On this day in 1862, when two Dakota bands,
the southern Mdewakanton and the Wahpekute, turned to the Lower Sioux Agency for supplies . . . , they were rejected. Indian Agent (and Minnesota State Senator) Thomas Galbraith managed the area and would not distribute food without payment to these bands.
At a meeting of the Dakota, the United States government, and local traders, the Dakota representatives asked the representative for the traders, Andrew Myrick, to support their cause. His response was blunt: "So far as I'm concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung." The meeting quickly deteriorated into shouting, and negotiations failed.
Even as a little girl in Mankato, I heard this story when I was growing up, and over the next couple of days, Bluestem will tell more of the tragic tale from early statehood.
Image: Andrew Myrick
We are learning same thing in school.
Posted by: someone | January 09, 2009 at 02:06 PM