A visit to the Fort Ridgely Historic Site

My wife and I camped at Fort Ridgely State Park last weekend so we could visit the MNHS Fort Ridgely Historic Site within the park, as well as other historic sites in the area.

My initial impression wasn’t good. The MNHS marker for Fort Ridgely (left center photo) at the entrance paints a one-sided view:

When the Sioux Uprising began in 1862, Fort Ridgely assumed great importance as the only military post in the valley and a vital defense point against the Indians.

Likewise, the Fort Ridgely State Monument in the center of the grounds:

… the Sioux indians of the Upper Minnesota river, in violation of their treaties, broke into open rebellion, and within a few days thereafter, massacred about one thousand citizens…

But given that the monument was erected in 1896 and the MNHS marker in 1971, it’s not surprising. 

These two large markers (above) near the flagpole tell a more balanced story of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

And once inside the visitor’s center, a much more complete picture of the war emerges.

I thought these war-related storyboards were well done but the story was incomplete… nothing about trials of the captured Indians, the mass execution at Mankato, the forced march of 1800 women and children to the concentration camp at Fort Snelling, nor the ethnic cleansing of the Dakota from the state. However…

this display told the story of how Henry Sibley and others pursued the fleeing Dakota into the western Dakotas and slaughtered them.

The MNHS has a page on its website about Fort Ridgely but there’s very little information there, just three short paragraphs of text. There’s no link but digging deeper into the MNHS website, I found a ‘media room’ set of pages on Fort Ridgely that has more information… but still, nothing close to what’s at the historic site itself.