Outcome

The Native Reservations were dissolved after the uprising in Minnesota. As a result, from the uprising nearly 400 Sioux were arrested and held at Camp Lincoln. They were tried, many without any legal counsel, or told that they could dispute the charges. Three hundred six (306) were sentenced to be executed by hanging. On December 1st, President Abraham Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but thirty-eight (38), who were executed on December 26, 1862 in the largest mass hanging in American history. Chief Little Crow was killed the following year.

Many from the Santee Sioux were imprisoned at Fort Snelling, which is near modern day Minneapolis, including my ancestors Wahinkpe and his family. They were later forcibly moved to Crow Creek in the Dakotas. Three hundred (300) Santee Sioux became sick or starved to death during the three years they were placed there. My grandmother describes this place as “cold as death.” After being in Crow Creek for three years, they were moved to the Santee reservation in Nebraska.