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The Trials & Hanging

White boy identifying Indian who took part in the Dakota uprising,
from Harper's Weekly, 1862
"The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was
biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and authority
for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing
authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the
men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status."
Carol Chomsky, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
On September 28, 1862, two days after the surrender at Camp Release, a commission of military officers established
by Henry Sibley began trying Dakota men accused of participating in the war. Several weeks later the trials were
moved to the Lower Agency, where they were held in one of the only buildings left standing, trader Franois
LaBathes summer kitchen.

As weeks passed, cases were handled with increasing speed. On November 5, the commission completed its work.
392 prisoners were tried, 303 were sentenced to death, and 16 were given prison terms.
President Lincoln and government lawyers then reviewed the trial transcripts of all 303 men. As Lincoln would later
explain to the U.S. Senate:
"Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on one hand, nor with so much
severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I ordered a careful examination of the records of the trials to be made, in
view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females."
When only two men were found guilty of rape, Lincoln expanded the criteria to include those who had participated
in massacres of civilians rather than just battles. He then made his final decision, and forwarded a list of 39
names to Sibley.
On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged at Mankato.
At 10:00 am on December 26, 38 Dakota prisoners were led to a scaffold specially constructed for their execution.
One had been given a reprieve at the last minute. An estimated 4,000 spectators crammed the streets of Mankato and
surrounding land. Col. Stephen Miller, charged with keeping the peace in the days leading up to the hangings, had
declared martial law and had banned the sale and consumption of alcohol within a ten-mile radius of the town.
As the men took their assigned places on the scaffold, they sang a Dakota song as white muslin coverings were
pulled over their faces. Drumbeats signalled the start of the execution. The men grasped each others hands. With a
single blow from an ax, the rope that held the platform was cut. Capt. William Duley, who had lost several members
of his family in the attack on the Lake Shetek settlement, cut the rope.
After dangling from the scaffold for a half hour, the mens bodies were cut down and hauled to a shallow mass
grave on a sandbar between Mankatos main street and the Minnesota River. Before morning, most of the bodies
had been dug up and taken by physicians for use as medical cadavers.
Following the mass execution on December 26, it was discovered that two men had been mistakenly hanged.
Wicapi Wastedapi (We-chank-wash-ta-don-pee), who went by the common name of Caske (meaning first-born
son), reportedly stepped forward when the name Caske was called, and was then separated for execution from the
other prisoners. The other, Wasicu, was a young white man who had been adopted by the Dakota at an early age.
Wasicu had been acquitted.
Letter from Hdainyanka to Chief Wabasha written shortly before his execution:
"You have deceived me. You told me that if we followed the advice of General Sibley, and gave ourselves up to
the whites, all would be well; no innocent man would be injured. I have not killed, wounded or injured a white
man, or any white persons. I have not participated in the plunder of their property; and yet to-day I am set apart
for execution, and must die in a few days, while men who are guilty will remain in prison. My wife is your
daughter, my children are your grandchildren. I leave them all in your care and under your protection. Do not
let them suffer; and when my children are grown up, let them know that their father died because he followed the
advice of his chief, and without having the blood of a white man to answer for to the Great Spirit."
Source: Isaac V. D. Heard, History of the Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863, NY: Harper & Bros., 1863
- See more at: http://usdakotawar.org/history/war-aftermath/trialshanging#sthash.iLk6wSvB.dpuf