Do a good turn daily

In August if 1862, the Dakota tribes of Minnesota were fed up. The IS government had promised them deliveries of food and supplies in a trade deal for lands in Minnesota the Dakota ceded. This began a war that would leave hundreds of casualties on both sides. The culmination of the war was the capture of hundreds of natives who participated. Most were pardoned to some degree. 38 were not, and an order to hang all “38 Indians and half breeds” came down from Abe Lincoln. So after the wars conclusion the largest mass execution on US soil occurred and all 38 were hanged at one time. The event was traumatic to the Dakota tribe- who as a result of the events were forced into Nebraska reservations or even further in cases- and to the US soldiers and settlers. The men who participated in the executions, many remained haunted by the events and made pilgrimages to the contested river valley over the years as a form of remembrance.

The peace pipe was given by Mdewakanton Dakota Chief White Dog to a US soldier at the end of the whole affair as was the custom to try and put the atrocities committed by both sides to behind them. The auction was held around 2008, with the pipe appraised at half the value, and selling for a final bid of just under $40,000 to an anonymous buyer who wanted to return it to the Dakota people.

Speculation on my part- but Likely the case being either/or/some combination of sympathy for the suffering and loss of native peoples in our history and a desire to give back something to them, the thought that Gavin passed out of the hands of the descendants and no longer a sacred token of peace, but a commercial instrument that such an artifact should be returned, and that native tribes have very little in the way of authentic historic cultural artifacts due to destruction, forced assimilation, being taken as souvenirs or as spoils, left or lost in forced relocations, or taken by museums and collectors outside the tribe. There’s also the fact that native tribes are at serious risk of becoming ghosts if history for many factors. Any opportunity that the government or citizens may have to try and set right past wrongs is quickly dwindling and may even at this point be too late- but some still want to try to avoid or mitigate the systemic erasure of a native people and their culture.