A tradition revived: Horse riders honor 38 Dakota men hanged in 1862 in Mankato

MANKATO – The riders, some three dozen of them, circled the blazing fire. The smell of burnt sage hung in the winter air as the sounds of clopping horse hooves matched a ceremonial drumbeat.

The riders had traveled hundreds of miles to honor the Dakota men executed in one of the ugliest chapters in American history: a mass hanging in Mankato in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

“Today we ride for the ones who we lost,” said Jimmy Hallum, who had led a group known as the Dakota Exiles Ride from the Santee Reservation in Nebraska to the Land of Memories Campground in Mankato.

Nearby stood Wilfred Keeble, organizer of the Makotah Reconciliation and Healing Ride, the other group that made this year’s journey. Keeble’s group left Fort Thompson, S.D., on Dec. 10 and rode 330 miles through winter conditions to get to Mankato.

The two groups are revivals drawing on the legacy of the Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride, which Jim Miller started in 2005. The ride continued each year until 2022. After Miller’s death from cancer in 2023, Keeble restarted the tradition with a new name, and Hallum organized a repeat of a ride from 2020.

“We all ride for the same reason: to remember the grandfathers that were executed on Dec. 26, 1862,” said Andrea Eastman, a rider with the Dakota Exiles Ride.

“We’re the prayers that they prayed, because we’re still here today,” added Eastman, who like others on the ride is a descendant of the executed men.

The two groups gathered in Mankato on the anniversary of the day that 38 Dakota men were hanged in 1862 in the largest mass execution in United States history. Another two men were executed in Fort Snelling in 1864.

The hangings followed the five-week war between the Dakota and white soldiers and settlers. Before the conflict, the Dakota tribes had agreed to a series of treaties trading their land for money and food as white settlers arrived in Minnesota.

But the U.S. government fell behind on payments and food deliveries, leaving the Dakota on the verge of starvation, according to a University of Minnesota history of the conflict. Raids for food led to the war, which ended when U.S. troops defeated the Dakota at the Battle of Wood Lake in Yellow Medicine County.

The uprising led to the expulsion of Dakota people from Minnesota. Its impact, said Katie Boone of Mankato, continues through today.

“We can’t get to healing without the truth,” said Boone, who said she is the descendant of a settler taken captive during the war. “We’re not able to move to actions without acknowledging the harm and the truth of what happened.”

Boone has supported the ride as a volunteer and is interviewing participants as part of her doctoral research at the University of Minnesota. She said a typical day begins with the riders circling up and starting with a prayer song. They then embark on a four- to six-hour ride, she said.

Every seven miles, the riders change out their horses to ensure they don’t get too tired. Each night, the riders circle up again, pray and then settle the horses before setting up camp. Throughout the trip, they’ve seen communities donate food and the use of their stables.

Destry Owen is one of the many younger riders this year. His ride over the past 10 days included whiteout conditions. “It was cold, but you know, we all made it,” said Owen, adding that the scariest part of the journey was when cars drove too close as the riders made their way along highways.

Owen said he rode for his family. He said addiction runs deep in his family, and he’s trying to break the cycle and do something that gives him joy.

“I love being on the back of a horse,” he said from atop his horse, Tank. “I may not be a good rider, but it’s just that, getting off after riding for so many days, it makes you feel good, it makes you feel happy. And then to come back to a town full of people, laughter, joy, everything, it just feels good to be here.”

Added Boone: “It helps people feel connected back in community, back into culture, back into the ways that things were.”

After circling up on Thursday afternoon, the riders left the Mankato campground and rode along the highway with a police escort 2½ miles into downtown. Along the way, people watched the procession from cars, window and the top of a parking garage.

A crowd of several hundred gathered for the riders as they reached the Dakota 38 Memorial, a sculpture bearing the names of the executed men. The ceremonies have grown larger over the years; the 2022 ride included Gov. Tim Walz, who apologized for what the United States did to the Dakota people.

At this year’s ceremony, Hallum read the men’s names aloud.

And Keeble spoke about forgiveness. He said he and others in his community have struggled with the concept, wondering why they should think about forgiveness. He said he had to search within his dreams for an answer and recently found one. “Forgiveness is for me, to move on,” he said.

Keeble joined the first 38+2 ride in 2005 and for years was the group’s flagbearer. This year, he passed that duty to a rotating group of younger riders. So each day of the ride, Keeble said, was a chance for him and the other elders to teach the youth about their history, become acquainted with their community, and learn how to be better people.

“That’s the whole idea,” he said.