Andrew J. Myrick (May 28, 1832 – August 18, 1862) was a

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

r, who with his

Dakota Dakota may refer to: * Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux ** Dakota language, their language Dakota may also refer to: Places United States * Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Dakota, Illinois, a town * Dakota, Minnesota ...

wife (''Winyangewin''/Nancy Myrick), operated stores in southwest

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

at two Native American agencies serving the Dakota (referred to as Sioux at the time) near the

Minnesota River The Minnesota River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa. It rises in southwestern ...

. In the summer of 1862, when the Dakota were starving because of failed crops and delayed annuity payments, Myrick is noted as refusing to sell them food on credit when they were starving and being described on that account as the "most hated of the traders". He was alleged to have said of the Dakota, "Let them eat grass." The validity of that quotation is now disputed.

Background

In the summer of 1862, eastern bands of the

Dakota people The Dakota (pronounced , or ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe (Native American), tribe and First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultur ...

were living in a small reservation along the southern bank of the Minnesota River. Their crops had failed and the area had been overhunted, and they were starving. In a meeting at the Upper Sioux Agency on August 4, US Indian Agent Thomas Galbraith directed that only some food be released to the Dakota from the warehouse, as annuity supplies and payments had been delayed by the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

and a government preoccupied with the

Northern Virginia Campaign The Northern Virginia Campaign, also known as the Second Bull Run Campaign or Second Manassas Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during August and September 1862 in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. Confederate ...

, which threatened the safety of the capital, Washington D.C. Andrew Myrick had stores at both Yellow Medicine (also known as the Upper Sioux Agency) and Redwood (

Lower Sioux Agency The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was the federal administrative center for the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in what became Redwood County, Minnesota, United States. It was the site of the Battle of Lower Sioux Agency on August 18, 1 ...

). After Galbraith decided against issuing more of the annuity food, he turned to the store owners and workers and asked them what they were intending to do. Myrick tried to broker a deal with the bands of the Dakota in which the traders were to be paid directly with the federal annuity payments, once those delayed payments arrived, in exchange for the traders extending credit to the Dakota.

Death

On August 18, 1862 Chief

Little Crow Little Crow III ( Dakota: ''Thaóyate Dúta''; 1810 – July 3, 1863) was a Wahpekute Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862. In 1846, after surviving a violent leadership contest w ...

led his warriors against U.S. settlements, beginning the

Dakota War of 1862 The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several eastern bands of Dakota people, Da ...

. Myrick was killed on the first day at the

Attack at the Lower Sioux Agency The Attack at the Lower Sioux Agency was the first organized attack led by Dakota people, Dakota leader Little Crow in Minnesota on August 18, 1862, and is considered the initial engagement of the Dakota War of 1862. It resulted in 13 settler de ...

, where Dakota warriors took revenge at the agency for its refusal to sell/give them food. When his body was found days later, "his body was mutilated, his head being severed from the body and the mouth filled with grass." Out of revenge, Dakota warriors stuffed his mouth and the cleft of his buttocks with grass.

Notes

References

*Douglas Linder
"The Dakota Conflict Trials of 1862"
(1999), Law School, University of Missouri-Kansas City. * Gary Clayton Anderson
"Myrick's Insult: A fresh look at myth and reality"
, ''Minnesota History'', Minnesota Historical Society {{DEFAULTSORT:Myrick, Andrew 1862 deaths People of Minnesota in the American Civil War Dakota War of 1862 1832 births People murdered in Minnesota

Background

Death

See also

Notes

References