The story continues at the Lower Sioux Agency, 160 years after the U.S.-Dakota War

Aug. 27—MORTON

— If there is one site that exemplifies the varied causes, consequences, interpretations and questions of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, it would probably be the

Lower Sioux Agency

. Located south of the Minnesota River, adjacent to the

Lower Sioux Indian Community

near Morton, the agency was an important site to both the Dakota and the federal government in the times before, during and immediately after the six-week conflict.

"You can't interpret or share that narrative comprehensively without the Lower Sioux Agency, without telling the Lower Sioux history," said Cheyanne St. John, tribal historical preservation officer and director of the Cansayapi Cultural Department for the Lower Sioux. "It's important that you understand the different variables and facets of the narrative."

The agency site has been owned by the Minnesota Historical Society since 1967, and is managed by the Lower Sioux. The staff there try to not only offer visitors a window into what happened 160 years ago, but also provide a place were people can ask questions and come to their own understandings and interpretations about what it all means.

"It is an evolving, living interpretation," said John Robertson, agency site manager.

The causes of the wider conflict began in the decades prior to the start of the war, when the Dakota bands that now make up the Lower and Upper Sioux communities first began settling in the Minnesota River valley. The

Eastern Dakota

were originally from the northern woods around Lake Superior but were pushed into the Minnesota prairies during the first half of the 1800s by the

Lake Superior Chippewa

or Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) bands. They were faced with not only adapting to a brand-new environment, but also the changes brought on by the treaties signed between the tribes and the United States government.

"It was a time of massive, massive territorial flux — cultural interaction that had limited occurrence prior to that," Robertson said.

The Lower Sioux Agency was established in 1853, and its main responsibility was to uphold the federal government's end of the treaties. This included giving the Dakota their annual payment of money and goods, such as food, in exchange for ceding 24 million acres of land to the United States, which was agreed to in the

Mendota

and

Traverse des Sioux

treaties of 1851. The agency also tried to persuade members of the Dakota to give up their traditional ways and become farmers.

"What the agency was, was an early embassy" for the United States in a foreign country, Robertson said.

It was also an uncertain time for many of the settlers, most of whom were trying to start a new life in a strange land. Many likely didn't understand the politics at play, or why the Dakota were upset with the government and the settlers. The fear and mistrust that was kicked up during the years, months and weeks prior to the war also contributed to the unsettled relationships between the Dakota and the settlers.

"When the underlying, driving thing is what we would now call systematic and institutional racism, that is what you get," Robertson said.

This was the highly charged climate of the area in 1862, made worse by the deteriorating supply of available food for the Dakota, who were soon starving. In August, thousands of Dakota converged on the agencies at the Upper and Lower Sioux reservations, looking for their annual payments of money, supplies and, most importantly, food.

The money was late, and the traders were refusing to extend credit to the Dakota. The agent at both reservations,

Thomas J Galbraith

, had allowed food to be distributed at the Upper Sioux after some of the Dakota had gathered to take it by force, but he refused to do the same at the Lower Sioux Agency.

Then on Aug. 17, 1862, four young Dakota men killed five settlers in Acton Township in Meeker County — near present-day Grove City. It became known as

The Acton Incident

.

"That was the Pearl Harbor, that is the shooting of the Prince of Prussia, that is the Gulf of Tonkin incident," Robertson said. "That is the flash point."

The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862

officially began Aug. 18 at the Lower Sioux Agency.

A large group of Dakota fighters, who had decided to attack the agency the night before, came up the Minnesota River. They first attacked a group of traders that lived near the agency, then moved on to the river ferry located just north of the agency before arriving at the main complex. Many agency staff and traders were killed and, eventually, the site itself was nearly destroyed. Prior to the war, the agency housed between 100 and 175 people and included many different buildings such as a blacksmith shop, a school and a grain mill.

"The only buildings left standing in any serviceable form was the warehouse, which was gutted by fire and the roof missing, and the only one really left was LeBathe's," the summer kitchen, Robertson said. Today, only the warehouse survives.

The war moved on from the agency in the following days, impacting areas such as Fort Ridgley, Birch Coulee, New Ulm and concluding on Sept. 23, 1862, at the Battle of Wood Lake.

The Minnesota Historical Society estimates approximately 75 to 100 Dakota fighters died in the war, while more than 600 settlers and mixed-race persons were killed. Hundreds of Dakota were taken prisoner following the end of the war. It is estimated that only 1,000 Dakota — out of approximately 6,500 living on the two Sioux reservations — actually participated in the war.

"It is not that cut and dry," Robertson said.

The Lower Sioux Agency again become the center of the conflict when the trials of Dakota fighters were moved from Camp Release near Montevideo to the agency. It was there that 303 Dakota men were convicted and sentenced to die for their alleged part in the war.

President Abraham Lincoln would later commute the death sentence of all but 38 of those convicted. Those 38 would be hanged on Dec. 26, 1862, in Mankato, in what is still the largest mass execution in American history. The rest would end up serving prison sentences of varying lengths.

By Nov. 6, all the Dakota from around the agency site were marched out. Those convicted were taken to Mankato, while the rest — including women, children and the elderly — found themselves at Fort Snelling in what many have called an internment or concentration camp. Hundreds would die there over the winter.

In 1863, most of the remaining Dakota were forcibly removed from Minnesota in accordance of the federal Dakota Expulsion Act, a law that is still on the books today.

The reservation land was sold to settlers and the Lower Sioux Agency was closed. It wouldn't be until 1889, when the federal government would establish what is now known as the Lower Sioux Indian Community, that some Dakota would slowly return to what had been their home for several generations.

Around 100 years after the war, the Minnesota Historical Society would purchase the Lower Sioux Agency site from the farming family that had been living on it. With involvement by the tribes, the Minnesota Historical Society began archaeological digs at the site in the 1970s and continued through the 1990s.

"The acreage is still considered an active archaeological site," Robertson said.

In the process of creating the historical site, the original 1861 warehouse was restored and an interpretive center was constructed. The site also marks where the other buildings once stood; trails take visitors to the different locations of interest at the site; and museum exhibits in the center help tell the story of the Dakota people, the settlers and the war.

"This facility and its staff are really the cultural anchor for the community to learn about history," St. John said.

Since 2007, the Lower Sioux Indian Community has managed the site for the Minnesota Historical Society. The historical society has given the community great flexibility in how it tells and exhibits the site's history.

"It really broadens what the site could be," St. John said.

St. John said the Lower Sioux Agency is one of the first Minnesota Historical Society sites to incorporate the Dakota language into its exhibits, training and programming.

"We are telling more of the Dakota narrative that hasn't been highlighted," St. John said.

Despite the fact that the war concluded nearly 160 years ago, new information and interpretations at Lower Sioux Agency site continue to help tell the stories of that time. There is the understanding that what exactly happened during those six weeks will probably never be known, as the reports from the event were all colored by the fear and distress being felt by all those involved.

"And half of that story was not recorded," Robertson said.

St. John, Robertson and the rest of the cultural department hope the historic agency site can continue to be a place for the Lower Sioux community and its neighbors to come to feel closer to not only the site's history but understand their own place in the story.

"As a community member, you have the opportunity to create your own journey with the site," Robertson said.