From acknowledging the winter solstice to celebrating mainstream society’s holiday season, this time of year has always brought together gatherings of family and friends throughout Turtle Island.  And every December, reminders of our history add to the difficulties faced by many families, and tribes, as some of their people’s most tragic memories all occurred during this month — the assassination of Chief Sitting Bull, Wounded Knee Massacre, and the Dakota 38 Hanging.

The day after Christmas is more widely known as “Boxing Day,” especially outside of Indian Country, but in the last several years there has been growing momentum for mainstream society to acknowledge the day after Christmas as the day when 38 Dakota “Sioux” men were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota in 1862. The hanging, the largest mass execution in United States history, was carried out in front of an estimated 4,000 people in downtown Mankato and remains largely hidden from classrooms and public knowledge.

As the year ends, and millions gather to celebrate and acknowledge the holiday season, some Indigenous communities acknowledge its tragic past through memorial ceremonies aimed at teaching and healing while building community. 

The hangings were approved by former President Abraham Lincoln as a result of conflict between Dakota people and settlers in southwestern Minnesota. Dakota people were promised food and safety in exchange for ceding their lands, but they received neither, leading to attacks on white settlements in August 1862. The resulting widespread war in Minnesota lasted for five weeks, culminating in the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862.

Some say the Dakota War officially ended after the hanging, but the U.S. government’s oppression of the Dakota people, as well as other Indigenous groups, did not end with that atrocity. After the mass hanging, Dakota people were exiled and forcibly removed from Minnesota. Many sought refuge in Canada, South Dakota, Nebraska, and other communities willing to take them in. Memorializing such a painful history involves more than riding on horseback through blizzard-like conditions. While it remains a painful and tragic past, many have undertaken healing and positive efforts to repair relations with those in the places where history unfolded, hoping that such history will not repeat itself.

The movement to pay tribute to tragic times past is active healing in Indian Country. While memorials take time and tremendous effort, the initial memorial horse ride has caused great positive ripple. Today there are additional horse rides and a memorial run that begins at Ft. Snelling, the military fort where thousands of Dakota people were imprisoned during the Dakota War, and all convene at Reconciliation Park in Mankato, MN on Dec. 26. Many other Indigenous communities have begun to host memorial rides, runs, or walks, to pay their respects to their past, as well as to the land in hopes we continue to heal beyond times past.

Beginning in 2008, an annual memorial horse ride was organized to begin on the Lower Brule Reservation in central South Dakota and ride for 16 consecutive days, convening in Mankato, MN on Dec. 26. Their ride and ceremonial arrival to memorialize the Dakota 38 continues to this day — now under a new name — Mahkato Reconciliation and Healing Ride. 

Forever riding forward, while sometimes looking back, is magic we all have to embrace in this work. We’re grateful and gain strength as we join together to honor the pain and sacrifices of the past by celebrating and supporting these ongoing healing movements.

Miigwech — thank you, always, for remembering with us!
Darren Thompson
Director of Media Relations
Lakota People’s Law Project
Sacred Defense Fund

Lakota People’s Law Project
P.O. Box 27
Santa Fe, NM 87504