Hello and welcome to this day in Esse Turk political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day in 1862 is generally considered the start, the first skirmishes, and what

would come to be known as the Dakota Wars, armed conflict between the United States and

bands of Dakota Indians, that sometimes referred to as Sioux.

The battles took place in southwest Minnesota, which had been admitted to the Union as a state

four years earlier.

There would be dozens of battles throughout the summer, fall, into the winter, and one of the most

notable events of the Dakota Wars is in December 1862, the day after Christmas, 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mancato, Minnesota, the largest

mass execution in U.S. history.

So we're going to discuss the Dakota Wars and kind of which stories get written into and out of this period of

American history which is something we've touched on a fair amount on this

podcast so here as always is Nicole Hammer of Columbia hello Nicky

hello Jody.

So a lot of people don't know this story, but I think a lot of people know this period in American history.

So when we hear the year 1862, most people think, well, the Civil War is raging at this time so let's start there

how do we think of the Dakota War and the Civil War and kind of how important is it to

keep that larger context in mind I think that it's pretty important to keep in mind

I mean this is the the central

obsession of the US at the time because the US is being torn into this is also

happening out on the frontier which we were still seeing a lot of action on the frontier both in the war but in the US government itself.

1862 is also the year of the Homestead Act and you can kind of see where that comes together with this fight because homesteaders are moving to the west and as they move to the west they

...