Lunch & Learn: The 1862 U.S.-Dakota War Through Sarah Wakefield’s Eyes

Consider the 1862 Dakota Uprising in Minnesota from the perspective of Sarah Wakefield. At the time of the Uprising, Sarah was married to a government physician on the Dakota (or Sioux) reservation. She was captured with her two young children the first morning of the outbreak. Her relationship with Ćaske, her Dakota captor and protector, became a source of great controversy and ultimately tragedy. In this presentation Phyllis tells a few captivating stories behind her writing of ‘Beneath the Same Stars,’ her novel that dives into this history. She leads her audience on a journey from a family cemetery in a dense woods in North Kingstown, Rhode Island; to the ruins of the Upper Sioux Agency near Granite Falls, Minnesota; to the kitchen table of a Dakota elder in Peever, South Dakota…. Along the way she explores a largely forgotten history that still haunts this region of the country.