38 DAKOTA BRAVE

38 DAKOTA BRAVE: the myth revisited

6/13/26 and a month prior

This has been marinating too long as it is a

sestina and I struggled to get it right

and do honor to these people in the history

of Minnesota and the US. The myth is Lincoln.

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Thirty-eight Dakota born stand on a square of gallows

Lined 10x10x10x10, a square formed in a town square cheered

by 4000 as Lincoln mulled a freedom for the slaves

Six days before the signing of the Great Emancipation

Same man, six days before-this is the mythology of Lincoln

Signing away 38 Dakota men's clemency

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38 brave men given no clemency

To sate the thirst of lesser men and pay the price at the gallows

They are only 38 instead of 2 and more would have shocked Lincoln

The brave accepted their fate as the 4000 cheered

A message sent, a lesson meant pre-emancipation

The 38 grasped hands calling out their names beneath the hoods. Slaves

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Are worth more than Natives even though just slaves

38 Dakota death chants echoed over clemency

For the brave, there is no emancipation

38 treaty, food starved men swing dead from the gallows

When the floor dropped, the necks snapped, even the 4000 never cheered

A dead silence echoed the cruelty of the might of Lincoln

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They fought; they lost. 303 set to die but only 38 to pay the price to Lincoln

For their stolen land, they fought for rights and life while slaves

shackled to room and board, denied the freedom to be cheered

Treaty by broken treaty, Dakota lost their land and livelihood-no clemency

38 Dakota men hung 30 minutes freely in dead air at the gallows

For the Dakota, no emancipation

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SIX days before he freed the slaves, before the Great Emancipation

This was before the myth of the benevolence of Lincoln

Thousands hushed to silence after the ghastly sound of the work of gallows

38 given freedom from their life as Lincoln forced himself to free the slaves

No thought, no mercy, no honor, no clemency

No dignity even for their cadavers, who could have cheered

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3 drum taps-at the 3rd tap was the signal told when they all first cheered

The 38 went unbowed, unbent, unbroken-they knew emancipation

Was not for them. They fought as men, They expected no clemency.

Over 3 thousand Dakota imprisoned. 38 finally culled by Lincoln

To die by hanging cuz 2 was not enough. And he had slaves

To free. So for fighting for justice-to the gallows, to the gallows, to the gallows.

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One drum tap: The 38 grasp hands, the crowd no longer cheered, dead quiet as Lincoln

2nd drum tap: signs the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves just 6 days later

3rd final drum tap: The greatest clemency in US history covered the zero clemency policy

for the Dakota Brave hung at the Gallows on Dec. 26th, 1862-one day after Christmas.