The Acton Incident

"August 18, 1862," ink wash by Dan Nelson, 1909. Actually depicts incident on Aug. 17, 1862. "You know how the war started — by the killing of some white people near Acton [township], in Meeker County. I will tell you how this was done, as it was told me by all of the four young men who did the killing. These young fellows all belonged to Shakopee's band. Their names were Sungigidan (“Brown Wing”), Kaomdeiyeyedan (“Breaking Up”), Nagiwicakte (“Killing Ghost”), and Pazoiyopa (“Runs Against Something When Crawling”)."

Wambditanka (Big Eagle) later identifying the young Dakota men involved in the incident at Acton.

The incident in Acton Township, near present-day Grove City, Minnesota, is often cited as the moment when the U.S.-Dakota War began.

On Sunday, August 17, 1862, four young Dakota men of the Wahpeton band were returning from hunting. Upon seeing some chicken eggs in a nest at the farm of a white settler, there was a disagreement whether or not to take the eggs. When one refused, his companion dared him to prove that he was not afraid of the white man's reaction. The Dakota men proceeded to engage a white man nearby, Robinson Jones. Following him to a white homestead where some white settlers were gathered, they suggested a shooting match between them and the white men present. After shooting, the Dakota reloaded their guns and fired on the white men and women present, killing Robinson, Ann Baker, Howard Baker, and Viranus Webster. As the Dakota men left, they killed 15-year-old Clara Wilson at Jones' place. 

The four men hurried back to their village at Rice Creek. After hearing their story, Red Middle Voice, a village chief, conferred with Sakpedan (Shakopee) and Taoyateduta (Little Crow). After much debate, they decided to go to war.

Theme:

1862

Topics:

Causes of War
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Bibliography

Anderson, Gary Clayton and Alan R. Woolworth, eds. Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988.

Carley, Kenneth. The Dakota War of 1862. 2nd ed. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.

Dahlin, Curtis A. The Dakota Uprising. Edina, MN: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2009. 

Resources for Further Research

Primary

Anderson, Gary Clayton and Alan R. Woolworth, eds. Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988.

Secondary

Carley, Kenneth. The Dakota War of 1862. 2nd ed. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.

Dahlin, Curtis A. The Dakota Uprising. Edina, MN: Beaver’s Pond Press, 2009. 

Glossary Terms

Acton

Key People

Shakopee
Sakpedan (Shakopee, Little Six)
wambditanka t
Wambditanka (Big Eagle)
Shakopee

Sakpedan (Shakopee, Little Six)

"As the white man comes in the Indian goes out."

Sakpe [also known as Sakpedan, Shakopee, Little Six], photo taken at Ft. Snellng, 1864

Sakpe was the leader of a village located near the mouth of the Redwood River. After the Acton incident on August 17, the men who had killed the settlers went to several elders, including Sakpe, for counsel. After the war, Sakpe fled to Canada, but in January 1864, he was captured by British agents, turned over to U.S. authorities and imprisoned at Fort Snelling. In August, a military tribunal convicted him of killing civilians and sentenced him to death. He was executed at the fort on Nov. 11, 1865, in the presence of the fort's garrison and numerous civilians. It is said that as they climbed the scaffold, a steam train whistle blew in the distance, prompting Sakpe to say: "As the white man comes in, the Indian goes out." A sign at Historic Fort Snelling marks the execution site.

View full article: Sakpedan (Shakopee, Little Six)

wambditanka t

Wambditanka (Big Eagle)

"There was great dissatisfaction among the Indians over many things the whites did. The whites would not let them go to war against their enemies. . . . Then the whites were always trying to make the Indians give up their life and live like white men--go to farming, work hard as they did--and the Indians did not know how to do that, and did not want to anyway. It seemed too sudden to make such a change. If the Indians had tried to make the whites live like them, the whites would have resisted, and it was the same way with many Indians. The Indians wanted to live as they did before the treaty of Traverse des Sioux--go where they pleased and when they pleased, hunt game wherever they could find it, sell their furs to the traders and live as they could."

Also known as Jerome Big Eagle, Wambditanka was born in 1827 at Black Dog’s village, a few miles above Mendota on the south bank of the Minnesota River. He succeeded his father, Grey Iron, as chief in 1857. By 1858 had moved to the Redwood (Lower Sioux) Agency to farm. When war broke out he joined the fighting and was at the battles of New Ulm, Fort Ridgely, Birch Coulee, and Wood Lake. After the war he was tried and convicted by the military commission, but received a pardon from President Lincoln in 1864. After several years living on reservations, Wambditanka and his family returned to Minnesota where he lived until 1906.

On the war of 1862:
"It began to be whispered about that now would be a good time to go to war with the whites and get back the lands. It was believed that the men who had enlisted [to fight in the Civil War] last had all left the state, and that before help could be sent the Indians could clean out the country, and that the Winnebagoes [Ho-Chunk], and even the Chippewas [Ojibwe], would assist the Sioux. It was also thought that a war with the whites would cause the Sioux to forget the troubles among themselves and enable many of them to pay off some old scores. Though I took part in the war, I was against it. I knew there was no good cause for it, and I had been to Washington and knew the power of the whites and that they would finally conquer us. We might succeed for a time, but we would be overpowered and defeated at last. I said all this and many more things to my people, but many of my own bands were against me, and some of the other chiefs put words in their mouths to say to me."
"I did not have a very large band. . . . Most of them were not for the war at first, but nearly all got into it at last. A great many members of the other bands were like my men; they took no part in the first movements, but afterwards did. . . . When I returned to my village that day I found that many of my band had changed their minds about the war, and wanted to go into it. . . . I was still of the belief that it was not best, but I thought I must go with my band and my nation, and I said to my men that I would lead them into the war, and we would all act like brave Dakotas and do the best we could. All my men were with me; none had gone off on raids, but we did not have guns for all at first."

View full article: Wambditanka (Big Eagle)

Related Images

Board Trip 002
The Acton Incident Marker
W2SS1_0
Scene of the Acton Murders, August 18, 18621
Board Trip 002

The Acton Incident Marker

The Acton Incident marker. 
Three  historical markers with outdated language were replaced and ready for viewing in 2012. The content of the new signs was reviewed by an MNHS historical marker committee, as well as by Dakota consultants and the MNHS Indian Advisory Committee. 

The sign reads: "On August 17, 1862, four young Dakota hunters, returning to their hungry families from an unsuccessful hunt, argued about stealing food from white settlers. Sungigidan, Kaomdeiyeyedan, Nagiwicakte, and Pazoiyopa dared each other this: who among them was brave enough to shoot the settlers? The youth spoke with Robinson Jones, Acton’s postmaster and storekeeper, at his farm. They followed him to this location, about a quarter mile from the home of Howard Baker. Here they shot and killed Baker, Viranus Webster and Robinson Jones and his wife. After they left, passing Jones’s home, they killed his daughter, Clara D. Wilson. The Indians then fled 40 miles south to Rice Creek Village. After several council meetings, the Dakota who wanted to go to war with the United States convinced Taoyateduta (Little Crow) to lead them into battle. Thus began the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, the bloodiest chapter in Minnesota history. Although the war was ignited by the actions of a small band of teenage hunters, its causes were far deeper. By 1862, European Americans were pouring onto the ancestral lands of the Dakota. White leaders, determined to seize millions of acres of rich farmland, forced the Dakota onto reservations. The Dakota were expected to assimilate: to farm rather than hunt, to speak English, to cut their hair and wear unfamiliar clothing. Missionaries sought to replace the Dakota belief system with Christianity. The payments promised in the 1851 and 1858 treaties were illegally taken by traders or were late in delivery. Families were torn between the past and a foreign, uncertain future. To some, war seemed the only option. The U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 launched 30 years of war between the United States and American Indians on the Northern Plains."
W2SS1_0

Scene of the Acton Murders, August 18, 18621

An interpretation of the shootout that occurred in Acton, MN, on August 17th, the day before the start of the U.S.-Dakota War. By Dan Nelson, 1909.