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In March 2018, thousands of Facebook users shared a meme which asserts that President Abraham Lincoln had ordered the executions of 38 Native American warriors in 1862: That claim is largely accurate, but it's also misleading; it omits to mention that although Abraham Lincoln did approve 39 death sentences (one of the condemned men was ultimately spared), he also prevented the hangings of 264 other Native Americans by commuting their death sentences, in the same order. It also fails to make it clear that the death sentences did not originate with Lincoln. Rather, the executions were ordered by a military commission and sent to the president, who had the legal authority to approve or decline to approve any or all of the sentences. The Dakota War of 1862 involved a violent uprising by Dakota Sioux tribal members in Minnesota in response to hunger and privation as well as treaty violations on the part of the United States federal government, which had a long history of displacing and exploiting Native American peoples since the birth of the American colonies. The conflict began in August 1862, lasted for six weeks, and involved killings, atrocities, and hostage-takings on both sides. On 26 September 1862, the Dakota surrendered at what became known as Camp Release in Minnesota. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, the U.S. forces then commenced military trials for hundreds of captured Dakota fighters: On 9 November 1862, the list of the 303 condemned Dakota fighters was sent to Lincoln for his approval of their executions. Two days later, he requested a review of their cases and trials. In July 1862, the United States Congress had passed a law relating to court martials and military commissions which made it clear that death sentences emerging from such trials could not be carried out without the approval of the President of the United States: In a major 1990 paper on the trials and executions, University of Minnesota law professor Carol Chomsky was highly critical of the trials and of Lincoln's confirmation of the execution of the Dakota fighters for actions taken in the context of a military conflict, a punishment that was not handed down to other military combatants, such as Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. However, she also noted that Lincoln was under intense pressure to sign off on the executions of all 303 Dakota men, and that a mob in Minnesota, stoked by local political leaders, threatened to implement vigilante justice should the president spare any of the condemned fighters: In December 1862, Lincoln announced his decision about the issue to the United States Senate, suggesting that the priority of executions should be directed at captives who had committed acts of rape: However, the president discovered that only two of the 303 men had been convicted of rape, and so he widened the criteria for execution to those who had committed massacres (as opposed to just taking part in battles): In the end, one of the 39 condemned men had his death sentence commuted, and the executions of the remaining 38 Dakota fighters took place on 26 December 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota: A few weeks later, the New York Times offered a harrowing and disturbing account of those executions: It is accurate to say that Lincoln approved the executions of 39 Dakota fighters, and that despite their convictions for participating in war-time massacres, the condemned men were not afforded the conventional rights of due process (such as trial by jury) and did not have attorneys present to plead on their behalf. It is also true that Lincoln, as President of the United States, did have the legal authority to commute all 303 death sentences presented to him for his approval. However, in the very act of approving 39 executions, Lincoln was at the same time ordering the commutation of 264 death sentences. Despite intense political and popular pressure, Lincoln spared the lives of many more Dakota fighters than he condemned, albeit not as many as he could have. The popular meme displayed above leaves out this very important context, and it therefore gives an incomplete and misleading account of Lincoln's December 1862 decision.
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