The Massacre Continues...

You are witnessing the events of Minnesota's Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, which happened exactly 150 years ago this month. Buy the book "Blood on the Prairie - A Novel of the Sioux Uprising" in all formats at Amazon.

August, 1862	Annuity payments are late and rumors circulate that payments, if they will be made at all, will not be in the customary gold because of the ongoing Civil War. Dakota plan to demand that future annuity payments be made directly to them, rather than through traders.  Traders, learning of plan, refuse to sell provisions on credit, despite widespread hunger and starvation on the reservation.  At a meeting called by Indian Agent Thomas Galbraith to resolve the impasse, Andrew Myrick, spokesman for the traders, says: "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass."
August 17, 1862	Four Dakota kill five settlers near Litchfield.  Councils are held among the Dakota on whether to wage war.  Despite deep divisions on the issue, war is the chosen course.
August 18, 1862	Groups of Dakota kill 44 Americans in attacks on the Redwood Agency and on federal troops advancing to the Agency in the hope of suppressing the uprising.  Ten Americans are captured.
August 19, 1862	Minnesota Governor Ramsey appoints Col. Henry Sibley to command American volunteer forces.Sixteen settlers are killed in Dakota attacks in and around New Ulm. Settlers crowd into a small barricaded area of New Ulm's main street.