FRIGHTENING RUMORS of 1862 SIOUX UPRISING
(Sioux Uprising – Iowa – Minnesota – Indian Wars) Glasper, Joseph N. A historically important half-sheet postscript written on both sides to an unknown person, with no place in the August 30th dateline or name of addressee, signed by Joseph N. Glasper [1862] regarding the beginning of the Sioux Outbreak or Dakota War of 1862 and concern for the safety of his family.
(Written in full.)
“August 30th. PS. I went to town yesterday to offer my excuse to the drafting commissioner, but it was not excepted [sic] so I shall have to stand the draft. But that excitement now is all swallowed up in the excitement about Indian depredations. Reports from all quarters say that 10,000 Mounted Warriors of the Sioux tribe are at the Northern border of the state. That white neighbourhoods, men women and children have been killed, 4 or 5 hundred in all. That the Chief of another powerful tribe has notified the governor of Menesota [sic] to remove his women and children. That he can no longer control his men. But the most immediate danger to us is from an Indian village that has contained perhaps 40 or 50 in all but recently their number has increased to three or four hundred men and that they will not allow their Wikiups entered by white people. There has been Indians seen in the country round this Neighbourhood, but in common times this occasions no uneasiness. They have been at our house but this is not the time of year for begging. The village is about 18 miles North East from here. If nothing more definite is learned or if the reports are not contradicted by reliable authority today, I shall go tomorrow (Sunday) to their village and see for myself if I can get one or two to accompany me and at all events if the reports are not disproved by Monday I shall take my family to Grinnell and probably send them to Davenport and I shall arm myself with my neighbours to drive them back and subdue them. Yours in haste, Joseph N. Glasper.”
Glasper was undoubtedly living in Iowa (home state to both Grinnell and Davenport) with its referenced northern border adjoining Minnesota, the major site of the eastern Dakota uprising. The outbreak began when five white settlers were killed in Acton, Minnesota on August 17, 1862, less than two weeks prior to this postscript being written. The action by members of the Dakota tribe was precipitated in part by their forced removal from tribal lands, crop failures in 1861 leading to starvation conditions, delayed government payments by Indian agents, and the agents’ refusal to extend credit to tribal members for food. The report of the number of warriors involved in the conflict that Glasper mentions
was greatly exaggerated. The conflict lasted until late September, but not without a death toll numbering more than 350 settlers, over 100 military personnel, and an unknown number of Dakotas. A military commission sentenced 303 Dakota men to death. President Lincoln, upon review of the convictions, reduced the death sentence to 39. Thirty-eight Dakota men (one received a reprieve) were hanged on December 26, 1862, the largest one-day mass execution in American history. In addition, Congress abolished two Indian reservations in Minnesota that had been the home of the Dakota warriors, and the tribe was eventually exiled from Minnesota where they were relocated on a reservation in the southern part of Dakota Territory.
Light blue half sheet measures 7.75 x 5 inches; original fold lines with some discoloration on the reverse side. Overall very legible and in vg cond.