Dakota in exile : the untold stories of captives in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota war / Linda M. Clemmons.
Material type:
TextSeries: Iowa and the Midwest experiencePublisher: Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Description: xvii, 260 pages : illustrations, map. ; 23 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781609386337
- 1609386337
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 973.7 C626 | Available | 33111009157641 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Robert Hopkins was a man caught between two worlds. As a member of the Dakota Nation, he was unfairly imprisoned, accused of taking up arms against U.S. soldiers when war broke out with the Dakota in 1862. However, as a Christian convert who was also a preacher, Hopkins's allegiance was often questioned by many of his fellow Dakota as well. Without a doubt, being a convert--and a favorite of the missionaries--had its privileges. Hopkins learned to read and write in an anglicized form of Dakota, and when facing legal allegations, he and several high-ranking missionaries wrote impassioned letters in his defense. Ultimately, he was among the 300-some Dakota spared from hanging by President Lincoln, imprisoned instead at Camp Kearney in Davenport, Iowa, for several years. His wife, Sarah, and their children, meanwhile, were forced onto the barren Crow Creek reservation in Dakota Territory with the rest of the Dakota women, children, and elderly. In both places, the Dakota were treated as novelties, displayed for curious residents like zoo animals.
Historian Linda Clemmons examines the surviving letters from Robert and Sarah; other Dakota language sources; and letters from missionaries, newspaper accounts, and federal documents. She blends both the personal and the historical to complicate our understanding of the development of the Midwest, while also serving as a testament to the resilience of the Dakota and other indigenous peoples who have lived in this region from time immemorial.
Introduction -- 1. War, trials, execution, and exile, 1862/63 -- 2. Crow Creek, Dakota Territory, 1863/66 -- 3. Camp Kearney prison, Davenport, Iowa, 1863/66 -- 4. Resilience, resistance, and survival: literacy -- 5. Resilience, resistance, and survival: Christianity -- 6. Resilience, resistance, and survival: the Dakota scouts -- 7. Conflicts continue, 1866/69 -- Epilogue.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"Following the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862, the federal government passed legislation exiling all Dakota (whether they had participated in the conflict or not) from Minnesota. Dakota families were relocated to an isolated and drought-plagued reservation in Dakota Territory called Crow Creek, while over three hundred Dakota men were incarcerated at a military prison in Davenport, Iowa. Historians have neglected to tell the important story of the Dakota's exile, survival, and eventual reunification in 1866. Using Dakota language sources, government documents, missionary records and newspaper accounts, I will discuss trauma, survival, and resistance among the Dakota in the post-war period by weaving together three intertwined, but mutually exclusive, narratives: those of the Dakota, the missionaries, and the public and government officials. After 1862 will add to literature on federal Indian policy and Protestant missionaries in the post-Civil War period; it also contributes to the growing body of work examining how Native Americans survived warfare, removal, and historical trauma"-- Provided by publisher.