Yellow Hair documents the
injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United
States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. Every death, murder, battle, and
outrage written about actually took place.
The historical figures that play a
role in this fact-based tale of fiction were real people and the author uses
their real names. Yellow Hair is an
epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19th
century. This is American history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew
Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US,
Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until
decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written
five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and
fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called
BEDTIME
STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS
(as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, YELLOW
HAIR.
He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog,
Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively
entitled, MICK
REILLY.
GUEST POST
My name is Andrew
Joyce and I write books for a living. Debra has been kind enough to
allow me a little space on her blog to talk about my latest, Yellow
Hair.
Yellow
Hair
documents the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first
treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890.
Every death, murder, battle, and outrage depicted actually took
place—from the first to the last. The historical figures that play
a role in my story were real people and I used their real names. I
conjured up my protagonist only to weave together the various events
conveyed in my fact-based tale of fiction. Yellow
Hair
is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most
of the 19th
century. It is
American history.
The inspiration for
the book came to me when I was reading a short article and it made
reference to the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. It also mentioned that
the outcome involved the largest mass execution in the history of the
United States. That
piqued my interest.
When I started my
research into the incident, one thing led to another and before I
knew it, I was documenting the entire history of the Sioux, who are
also known as the Dakota, vis-Ã -vis the relationship between them
and the United States.
Because
the book exists only because I read the phrase, “the largest
mass execution in the history of the United States,” I’ll
tell you a little about that. What follows is an extremely
abbreviated version of events.
The Dakota signed
their first treaty with the United States in 1805 when they sold a
small portion of their land to the Americans for the purpose of
building forts. It was right after the Louisiana Purchase and
President Jefferson wanted a presence in the West. At the time, “the
West” was anything on the western side of the Mississippi River.
In the treaty of
1805, the Dakota sold 100,000 acres to the Americans. The agreed-upon
price was $2.00 per acre. But when the treaty came up before the
Senate for ratification, the amount was changed to two cents per
acre. That was to be a precursor for all future treaties with the
Americans. There were subsequent treaties in 1815, 1825, 1832, 1837,
and 1851, and basically the same thing happened with all those
treaties.
In 1837, the
Americans wanted an additional five million acres of Dakota land.
Knowing it would be a hard sell after the way they failed to live up
to the letter or spirit of the previous treaties, the government
brought twenty-six Dakota chiefs to Washington to show them the might
and majesty that was The United States of America.
The government
proposed paying one million dollars for the acreage in installments
over a twenty-year period. Part of the payment was to be in the form
of farm equipment, medicine, and livestock. Intimidated, the Indians
signed the treaty and went home. The United States immediately laid
claim to the lands—the first payment did not arrive for a year.
The significance of
the 1837 treaty lies in the fact that it was the first time “traders”
were allowed to lay claim to the Indians’ payments without any
proof that money was owed . . . and without consulting the Indians.
Monies were subtracted from the imbursements and paid directly to the
traders.
By 1851, the
Americans wanted to purchase all of the Dakota’s remaining
lands—twenty-five million acres. The Sioux did not want to sell,
but were forced to do so with threats that the army could be sent in
to take the land from them at the point of a gun if they refused the
American’s offer.
“If we sell our
land, where will we live?” asked the Dakota chief.
“We will set aside
land for the Dakota only. It is called a reservation and it will be
along both banks of the Minnesota River, twenty miles wide, ten on
each side and seventy miles long. It will be yours until the grasses
no longer grow,” answered the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
The
Dakota were offered six cents an acre for land that was worth at
least a dollar an acre. The payment would be stretched out over a
twenty year period and was to be made in the form of gold coins. One
year later, in 1852, the Americans took half the reservation, the
seventy miles on the north side of the river. The Dakota were now
reduced from a nation of fierce, independent people to a people
dependent on hand-outs from the ones who stole not only their land,
but also their dignity.
The
Dakota were forced to buy their food from the traders who ran trading
posts at the Indian Agency the U.S. Government had set up on the
reservation. All year long the Dakota would charge what they needed.
When the yearly payment for their land arrived, the traders would
take what they said was owed them. Subsequently, there was
very little gold left for the Dakota.
By
1862, the Dakota were starving. That year’s payment was months late
in arriving because of the Civil War. The traders were afraid that
because of the war there would be no payment that year and cut off
the Dakota’s credit. The Indian Agent had the power to force the
traders to release some of the food stocks, but refused when asked to
do so by the Dakota.
After
they had eaten their ponies and dogs, and their babies cried out in
the night from hunger, the Dakota went to war against the United
States of America.
They
attacked the agency first and liberated the food stock from the
warehouse, killing many white people who lived there. Then bands of
braves set out to loot the farms in the surrounding countryside.
Many
whites were killed in the ensuing weeks. However, not all of the
Dakota went to war. Many stayed on the reservation and did not pick
up arms against their white neighbors. Some saved the lives of white
settlers. Still, over 700 hundred whites lost their lives before the
rebellion was put down.
When
the dust settled, all of the Dakota—including women and children,
and those people who had saved settlers’ lives—were made
prisoners of war.
Three
hundred and ninety-six men were singled out to stand trial before a
military commission. They were each tried separately in trials that
lasted only minutes. In the end, three hundred and three men were
sentenced to death.
Even
though he was occupied with the war, President Lincoln got involved.
He reviewed all three hundred and three cases and pardoned all but
thirty-eight of the prisoners.
On a
gray and overcast
December morning in
1862, the
scaffold stood high. Thirty-eight nooses hung from its crossbeams.
The mechanism for springing the thirty-eight trap doors had been
tested and retested until it worked perfectly. At
exactly noon, a signal was given, a lever pulled, and
the largest mass execution to ever take place in the United States of
America became part of our history.
