaration of Independence" and benefiting from ....
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.".......
and we won't even get into their rights to hold their own property. They had the temerity to often successfully resist and fight against rape and pillage of the life, limb and wellbeing.
Lincoln's other contributions to the land theft and consequent genocide were all in 1862.
1/The Homestead Act giving 160acres to anyone who wished to claim it from their buffaloe ranges and other hunting lands
2/The Myers Land Act giving extensive and "well placed" land grants to the States from "Federal" terriotories for the development of local agricultural colleges without consulting the original occupants.
3/The Pacific Railways Act extending massively the gift of 175 million acres (bigger than Texas) of land to fund the advance of rail companies developing new lines in previously indian tended lands.
Not one treaty was ever respected.
Not Lincoln this time but once again the the non-voting representation of the Cherokee people in Congress promised in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota is "set for a hearing". It has been "talked about sporadically with result or action for the last 187 years! So much for promises.
Heather, a fantastic history lesson. I was really moved by Lincoln’s humanity. The history of whites and Native Americans is so stained with blood and misery, I can barely absorb it all. But learning it is a major goal of mine before I pass on. Thank you, Dear Friend.
What a sad reminder about that history of how our nation annihilated whole nations of indigenous people, even as we traversed the excruciating process of recognizing the immorality of slavery. We'll continue to struggle with the near impossible task of making things right for their ancestors for years to come. We don't have to wear the hair-shirt alone however. I just learned that Brazil received more African slaves than any other country in the Americas and did not abolish slavery until some years after the USA. They continue to destroy habitat of indigenous people today and drive them from their historic lands. I think perhaps there is no other species that preys on its own members to the degree that we humans do. There's so much sorrow in the world, carried forward with us for decades and even centuries; it's hard to see how we have made much progress across time in creating a better world in which to live.
The Zinn Education Project has posted an ink drawing of the 1862 thirty-eight (38) mass executions at zinnedproject.org sourced to the Minnesota Historical Society. The Project has a searchable database. Input "1862 mankato".
This type of thing is at the root of a lot of the white supremacy of this country. Some educated supremacists, who know about these things, have found ways to avoid cognitive dissonance where these behaviors are concerned. It's tricky because a lot of their actions are based on the theory that they are of superior morals and so forth and between the lord and manifest destiny, their actions are righteous in order to do the 'hard things' needed for a better life. A whole lot of folks have benefited from these actions and are living their heaven on earth while others are told that they will be rewarded - if they do what they are told on earth - after death.
Keep in mind, the Minnesota settlers and the US Army units that prevailed against the Santees all had God on their side, so the outcome was really God’s will and thus right and proper.
You see? The good guys won.
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition!
Make America great again, like in Minnesota in 1862!
Thank you, again, HCR, for the history we didn’t know that we need to know. That’s what “woke” is all about.
Right, Governor DeSantis?
Thank you Heather.
I’ll be noshing on this for a while, and lamenting that this significant piece of our national and world history will likely remain largely unknown - and worse, dismissed as Critical Race Theory.