Siouxs Uprising, Dakota Conflict, American Civil War

Description of the Sioux Uprising by Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley and Toby Ryker (fictitious chief scout for the Sixth Minnesota):

"...it was an epoch of the most inhuman and remorseless butchery ever enacted upon the American continent. But remember, Ryker, there was nothing left for the Indians to do. Their wives and children were dead or dying for want of food. They were to die themselves, or exact, even at the cost of their own lives, a fire-lit, vengeful, bloody, and brutal atonement for all the wrongs inflicted upon them. And with the nation embroiled in the civil war, the time was opportune. Time at last makes all things even, so they say. As for Little Crow, he was but the conduit. If it hadn't been him, someone else would have taken his place."

Paraphrased from the biography of Henry H. Sibley. Read about it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Prairie-Novel-Sioux-Uprising/dp/0615247962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341523099&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+on+the+Prairie