SPEECH
OF HDAINYANKA IN FAVOR OF CONTINUING WAR
I am
for continuing the
war, and am opposed to the delivery of the prisoners. I have no
confidence
that the whites will stand by any agreement they make if we give them
up.
Ever since we treated with them their agents and traders have robbed
and
cheated us. Some of our people have been shot, some hung; others
placed upon floating ice and drowned; and many have been starved in
their
prisons. It was not the intention of the nation to kill any of
the
whites until after the four men returned from Acton and told what they
had done. When they did this, all the young men became excited,
and
commenced the massacre. The older ones would have prevented it if
they could, but since the treaties they have lost all their
influence.
We may regret what has happened but the matter has gone too far to be
remedied.
We have got to die. Let us, then, kill as many of the whites as
possible,
and let the prisoners die with us.
(Heard, History of Sioux War, 151-52)
LETTER
FROM GENERAL POPE DECLARING HIS GOAL
OF EXTERMINATING
SIOUX
The horrible
massacres of
women and children and the outrageous abuse of female prisoners, still
alive, call for punishment beyond human power to inflict. There
will
be no peace in this region by virtue of treaties and Indian
faith.
It is my purpose utterly to exterminate the Sioux if I have the power
to
do so and even if it requires a campaign lasting the whole of next
year.
Destroy everything belonging to them and force them out to the plains,
unless, as I suggest, you can capture them. They are to be
treated
as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties
or compromises can be made.
(Letter to Sibley, Sept. 28,1862)
LETTER
FROM BISHOP WHIPPLE CONCERNING DEGREES OF GUILT
[T]here is a broad
distinction
be[t]ween the guilt of men who went through the country committing
fiendish
violence, massacreing [sic] women & babes with the spirit of demons
& the guilt of timid men who received a share of the plunder or who
under threat of death engaged in some one battle where hundreds were
engaged.
(Letter to Editor of Republican
Pioneer,
Nov., 1862)
ADDRESS
TO CONDEMNED PRISONERS BEFORE THEIR EXECUTIONS
Their
Great Father
at Washington, after carefully reading what the witnesses testified to
in their several trials, has come to the conclusion that they have each
been guilty of wantonly and wickedly murdering his white
children.
And for this reason he has directed that they each be hanged by the
neck
until they are dead, on next Friday; and that order will be carried
into
effect on that day, at ten o'clock in the forenoon.
The good
ministers are
here, both Catholic and Protestant, from amongst whom each one can
select
a spiritual adviser, who will be permitted to commune with them
constantly
during the few days that they are yet to live:
Say to them now
that
they have so sinned against their fellow men, that there is no hope for
clemency except in the mercy of God, through the merits of the blessed
Redeemer and that I earnestly exhort them to apply to that, as their
only
remaining source of comfort and consolation.
(Rev. Riggs, reading address prepared
by
Col. Miller)
STATEMENT
OF TAZOO AT THE TIME OF HIS EXECUTION
[T]ell our
friends
that we are being removed from this world over the same path they must
shortly travel. We go first, but many of our friends may follow
us
in a very short time. I expect to go direct to the abode of the
Great
Spirit, and to be happy when I get there; but we are told that the road
is long and the distance great; therefore, as I am slow in my
movements,
it will probably take me a long time to reach the end of the journey,
and
I should not be surprised if some of the young, active men we will
leave
behind us will pass me on the road before I reach the place of my
destination.
(Dec. 24, 1862)
LETTER
OF HDAINYANKA 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.
(Letter to Chief Wabasha)
LETTER
FROM REV. THOMAS WILLIAMSON TO REV. STEPHEN RIGGS
[I] am satisfied in my
own
mind from the slight evidence on which these are condemned that there
are
many others in that prison house who ought not to be there, and that
the
honor of our Government and the welfare of the people of Minnesota as
well
as that of the Indians requires a new trial before unprejudiced judges.
I doubt whether the whole state of Minnesota can furnish 12 men
competent
to sit as jurors in their trial. . . . From our Governor down to the
lowest
rabble there is a general belief that all the prisoners are guilty, and
demand that whether guilty or not they be put to death as a sacrifice
to
the souls of our murdered fellow citizens.
(Letter to Rev. Riggs, Nov. 24, 1862)
LETTER
FROM COL. HENRY SIBLEY
[I]t should be
borne in
mind that the Military Commission appointed by me were instructed only
to satisfy themselves of the voluntary participation of the individual
on trial, in the murders or massacres committed, either by voluntary
participation
of the individual on trial, in the murders or massacres committed,
either
by his voluntary concession or by other evidence and then to proceed no
further. The degree of guilt was not one of the objects to be
attained,
and indeed it would have been impossible to devote as much time in
eliciting
details in each of so many hundred cases, as would have been required
while
the expedition was in the field. Every man who was condemned was
sufficiently proven to be a voluntary participant, and no doubt exists
in my mind that at least seven-eighths of those sentenced to be hung
have
been guilty of the most flagrant outrages and many of them concerned in
the violation of white women and the murder of children.
(Letter to Asst. Sec. of Interior,
Dec.
19, 1862)
LETTER
FROM REV. STEPHEN RIGGS
I have a very high
regard
for all the gentlemen who composed the military commission. I
count
them individually among my personal friends. But they were trying
Indians; and my sense of right would lead me to give Indians as fair
and
full a trial as white men. This was the difference between us.
(Letter to St. Paul Pioneer)
LETTER FROM COL. HENRY SIBLEY TO
HIS WIFE
I have to review
all the
proceedings, and decide the fate of each individual. This power
of
life, and death, is an awful thing to exercise, and when I think
of more than three hundred human beings are subject to that power,
lodged
in my hands, it makes me shudder. Still duty must be performed,
and
judgment visited upon the guilty.
(Oct. 17, 1862)
GEORGE
CROOK'S (WAKANAJAJA'S) ACCOUNT OF JOURNEY TO PRISON CAMP
The excitement of
the Indians
knew no bounds when they realized they were in the power of the
soldiers
and the scene was terrifying to behold, fear and despair completely
carried
them away and the impression gained an everlasting hold on his [my]
youthful
mind. It was repeatedly told us we were all to be executed and
the
insults of the soldiers who spoke the Indian tongue seemed a convincing
fact that all were to be put to death immediately. This cruel
order
was constantly in our minds until the verdict of our trial was given us
through an interpreter, some months later.
After the
surrender
the Indians were loaded into old Red River carts and started for the
Lower
Agency and Manatee. The carts were small, drawn by an ox,
and
it was with difficulty for any more than four persons to occupy the
box.
In the cart I was forced to occupy were two Indiana men and my sixteen
year old brother. We were bound securely and on our journey
resembled
a load of animals on their way to market. We traveled slow
meeting
now and then a white person who never failed to give us a look of
revenge
as we jolted along in our cramped condition.
As we came near
New
Ulm my brother told me the driver was . . . afraid to go through New
Ulm,
my heart leaped into my mouth and I crouched down beside my brother
completely
overcome with fear. In a short time we reached the outskirts of
the
town and the long looked for verdict--- death, seemed at hand.
Women
were running about, men waving their arms and shouting at the top of
their
voices, convinced the driver the citizens of that village were wild for
the thirst of blood, so he turned the vehicle in an effort to escape
the
angry mob but not until too late, they were upon us. We were
pounded
to a jelly, my arms, feet, and head resembled raw beef steak. How
I escaped alive has always been a mystery to me. My brother was
killed
and when I realized he was dead I felt the only person in the world to
look after me was gone and I wished at the time they had killed me.
We reached Mankato
late
that evening and the trial conviction and sentences are merely a matter
of history. I can truthfully say the experienced photographed on
my youthful mind can never be defaced by time.
(Morton Enterprise, Jan. 29, 1909)
CALL OF JACOB
NIX, COMMANDANT OF NEW ULM, FOR DAKOTA BLOOD
In his youth, the author had
read with
very much interest the novels of Cooper. Especially The Last of
the
Mohicans aroused in him enthusiasm for the Redskins. But,
unfortunately,
novels have always been playing on the imagination instead of dwelling
on truth and reality. Had Cooper known the real nature of the
Indian,
he would perhaps have preferred to put a bullet through his brain
rather
than writing such crazy nonsense about the red bloodhounds. No
one
can imagine dirtier dogs than the Indians with whom I have come in
contact;
they were not the last of the Mohicans, a tribe of Indians I have never
seen, but tribes of Redskins in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Idaho,
Montana,
and other northwestern sections which I got to know a little
better.
Treacherous of character, proud, and cold of bearing in response to the
honest friendliness of the white men, yet begging when hungry and
humbly
receiving the desired gift and with a "Ho! Ho!", shaking the hand of
his
benefactor and then cowardly shoot him at the first opportunity, these
are just about the main characteristics of our red brothers.
The Redskins hate
the
palefaces and their hatred has been glowing for centuries ever since
the
first white man appeared on this continent. And one should not
believe
that the present generation of Indians has forgotten, or does not know,
that the entire, specious territory of the U.S. once belonged to their
ancestors and that their hunting grounds were alive and filled with all
kinds of game. The savage knows this as well as we know it, and
this
is the reason for his unforgivable hatred of the paleface, a hatred
which
only waits for an opportunity to destroy the latter.
One should not, of
course,
have provoked the Indians with injustices, but they also should not
have
made the inhabitants of an entire region pay for the wrongs committed
by
specific individuals by murdering, burning, and scorching the earth,
and
attacking settlers, destroying everything -- men and women, old people
and children -- which came before their rifles and bows and
arrows.
Then, of course, there suddenly appeared the fanatics who immediately
took
up the cause of the captured red murderers after the defeat of the
uprising.
The following momentous words from the Bible should have been cast
before
these crazy, hypocritical puritans: An eye for an eye! A
tooth
for a tooth! That means: Immediately after the capture of
the
red scoundrels, one should not have wasted any time in shooting or
hanging
every one who took part in the horrible crimes which occurred in the
summer
of 1862 in Minnesota. (The Sioux Uprising in Minnesota: Jacob Nix's
Eyewitness History)
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