The Dakota Conflict

Atlas Video's The Dakota Conflict offers a rich and detailed exploration of the fight between the Dakota peoples of Minnesota and the white European settlers. Co-narrated by author and National Public Radio star Garrison Keillor and Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Ten Bears in Dancing With Wolves), the film traces the broken treaties between whites and the Dakota during the 1850s, the scurrilous fleecing of the Dakota people by the fur traders (one man when approached for money swallowed the little he had, saying "they will not have mine, for I do not owe them"), and the forced acculturation (haircuts, conversion to Christianity, farming, etc.) of the Dakotas. When the settlers had taken everything they could, the Dakotas were reduced to a starving people confined to a small area in 1862. Approaching the whites for food, they were told to "eat dung." Eventually, the Dakotas attacked and in the ensuing war over 500 white settlers were killed. In the aftermath, President Lincoln would sign an order for the largest mass execution ever conducted in America. 38 Dakota men were hung in Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862, six days before the Emancipation Proclamation would legally abolish the institution of slavery. Using on-location footage of historic sites, old photographs, haunting music, and superb storytelling, The Dakota Conflict is an outstanding and incisive portrait of a sad and dark chapter in American history. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from most distributors.)