Memorial run honoring slain Dakota men to stop in Jordan

Prior Lake American

An annual run honoring 38 Dakota men who were killed on Dec. 26, 1862, will pass through Jordan en route from Fort Snelling in St. Paul to Mankato.

For 32 years, runners have set out from Fort Snelling around 11 p.m. or midnight on Dec. 25 and made the 71-mile relay to arrive at Reconciliation Park in Mankato by 10 a.m. on Dec. 26.

The event commemorates the Dakota War of 1862, which began in August in southwest Minnesota and lasted only a few weeks, ending in hundreds of deaths and the exile of many Dakota from Minnesota.

On Aug. 17, four Dakota men murdered five white settlers following widespread hunger and the tribe’s restriction to reservations, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. Some Dakota decided the moment for a larger fight had come, taking hostages and killing settlers.

Raids and smaller battles continued through late August, when a group of Dakota people organized for peace. The Dakota Peace Party released all hostages on Sept. 26 after the defeat of a Dakota fighting force.

About 600 settlers and 75 to 100 Dakota men died during the war, according to the society. The United States held trials against Dakota men who participated in the war and sentenced 303 to death.

“It’s a sad history, and a lot of American people don’t know about it,” Dakota 38 Memorial Run organizer Joe Bendickson said. “We’re doing it because we want to honor and remember our ancestors.”

President Abraham Lincoln and lawyers reviewed transcripts of the trials and limited the list of men to be executed to 39 men who had committed rape or massacred civilians, according to the historical society. One man was pardoned before execution.

“These people sacrificed themselves so we could be here today,” Bendickson said. “Otherwise, I don’t know. Probably at that time they would have tried to kill the 303. That would have been a huge blow to the Dakota population. It would have been a significant decrease. So we honor those people for making that sacrifice for us and for giving up their lives so we can live.”

On Dec. 26 at 10 a.m., 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato in the largest mass execution in the nation’s history. Two of the men were mistakenly hanged, and the trials might have been unfair in the first place, according to University of Minnesota Law School Associate Professor Carol Chomsky, who is quoted on the historical society website.

“The evidence was sparse, the tribunal was biased, the defendants were unrepresented in unfamiliar proceedings conducted in a foreign language, and the authority for convening the tribunal was lacking,” Chomsky wrote. “More fundamentally, neither the Military Commission nor the reviewing authorities recognized that they were dealing with the aftermath of a war fought with a sovereign nation and that the men who surrendered were entitled to treatment in accordance with that status.”

About 50 to 100 runners participate in the Dakota 38 Memorial Run, Bendickson said. At the beginning, a few runners will take the lead and run until the group crosses the Minnesota River. The task is then passed on to different runners, who run about a mile each. This continues until the group reaches Jordan at 3 or 4 a.m.

Then the runners and rest of the group, who follow the route in cars, will take a break at The Hub of Jordan, at 231 Broadway St. S. between 3 and 6 a.m. on Dec. 26.

“They have food available and coffee, of course,” Bendickson said. “It’s something to eat, a place to meet up with other people and socialize. A place like that is very helpful to all of us.”

After that, runners who are used to running long distances will take over and run large stretches of road until the run is done and the group has reached Reconciliation Park — the approximate site of the hanging — by the approximate time of the hanging.

“We’re never going to forget them,” Bendickson said. “We want people to know our history and heal from that and become a healthier, strong people.”