Editing Fort Snelling (section)

===Dakota War===
{{Main|Dakota War of 1862}}

On 19 August 1862, after hearing of [[Attack at the Lower Sioux Agency|attacks at the Lower Sioux Agency]] the day before, Governor [[Alexander Ramsey]] immediately went from St. Paul to Fort Snelling to assess military preparedness. Ramsey immediately ordered troops training at or near the fort to be detained from being sent east to fight in the [[American Civil War]]. On the same day, he asked his long-time friend and political rival, former Governor [[Henry Hastings Sibley]], to lead an expedition up the [[Minnesota River]] to end the [[Battle of Fort Ridgely|siege at Fort Ridgely]]. Ramsey gave him a commission as colonel and turned over four companies of the newly organized [[6th Minnesota Infantry Regiment|6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] to Sibley at Fort Snelling.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Anderson|first=Gary Clayton|title=Massacre in Minnesota: The Dakota War of 1862, the Most Violent Ethnic Conflict in American History|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-8061-6434-2|location=Norman|pages=135–136, 233}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Carley|first=Kenneth|title=The Dakota War of 1862: Minnesota's Other Civil War|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-87351-392-0|location=St. Paul|pages=31}}</ref>

The fort became the rendezvous point for the state and federal military forces during the [[Dakota War of 1862]].<ref name=":4" /> During the war, the 6th, 7th, and 10th Minnesota Regiments did garrison duty at Fort Snelling.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

To deal with the uprising, the [[United States Department of War]] created the [[Department of the Northwest]], headquartered at [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] and commanded by [[John Pope (general)|Major General John Pope]]. Gen. Pope arrived in St. Paul on 15 September, and sent requests to the governors of Iowa and Wisconsin for additional troops. The [[25th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment]] arrived at Fort Snelling on 22 September, the day before the decisive [[Battle of Wood Lake]], and were sent immediately to [[Mankato, Minnesota|Mankato]] and [[Paynesville, Minnesota|Paynesville]]. The [[27th Iowa Infantry Regiment]] arrived at Fort Snelling in October, well after the war was over. Four companies stayed at Fort Snelling, while the other six marched north to [[Mille Lacs Lake|Mille Lacs]] and returned to Fort Snelling on 4 November; three days later they were sent to [[Cairo, Illinois]].<ref name=":4">Neighbors to the Rescue: Wisconsin and Iowa, Minnesota History Winter 1979, Edward Noyes, Minnesota Historical Society, St Paul, Mn, p. 312 [http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/46/v46i08p312-327.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716114436/http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/46/v46i08p312-327.pdf|date=2022-07-16}}</ref>[[File:Dakota-Interment-Pike Island.jpg|thumb|right|Dakota internment camp, [[Pike Island]],

winter 1862]]In November 1862, 1,658 Dakota, all innocent non-combatants, were moved from the [[Lower Sioux Agency]] to Fort Snelling, escorted by 300 soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel [[William Rainey Marshall]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Samuel J.|title=Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|year=1988|isbn=978-0-87351-216-9|editor-last=Anderson|editor-first=Gary Clayton|location=St. Paul|pages=223|chapter=Wood Lake and Camp Release, Narrative 1|editor-last2=Woolworth|editor-first2=Alan R.}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Monjeau-Marz|first=Corinne L.|title=The Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862–1864|publisher=Prairie Smoke Press|year=2006|isbn=0-9772718-2-X|edition=Revised|location=St. Paul|pages=36, 41, 55}}</ref> They were mostly Dakota women and children, but also included 22 Franco-Dakota and Anglo-Dakota men who had not been tried, as well as Christian and farmer Dakota such as Taopi, Chief [[Wabasha III|Wabasha]], Joseph Kawanke, Paul Mazakutemani, Lorenzo Lawrence, [[John Other Day]] and [[Snana]] who had opposed [[Little Crow|Chief Little Crow III]] and the "hostile" faction during the war.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|year=1988|isbn=978-0-87351-216-9|editor-last=Anderson|editor-first=Gary Clayton|pages=141|editor-last2=Woolworth|editor-first2=Alan R.}}</ref>

An encampment was created below the fort on [[Pike Island]]. The Dakota had brought their own tipis and household goods with them, and set up more than 200 tipis.<ref name=":5" /> The military leaders had a [[palisade]] erected around the encampment to protect the Dakota from angry settlers, some of whom had attacked the women and children as they passed through [[Henderson, Minnesota|Henderson]] en route to Fort Snelling.<ref name="aftermath" /><ref name=":7" /> Shortly after they arrived, soldiers raped one of the Dakota women.<ref name="aftermath">U.S.-Dakota War's aftermath a ‘dark moment’ in Fort Snelling history, Pioneer Press, Nick Woltman, May 2019 [https://www.twincities.com/2019/05/04/u-s-dakota-wars-aftermath-a-dark-moment-in-fort-snelling-history/]</ref> The Dakota wintered there in 1862–63. An estimated 102 to 300 Dakota died due to the harsh conditions, lack of food, [[measles]] and [[cholera]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/forced-marches-imprisonment |title=Forced Marches and Imprisonment |work=The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 |date=23 August 2012 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |access-date=July 6, 2013}}</ref><ref name=":5" />

[[File:Wokiksuye K'a Woyuonihan.jpg|thumb|Memorial for the Dakota who were interned and died at Fort Snelling]]In May 1863, the Dakota who survived were loaded on two [[steamboats]] and taken down the Mississippi and up the [[Missouri River]] to [[Crow Creek Indian Reservation|Crow Creek]] by the [[Great Sioux Reservation]]. Three hundred more died on the way and three to four a day for weeks after they arrived. Some of the Dakota who made it to Crow Creek were forced to move again three years later to the [[Santee Sioux Reservation]] in [[Nebraska]]. For the women it was an extended period of hardship and degradation.<ref>Survival At Crow Creek, 1863–66, Minnesota History 61:4, Winter 2008–9 Colette A. Hyman, Minnesota Historical Society website, pp. 148–60 [http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/61/v61i04p148-161.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721024738/http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/61/v61i04p148-161.pdf|date=2020-07-21}}</ref> The descendants of the displaced Dakota reside there today. A memorial is outside the Fort Snelling State Park visitor center commemorating all the Native Americans who died during this period.<ref>Referenced from the photo Wokiksuye K'a Woyuonihan on the right hand side of the page</ref>

Because of the prevailing attitudes towards all "Indians" the [[Ho-Chunk|Ho-Chunk (Winnebago)]] that were living outside [[Mankato]] were also sent to Fort Snelling.<ref name="MSHSRECORD">The REMOVAL from MINNESOTA of the Sioux and Winnebago Indians, The Record(Mankato), William E. Lass, November 8, 1862, Minnesota State Historical Society web site, St. Paul, Mn, Minnesota History [http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/38/v38i08p353-364.pdf].</ref> There, they too were put on riverboats for Crow Creek. They lost 500 along the way and once there, they and the Dakota would lose another 1,300 to [[starvation]]. [[File:Hanging of Little Six and Medicine Bottle CDV, 1865.png|right|thumb|150px|Hanging of Little Six and Medicine Bottle November 11, 1865, Ft Snelling]]

In October 1863 Major E.A.C. Hatch and his Battalion were ordered from Fort Snelling to retrieve Dakota leaders who had crossed into Canada.<ref name="Pembina">History of Fort Pembina 1870–1875, University of North Dakota Thesis, 8–1968, William D. Thomson [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/235088744.pdf]</ref> Winter set in before they reached Pembina in Dakota Territory. Hatch made an encampment at Pembina, sending 20 men across the border. They encountered and killed Minnesota Dakota at St. Joseph in the Northwest Territory.<ref name="Pembina" /> At Fort Gerry two Dakota leaders were drugged, kidnapped and taken to Major Hatch for a bounty. The killings at St. Joseph caused almost 400 Dakota to turn themselves in to Hatch as well.<ref name="Pembina" />

When conditions allowed, his Cavalry took the prisoners back to Fort Snelling. The two chiefs were hanged at the fort.<ref>This Week in History, March 3, 1968, Manitoba Provincial Historical Society, newsgov.mb.ca</ref> They were Little Six ([[Shakopee III|Sakpedan]]) and Medicine Bottle (Wakanozanzan).<ref>The United States Dakota War Trials, A Study in Military Injustice, Stanford Law Review Vol. 43:13, November 1990, University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository, Carol Chomsky [https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1230&context=faculty_articles]</ref> Chief Little Leaf managed to evade capture.<ref name="Pembina" />

The next year four companies of the [[30th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment]] arrived at Fort Snelling with three of them moving forward to Camp Ridgely en route to [[Alfred Sully]]'s Dakota campaign.<ref>30th Wisconsin Infantry, Wisconsin in the Civil War, Wisconsin Historical Society Historical essay, Charles E. Estabrook (1914), pp. 789–792 [https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/quiner/id/16702]</ref>