Pain, hope, history share the ride as Dakota Exiles commemorate Mankato hangings
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Jim Hallum grew up on the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska not knowing anything about the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
Now, 162 years later, he and 30 others are on a nearly 300-mile ride from the reservation to southern Minnesota to mark one of the most tragic periods in Minnesota history — the hangings in Mankato of 38 Dakota warriors at the war’s end, the largest single-day mass execution in American history.
Hallum is one of the organizers of the Dakota Exiles ride, a journey through frozen fields and open country covered in snow on horseback. They rode once before in 2020. They’ll meet up with another group of riders to commemorate the Dec. 26, 1862 hangings ordered by President Abraham Lincoln that led to a mass exile of Native people from Minnesota.
The ride is meant to honor those hanged in Mankato along with two others later executed; it also honors the thousands of people later forced from their homelands, Hallum said. Riders also want to preserve this painful history of the Dakota in the hope of helping heal the intergenerational trauma it created, he added.
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Following the war, Congress abrogated treaties between the United States and the Dakota. Three months later, thousands of Dakota were loaded onto steamboats and sent to Crow Creek in what is now present day South Dakota.
“We ride for 38 plus two but we ride for our grandmothers in Crow Creek,” Hallum said, referring to many of the women and children who starved or succumbed to disease after their removal.
After their exile, Dakota people were concentrated in several areas outside of their homelands in Santee, Neb., Sisseton, S.D., and Devils Lake, N.D., as well as Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.
‘Giving back by being here’
The Exiles Ride will meet up with riders from the Mankatoh Reconciliation and Healing Horse Ride. This ride closely follows the original route of the Dakota 38 + 2 Memorial Ride, which ended in 2022. That journey was started by Dakota Spiritual leader Jim Miller in 2008, who had a dream about the Dakota returning to Minnesota. Miller died from cancer in 2023.
The Dakota Exiles ride started on Dec. 14. The group has been on horseback on what Hallum jokes are “rez ponies” that can withstand the harsh cold and conditions.
Every night, they stop to rest and feed the horses. Hallum’s brother Kermit Miner, and his niece Jennifer Hallum are accompanying him. Hallum said they prefer to camp outdoors in the teepees they’ve been hauling in the back of his more than 20-year-old truck, which is decorated with ponies painted by his granddaughter. He joked that the poles jutting up from his truck make them look like the “Beverly Hillbillies.”
Miner said he was inspired to ride by the return of Chief White Dog’s pipe several years ago to the Prairie Island Indian Community after it had been auctioned off. He heard about the pipe from relatives and thought it was lost.
During their first year, Miner cooked for all the riders. This year, Hallum said people have donated food for most of their trip and they’ve been welcomed at nearly every stop by people providing dinner and a place to warm up.
In Alcester, S.D., Hallum said one woman heard they were coming and gave them banana bread. The local fire department brought fresh hay and water for the horses.
“It’s all been really good,” Hallum said. “They were truly amazed that we were doing this in wintertime.”
Jennifer Hallum also grew up on the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska and is now the tribal nation’s historic preservation officer. The U.S.- Dakota War and its aftermath was part of her upbringing and was talked about in her home.
“I feel like I’m giving back by being here,” she said. “Never stop learning about yourself and your history.”
