Court Proceedings In the Trial of Dakota Indians 1862, published 1927
A recent addition to Special Collections, and a timely one. As you can see with the samples above, the book was lacking a good spellchecker (or typesetter) but provides a window into this paranoid and fearful era of Minnesota history. This year is the Sesquicentennial of the Dakota War. The Minnesota Historical Society just opened a very fair and balanced exhibit on the war, getting feedback from both the descendants of the Dakota and the settlers involved in the war.
Spotlighted in the exhibit were the two men that were executed because of mistaken identity. One of them was Chaska. Chaska was a common Dakota name, meaning “firstborn son.” Case #3, Chaska, who “prevented Indians from killing” Sarah Wakefield’s children and saved her life three times was executed instead of case #121 Chaska-Ite, a man who Lewis Theile swore, “…shot a woman that was with child and then cut her open at Redwood.”
