“In addition to my services in the parishcs in Davenport, and in the College Chapel, I have several times visited the Indian prisoners confined in the vicinity, and have preached to them through interpretors. On one such occasion I was accompanied by my respected brother, the Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota, whose labors in behalf of the red man are so well known and so commendable. I have also frequently visited the prisoners of war on Rock Island, preaching the Gospel, attending to the sick in the hospitals.” —Bishop Henry Lee, Annual Address to Convention, 1864

The Dakota Internment at Camp McClellan

After the Dakota surrendered in 1862 at Camp Release, instead of being treated as a sovereign nation defeated in war, the Dakota were tried before a military commission (not civilian courts). On November 5, the commission completed its work—392 prisoners were tried, 303 were sentenced to death, and 16 were given prison terms. Bishop Whipple, the Bishop of Minnesota, had a meeting with President Abraham Lincoln and asked him to right the wrongs committed against the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. Lincoln reviewed the evidence and reduced the number of the condemned from 303 to 38.

On December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged at Mankato, MN, the largest one-day mass execution in American history. Afterwards, hundreds of Dakota who probably had not violated rules of warfare or, in some cases, had not participated at all were interned within Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa. Perhaps as many as half of the prisoners died during the internment.

More information: “They Tell Their Story: the Dakota Internment at Camp McClellan in Davenport, 1862-1866” by Sarah-Eva Ellen Carlson, The Annals of Iowa, Volume 63, Number 3 (Summer 2004) pps. 251-278.