20. Could the policies of the U.S. government and the State of Minnesota government in the 1860s be considered genocide?

 
The policies of the U.S. and Minnesota governments before, during and after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 are referred to by some as genocide; others do not agree with this usage. The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience uses this definition: “Genocide is any one of a number of acts aimed at the destruction of all or part of certain groups of people (national, ethnic, racial or religious).” The United Nations Convention on Genocide (1948) states, “The convention defines genocide as any act committed with the idea of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This includes such acts as: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to physically destroy the group (the whole group or part of the group) and forcefully transferring children of the group to another group.”
 
MNHS and other organizations will provide many opportunities over the next year to learn about the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the events that led up to it and its consequences. Programs at MNHS will place those events within a broader context that considers American Indian history in the Upper Midwest, Dakota culture and the westward expansion of white settlement.
 
We ask that members of the public take advantage of these opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of this time in our past and that you answer the question for yourself – did the policies of the United States government and the State of Minnesota constitute genocide?