Minnesota History

December 11, 2012 5:00 AM

Part 2: Mankato's history largely hidden

In setting out to understand what happened in southern Minnesota in 1862, I asked Gwen Westerman to be my guide. I grew up in Mankato, a white kid, knowing next to nothing about the bloody history that happened beneath my feet. Gwen, a Dakota tribal member, got a teaching job and moved to Mankato, also knowing nothing about that history.

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December 11, 2012 12:25 AM

Little War on the Prairie

It was 150 years ago this month that the U.S.-Dakota war ended with one of the most noteworthy events in Minnesota history -- the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato. We tell the story from the perspective of John Biewen, a Mankato native who heard next to nothing about the war during his childhood there.

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December 11, 2012 12:00 AM

Part 10: Payback for the Dakota - banishment

The Dakota are banished from Minnesota, as payback for the war. Even those who didn't participate, or who opposed the war outright, were made to suffer.

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December 11, 2012 12:00 AM

Photos: The U.S.-Dakota War, remembered

A photographic telling of the story of the Dakota War of 1862, and the repercussions it still triggers today for many people in Minnesota.

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August 24, 2012 2:40 PM

Bright Ideas with Brian Horrigan

Host Stephen Smith and his guest Brian Horrigan of the Minnesota Historical Society discuss the legacy of Charles Lindbergh.

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August 17, 2012 6:00 AM

Lonely outpost marks US-Dakota War's start

It was 150 years ago today that four angry Dakota Indians killed several settlers near the tiny town of Acton, Minn. Within a day, the Lower Sioux Agency had been overrun and an unprecedented war between the Dakota and U.S. soldiers had begun. The effects of that war, which lasted just a few weeks, still reverberate in Minnesota today.

by Mark Steil

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July 24, 2012 2:48 PM

Clinton to help dedicate statue for Humphrey

Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Walter Mondale plan to pay tribute to another Democratic icon, Hubert Humphrey, by dedicating a statue in his honor on the Minnesota Capitol lawn.

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June 1, 2012 8:36 PM

New African American Museum opens in Minneapolis this weekend

The new Minnesota African American Museum and Cultural Center in Minneapolis opens this weekend, in an old Victorian era mansion known as the Coe House. MPR's Tom Crann talked today with the founder of the museum, Roxanne Givens.

by Tom Crann

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February 20, 2012 6:30 AM

The Dakota War, and Gov. Henry Sibley in retrospect

As we head into the somber commemoration of the Dakota War this year, we thought it appropriate to call in historian Annette Atkins to help us learn more about Gov. Henry Sibley and his times, and the events that laid the groundwork for the war.

by Cathy Wurzer