Narratives of Bravery in Fields of Fire at Wood Lake Battlefield

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Memory, Archaeology, And The Social Experience Of Conflict and Battlefields" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The last battle in the Dakota- U.S. war took place near Yellow Medicine, Minnesota in 1862. The dominant narrative, initiated by memorialization events held by U.S. veterans at the site, is of a brave last charge by U.S. soldiers using shoulder arms, under the support of artillery, to "rout” Dakota combatants. Recent historical and archaeological research combined with intervisibility analysis in GIS reveals a more complex story of this Civil War era battle that better aligns with Dakota oral histories. Rather than a heroic charge led by white soldiers, it was Métis, and Dakota/ Métis, soldiers, who had signed up to fight the Confederate forces, that had to fire at their Dakota relatives to protect the Minnesota Third’s ill-planned retreat. This action, combined with heavy anti-personnel artillery fire directed at Dakota by a volunteer artillery brigade, led to the military defeat of the Dakota in Minnesota.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Historical Memory, Archaeology, And The Social Experience Of Conflict and Battlefields

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 866