An Unfortunate War: The Sioux Uprising of 1862 (Used Paperback) - Roger Stoner

An Unfortunate War begins by telling the story of how the United States government acquired the lands occupied by the Dakotah (Santee Sioux) people during the first half of the 19th century. The focus is on the series of treaties that were negotiated with the Santee people which systematically purchased their ancestral homelands. With each new treaty, they retained less and less terrain to make even a subsistence living upon. Excessive dependence upon annuity payments promised in the treaties was the result.

By the summer of 1862, the entire Dakotah population was confined to a ten mile wide reservation stretching one hundred and forty miles along the south side of the Minnesota River. They were expected to learn farming to assist the meager annuity payments which always fell short of their needs. When the actions of unscrupulous traders along with a nation poorly prepared to finance the Civil War causes hunger and deprivation among the tribes, the People turn to a man they had recently rejected to lead them into war with the white man.

This leader, Little Crow, was in a quandary. His dismay at losing the election of Speaker for the Mdewakanton people to Traveling Hail, had affected him deeply. The shock and disappointment at the loss of a position his father and grandfather had both held before him, had depressed him. Now, even though his good sense warned him that he was making a mistake, his ego took control and he agreed to lead his people into a war against the white government, that he knew they could not win!

Against the sweeping backdrop of a rapidly expanding nation, An Unfortunate War explains the idiosyncrasies associated with the United States government policies toward the original Americans living in southern Minnesota. Unrest due to these policies caused an uprising leading to An Unfortunate War.

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