[News] This Day in History – Dec. 26, 1862: 38 Dakota Men Executed by Order of Abraham Lincoln

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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This Day in History – Dec. 26, 1862: 38 Dakota Men Executed by Order of
Abraham Lincoln
By Native News Online Staff December 26, 2021

*This Day in History: Dec. 26, 1862—*On the day after Christmas, on Dec.
26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged in the largest mass-hanging in U.S.
history. The executions were ordered by President Abraham Lincoln. In a
separate historic order, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which granted
his administration to free the slaves, went into effect six days later on
Jan. 1, 1863.

The Dakota hangings were the result of conflict between the Dakota and
settlers.

American Indian author Mark Charles wrote for *Native News Online*:

In the fall of 1862, after the United States failed to meet its treaty
obligations with the Dakota people, several Dakota warriors raided an
American settlement, killed 5 settlers and stole some food. This began a
period of armed conflict between some of the Dakota people, the settlers,
and the US Military. After more than a month, several hundred of the Dakota
warriors surrendered and the rest fled north to what is now Canada. Those
who surrendered were quickly tried in military tribunals, and 303 of them
were condemned to death.

The trials of the Dakota were conducted unfairly in a variety of ways. The
evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were
unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language,
and authority for convening the tribunal was lacking. More fundamentally,
neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized
that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign
nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in
accordance with that status.” (Carol Chomsky
<http://usdakotawar.org/history/aftermath/trials-hanging>)
*                President Abraham Lincoln*

Because these were military trials, the executions had to be ordered by the
President Abraham Lincoln.

Three hundred and three deaths seemed too genocidal for President Lincoln.
But he didn’t order retrials, even though it has been argued that the
trials which took place were a legal sham. Instead he simply modified the
criteria of what charges warranted a death sentence. Under his new
criteria, only 2 of the Dakota warriors were sentenced to die. That small
number seemed too lenient, and President Lincoln was concerned about an
uprising by his white American settlers in that area. So for a second time,
instead of ordering retrials he merely changed the criteria of what
warranted a death sentence. Ultimately, 39 Dakota men were sentenced to die.

And on December 26, 1862, by order of President Lincoln, and with nearly
4,000 white American settlers looking on, the largest mass execution in the
history of the United States took place. The hanging of the Dakota 38.

Here is *The New York Times* account
<https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1863/01/11/90530334.pdf> of
the hangings:

*Precisely at the time announced — 10 A.M. — a company, without arms,
entered the prisoners’ quarters to escort them to their doom. Instead of
any shrinking or resistance, all were ready, and even seemed eager to meet
their fate. Rudely they jostled against each other, as they rushed from the
doorway, ran the gauntlet of the troops, and clambered up the steps to the
treacherous drop.*

*As they came up and reached the platform, they filed right and left, and
each one took his position as though they had rehearsed the programme.
Standing round the platform, they formed a square, and each one was
directly under the fatal noose. Their caps were now drawn over their eyes,
and the halter placed about their necks. Several of them feeling
uncomfortable, made severe efforts to loosen the rope, and some, after the
most dreadful contortions, partially succeeded.*

*The signal to cut the rope was three taps of the drum. All things being
ready, the first tap was given, when the poor wretches made such frantic
efforts to grasp each other’s hands, that it was agony to behold them. Each
one shouted out his name, that his comrades might know he was there. The
second tap resounded on the air. The vast multitude were breathless with
the awful surroundings of this solemn occasion. Again the doleful tap
breaks on the stillness of the scene.*

*Click! goes the sharp ax, and the descending platform leaves the bodies of
thirty-eight human beings dangling in the air. The greater part died
instantly; some few struggled violently, and one of the ropes broke, and
sent its burden with a heavy, dull crash, to the platform beneath. A new
rope was procured, and the body again swung up to its place. It was an
awful sight to behold. Thirty-eight human beings suspended in the air, on
the bank of the beautiful Minnesota; above, the smiling, clear, blue sky;
beneath and around, the silent thousands, hushed to a deathly silence by
the chilling scene before them, while the bayonets bristling in the
sunlight added to the importance of the occasion.*
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