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Information

Year
2012
Runtime
118 min.
Director
Silas Hagerty
Genre
Documentary
Rating *
7.8
Votes *
16
Checks
2
Favs
0
Dislikes
0
Favs/checks
0.0% (0:2)
Favs/dislikes
1:1
* View IMDb information

Top comments

  1. monty's avatar

    monty

    Historical background:
    The ‘Dakota 38’ were executed at the end of the US-Dakota war, which took place along the Minnesota River in the autumn of 1862. The native Dakota [Santee Sioux] people was made to cede 24 million acres of land in Minnesota to the US government in one of the most significant Indian treaties in history, signed in 1851. In exchange, they were promised reservation lands and $3,075,000, to be paid over a 50-year period in annuities of goods and money. This came to about 12 cents an acre for some of the richest agricultural land in the country.

    The treaties were later amended to weaken the position of the 7,000 Dakota, who were left with just two reservations, each 20 miles wide and about 70 miles long.Delayed and skipped payments and facing starvation, the Native Americans were driven to increasing desperation.

    On August 17, 1862, one young Dakota with a hunting party of three others killed five settlers while on a hunting expedition. That night a council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley to try to drive whites out of the area. There has never been an official report on the number of settlers and natives killed.
    On November 5, 1862 in Minnesota, in courts-martial, 303 Dakota were found guilty of rape and murder of hundreds of settlers. They were sentenced to be hanged. No attorneys or witness were allowed as a defense for the accused, and many were convicted in less than five minutes of court time with the judge.

    President Abraham Lincoln commuted the death sentence of 284 of the warriors, while signing off on the execution of 38 Dakota men by hanging on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. It was the largest mass-execution in U.S. history.

    Those spared were sent from a prison in Mankato to one in Davenport, Iowa, where many died from squalid conditions. A further 1,600 Dakota were held at a concentration camp at Fort Snelling until being sent out of Minnesota, and virtually all others fled the state. Thus the US Congress abolished their reservations.
    7 years 6 months ago
  2. monty's avatar

    monty

    Official site: http://smoothfeather.com/dakota38/
    Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pX6FBSUyQI
    7 years 6 months ago
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