In 1865, tensions between the Dakota and white settlers in Minnesota were rising, due to a series of treaties that stripped the Dakota of most of their ancestral land. The U.S.-Dakota War began on August 17, when four Dakota men killed five settlers. Fighting between volunteer state militia and Dakota warriors raged for two months, until the Dakota were defeated on September 23rd at Wood Lake. The war led to the hanging of 38 Dakota, the largest mass execution in U.S. history, and the expulsion of the majority of the Dakota people from Minnesota.
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