Birdtail Sioux teen runs 100 km in Minnesota event to honour Dakota men hanged in 1862 mass execution

A First Nation teenager from southwestern Manitoba traveled more than 1,000 kilometers, then ran more than 100, late last month in honor of dozens of Dakota men who were hanged in the 19th century mass execution largest in US history

Runner Tao Moody, 17, made the trek from the Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation to Mankato, Minnesota, just before Christmas, where he ran about 100 kilometers in 24 hours, at points with a sacred bundle and flags, as part of a commemoration annual by the men sometimes referred to as “the Dakota 38+2”, who were executed after the Dakota War of 1862.

“You could feel the heaviness of the pain coming from some of the people, the elders that were there,” said Malcolm Blacksmith, who accompanied Moody on the run as a youth chaperone for the Jordan’s Principle Birdtail indigenous organization.

“What the elders are saying down there, they told us… that this is not in the history books.”

Blacksmith said he and Moody were forced to make the trip to Mankato to support their Dakota relatives. The story of the Dakota executions marked a turning point in the history of the Dakota nation, he said, which has continued to this day in both Canada and the United States.

The Dakota 38+2

The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Little Crow War, was a six-week conflict in August and September 1862 between the United States and the Dakotas of southwestern Minnesota, according to a Minnesota Historical Society…