Over the winter of 1862-63, after the U.S.-Dakota War, approximately 1,600 Dakota were held in a wooden stockade on the river flats below Fort Snelling. Nearly 300 Dakota people held there died over the winter of 1862-63, victims of illness and attacks by soldiers. The survivors were removed from the state of Minnesota beginning in the spring of 1863 to reservations in the Dakota territory and what is now Nebraska.
This camp is sometimes referred to as a concentration camp. Both internment camp and concentration camp are defined as a place where civilians, prisoners of war and/or political prisoners are confined. The term concentration camp also means “harsh conditions,” as was the case at Fort Snelling. The term concentration camp is most frequently used to specifically describe the guarded, crowded prison camps in Nazi Germany in which millions were exterminated, as well as Nazi death camps, which were designed with the purpose of executing those who were confined. A significant proportion of the Dakota people who were confined below Historic Fort Snelling died over the winter of 1862-63. However, the camp was not designed to hold Dakota for execution.
Would you describe the camp as a concentration camp?
21. Was the internment camp located below the current Historic Fort Snelling really a concentration camp?
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Question:
21. Was the internment camp located below the current Historic Fort Snelling really a concentration camp?
Answer:
