Reprint from Telelaget of America The Sioux Uprising of 1862 was primarily the result of the government's failure to honor the terms of the Treaty of Traverse de Sioux in 1851. The Indians gave up over 20 million acres of land, preserving for themselves a reservation of the land on each side of the Minnesota river, roughly from the Minnesota border to New Ulm. The government did not honor these terms, and a number of pioneer settlements began to sprang up on what legally was reservation land. The government promised yearly payments to the tribes for the land they gave up; the payments were often late and were gobbled up by the trading post owners who charged outrageous prices but offered credit to Indians during the year. In the summer of 1862, the payments were once again late and the Indians were starving.
On August 4, 1862, representatives of the northern Sissetowan and Wahpeton Dakota bands met at the Upper Sioux Agency in the northwestern part of the reservation and successfully negotiated to obtain food. When two other bands of the Dakota, the southern Mdewakanton and the Wahpekute, turned to the Lower Sioux Agency for supplies on August 15, 1862, 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 U.S. government and local traders, the Dakota representatives asked the representative of the government traders, Andrew Jackson Myrick, to sell them food on credit. His response was said to be, "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung."But the importance of Myrick's comment at the time, early August 1862, is historically unclear. Myrick was later found dead with grass stuffed in his mouth.
With the American army focused on the Civil War, it seemed to be to the Indians' advantage to take military action to redress these grievances. Minnesota's pioneers were largely unaware of the just nature of the Indians' plight, and they suffered prolonged and intense terror in the fall of 1862. Estimates vary but between 450 and 800 settlers were killed. Large areas were depopulated as panic-stricken settlers rushed to Fort Ridgely or to towns like St. Peter. The settlers formed groups of citizen soldiers to protect themselves. They gave themselves names like The Le Sueur Tigers, St. Peter Guards, and the Scandinavian Guards of Nicollet County. Soldiers rushed from St. Paul to defend the counties of southern Minnesota.
The uprising lasted only six weeks. 425 Indians were indicted; 303 were sentenced to hang and 20 to imprisonment. President Lincoln commuted all but 38 of the death sentences. A massive scaffold was built, and on the day after Christmas in 1862, all 38 men and boys were hung simultaneously. It was the largest public execution in American history.
Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen says, nobody ever talked about the most important historical event ever to happen there: in 1862, it was the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged after a war with white settlers. John went back to Minnesota to figure out what really happened 150 years ago, and why Minnesotans didn’t talk about it much after.
Russell Means, who walked on early the morning of October 22, is seen here on January 31, 1989 testifying before a special investigative committee of Senate Select Committee.
As news of his walking on spreads across Indian country, we’ve taken the time to look back at Russell Means’ storied life. He passed at 4:44 a.m. on October 22 at his home in Porcupine, South Dakota.
Means laughed in response to being called the most famous American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse by the Los Angeles Times. Last year he told the Rapid City Journal: “I thought Jim Thorpe was,” he said with a grin. “Jim Thorpe was my hero.”
November 10, 1939
Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
1942
Family moved to the San Francisco Bay area.
1958
Graduated from San Leandro High School in San Leandro, California.
Participated in a prayer vigil on top of Mount Rushmore to, as the New York Times put it, “dramatize Lakota claims to Black Hills land.”
Helped lead AIM’s Thanksgiving Day demonstration at Plymouth Rock where 200 American Indians seized the Mayflower, painted Plymouth Rock red and observed a day of mourning.
1972
Participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties from California to Washington, D.C. (AIM was one of eight Indian organizations involved). Led the week-long occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to protest broken treaties.
Filed a $9 million lawsuit, as director of the Cleveland AIM chapter, against the Cleveland Indians baseball team for its use of “Chief Wahoo,” its toothy Indian mascot. “It epitomizes the stereotyped images of the American Indian,” Means said. “It attacks the cultural heritage of the American Indian and destroys Indian pride.”
Russell Means, AIM leader on the Pine Ridge Reservation, left, tells villagers on March 7, 1973 in Wounded Knee that they must continue their fight against the government until their demands are met. At right is Dennis Banks another AIM Leader. (AP Photo)
February 27, 1973
Was a leader of the armed 71-day standoff at Wounded Knee against federal agents. Thousands of shots were fired, two Indians were killed and an agent was paralyzed. Means and Dennis Banks, another protest leader, were charged with assault larceny and conspiracy.
1974
Case against Means from the Wounded Knee standoff dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct.
Clash between police and Indian activists outside a Rapid City, South Dakota courthouse.
Republic of Lakotah released its Declaration of Continuing Independence by the Frist International Indian Treaty Council.
Murder charges are filed against Means and Richard Marshall, an AIM member, for the shooting death of Martin Montileaux at the Longbranch Saloon in Scenic, South Dakota. Means was acquitted, but Marshall served 24 years in prison.
Means shot in the abdomen during a tussle with an Indian Affairs officer in North Dakota.
In another incident, a bullet grazed his forehead while he was on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, South Dakota in what Means called a drive-by assassination attempt. He received 12 stitches to close the wound.
1976
Survived another assassination attempt in South Dakota when he was shot in the chest.
Led a caravan of 500 Sioux and Cheyenne during the centennial of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s last stand at Little Big Horn in Montana.
Native American leader Russel Means and actor Marlon Brando appear on NBC's Today Show in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, July 18, 1978. Brando is a supporter of political rights of American Indians. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)
1978
Participated in the “longest walk” when American Indians walked from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., which was the largest, single-day peaceful protest up to that time. The demonstration blocked all anti-Indian legislation in Congress.
1979
Served one year in prison following the riot at the Rapid City courthouse. He was stabbed by another inmate while serving his time.
1980
Gave “For America to Live, Europe Must Die!” speech at Black Hills International Survival Gathering.
“You cannot judge the real nature of a European revolutionary doctrine on the basis of the changes it proposes to make within the European power structure and society,” he says during the speech. “You can only judge it by the effects it will have on non-European peoples. This is because every revolution in European history has served to reinforce Europe’s tendencies and abilities to export destruction to other peoples, other cultures and the environment itself. I defy anyone to point out an example where this is not true.
1983
The $9 million lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians baseball club for its Chief Wahoo mascot was settled out of court for $35,000 and is later widely criticized.
1984
Served as a vice presidential candidate joining Larry Flynt in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination.
1987
Ran for president. Means campaigned for the Libertarian Party nomination but lost it to Ron Paul, a former and future Congressman from Texas.
With the Colorado chapter of AIM, stopped the Columbus Day parade in Denver, which was meant to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery” of America.
1993
Hosted HBO documentary “Paha Sapa.”
1994
Appeared in “Natural Born Killers” as the “Old Indian.”
1995
His autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread was released with writing help from Marvin J. Wolf.
Here are a couple of passes from the memoir:
“For millennia, we Indians lived as part of the earth. We were part of the prairies and the forests and the mountains. We knew every blade of grass, every plant, every tree. We knew the winds and the clouds, the rivers and the lakes. We knew every one of the creatures that fly and crawl and burrow and run and swim—all our relatives with whom we share this earth. We are part of the earth, but not the most important part.”
“Sadly, the white man equates happiness with the pleasing of his senses. My Uncle Matthew King used to shake his head and say, ‘The white man is like a little child; you have to be patient with him.’ But Grandmother Earth is running out of patience. What Eurocentric societies have done to indigenous peoples all over the world they are now doing to themselves— poisoning the land and air and water, abusing one another as they abuse our sacred Grandmother. We are approaching the abyss of species suicide.”
Provided voice talent as Powhatan in Disney’s animated film “Pocahontas.”
Starred as Sitting Bull in the CBS mini-series “Buffalo Girls.”
1997
Charged with threatening, and battery against Leon Grant, his Omaha father-in-law, and battery against Jeremiah Bitsui, a Navajo. Means pleads not guilty to these charges.
American Indian activist Russell Means, center, is arrested in Whiteclay, Nebraska, on Saturday, July 3, 1999. Means and eight other American Indians were arrested for crossing the police line after marching from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to Whiteclay. The march was held protesting treaty violations, the unsolved murder of two Sioux men and the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
1999
Held a press conference regarding the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. He says, “The reason I called for this press conference for my participation is to tell the world, about the leadership of the American Indian Movement at that time, was well aware of what happened to Anna Mae, and two of the leaders ordered her death. Vernon Bellecourt made the phone call to the house on Rosebud, which… [Means gets emotional]… is my brother’s house… and Clyde Bellecourt took the call from Vernon and then issued the order for her death, for her murder, in 1974 and 1975.”
“If AIM is the perpetrator of this grisly murder, in collusion with the FBI, then I want it brought out…”
2000
Arrested in Denver, Colorado while protesting the Columbus Day parade.
2002
Campaigned to become governor of New Mexico but was barred from the ballot.
2004
Vernon Bellecourt denies allegations of involvement in Anna Mae Aquash’s murder.
Ran for the office of president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe but was beaten by Cecilia Fire Thunder, the first woman to be elected to that position.
2004
Arlo Looking Cloud is convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the shooting death of Aquash.
2007
Republic of Lakotah withdraws from the United States to become a free and independent country.
2010
John Graham was convicted of felony murder for his role in the shooting death of Aquash.
2011
Means is diagnosed with esophageal, or throat cancer and turns to indigenous medicines and spiritual healing ceremonies.
August 14, 2012
Made his last video post to his YouTube page. He titled the video “Clouds.” Watch it here:
Known during her time as "The Witch of Wall Street," Henrietta Howland Robinson was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the daughter of Edward Mott Robinson and Abby Howland. Her family were Quakers who owned a large whaling fleet and also profited from the China trade. At the age of two, she was living with her grandfather, Gideon Howland. Because of his influence and that of her father, and possibly because her mother was constantly ill, she took to her father's side and was reading financial papers to him by the age of six. When she was 13, Hetty became the family bookkeeper. At the age of 15, she went to a school in Boston.
When her father died in 1864, she inherited $7.5 million ($107 million in 2010 adjusted for inflation) in liquid assets, against the objections of most of her family, and invested in Civil War war bonds.
When she heard that her aunt Sylvia had willed most of her $2 million to charity, she challenged the will's validity in court by producing an earlier will which allegedly left the entire estate to Hetty, and included a clause invalidating any subsequent wills. The case, Robinson v. Mandell, which is notable as an early example of the forensic use of mathematics, was ultimately decided against Hetty after the court ruled that the clause invalidating future wills, and Sylvia's signature to it, were forgeries.
Green conducted much of her business at the offices of the Seaboard National Bank in New York, surrounded by trunks and suitcases full of her papers; she did not want to pay rent for an office. Later unfounded rumors claimed that she ate only oatmeal that was heated on the office radiator. Possibly because of the stiff competition of the mostly male business environment and partly because of her usually dour dress sense (due mainly to frugality, but perhaps ascribable in part to her Quaker upbringing), she was given the nickname the "Witch of Wall Street".
She was a successful businesswoman who dealt mainly in real estate, invested in railroads, and lent money. The City of New York came to Hetty in need of loans to keep the city afloat on several occasions, most particularly during the Panic of 1907; she wrote a check for $1.1 million and took her payment in short-term revenue bonds. Keenly detail-oriented, she would travel thousands of miles – alone, in an era when few women would dare travel unescorted – to collect a debt of a few hundred dollars.
Some of her miserly antics included trying to check her son into a free clinic for the poor after he broke his leg, refusing to pay $200 for a horse, instead blackmailing the seller to force the price down to $60, only having two changes of clothes, never turning on heat or hot water and reportedly not even washing her hands, all to save money. After her children left home, Green moved repeatedly among small apartments in Brooklyn Heights and Hoboken, New Jersey, mainly to avoid establishing a residence permanent enough to attract the attention of tax officials in any state.
In her old age, Hetty Green began to suffer from a bad hernia, but refused to have an operation because it cost $150. She suffered many strokes and had to rely on a wheelchair. She also became afraid that she would be kidnapped and made detours to evade the would-be pursuers. She began to suspect that her aunt and father had been poisoned.
Hetty Green lived out her later years in inexpensive lodgings in Hoboken, New Jersey. When she died on July 3, 1916, she was thought to be the richest woman in America.
Electoral College critics point out the elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. in their arguments to prove the system doesn't work. In those three elections the candidate who won the Electoral College vote, did not win the popular vote. Besides forgetting the 50 other elections where the Electoral College agrees with the popular vote, critics conveniently ignore the factors that caused these three situations.
1824 - Adams vs Jackson
In 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected president despite not winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson was the winner in both categories. Jackson received 38,000 more popular votes than Adams, and beat him in the electoral vote 99 to 84. Despite his victories, Jackson didn’t reach the majority 131 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president. In fact, neither candidate did. The decision went to the House of Representatives, which voted Adams into the White House.
THE CRITICS CHARGE: In this election, critics point out that Andrew Jackson won both the electoral vote and the popular vote, but the House of Representatives circumvented the will of the people and chose John Quincy Adams as President.
BACKGROUND: In this election four men, all from the same party, were running for President. Each was popular in a different section of the country: Adams in the Northeast, Jackson in the South/Southwest, Crawford in the South/Mid-Atlantic, and Clay in the West. When the votes were counted, Jackson had won the most electoral and popular votes, but had failed to carry a majority of electoral votes. It fell upon the House of Representatives to choose the president from among the top three electoral vote getters: Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. With Clay throwing his support to Adams (who is rumored to have done so for a cabinet post), Adams carried the vote on the first ballot and was named President.
WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHOULDN'T BE BLAMED: The critics ignore the fact that the popular vote was not a true indicator of the will of the people in 1824. In fact, popular vote totals weren't even kept for elections before this one. Hardly any state had all four candidates on the ballot; most didn't have three. And six states didn't even have a public vote! Their legislatures chose the electors. This included New York, the largest state at the time, where Adams certainly would have been able to cut into or eliminate Jackson's popular vote lead.
CONCLUSION: To say the Electoral College failed in 1824 is incorrect, because this was not a campaign where the candidates went after the popular vote; this campaign was fought for electoral votes.
1876 - Hayes vs Tilden
In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the election (by a margin of one electoral vote), but he lost the popular vote by more than 250,000 ballots to Samuel J. Tilden.
THE CRITICS CHARGE: In this election, critics say the system failed because even though Samuel Tilden had a substantial lead over Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote, he still lost by one electoral vote.
BACKGROUND: On election night, it appeared that Tilden would win. He led the popular vote 51% to 48%, and led in the Electoral College vote 184-165 with 20 votes still undecided. Tilden only needed one vote to win; Hayes needed all 20. Both parties claimed the disputed votes (Florida's 4 votes, Louisiana's 8 votes, South Carolina's 7 votes, and 1 of Oregon's 3 votes). An Electoral Commission was set up by Congress, who awarded all 20 votes, and the presidency, to Hayes
WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHOULDN'T BE BLAMED: The 1876 election was filled with so many irregularities, that blaming the Electoral College seems ridiculous. First off, Colorado had just joined the union and decided they didn't have enough money to hold an election so their legislature just sent three electoral votes for Hayes. Secondly, fraud abounded in the states of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Democrats intimidated blacks in order to keep them from voting, and Republicans, backed by armed troops, got as many blacks as possible to vote, as many times as they could. It's impossible to say who would have legitimately won these states, but most scholars agree Tilden would have won Louisiana and Florida, and Hayes would have won South Carolina. Lastly, the Electoral Commission set up by Congress is not part of the normal Electoral College system. It was composed of 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats who voted along political lines to give all the votes to Hayes. It turns out that the Republicans had secretly made a deal with the Democrats. If the Democrats would accept the results of the Electoral Commission, the Republicans would end Reconstruction in the South.
CONCLUSION: To say the Electoral College failed in 1876 is incorrect, because without the rampant fraud in the South OR without a biased Electoral Commission that voted on partisan lines the popular vote winner, Tilden, probably would have won the electoral vote as well.
1888 - Harrison vs Cleveland
In 1888, Benjamin Harrison received 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland’s 168, winning the presidency. But Harrison lost the popular vote by more than 90,000 votes.
THE CRITICS CHARGE: In this election, critics believe they have their best case against the Electoral College. Grover Cleveland won the popular vote while Benjamin Harrison won the electoral vote. Since no major issues of fraud, voter irregularities, or Congressional meddling is alleged, this is a straight up case of the system being wrong.
BACKGROUND: The main issue, if not the only issue, in the campaign was the tariff, brought to the forefront by the incumbent president Cleveland. He proposed lowering it, widely favored in the South; Harrison wanted to keep higher tariffs, widely favored in the North. One of the most civil and boring elections in history was also one of the closest. Cleveland had only a 0.8% lead over Harrison in the popular vote.
WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHOULDN'T BE BLAMED: While this may be the critics best example to show the Electoral College is flawed, supporters would say this election shows why the system works. The Electoral College system encourages candidates to make their appeal as broad as possible in order to win. Cleveland basically ran a campaign based on one issue supported by a single region of the country and ran up the vote in that region, thereby padding his popular vote. In the six southern states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas, Cleveland received over 65% of the vote. In those six states Cleveland beat Harrison by 425,532 votes. In the other 32 states combined, Harrison beat Cleveland by 334,936 votes.
CONCLUSION: To say the Electoral College failed in 1888 is to not understand how the system works. The Electoral College prevents one region of the country voting as a block from unduly directing the outcome of the election to the rest of the country. The real reason Cleveland won the popular vote (by only 90,536 out of 11,379,131votes cast) but lost the election was because of unusually high support in a single region of the country.
2000 - Bush vs Gore
In 2000, George W. Bush was declared the winner of the general election and became the 43rd president, but he didn’t win the popular vote either. Al Gore holds that distinction, garnering about 540,000 more votes than Bush. However, Bush won the electoral vote, 271 to 266.
