Camp Release State Monument is located on the edge of

Montevideo, Minnesota Montevideo is a city in Chippewa County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,383 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Chippewa County. The town's mayor is Erich Winter and the Council President is Nathan Schmidt. The area ...

, United States, just off Highway 212 in

Lac qui Parle County Lac qui Parle County () is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,719. Its county seat is Madison. The largest city in the county is Dawson. History The name of the county is French for "Lake ...

, in the 6-acre Camp Release State Memorial Wayside. The Camp Release Monument stands as a reminder of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

's early state history. The

Minnesota River The Minnesota River ( dak, Mnísota Wakpá) 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 ris ...

Valley and Montevideo were important sites in 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, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several ban ...

. On September 26. 1862, a few days after the U.S. victory at the

Battle of Wood Lake The Battle of Wood Lake occurred on September 23, 1862, and was the final battle in the Dakota War of 1862. The two-hour battle, which actually took place at nearby Lone Tree Lake, was a decisive victory for the U.S. forces led by Colonel Henry Ha ...

, 269 prisoners who had been taken captive during the conflict were released to Colonel

Henry Hastings Sibley Henry Hastings Sibley (February 20, 1811 – February 18, 1891) was a fur trader with the American Fur Company, the first U.S. Congressional representative for Minnesota Territory, the first governor of the state of Minnesota, and a U.S. mil ...

at a spot that became known as Camp Release, which was located on a

bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...

overlooking the valley and the present-day site of Montevideo. The Camp Release State Monument was the sixth of 23 state monuments erected by the Minnesota legislature between 1873 and 1929. It was the first property added to the state park system and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1973.

Monument dedication and inscription

The Camp Release Monument was dedicated on July 4, 1894, commemorating "the surrender here of a large body of Indians, and the release of 269 captives, most of them women and children" on September 26, 1862. The inscription on the northern side of the monument states that the release was "The result mainly of the signal victory over the hostile Sioux at Wood Lake by Minnesota troops under command of General Henry H. Sibley, all being incidents of the Great Sioux Indian Massacre." The southern side of the monument simply says "Camp Release". The other two sides of the 51-foot

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

are inscribed with information about: * The dates of battles that took place along the

during the conflict (Eastern side) * Erection of the monument by the State of Minnesota in accordance with an act of Legislature approved on April 11, 1893 and supervised by named committee members (Western side)

Monument marker

Erected in 1989 by the Minnesota Historical Society, the Camp Release Marker states that on September 26, 1862, "91 whites and about 150 mixed-blood captives, some of who had been captives of the Dakota Indians for over a month" were released. It goes on to state, "In the next few days, additional captives were freed, bringing the total to 107 whites and 162 mixed-bloods – 269 in all." The marker also goes on to acknowledge the role played by the Dakota "peace faction": The Camp Release Marker concludes by explaining that the Dakota who "surrendered" included members of the peace faction:

Many of the peace faction who surrendered to Sibley's army at Camp Release were among the Dakota exiled from Minnesota the following year.

The Minnesota Historical Society has since revised the estimated total of captives released at Camp Release to 285.

References

External links

{{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 1894 establishments in Minnesota 1894 sculptures Buildings and structures completed in 1894 Buildings and structures in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota Dakota War of 1862 Granite sculptures in Minnesota Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Obelisks in the United States Protected areas of Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota Protected areas established in 1894 National Register of Historic Places in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota Temporary populated places on the National Register of Historic Places

Monument dedication and inscription

Monument marker

See also

References

External links