This is the wife, and children of the Chief of the Mdewakanton's, Ta-oyate-duta (His Red People better known as Little Crow).

Ta-oyate-duta himself had gone to Canada, but later returned to Minnesota where he was killed by a farmer while he was picking raspberries with his son Wowinape on July 3, 1863.

Han-ye-tu Was-te
or Beautiful Night.

You can see in this photograph the conditions in which these women prisoners had to live. Tipi's are usually very warm, but these had to be far from that because of the way they are erected. The people in Fort Snelling had to endure a winter in these living conditions.

This woman speaks volumes in her eyes. She along with many of the people forced to stay at Fort Snelling were most likely Christians. This woman is wearing a ring on her marriage finger, which shows that she had probably been joined to her partner through Christian vows. She has to be heartbroken because the people who she thought of as friends had herded her and the others into a forced march and this awful situation.

She is probably very confused as well and that shows in her eyes.

This young man is wearing traditional Dakota clothes, made from cotton/calico, this photo would have been taken during the winter of 1862. He has to be cold.

He has a stick in his hand probably he is collecting wood for a fire. You can see the wood pile behind him.

These tipi's look a bit warmer than the one in the previous photograph.

Website created by Dragonfly Dezignz. 2003 - 2014

Historic photographs courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society

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