Layli Long Soldier holds a BFA in creative writing
from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA
with Honors from Bard College. She resides in Tsaile,
AZ on the Navajo Nation and is English faculty at Diné
College. She has served as a contributing editor to Drunken
Boat. Her poems and critical work have appeared in The
American Poet, The American Reader, The Kenyon Review
Online, American Indian Journal of Culture and Research,
PEN America, The Denver Quarterly and The Brooklyn Rail,
among others. Her first chapbook of poetry is titled,
Chromosomory (Q Ave Press, 2010) and forthcoming manuscript
is titled WHEREAS (Graywolf Press).
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Layli
Long Soldier
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38
Here, the sentence will be respected.
I will compose each sentence with care by minding
what the rules of writing dictate.
For example, all sentences will begin with capital
letters.
Likewise, the history of the sentence will be honored
by ending each one with appropriate punctuation such as a period
or question mark, thus bringing the idea to (momentary) completion.
You may like to know, I do not consider this a creative
piece.
In other words, I do not regard this as a poem of
great imagination or a work of fiction.
Also, historical events will not be dramatized for
an interesting read.
Therefore, I feel most responsible to the orderly
sentence; conveyor of thought.
That said, I will begin:
You may or may not have heard about the Dakota 38.
If this is the first time youve heard of it,
you might wonder, What is the Dakota 38?
The Dakota 38 refers to thirty-eight Dakota men
who were executed by hanging, under orders from President Abraham
Lincoln.
To date, this is the largest legal mass
execution in U.S. history.
The hanging took place on December 26th, 1862the
day after Christmas.
This was the same week that President Lincoln signed
The Emancipation Proclamation.
In the preceding sentence, I italicize same
week for emphasis.
There was a movie titled Lincoln about the presidency
of Abraham Lincoln.
The signing of The Emancipation Proclamation was
included in the film Lincoln; the hanging of the Dakota 38 was not.
In any case, you might be asking, Why were
thirty-eight Dakota men hung?
As a side note, the past tense of hang is hung,
but when referring to the capital punishment of hanging, the correct
tense is hanged.
So its possible that youre asking, Why
were thirty-eight Dakota men hanged?
They were hanged for The Sioux Uprising.
I want to tell you about The Sioux Uprising, but
I dont know where to begin.
I may jump around and details will not unfold in
chronological order.
Keep in mind, I am not a historian.
So I will recount facts as best as I can, given
limited resources and understanding.
Before Minnesota was a state, the Minnesota region,
generally speaking, was the traditional homeland for Dakota, Anishnaabeg
and Ho-Chunk people.
During the 1800s, when the U.S. expanded territory,
they purchased land from the Dakota people as well as
the other tribes.
But another way to understand that sort of purchase
is: Dakota leaders ceded land to the U.S. Government in exchange
for money and goods, but most importantly, the safety of their people.
Some say that Dakota leaders did not understand
the terms they were entering, or they never would have agreed.
Even others call the entire negotiation, trickery.
But to make whatever-it-was official and binding,
the U. S. Government drew up an initial treaty.
This treaty was later replaced by another (more
convenient) treaty, and then another.
Ive had difficulty unraveling the terms of
these treaties, given the legal speak and congressional language.
As treaties were abrogated (broken) and new treaties
were drafted, one after another, the new treaties often referenced
old defunct treaties and it is a muddy, switchback trail to follow.
Although I often feel lost on this trail, I know
I am not alone.
However, as best as I can put the facts together,
in 1851, Dakota territory was contained to a 12-mile by 150-mile
long strip along the Minnesota river.
But just seven years later, in 1858, the northern
portion was ceded (taken) and the southern portion was (conveniently)
allotted, which reduced Dakota land to a stark 10-mile tract.
These amended and broken treaties are often referred
to as The Minnesota Treaties.
The word Minnesota comes from mni which means water;
sota which means turbid.
Synonyms for turbid include muddy, unclear, cloudy,
confused and smoky.
Everything is in the language we use.
For example, a treaty is, essentially, a contract
between two sovereign nations.
The U.S. treaties with the Dakota Nation were legal
contracts that promised money.
It could be said, this money was payment for the
land the Dakota ceded; for living within assigned boundaries (a
reservation); and for relinquishing rights to their vast hunting
territory which, in turn, made Dakota people dependent on other
means to survive: money.
The previous sentence is circular, which is akin
to so many aspects of history.
As you may have guessed by now, the money promised
in the turbid treaties did not make it into the hands of Dakota
people.
In addition, local government traders would not
offer credit to Indians to purchase food or goods.
Without money, store credit or rights to hunt beyond
their 10-mile tract of land, Dakota people began to starve.
The Dakota people were starving.
The Dakota people starved.
In the preceding sentence, the word starved
does not need italics for emphasis.
One should read, The Dakota people starved,
as a straightforward and plainly stated fact.
As a resultand without other options but to
continue to starveDakota people retaliated.
Dakota warriors organized, struck out and killed
settlers and traders.
This revolt is called The Sioux Uprising.
Eventually, the U.S. Cavalry came to Mnisota to
confront the Uprising.
Over one thousand Dakota people were sent to prison.
As already mentioned, thirty-eight Dakota men were
subsequently hanged.
After the hanging, those one thousand Dakota prisoners
were released.
However, as further consequence, what remained of
Dakota territory in Mnisota was dissolved (stolen).
The Dakota people had no land to return to.
This means they were exiled.
Homeless, the Dakota people of Mnisota were relocated
(forced) onto reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska.
Now, every year, a group called the The Dakota 38
+ 2 Riders conduct a memorial horse ride from Lower Brule, South
Dakota to Mankato, Mnisota.
The Memorial Riders travel 325 miles on horseback
for eighteen days, sometimes through sub-zero blizzards.
They conclude their journey on December 26th, the
day of the hanging.
Memorials help focus our memory on particular people
or events.
Often, memorials come in the forms of plaques, statues
or gravestones.
The memorial for the Dakota 38 is not an object
inscribed with words, but an act.
Yet, I started this piece (which I do not consider
a poem or work of fiction) because I was interested in writing about
grasses.
So, there is one other event to include, although
its not in chronological order and we must backtrack a little.
When the Dakota people were starving, as you may
remember, government traders would not extend store credit to Indians.
One trader named Andrew Myrick is famous for his
refusal to provide credit to Dakotas by saying, If they are
hungry, let them eat grass.
There are variations of Myricks words, but
they are all something to that effect.
When settlers and traders were killed during the
Sioux Uprising, one of the first to be executed by the Dakota was
Andrew Myrick.
When Myricks body was found,
his
mouth was stuffed with grass.
I am inclined to call this act by the Dakota warriors
a poem.
Theres irony in their poem.
There was no text.
Real poems do not really
require words.
I have italicized the previous sentence to indicate
inner dialogue; a revealing moment.
But, on second thought, the particular words Let
them eat grass, click the gears of the poem into place.
So, we could also say, language and word choice
are crucial to the poems work.
Things are circling back again.
Sometimes, when in a circle, if I wish to exit,
I must leap.
And let the body swing.
From the platform.
Out
to the grasses.
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