(quiet music) - [Voiceover] The following program is a production of Pioneer Public Television.

This program on Pioneer Public Television is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

Additional support provided by Mark and Margaret-Yackel Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom in southwestern Minnesota.

ShalomHillFarm.org.

The Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center your ideal choice for Minnesota resorts offering luxury town homes, 18 holes of golf, Darling Reflections spa, Big Splash water park and much more.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a relaxing vacation or great location for an event, explorealex.com.

Easy to get to, hard to leave.

Quiet music.

- Welcome to postcards, I'm Dana Johnson.

As we start the new season of Postcards, we travel through western Minnesota and visit with people who are making an effort to observe the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Dakota conflict.

In this episode we witness a widespread movement in a region to learn about and to understand this historic event.

First we look at the story surrounding Ness Lutheran Church and the Meeker County area.

Then we take a bike ride with history enthusiasts who travel along the Minnesota River valley in a venture to gain a greater understanding of the conflict.

And finally we visit Slaughter's Slough in Murray County where a local project has been designed to inform the public about what happened there in 1862.

- [Voiceover] I believe that history is a story.

I mean, you tell the truth, you talk about the events, but you can do it as a story.

And that's the way I try to teach.

Well today I am speaking to the group in the Hubbard County government center in the courthouse about the Dakota war and the books that I've written about the war.

And just going through some history with them.

What I'm going to talk about is 1862 in Minnesota.

And specifically about the six weeks from the middle of August to the end of September, of the greatest tragedy in our state's history.

When six to eight hundred people were killed.

We don't know the exact numbers.

This great event, that for the most part gets scant attention nationally, and not much more in our state.

This was a huge thing that happened in Minnesota.

- Well personally I'm not originally from Minnesota, so I really knew nothing about the history of this event.

And in talking with other people I realized that very few people know about the event.

I even had people say to me, "We went to war with North Dakota?"

(laughing) And I'm like, "No!"

you know, so it definitely is a lack of knowledge out there.

- And I think as children when we studied Minnesota history we just went over the fact that there was an uprising.

It wasn't anything that was really dealt with.

- My gosh, it's an area subject of great ignorance in Minnesota, I think.

A lot of people are just not aware of what happened and how serious and traumatic it was for indians and for the early settlers.

And the high ratio, percentage of people who died in the conflict.

- I taught history for 35 years at New London-Spicer.

The Civil War and the Dakota war, or U.S. Dakota War of 1862 were two areas that I concentrated a lot of my energy in my teaching.

And so it's just something that's always, I guess been in the background of my life both before I became a teacher and after.

My family, my mother's family came to the Litchfield area, Meeker County, in 1856.

He was Ole Halverson Ness.

He came from Nesspian, Norway and founded the township of Nesstown.

Which you guys probably don't know, is what Litchfield was before 1869.

And I went to Ness Church, and this happens to be the church where the first five who are killed in the Dakota War are buried.

And I'm sure as a very young boy on coming out of the church and I'd seen this big monument and asking my mother about it and my mother, again from my very young days would tell me stories about the Dakota War and about my family's involvement in it.

But on the night of August 17th, 1862, Ole Halverson Ness had heard, along with some other folks, that some shooting had happened a few miles away in Acton.

And they went to Acton, they discovered the five dead there, brought them back to a churchyard near the Ness homestead called the Ness Church and buried the first five.

So, my great-great-grandfather was part of the burial of the first killed in the U.S. Dakota War of 1862.

Now, as we commemorate today, and I think maybe a better term is we observe, what happened in Minnesota in 1862, we are still commemorating the whole civil war, but specifying Minnesota in these six weeks.

There are whole series of events that are taking place in observance.

- [Voiceover] Ness church, actually, the congregation was formed in 1858.

And it was at Ole Ness' farm, which was located probably about a mile south of here.

They had the first church services there in 1858.

We're having an observance here Sunday.

And that's to observe the beginning of the conflict between U.S. war.

And what it is, it's we're putting on a ceremony of healing.

And what it is, it's being held and put on, basically by the Santee Sioux indians.

And what they're trying to do is just bring together the whites and the indians, you know, to have a feeling of each other's feeling, you know at that time.

The monument is in remembrance of the first five settlers that were killed in the U.S. Dakota War and that happened at Acton, which was probably about three miles northwest of here.

It was what they call, at Robinson Jones' farm or the little store that he had there that served as a meeting place for all the neighbors and settlers in the area.

The monument actually was put up in 1878.

It was dedicated September 13th, 1878.

When they did dedicate this, there was over 1000 people here for the dedication.

Governor Ramsey was here, General Andrews was here, Campbell, the mayor of Litchfield at that time.

I know on the monument you have to look at it, they say first blood and then they talk about the Acton massacre, which probably today isn't politically correct, but you have to remember that that monument was back in 1878 and referred to 1862 and the feelings then were different than now.

And you have to remember history so you don't repeat it.

Hopefully the ceremony Sunday, the healing ceremony will bring together a lot of people, let them talk about their feelings and their history, and just bring people together, you know for the day and hopefully for the future.

- [Dean] There had been 269 captives held by Little Crow.

(quiet music) Some, maybe mostly white, some are mixed blood, Little Crow has these captives.

As he is fighting the Battle of Wood Lake, Red Iron and the Sisseton and Wahpeton come into Little Crow's village and take the captives.

and put them under their protection.

And wait then for Sibley to come and rescue them.

It takes him three days, on September 26th, Sibley shows up, Red Iron turns over the 269 captives.

And then 400 Sisseton, Wahpeton and there were some Mdewakantons there as well, but 400 are arrested, because the mood in Minnesota now shifts to retribution, "We've gotta get even "for what's happened."

They put 400 on trial.

Reverend Riggs acts as a one man grand jury, questioning people to determine who should go to trial.

And when I say trial, it's in a very loose sense of the word.

It was a five man military commission that will listen to the stories about these 400 and decide what's gonna happen to them.

The trials start at Camp Release which is where the captives were released near Montevideo.

- So here we are this year, 150 years out from the 1862 uprising.

And it occurred to me last fall, somebody must be doing a commemorative ride.

So I went out looking for bicycling outfits to see if anybody had a ride, nobody had a ride.

So I put out a bunch of e-mails and the people that have HaveFunBiking.com thought it was a great idea and they do all the logistics and everything.

I just arranged some speakers and here we are, ready to ride.

- Well this was really important to us because, you know I was, I'll be the first one to say was not aware that this was the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Dakota conflict of 1862.

But some people came to us, because we do outdoor activities and then thought that must be a really nice addition to actually have people, you know actually pedaling under their own power through this area that was really you know it's a somber history but really important history.

And by pedaling through it we felt people were a little more closer to nature and to the battlefields, forts and memorials that we're on right now.

And so being the 150th anniversary we thought the mix of a bike ride through these locations would be perfect.

- [Stephanie] There are a lot of bike tours that just go from you know, point A to point B during the day and people do a lot of miles just to get there.

And what's nice about this tour is that it's a little bit lower mileage, trying to take it under 50 miles or less.

But we're having lots of time to explore the different battlefields and historic sites and monuments so that you know people really can delve into the area and really learn about the history of the war that occurred but also learn about what this area is today as well.

- And you get to ride over the terrain in relatively slow fashion on a bicycle.

It doesn't just fly by as you go by in your pickup or your car.

And you get a chance to talk to people about it and ask questions and look things over rather carefully.

- I am participating in this program because of the 150th year of the Sioux uprising.

Minnesota history has always been an interest of mine and my family.

And just having a chance to see the actual sites and read up about this important part of Minnesota history was one of the reasons why I like it, plus I'm an avid bike rider and it's something that I thought would fit with both of my hobbies.

- Today we're gonna have a welcome from the mayor and from the Chippewa County valley historical society here and a fellow talking about the environment.

And Curtis Dahlen who is a historian, written several books about the uprising is going to talk to us here.

And then we're all gonna bike out to Camp Release and have a look around there.

That's our first stop, ironically it's the end of the Dakota conflict of 1862 when the prisoners were released at Camp Release.

And then we kinda move back in time, but there's no way to go through this valley both chronologically and geographically at the same time, so here we are.

- [Kerri] Then they're just getting to the park, you know knowing this is the kickoff under the big shade trees and our speakers and the mayor was in town.

Hearing all the historians start their, you know the real true meat of the bike ride and getting that underway and then seeing them off right after lunch, then we headed out on a 25 mile bike ride here to Granite Falls.

So just seeing that finally come from the planning we had to the fruition of getting the bikes on the road and getting those bikers on the route was really exciting to see.

- [Stephanie] We started our bike tour in Montevideo and now the bike riders have biked down to Granite Falls and this evening they're going to have a dinner here as well as having dancers from the Upper Sioux Agency entertain them as well.

- [Kerri] They're the youth from the upper Sioux community, which is one of the reservations that we're on right now, here today, and they have an organization of using the 18 and under groups to perform for a lot of ride events and they have anything, like I said there's singers, they're performers, they have drummers.

They come in native attire and that really represent their culture, their song, their spirit, that's why they're coming out, cause we feel they represent, really the real reason that we're out there today.

- [Margaret] I'm looking forward especially, not only to riding bike through this historic area, and actually stopping, like at Camp Release, Fort Ridgely, Coulee Birch and some of the really important parts of it, and then learning in depth a little bit more about the whole event, cause I'm just kind of, I feel like I'll gain some knowledge in this area.

- Tomorrow we move down to the Upper Sioux Agency, the Wood Lake battle site, which is undeveloped.

But there's a preservation association that is working to create a site there.

And their project is underway with some of the bolders and what not moved into that site that they want to establish.

And so on down the road we'll go to Redwood Falls, the Birch Coulee battle site near there, Fort Ridgely, then we go to Mankato where the executions occurred.

- Lincoln then says, "All right I'm gonna have "my legal staff check this out."

So he turns to his legal staff, two lawyers, (quiet music) and the legal staff then says, after they pour over the records, that there are 38 who should die.

38 who did crimes, that were deserved of death.

Now the man who swung the hatchet, killing the 38, cutting the rope, was Will Duly.

Will Duly was a member of the Lake Shetek settlement.

It was attacked on August 22nd, (mumbling) led by Lean Bear.

- [Voiceover] And we're located at the Shetek monument.

It was built in 1924, and dedicated in 1925.

That's where the people that died here at Shetek are buried.

When I was little I thought it was just a monument, I didn't realize that they had actually buried there.

I was out here for the 100th, but I hadn't worked out here yet, but I did just drove out, and were people all around here.

That was 1962.

And then I was a park naturalist when we had the 125th.

I organized the 140th, here I'm still around for the 150th.

And so we try to maintain the history of the area, let people know there's more than just a lake here.

- They surrendered, the whites did, they said that they would walk to Mankato and (mumbling) and surrender.

And then basically were told, "If you leave, we will leave you alone."

As they left, they were attacked near a slough and 13 of them killed there, two had been killed back on the base of Lake Shetek.

So 15 killed, 10 captured at Slaughter Slough as it became known.

- [Dave] Last Saturday, which was the beginning for the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Dakota War, some settlers' decedents came to Lake Shetek and had a reunion, a family reunion.

That would be the Eastlick family, the Hatch family, the Irelands were all here.

There were also individuals here from the Dakota people.

We had Eldon Lawrence from the Dakota tribe, and we also had Marcella Labow from the Lakota people that were here, both decedents of what happened out here at Slaughter Slough.

- It's 640 acres as a wildlife management area that goes through the heart of Slaughter Slough where many people died in 1862, both white and Dakota people.

You see the kiosk that the Fish and Wildlife put up and it's a beautiful kiosk and then you see there's some miniature kiosks along the trail out by the rock cairns.

The rock cairns were put up here very early.

- [[Voiceover] We've named the trail leading out to the memorial, Reconciliation Trail.

The three stones, basically one stone represents the settlers that came to the area.

One stone represents the Dakota nation of the Sioux indians.

And the third stone represents the Lakota tribe of the Sioux indians and all three coming together with that one big huge bolder on top of them to reconcile their differences, because there were so many different issues in that dark chapter of our early history of Minnesota.

- And they thought putting these three things to honor, and then that big rock is a step to our reconciliation, trying to better understand what happened out here 150 years ago and trying to bring a little closure somehow.

It's very, very difficult with the indian people some of those scars are tremendous, even amongst themselves.

Because some rescued whites and some fought, I mean there's just a lot of scars and this is really, hopefully a healing place, we hope.

That's where reconcilation comes up.

My great-great grandmother was 15 years old during the uprising of 1862.

She lived down on the outskirts of Morton, right above Birch Coulee where the war started.

She ended up as a refugee and what I believe the reconciliation is, it's long overdue.

We're not mad at the British for burning the White House in 1812.

- The word reconciliation, I guess it means different things to different people.

Apologies mean different things to different people.

And I'm not (mumbling) delving so much into the world of apologies or reconciliation, but going into the idea of healing.

I think that most people agree that there is a need to heal as we move into the future.

And some of these things in the past, I think it's important to know about, but at this point we can't change what happened.

So we have to recognize it, to understand it, but then let's move into the future and let's heal.

And that's what the message is.

- [Thomas] Well I think the commemoration of the 150th anniversary is part of our history.

We have to acknowledge it happened.

And it gives us a chance to reflect and it gives us a chance to reconcile these old ancient animosities, which do not belong in the 21st century.

You know we should not be looking back at atrocities that happened 150 years ago and still lay blame.

Not when we're at the point of landing men on Mars.

We should be looking outward into the future and not dwelling on the past.

It's a fact it happened, we should acknowledge it happened, but we have to move forward.

- I think it's important first of all to know the facts.

To know what happened in Minnesota in 1862.

So the education is important, but from education comes understanding and I want people to understand why these things happened.

And from education to understanding comes, I think, a third important element, and that's healing.

There are still open wounds in Minnesota from what happened in 1862 and we need to move forward from that and promote some healing.

I have no illusion that the things that we are doing today, in myself and others, are going to magically heal all wounds, but maybe we can put a little more salve in them and try to improve it for the future.

(tribal singing and drumming) - For more information on these locations, go to our website.

Also, tune in later in the season to learn more about native american art and culture.

See you again next time on Postcards.

- [Voiceover] This program on Pioneer Public Television is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

Additional support provided by Mark and Margaret-Yackel Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom in southwestern Minnesota.

ShalomHillFarm.org.

The Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center your ideal choice for Minnesota resorts offering luxury town homes, 18 holes of golf, Darling Reflections spa, Big Splash water park and much more.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a relaxing vacation or great location for an event, explorealex.com.

Easy to get to, hard to leave.

(quiet music)