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Summary
Summary
In August 1862, after decades of broken treaties, increasing hardship, and relentless encroachment on their lands, a group of Dakota warriors convened a council at the tepee of their leader, Little Crow. Knowing the strength and resilience of the young American nation, Little Crow counseled caution, but anger won the day. Forced to either lead his warriors in a war he knew they could not win or leave them to their fates, he declared, "[Little Crow] is not a coward: he will die with you."
So began six weeks of intense conflict along the Minnesota frontier as the Dakotas clashed with settlers and federal troops, all the while searching for allies in their struggle. Once the uprising was smashed and the Dakotas captured, a military commission was convened, which quickly found more than three hundred Indians guilty of murder. President Lincoln, embroiled in the most devastating period of the Civil War, personally intervened in order to spare the lives of 265 of the condemned men, but the toll on the Dakota nation was still staggering: a way of life destroyed, a tribe forcibly relocated to barren and unfamiliar territory, and 38 Dakota warriors hanged--the largest government-sanctioned execution in American history.
Scott W. Berg recounts the conflict through the stories of several remarkable characters, including Little Crow, who foresaw how ruinous the conflict would be for his tribe; Sarah Wakefield, who had been captured by the Dakotas, then vilified as an "Indian lover" when she defended them; Minnesota bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, who was a tireless advocate for the Indians' cause; and Lincoln, who transcended his own family history to pursue justice.
Written with uncommon immediacy and insight, 38 Nooses details these events within the larger context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota people, and the subsequent United States-Indian wars. It is a revelation of an overlooked but seminal moment in American history.
Author Notes
Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Scott W. Berg holds a BA in architecture from the University of Minnesota, an MA from Miami University of Ohio, and an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University, where he now teaches writing and literature. The author of Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C., he is a regular contributor to The Washington Post.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Berg, a teacher of writing and literature at George Mason University, turns his attention from Pierre L'Enfant, planner of Washington, D.C. (Grand Avenues), to the Dakota War of 1862 in a gripping narrative of this little-known conflict and a careful exploration of the relationships between events of the Civil War and America's expansion west. Berg illuminates the growing clashes between whites and Indians and reveals the contradictory stances taken by such participants as Dakota chief Little Crow, a white woman Little Crow had taken as a hostage, an Episcopalian bishop, army officers, and political leaders-including Abraham Lincoln. The first military commission used in the Indian wars sentenced 303 warriors to death after hearings that were held without defense representation and usually lasted only a few minutes. Lincoln stayed most of the executions, rejecting the commission's criterion that "any armed resistance to white encroachment was worthy of death." Nevertheless, in America's largest mass execution, 38 Indians were hanged from a single scaffold in December 1862. Although the reader knows the eventual outcome of these battles-near extermination of Indian tribes and cultures-Berg maintains suspense about individual fates to round out this nuanced study of a complex period. B&w illus. Agent: Eric Lupfer, WME. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An exploration of the violent downfall of Little Crow's Dakota nation at the hands of American soldiers. Washington Post contributor Berg (Writing and Literature/George Mason Univ.; Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C., 2007) focuses on the rising escalation between the Dakota people and white settlers, a conflict that came to a head in the summer of 1862, when four inebriated Native Americans carelessly murdered a few white settlers. While Dakota chief Little Crow did not condone the reckless behavior, he recognized that "the day of reckoning was bound to arrive no matter how accommodating and pliable he might be." As expected, U.S. soldiers soon retaliated, though the battle had long been brewing, especially for the Dakotas, who were frustrated by the federal government's continued failures to make good on its promised annuities to the natives. With their credit lines running thin, the Dakota people fought for their survival, though insult was added to their injurious defeat when a military trial sentenced 300 Dakota warriors to death for their role in the battle. While President Lincoln intervened to lessen the number to 38, the mass hanging still earned the dubious honor of becoming the largest public execution in American history. Throughout the sweeping narrative, Berg skillfully weaves in various perspectives, including that of Sarah Wakefield, a woman held captive by the Dakotas, and Bishop Henry Whipple, a paternalistic advocate for the native people. Yet Berg's greater accomplishment is his ability to overlap the little-known Dakota War with its far better known counterpart, the American Civil War. The author's juxtaposition offers readers a contextual framework that provides unique insight into the era. For instance, just days after the mass execution, Lincoln issued the text for the Emancipation Proclamation, prompting curious readers to wonder: How does a country see fit to condemn one group of people to death, and then, less than a week later, set another group free? A captivating tale of an oft-overlooked, morally ambiguous moment in American history.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The first large-scale military conflict with the so-called Sioux Nation did not occur after the Civil War nor take place on the buffalo-laden Great Plains. In 1862, the various bands of the Dakota, or eastern Sioux, fed up with broken treaties and the delay of promised annuities, rose up in an orgy of violence that terrorized white settlements in Minnesota. When it was suppressed, hundreds of settlers and Dakota were dead, the Dakota were forcibly relocated, and 38 leaders of the rebellion were executed in a mass hanging. As Berg indicates, the grievances and the clumsy, confused, and vindictive responses of the military and federal government set a pattern for the further tragedies that characterizes the wars against the Plains Indians. Although Berg's sympathies are clearly with the Dakota, he avoids preaching and strives successfully to present a balanced narrative of the conflict while providing excellent portrayals of some of the key participants. This is a valuable but understandably depressing account of an obscure but important episode in our history.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
This is historical fiction, an exercise many historians find frustrating. The author's interest in enlarging his story drives expanded discursions from the central focus, while his confusing documentation leaves him open to scholarly questions. The rope of this story has been shaken too far if keeping the historical investigation narrowed were the author's goal. Extended digressions about Bishop Henry Whipple, Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley, and General John Pope repeatedly push the reader's patience. More about leaders like Little Crow, his peoples, or even Presbyterian missionary Thomas Williamson (still revered among the Sioux), with less about self-serving captive Sarah Wakefield, would be an improvement. The intrusive Black Hawk War tale, with its incredulous, novelistic story about Lincoln-Little Crow parallel lives, unnecessarily attempts to dramatize a study where the spotlight should remain on the three dozen plus two doomed warriors. The attempt to incorporate Civil War events is also strained, largely because Berg thinks he should forward his descriptions of slaughter pens like Fredericksburg and Antietam. Repeated minutiae about them are well known, but far too little is known about the sorrows that crushed the Minnesota Sioux. Only for ardent fans of fictionalized history or popularized treatments of the Indian Wars. Summing Up: Recommended. Public libraries. J. H. O'Donnell III emeritus, Marietta College
Library Journal Review
Enraged by decades of land cessions and treaty violations, a group of Dakota Sioux warriors murdered five settlers in Minnesota on August 17, 1862. The event sparked the Dakota War of 1862, an extremely violent conflict that ended with the defeat of the Native Americans at the Battle of Wood Lake on September 23. While Berg (Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, DC) does an admirable job of detailing the conflict, the strength of the work is in his account of how military tribunals were used to convict native warriors for warring against the United States without allowing the warriors any semblance of legal rights. Although more than 300 warriors received the death penalty, President Lincoln commuted the sentence of 265 of the condemned. The remaining 38, who were accused of rape and murder, perished in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. VERDICT This fascinating book examines the opening salvo in the U.S. conquest of the Great Plains and is highly recommended for all readers.-John Burch, Campbellsville Univ., Lib., KY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. ix |
| A Note About Names | p. xv |
| 38 Nooses | p. 1 |
| Afterword | p. 303 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 309 |
| A Note on Sources | p. 313 |
| Notes | p. 317 |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 335 |
| Index | p. 347 |