On this day, Dec. 26, in 1862, 38 Dakota (Sioux) warriors were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Hundreds of Dakota fighters were arrested and sentenced to death after the Dakota War of 1862. Most were spared, but 38 were put to death.
The war took place between the United States and several groups of eastern Dakota American Indians in southwest Minnesota.
It broke out when four Dakota killed five American settlers during a hunting expedition in August 1862.
The war ended with the Dec. 26 public hanging in Mankato, Minn. The 38 were buried in a mass grave in the sand of a bank of the Minnesota River.
Emily Babay
