Join historian for Coffee Talk session in Des Plaines

Previous Des Plaines History Center speaker Grace Dumelle meets audience members and responds to questions. There are snacks and a Q&A period after each Coffee Talk. Courtesy of Rachel Birkner

Posted March 26, 2019 11:00 pm

Submitted by Rachel Birkner

The Des Plaines History Center's April Coffee Talk presenter will be historian L. Sue Baugh, who will discuss the largest mass execution in American history: "U.S.-Dakota War of 1862: A Forgotten Battle."

Baugh has conducted a great deal of research on this moment in history when tensions between the Lakota-Sioux and U.S. government erupted in violence. President Lincoln withdrew troops from the Civil War to intervene, and a military tribunal sentenced 38 Lakota-Sioux men to death in December of 1862.

Baugh comments on the absence of the battle in traditional education and its importance today: "I was shocked I'd never heard of this conflict, which was so fierce that President Lincoln had to pull troops out of the Civil War to quell the uprising. This battle has left a legacy that still affects descendants of the settlers and the Dakota even today, which reflects our larger white-Native American history. In light of Standing Rock and other movements, this story couldn't be timelier."

Every member of the public is invited to this Coffee Talk lecture at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at the Des Plaines History Center. This program is presented by Village Bank & Trust with a suggested $3 donation.

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