26 December 1862

Execution of 38 Dakota men at Mankato

Minnesota; Dakota people

After the U.S.–Dakota War, military commissions imposed hundreds of death sentences. Lincoln reviewed the cases and authorized a smaller group for execution; 38 men were hanged. The proceedings and subsequent expulsion were central to Dakota dispossession.

Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.

Context / qualification

Corrects the book’s statement that the men were selected at random; review of the record does not establish fair trials.

Sources

• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 8
• Minnesota Historical Society: Abraham Lincoln and the U.S.–Dakota War ↗

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