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Interesting view of a mass execution of Sioux Indians during the Dakota War of 1862, in the town of Mankato Minnesota.
This lithograph depicts the largest mass execution in the United States of America, when 38 Santee Sioux Indian men were executed around 10 a.m., the condemned singing and chanting Dakota songs on their way to the scaffolds. The moment of execution was signaled by three drum beats, the rope was cut, and the floors fell open. The crowd of people cheered while watching the execution. Afterwards, all bodies of the Indian men were buried in a single grave on the edge of town.
By 1862, Dakota tribes had surrendered 28 million acres of land to the Federal Government, based upon treaties which moved the Dakota tribes to small Minnesota reservations and promised them compensation in the form of goods and regular annuity payments. In the summer of 1862, members of the tribes were starving on account of late annuity payments and corrupt government trading practices. In August 1862, following the murder of five whites by four natives, a council met at Little Crow's village and agreed to attack white settlements and drive the inhabitants from Minnesota.
After repeated requests to the President, the United States sent two regiments to quell the violence. Military tribunals tried over three hundred natives. General John Pope and many of the citizens of Minnesota appealed to the president to have all 303 captives executed. Abraham Lincoln approved the execution of 38 prisoners (one was later pardoned), shortening the list to the names of Indian soldiers accused to killing civilians.
