Video: 'Minnesota Massacre of 1862' (Aug. 17, 1862, at 2:22)

(Sunday, August 17, 1862, part of Sioux Wars and the American Indian Wars) — The Dakota War of 1862, an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux (also known as eastern Dakota), began today along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota.

One young Dakota with a hunting party of three others killed five settlers while on a hunting expedition.

That night a council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley to try to drive whites out of the area.