Indian Wars

Minnesota

The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of Dakota (also known as the eastern 'Sioux'). It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota. It ended with a mass execution of 38 Dakota men on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota.

John Other Day

Birth: 1801

Nicollet County, MN

Minnesota, USA

Death: Oct. 19, 1869 Marshall County, SD South Dakota, USA

John Other Day was born near Swan Lake, Nicollet county, in Minnesota. His father was Red Bird, or Zitkaduta. As a young man, Other Day (Anpetutokeca) was also known as Good Sounding Voice, and he was a fierce warrior. He eventually converted to Christianity, joined the Hazelwood Church, and started farming near the Upper Sioux Agency. In 1857, he was instrumental in the capture and killing of Roaring Cloud, son of Inkpaduta, and murderer of Mrs. Noble, one of the Spirit Lake captives. In that same year he aided in the rescue of Abbie Gardner, another Spirit Lake captive. In 1858, he was a member of the delegation that traveled to Washington, DC to sign a treaty which ceded the narrow strip of reservation land lying north of the Minnesota River. While in Washington, he met an English woman, Roxana, who was a waitress in the hotel where he was staying, and the two were married.

On August 18, 1862, the Dakota Indians, angry with conditions at the reservation, attacked the Lower Sioux Agency and the settlements in the region. When word of the outbreak reached the Upper Sioux Agency, Other Day warned the whites there, assembled sixty-five of them in an agency building, and protected them by standing guard over night.

Early in the next morning he guided the group across the Minnesota River and over the prairie on a three-day journey to safety. He joined Henry Sibley's forces as a scout, and bravely participated in the battle of Wood Lake, MN and the campaigns that followed. The government eventually awarded Other Day a sum of $2,500 for his brave efforts. He used the money to buy a farm at Henderson, MN, but later sold out and moved to the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation in South Dakota. He died of tuberculosis at the Fort Wadsworth hospital on October 19, 1869, nine days after he was admitted.

He was buried with military honors near his home on Big Coulee Creek, 12 miles northwest of Wilmot in Agency Township. His remains were transferred to Ascension Presbyterian Cemetery and were reburied there in 1926. Other Day's name appears on a monument erected by the Minnesota Valley Historical Society at Morton, Minnesota. The monument is in commemoration of the Dakotas who helped save lives of the whites during the 1862 uprising.

NOTE: John Fadden, Sr and his wife, Marier E. Fadden, were among the more than 60 Upper Sioux Agency whites who were protected by John Other Day. Following the uprising, the Faddens moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Their first-born son, John Other Day Fadden (1863-1930), was named in honor of the man who saved their lives.

"When I gave up the war path and commenced working the earth for a living I discarded all my former habits.... My wife died during the winter which left my heart very sad. It was very hard for me to learn the white man’s ways, but I was determined to get my living by cultivating the land and raising stock."

Anpetutokeca (John Other Day), 1869

Anpetutokeca, also known as John Other Day, was born in about 1819 in present-day Nicollet County, MN. He was a leader of a small band of Wahpeton Dakota farmers living on the reservation near the Upper Agency with his wife, Roseanne. For rescuing more than 60 residents of the Upper Agency, Other Day was received as a hero in St. Paul. He served as a scout for Henry Sibley and fought beside white soldiers at the battle of Wood Lake. He died in Dakota Territory in 1869.