Thomas Wakeman | .
Thomas Wakeman | .
November is Native American Heritage Month and today is Native American Heritage Day. We're celebrating the history of Native Americans within the YMCA.
In 1862, the Dakota People, tired of semi-starvation and poverty, took part in a war meant to push white settlers out of their lands in Minnesota. At the end of the brief, ill-fated war, 160 Dakota warriors were captured and sentenced to hang. President Lincoln commuted the sentence of 120 of those men, but 38 warriors were still hanged, making it the largest mass execution in US history.
The remaining Native men whose sentences had been commuted, languished in a military prison. Volunteers from the Young Men's Christian Association visited them, bringing clothing, bedding, English language lessons, and Christianity. The Dakota men were so impressed with the compassion of these YMCA volunteers, that upon their release in 1879, some of them, including Chief Little Crow's son, Thomas Wakeman (pictured), started the Koskada Okadiciye, a Young Man's Association. This Y still operates today as the YMCA of the Seven Council Fires. Learn more at ymca7fires.org
Original source can be found here.
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