The Dakota Prisoner of War Letters: Dakota Kaskapi Okicize Wowapi

Description

In April 1863 after the US Dakota War of 1862, after the hanging of 38 Dakota men in the largest mass execution in US history, some 270 Dakota men were moved from Mankato, Minnesota, to a prison at camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa.Separated from their wives, children, and elder relatives, with inadequate shelter, they lived there for three long, wretched years.
More than 120 men died.
Desperate to connect with their families, many of these prisoners of war learned to write.
Their letters, mostly addressed to the missionaries Stephen R Riggs and Thomas S.
Williamson, asked for information, for assistance, and for help sending and receiving news of their loved ones.