The chief sent all the young ladies up to Canada

Mr. Assiniboine talks about his family's experience in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War.

Audio Chapters

DL: Do you have family members who lived through the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War?

JA: Yes I did.

DL: Who?

JA: My great-grandmother, her name was Little Woman.

DL: What’s the story of your great-grandmother?

JA: I don’t really know; all I know is that they were in the war and the chief sent all the young ladies up to Canada and then once they got here the just started going here and there, because they were scared.

DL: So Little Woman, your great-grandmother, is that right?

JA: No- two greats.

DL: Little Woman was how old when she came up here?

JA: The way we figured it, probably about 10 or 11.

DL: Did she walk up here, or did she get a ride with her group?

JA: They walked; a bunch of them. Actually, the way we found out, there was just two of them that came up here together.

DL: And where did they walk from, in Minnesota?

JA: Sisseton, I think.

Oral History- Interview | Narrator James Assiniboine Interviewer Deborah Locke in Dakota Tipi First Nation Manitoba, Canada | Thursday, January 19, 2012

Citation: Minnesota Historical Society. U.S. - Dakota War of 1862. The chief sent all the young ladies up to Canada March 28, 2024. http://www.usdakotawar.org/node/1535

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