In August 1862, after decades of broken treaties, increasing hardship, and relentless encroachment on their lands, a group of Dakota warriors convened a council at the tepee of their leader, Little Crow. Knowing the strength and resilience of the young American nation, Little Crow counseled caution, but anger won the day. Forced to either lead his warriors in a war he knew they could not win or leave them to their fates, he declared, “[Little Crow] is not a coward: he will die with you.”

So began six weeks of intense conflict along the Minnesota frontier as the Dakotas clashed with settlers and federal troops, all the while searching for allies in their struggle. Once the uprising was smashed and the Dakotas captured, a military commission was convened, which quickly found more than three hundred Indians guilty of murder. President Lincoln, embroiled in the most devastating period of the Civil War, personally intervened in order to spare the lives of 265 of the condemned men, but the toll on the Dakota nation was still staggering: a way of life destroyed, a tribe forcibly relocated to barren and unfamiliar territory, and 38 Dakota warriors hanged—the largest government-sanctioned execution in American history.

Scott W. Berg recounts the conflict through the stories of several remarkable characters, including Little Crow, who foresaw how ruinous the conflict would be for his tribe; Sarah Wakefield, who had been captured by the Dakotas, then vilified as an “Indian lover” when she defended them; Minnesota bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, who was a tireless advocate for the Indians’ cause; and Lincoln, who transcended his own family history to pursue justice.

Written with uncommon immediacy and insight, 38 Nooses details these events within the larger context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota people, and the subsequent United States–Indian wars. It is a revelation of an overlooked but seminal moment in American history.

From Booklist

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. --Jay Freeman

Review

“Impressive. . . . Berg crafts a heady narrative. . . .Alongside his portrait of Lincoln [and Little Crow], Berg makes vivid his other protagonists.” —USA Today

“Scott W. Berg reminds us. . . that the Civil War was only part of the nation’s crises in that era. . . . Berg does a remarkable job with the story and its aftermath.” —Los Angeles Times

“An engrossing account of this tragic episode in American history. . . . Berg’s finely grained portraits put a human face on that terrible time.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A moving story of an event enveloped within the most calamitous four years in American annals. . . . Superb.” —Dallas Morning News

“Berg positions the book with the perfect focal length, tight enough to include fascinating and fleshed-out characters such as Little Crow . . . and Lincoln himself, but also wide enough to capture the moral arc of the entire nation.” —The Daily Beast

“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.... 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.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A captivating tale of an oft-overlooked, morally ambiguous moment in American history.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[Berg] strives successfully to present a balanced narrative of the conflict while providing excellent portrayals of some of the key participants. This is a valuable . . . account of an obscure but important episode in our history.” —Booklist

“While Union and Confederate armies clashed at Bull Run and Antietam, another epochal—but largely forgotten—American struggle was being fought a thousand miles to the northwest. In vivid, often lyrical prose, Scott W. Berg tells a story of courage and ruthlessness, mercy, and retribution.” —Adam Goodheart, author of 1861

 “Rarely do I find great storytelling based on rigorous research. In 38 Nooses, Scott W. Berg hits both marks.” —Carrie Reber Zeman, co-editor, A Thrilling Narrative of Indian Captivity: Dispatches from the Dakota War

“38 Nooses shines new light on a little known and tragic chapter in American history. Thoroughly researched, richly detailed, this compelling narrative gives ‘The Battle Hymn of Freedom’ a new and ironic connotation. You will never think of the events of 1862-63 and Lincoln’s leadership in quite the same way again.” —Robert Morgan, author of Lions of the West

“38 Nooses vividly shows the pressures facing Dakota Indians in 1862, the pent-up conflicts between white settlers and Native people in the Upper Midwest, and the stretched resources and flawed judgments of local and federal officials during the Civil War years. In spellbinding fashion, Scott W. Berg tells a previously neglected story with tragic historical reverberations.” —Jack El-Hai, author of The Lobotomist and Lost Minnesota