Thirty Eight

By Tawa Witko and Deanna Milda

ALL ROYALTIES EARNED ON THIS TITLE ARE BEING DONATED TO THE ANNUAL DAKOTA 38+2 RIDE

Viviana lived a quiet life in the city, studying and doing everything possible to ensure she was accepted into a good college. She never thought much about who she was or where she came from but all of that will change when her father dies in the line of duty and she is asked to do something she never thought imaginable, participate in the annual Dakota 38 + 2 Ride. It was something that absolutely terrified her but with the encouragement of her uncle and the guidance of her new friends, Dre and Hope, she will discover something within her she never knew existed. She will learn that culture and tradition live within one's heart and cannot be easily forgotten. Our spirit remembers our ancestors and beckons us to them, even if we are reluctant to go. Thirty Eight is a story of acceptance and love while finding one's way back home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Winyan Press, LLC
• Release date: Dec 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9780986113338

Tawa Witko

Author Tawa Witko lives on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation with her son, Adam Milda and daughter, fellow author, Deanna Milda. They are accompanied by their many animals, an Australia Shepherd/Border Collie mix named Bella, a couple of ornery cats (Edward and Lil Bit) and their horses, Eagle Bear and Wild Spirit. Tawa is a licensed clinical psychologist while Deanna and Adam attend McLaughlin Middle School and High School, respectively. The family enjoys attending wacipis, participating in tribal ceremonies and living a quiet life without the hustle and bustle of the cities. Thirty Eight is the first published work by Tawa and her daughter, Deanna, but it will certainly not be the last. In the coming months they will begin writing a young adult series called The Diakrisis Tales which will center around a 16-year-old girl named Parker who discovers that she can not only see spirits but can interact with them as well. Each standalone book will follow Parker on a new mystery that she must solve. Keep a look out for the first book in the series, An Unexpected Gift, in late 2016.

Book preview

Thirty Eight

By

Tawa Witko & Deanna Milda

Copyright All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2015

ISBN (paperback) 978-0-9861133-2-1

ISBN (ebook) 978-0-9861133-3-8

Winyan Press Full Logo

Tampa, Florida

Copyright © 2015 Winyan Press, LLC

Cover Art © Alex Marin

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the Thirty Eight, plus two men who died for their people on December 26, 1862, and to their decedents who have shared the knowledge of what happened for all of us to grow as individuals and communities.

FOREWORD

By

Amanda Taylor

IT CAN BE A RISKY BUSINESS asking any indigenous person to explicate the history of their people.  If you make such a request, please be prepared for a lengthy story.  For the Dakota and any indigenous people, oral history is the medium in which we have passed on our history from generation to generation.  It is easy for me to get deeply engrossed in a discussion or be a rapt listener when it comes to my people’s culture.

I am definitely not as eloquent as Charles Eastman or Ella Deloria so when my mom Tawa asked me to write the foreword to Thirty Eight, I reluctantly accepted her request.  I do not see myself as a writer and it is something I struggle to do.  Not saying that I do not have anything to say concerning the events of 1862 in Minnesota.  I almost have too much to say about the U.S. - Dakota Conflict. I could approach the subject from many different perspectives.  In the past all my written work concerning the U.S. - Dakota Conflict has been for academic purposes during my college years but it would not do Thirty Eight any justice to approach this foreword from a scholarly perspective. 

First off, I am Dakota and a descendant of Ocheti Duta/John Taylor, one of the 303 Dakota men who were sentenced to death for fighting to make life better for his wife, Tate Waste Yuha Win/Bessie Taylor and their six children.  My connection to the U.S. - Dakota Conflict is quite personal.  My great-grandfather Joseph Taylor was 2-3 years old when the war broke out. He went through their imprisonment at Fort Snelling, being separated from his father, having to say good bye to three of his siblings because they fled to Canada. Through the forced march out of Minnesota, to the inhospitable winter in Crow Creek during 1863-1864 where approximately 300 Dakota elders, women, and children perished from exposure and starvation.  Had my great-grandfather also perished during that time, I would not be here to write this. 

My English name is Amanda Taylor and my Dakota name is Zintkana Dowan Win (translates to Singing Bird Woman). I am a member of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and I am also Norwegian and Irish. I was born May 7, 1985 to Berniece Taylor and Russ Walberg. Through unfortunate circumstances during childhood, I ended up as a ward of South Dakota.  Like most Native children who grow up in South Dakota’s foster care system, I can tell you about the struggle just to maintain our connection to our communities and culture.  I am not going to delve into that story too much right now though because that is one for a different time.  A bright spot of my experience though is that I met a Native foster family when I was 12 years old that became so much more than a foster home.  Through them I found my love for pow wows and people I know that I can call family no matter where I go.  I graduated from Washington High School in 2003 and went on to the University of South Dakota in 2011 for my bachelor’s degree in American Indian Studies with a minor focused on the history of the Great Plains region. 

In 2012, I was employed as the NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Data Entry Clerk for the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe’s THPO (Tribal Historic Preservation Office).  One of the first NAGPRA Coalition meetings I attended was in Crow Creek and a discussion was started about the Dakota people organizing a commemoration event for the 150 year anniversary of the U.S. - Dakota Conflict. At the time, Minnesota and Washington D.C. were both marking the anniversary but nothing had been initiated on behalf of the Dakota people.  Within four months’ time, a collaborative effort of the Dakota people from Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Canada were able to put together a week-long event hosted by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe bringing us back together as a nation.  The event culminated in a symbolic walk back to Minnesota where four Dakota grandmothers from Minnesota met four Dakota grandmothers from South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Canada and exchanged eagle feathers at the Minnesota/South Dakota border. The grandmother’s welcomed them back to their homeland after the ‘Act for the Removal of the Sisseton, Wahpaton, Medawakanton and Wahpakoota Bands of Sioux or Dakota Indians, and for the disposition of their Lands in Minnesota and Dakotas’ of 1863 banished the Dakota from Minnesota. It was a powerful and spiritual experience.

In 1862, the Dakota were very limited in their ability to provide for themselves.  After treaties that were negotiated in 1851, they were left with a 20 mile wide reservation along the Minnesota River.  Within seven years’ time, they lost the top half of the reservation due to encroachment by settlers in addition to the fact that the United States government took away the Dakota’s right to the Pipestone Quarry. 

With the influx of settlers, the Dakota were now competing for the wild game in the area for sustenance and also so they could trade the pelts to traders for much needed income.  Annuities could not be depended on because they either went undelivered, stolen, or were late. 1862 also saw a large crop failure, so the Dakota were facing a food shortage as well.  They had nowhere to go but the store owners and traders, who gave the Dakota store credit.  This is important as dependence on store credit becomes a point of contention leading up to the war.  Store owners and the traders would extend store credit and then be first in line when the gold arrived so they could get the debt settled. 

In the late summer of 1862 the gold payment did not arrive so the store owners stopped offering credit. The Dakota had no other way to provide for their family and communities.  They then turned to Agent Galbraith to negotiate the distribution of food but were turned away over the debts that had incurred.  According to one oral history, the Dakota had pointed out that the store owners, settlers, and traders had been letting their animals graze on the reservation without negotiating for the grazing rights and as such they owned the Dakota money.  Whether it is as the common history would tell us that Andrew Myrick channeled Marie Antoinette in saying that the Dakota could eat grass or their own dung or if he said that the settlers/traders and store owners would remove the animals off Dakota land and the Dakota could eat the grass, no one will ever know for sure. But either way his words were seen as an inciting event.

Around mid-August, the Dakota gathered together to decide if war was their next choice.  Most of the Dakota were all for fighting, after the many years of broken treaties, lost land, and famine, they saw it as necessary.  Chief Little Crow expressed his concerns of what would happen to the people if they started a war and that defeating the United States was not a possibility.  Yet as their chief, he still led his men into battle. 

The first fight began on August 18th with the Lower Sioux and Redwood Agencies being burned to the ground.  A notable casualty from this first incident was Andrew Myrick, as his body was found with grass stuffed in his mouth.  With battles taking place at New Ulm, Birch Coulee, and Wood Lake, the Dakota people found that they no longer held the element of surprise. The U.S. army had become involved and the remaining settlers were getting more organized.  Eventually the Dakota warriors surrendered at Camp Release on September 26th.  The Dakota women, elders, and children also surrendered and were sent to Fort Snelling until the U.S. government had finished with the trials. 

It’s important to note that the Civil War was a major influence on the U.S. - Dakota Conflict, yet it is not discussed as part of the Civil War.  When the Civil War broke out, Alexander Ramsey was in Washington, D.C. conducting business as the territorial governor of Minnesota.  Ramsey pledged volunteer troops from Minnesota to fight on behalf of the Union knowing that someday he could use that involvement for a favor from Lincoln in the future. There are documents in the Library of Congress that state if a third front happened west of the Mississippi River that seven million would die because the Union did not have the resources to win. With that knowledge, Lincoln knew that swift action must be taken in Minnesota to quell the fighting and the risk that other tribes would be incited as well.  As such, he left Ramsey in charge of dispensing justice to the Dakota men who participated in the fighting.

The trials were often very short. The Dakota men were not told what was happening, and had no legal representation to explain it.  When my grandfather stood trial he was asked what his participation in the Conflict was, he replied that he heard there was shooting at the fort so he grabbed his gun and went to work. He was found guilty and sentenced to death along with 302 other Dakota men. Once the 303 convictions reached Washington D.C., Lincoln was urged by parties that were for and against leniency.  Lincoln ended up going through the trial records to distinguish those who participated in the fight and those who committed more serious crimes on civilians.  Ocheti Duta/John Taylor was one of the 264 men spared from a death sentence based on Lincoln’s decision.  39 of the convictions were upheld and right before the hanging one man was reprieved before the execution.

On December 26th, the 38 Dakota men were lead out to the square shaped gallows that had been constructed across from the jail in which they were being held.  The citizens of Mankato gathered around the gallows to witness the mass hanging.  Some witness accounts say that the men tried to grasp the hand of the men next to them, others called out their own names, while others told the people to not be sad for them.  Shortly after 10 am, Captain William J. Duley swung the axe hanging the 38 Dakota men simultaneously. 

Later three other Dakota men would lose their lives because of their participation in the war. The first was Chief Little Crow who was shot in the summer of 1863 as he was picking berries with his son near Hutchinson. His body was found and drug through the streets of Hutchinson, mutilated, beheaded, and tossed out like trash.  The other two killed were Chiefs Sakpe and Medicine Bottle who were tracked down in Canada.  They were drugged and brought back across the border into the United States.  Both men were hung in 1865 at Fort Snelling.

The U.S. - Dakota Conflict of 1862 is not just Dakota history; it is American History and deserves to be included in the narrative. The Dakota had grown angry over broken treaties, loss of their land, withheld/missing/stolen/late annuities, settler encroachment, competing for limited live game, famine, and mistreatment by settlers, store owners, traders, and agents. The trauma from the war has continued to carry on into the generations that have followed. If you look at the research on epigenetics, you can see that it has found that trauma on a population can be passed on genetically from generation to generation. 

The Dakota 38 + 2 Ride is an event to commemorate the loss the Dakota people experienced, to honor those who lost their lives, and to heal so we can move forward in a positive way as a nation. The ride serves as an act of reconciliation with the United States too.  The Conflict did not just affect the Dakota people, settlers lost lives and property during the fighting as well. Atrocities were committed by both parties and the descendants of both the Dakota and the settlers still remain.  But looking towards healing is a step in the right direction. We need to go from just surviving to living the life our ancestors wanted for us. 

PREFACE

MOST WHO HAVE KNOWN me for more than a few years know that writing has always been my passion. But as with most people life took over and this passion was put off to the side. After all, who makes money being a writer? But back in early 2011 I changed jobs and was battling with some previous demons, depression to be exact. Nothing seemed to be working and with the encouragement of a few friends (Amanda and Christy) I began writing again. It started as a whim but it turned into something so much more. I began with fan fiction, yep, you heard me, fan fiction. It was an amazingly supportive environment that allowed me to get my creative edge back and after a few years and eight full length stories, I decided that if I wanted to be a writer I needed to just buck up and do it which of course brings me to where I am right now.

This particular book came to me in December 2014 when my daughter Deanna, at the time 11 years old, participated in the Dakota 38 + 2 Ride. I couldn’t go along with her due to work constraints but I knew she was in good hands. Throughout the ride I had recurring dreams. Some were of Deanna but others were of a teenage girl, much too old to be Deanna. This girl in my dreams often looked sad and being a clinical psychologist, my training kicked in and I had to find what was behind all that sadness. I had many other dreams of the girl and then I saw what would turn out to be the final scene in this book which I won’t describe as you will read it in the story. At that point I knew that I needed to write what I had seen. I talked with Deanna about it and she was definitely on board with this endeavor.

I should mention that while the ride itself is a real and beautiful event this story itself is fictional, meaning it is not based on anyone specific. I worked extremely hard to make sure that I didn’t depict anyone’s unique experiences on the ride, aside from some of Deanna’s. The places mentioned in this story are real of course and the route is as accurate as I could get, having not been a rider myself. Some of the events described happened on some of the rides but I intermixed them. I relied heavily on Deanna of course and also her father, Richard Milda, who has been a leader and staff carrier for the Dakota 38 Ride for many years. Between them, researching the ride and watching the brilliant ‘Dakota 38’ produced by Smooth Feather Productions, my goal was to capture the heart of the ride which I believe I have done.

While this book is meant to bring awareness to the Dakota 38+2 it is also meant to serve as a form of reconciliation as well. It’s a way to see the past but not get lost in it and a way to experience pain without succumbing to it. The journey that Viviana goes on is not simply the ride itself but is also a path towards self-actualization as well. Through her experience she realizes who she is as a Dakota woman and finds her place in this very confusing world.

I would like to take this moment to thank those who made this book possible. To my daughter, Deanna, who worked diligently on this novel with me. To Richard Milda who provided me with insight into the ride and for being an amazing role model. To Alberta Iron Cloud-Miller who encouraged me to write this and offered feedback on the final result. To Jim Miller who had the dream of the Dakota 38+2 Ride and saw it realized. To my daughter Amanda Taylor who wrote the foreword to this book. To my granddaughter, Viviana, who allowed me to use her very awesome name ☺. To all the wonderful people who provided the beautiful pictures at the end of the book. To Alex Marin for making me an amazing cover and illustration of Viviana and Eagle Bear that I used at the end of the story. To Leeanne Lemaster for copy editing this bad boy and Amanda Rash for doing the final proof read. To my partner in crime, Mindy Marin, for all that you do for me on a business and personal level. To my maske’, Corinne, for being a great source of comfort and understanding over the years. To my mom Ellen Woodard for being completely supportive. To Tamara who has been my cheerleader from the get go. To all my friends and family who have supported this wild endeavor of mine, I cannot thank you enough and finally to all the riders past and present who make the difficult sacrifice to participate in this ride every year, knowing that you will be in the blistering cold, that you will end the nights sore and that you will lack the general comforts we all take advantage of on a regular basis. I am truly honored by what you do.

Deanna and I would also like to note that it’s important to us to let people know that we have no desire to profit off the ride in any way which is why ALL royalties earned on the sale of this book will be donated to help the annual Dakota 38+2 Ride. In the future, funds willing, we hope to start a scholarship for riders who may be in need of help with school or general life issues.

Finally, I’d like to say that writing this book has truly been an inspiration to me and Deanna and we want to thank everyone for your support. We couldn’t have done it without you. So please read and enjoy and most importantly share what you learn with others.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Winyan Press, LLC would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions on Thirty Eight.

Alex Marin, Graphic Artist/Illustrator

Leeanne Lemaster, Copy Editor

Amanda Rash, Proof Reader

Richard Milda, Consultant

Amanda Taylor, Foreword Contributor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PREFACE

1 Loss

2 Eagle Bear

3 Cambridge

4 Bonding

5 Wacipi

6 Preparation

7 Day 1

8 Day 2

9 Day 3

10 Day 4

11 Day 5

12 Day 6

13 Day 7

14 Day 8

15 Day 9

16 Day 10

17 Day 11

18 Day 12

19 Day 13

20 Day 14

21 Day 15

22 Day 16

23 Goodbye

24 Epilogue

AUTHOR NOTE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PHOTO ALBUM

1 Loss

VIVIANA MANEUVERED through the gauntlet of her fellow students; all hurriedly approaching their lockers or sneaking kisses with their boyfriends or girlfriends before the bell rung, indicating that they were late. Passing a particularly energetic couple, she rolled her eyes as she slipped inside the classroom, dropping her bag next to her desk. There was a ruckus at the door and she smirked at her friend who darted inside, practically falling as she jumped in her seat right before the final bell sounded its alarm.

Just in time, Viviana muttered under her breath.

All the time in the world, Steffi stated with that knowing grin that drove Viviana crazy.

Viviana shook her head with a smile as she pulled out the notebook she had labeled ‘English 3’.  She tapped her finger against the desk as she reviewed the assignment that was technically not due until next week.  She had finished it over the weekend, which was par for the course. She always did her assignments early, a byproduct of having an ambitious mother.  Viviana was currently a junior but already way ahead of her class academically and as such she was assured a spot in one of the Ivy League schools. Of course, if her mom had her way that school would be Harvard but Viviana wasn’t sold on that idea, at least not yet.

Viv, Steffi said, nudging her slightly.

Huh, Viviana replied distractedly.

The principal is asking for you.

Viviana finally took notice of Principal Marcus who was standing in the room. He was a short, stocky man who had a perpetual frown on his face. She often wondered if that was his natural demeanor or if he just hated being a principal. Of course, she was never in his company long enough to figure out which scenario fit best. He continued to motion for her to come forward. Viviana stole a quick glance around the room and could see all eyes were