38 Nooses

Starred review from September 10, 2012
Berg, a teacher of writing and literature at George Mason University, turns his attention from Pierre L’Enfant, planner of Washington, D.C. (Grand Avenues), to the Dakota War of 1862 in a gripping narrative of this little-known conflict and a careful exploration of the relationships between events of the Civil War and America’s expansion west. Berg illuminates the growing clashes between whites and Indians and reveals the contradictory stances taken by such participants as Dakota chief Little Crow, a white woman Little Crow had taken as a hostage, an Episcopalian bishop, army officers, and political leaders—including Abraham Lincoln. The first military commission used in the Indian wars sentenced 303 warriors to death after hearings that were held without defense representation and usually lasted only a few minutes. Lincoln stayed most of the executions, rejecting the commission’s criterion that “any armed resistance to white encroachment was worthy of death.” Nevertheless, in America’s largest mass execution, 38 Indians were hanged from a single scaffold in December 1862. Although the reader knows the eventual outcome of these battles—near extermination of Indian tribes and cultures—Berg maintains suspense about individual fates to round out this nuanced study of a complex period. B&w illus. Agent: Eric Lupfer, WME.

Starred review from October 1, 2012
An exploration of the violent downfall of Little Crow's Dakota nation at the hands of American soldiers. Washington Post contributor Berg (Writing and Literature/George Mason Univ.; Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C., 2007) focuses on the rising escalation between the Dakota people and white settlers, a conflict that came to a head in the summer of 1862, when four inebriated Native Americans carelessly murdered a few white settlers. While Dakota chief Little Crow did not condone the reckless behavior, he recognized that "the day of reckoning was bound to arrive no matter how accommodating and pliable he might be." As expected, U.S. soldiers soon retaliated, though the battle had long been brewing, especially for the Dakotas, who were frustrated by the federal government's continued failures to make good on its promised annuities to the natives. With their credit lines running thin, the Dakota people fought for their survival, though insult was added to their injurious defeat when a military trial sentenced 300 Dakota warriors to death for their role in the battle. While President Lincoln intervened to lessen the number to 38, the mass hanging still earned the dubious honor of becoming the largest public execution in American history. Throughout the sweeping narrative, Berg skillfully weaves in various perspectives, including that of Sarah Wakefield, a woman held captive by the Dakotas, and Bishop Henry Whipple, a paternalistic advocate for the native people. Yet Berg's greater accomplishment is his ability to overlap the little-known Dakota War with its far better known counterpart, the American Civil War. The author's juxtaposition offers readers a contextual framework that provides unique insight into the era. For instance, just days after the mass execution, Lincoln issued the text for the Emancipation Proclamation, prompting curious readers to wonder: How does a country see fit to condemn one group of people to death, and then, less than a week later, set another group free? A captivating tale of an oft-overlooked, morally ambiguous moment in American history.

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July 1, 2012

In 1862, resisting broken treaties and encroachment on their lands, the Dakota rose up against white soldiers and settlers on the Minnesota frontier. Once they were put down, a military tribunal condemned more than 300 to death for murder. President Lincoln intervened to save 285 Dakotas, but 38 hung in the largest government-ordered execution this country has seen. Berg tells this sorrowful story partly through the personalities involved. Important.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2012
The first large-scale military conflict with the so-called Sioux Nation did not occur after the Civil War nor take place on the buffalo-laden Great Plains. In 1862, the various bands of the Dakota, or eastern Sioux, fed up with broken treaties and the delay of promised annuities, rose up in an orgy of violence that terrorized white settlements in Minnesota. When it was suppressed, hundreds of settlers and Dakota were dead, the Dakota were forcibly relocated, and 38 leaders of the rebellion were executed in a mass hanging. As Berg indicates, the grievances and the clumsy, confused, and vindictive responses of the military and federal government set a pattern for the further tragedies that characterizes the wars against the Plains Indians. Although Berg's sympathies are clearly with the Dakota, he avoids preaching and strives successfully to present a balanced narrative of the conflict while providing excellent portrayals of some of the key participants. This is a valuable but understandably depressing account of an obscure but important episode in our history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)