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(CNN) - This week, more than 150 years ago, dozens of Native American men were killed by the government in the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.
In the Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, groups of Dakota (part of the Sioux group of Native American tribes) became angry with the United States government for broken land treaties and late annuity payments. Times were also difficult and Dakota families were starving.
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The natives of Dakota went to war against white settlers in Minnesota, which had just become a state four years earlier.
The fight lasted six weeks, according to the Minnesota History Center. More than 500 white people and 60 natives died in the fighting, reports the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The uprising ended on December 26, when 38 Dakota natives were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, in a mass execution. The remaining natives were forced to leave Minnesota, at first they were held in a camp and then sent out of state.
Originally, more than 300 men were sentenced to hanging by the then governor of Minnesota, Alexander Ramsey. The number was reduced when President Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to the governor, listing 39 names to be hanged. Then one was granted a pardon.
In 2012, the Dakota Wokiksuye Memorial Ride and Memorial Run events commemorated the Dakota warriors hanged after the Dakota War of 1862.
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