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Upton, Benjamin. F, attrib.

“Medicine Bottle,” Sioux Indian Executed at Fort Snelling. [pencil inscription on verso].

St. Paul: Martin’s Art Gallery, circa 1864. Stereoview, 3.25” x 6.75” including mount.

A stereoview picturing the Dakota brave “Medicine Bottle,” as photographed during his captivity at Fort Snelling following the Dakota Uprising of 1862.

The 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux removed the Dakota people from their traditional lands in Iowa and Minnesota, and settled them on land along the upper Minnesota River. Insufficient hunting grounds, cutworm destruction of corn crops, treaty violations, and Indian agent corruption, resulted in near-starvation conditions and provoked rebellion against the treaty. In August of 1862, the Dakota attacked white settlements in the Minnesota River valley, killing hundreds. The revolt was crushed on September 2nd by forces under General John Pope. On 26 December 1862, thirty-eight Dakota leaders were executed in the largest one day execution in U. S. history. Pejuhuta-tha (Medicine Bottle) and Chief Shak-pi (Little Six) fled to Canada following the uprising. They were captured there by Major Edwin Hatch in January of 1864, then imprisoned at Fort Snelling, where they were tried and convicted of war crimes. They were hung in 1865.

CONDITION: Very good.

Item #4975

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