Over The Earth I Come: The Souix Uprising Or 1862 Essay, Research Paper

I will admit that I am not much for reading. I will also admit after reading the first

chapter in this book that I felt sick to my stomach, literally. That I feared reading

the rest of the book knowing that this really happened and that people could

actually do this to one another. Although the book disgusted me after the first

chapter that I didn?t want to read it anymore it also made me not want to put it

down. It could have been the way the writer described everything made it all so

vivid and clear or maybe it was the fact that it was so gruesome and real that I had

to read it. Whatever the truth may be I thought it was a very good book.

Up until this class I hadn?t even heard of the Uprising. In my impression

part of the book was the side of the Indians while part of it was the side of the

?white man?s? view. It told of how it started, where it began, when it ended and

how it ended.

I feel as if the Indians had been changing their ways throughout the war. In

the beginning they were killing anyone and everyone but, to a point, by the end of

the war they were only killing the white males and were holding the women and

children captive so to speak.

Although I don?t think the Indians needed to be hung for their crimes they

should?ve been arrested and brought into jail. The white men needed to also take

responsibility for their actions. It takes two people to start a fight no matter what it

is about. Yes, it wasn?t all of the white men who held back their annuity payment,

but it was those men who insisted that they change their ways.

The book was a well-researched and insightful narrative of the bloody

uprising and the events which preceded it. It is another sad chapter in the history

of the American West . All the shocking events took place during one week in

August of 1862, in response to being tricked and betrayed by broken treaties,

cheated continually by traders, and brought to the edge of starvation by delays in

dispensing the government’s annuity payments, the Santee Sioux had finally had

enough. The Sioux left hundreds of settlers dead and turning forty thousand into

refugees. From killings to burnings they did it all.

The high point was reached over hens’ eggs when warriors mocked

as cowards after refusing to steal the eggs shot the hens’ owner, his wife, and

friends in cold blood. Faced with certain reprisals from whites, the most respected

Sioux leader, Little Crow, sided with his war chiefs and the rampage began in

earnest. Hundreds of isolated settlers in the area died, with only occasional

prisoners taken, while massive attacks took place against the nearby Army garrison

and the prosperous town of New Ulm. Even with superior numbers, these assaults

failed, however, leaving many warriors dead and the rest disheartened. The Army

quickly rounded up all the Sioux to be found, sentencing hundreds to death in

military court without allowing them a defense. President Lincoln reduced the

number of condemned to 38, who were duly hung. On December 26, 1862, those

38 Sioux Indians were executed for their part in uprisings.