I will admit that I am not much for reading. I will also admit after reading the
first chapter in this book that I felt sick to my stomach, literally. That I
feared reading the rest of the book knowing that this really happened and that
people could actually do this to one another. Although the book disgusted me
after the first chapter that I didn’t want to read it anymore it also made me
not want to put it down. It could have been the way the writer described
everything made it all so vivid and clear or maybe it was the fact that it was
so gruesome and real that I had to read it. Whatever the truth may be I thought
it was a very good book. Up until this class I hadn’t even heard of the
Uprising. In my impression part of the book was the side of the Indians while
part of it was the side of the ‘white man’s’ view. It told of how it
started, where it began, when it ended and how it ended. I feel as if the
Indians had been changing their ways throughout the war. In the beginning they
were killing anyone and everyone but, to a point, by the end of the war they
were only killing the white males and were holding the women and children
captive so to speak. Although I don’t think the Indians needed to be hung for
their crimes they should’ve been arrested and brought into jail. The white men
needed to also take responsibility for their actions. It takes two people to
start a fight no matter what it is about. Yes, it wasn’t all of the white men
who held back their annuity payment, but it was those men who insisted that they
change their ways. The book was a well-researched and insightful narrative of
the bloody uprising and the events which preceded it. It is another sad chapter
in the history of the American West . All the shocking events took place during
one week in August of 1862, in response to being tricked and betrayed by broken
treaties, cheated continually by traders, and brought to the edge of starvation
by delays in dispensing the government's annuity payments, the Santee Sioux had
finally had enough. The Sioux left hundreds of settlers dead and turning forty
thousand into refugees. From killings to burnings they did it all. The high
point was reached over hens' eggs when warriors mocked as cowards after refusing
to steal the eggs shot the hens' owner, his wife, and friends in cold blood.
Faced with certain reprisals from whites, the most respected Sioux leader,
Little Crow, sided with his war chiefs and the rampage began in earnest.
Hundreds of isolated settlers in the area died, with only occasional prisoners
taken, while massive attacks took place against the nearby Army garrison and the
prosperous town of New Ulm. Even with superior numbers, these assaults failed,
however, leaving many warriors dead and the rest disheartened. The Army quickly
rounded up all the Sioux to be found, sentencing hundreds to death in military
court without allowing them a defense. President Lincoln reduced the number of
condemned to 38, who were duly hung. On December 26, 1862, those 38 Sioux
Indians were executed for their part in uprisings.