Dakota War of 1862
An armed conflict between Dakota people and the United States and Minnesota settlers, fought in Minnesota from August to September 1862.
Upper Sioux Agency: A federal agency on the Minnesota River that administered relations with Dakota communities. Delayed annuity payments and disputes over food there helped precipitate the conflict.
Dakota 38: The 38 Dakota men executed by the United States at Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862. Their mass execution became the largest single-day execution in United States history.
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux: A 1851 treaty in which Dakota leaders ceded extensive land in present-day Minnesota to the United States. Its land cessions and payment arrangements helped create the conditions for later crisis.
Taoyateduta: A Mdewakanton Dakota leader, also known as Little Crow, who led Dakota forces during much of the 1862 war. His leadership linked military resistance with efforts to protect his community.
Dakota War of 1862 historiography: Historical interpretation of the causes, conduct, and consequences of the 1862 conflict in Minnesota. Accounts differ over how to weigh Dakota resistance, settler deaths, and federal responsibility.
Battle of New Ulm: Two August 1862 attacks on the Minnesota town of New Ulm during the Dakota War. The attacks brought the fighting directly to a major settler community.
Crow Creek Reservation: A reservation established in present-day South Dakota, where many Dakota people were forcibly relocated in 1863. Deportation after the war sent Dakota families to a harsh and unfamiliar environment.
Treaty of Mendota: A 1851 treaty through which Dakota leaders ceded additional land to the United States in Minnesota. Together with Traverse des Sioux, it sharply reduced Dakota landholdings.
Henry Hastings Sibley: A Minnesota politician and military officer who commanded United States forces during the Dakota War. His decisions governed the campaign and the military commission that followed.
Sioux Uprising: A nineteenth-century English-language name for the Dakota War of 1862, now often rejected as reductive. The label frames the conflict differently from the more widely used Dakota War.