Sarah F. Wakefield
Sarah F. Wakefield (September 29, 1829–May 27, 1899) was an American woman who was taken captive for six weeks during the Dakota War of 1862 and was a writer of Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees: A Narrative of Indian Captivity. She testified for Chaska (We-Chank-Wash-ta-don-pee), who held her for six weeks, and although his sentence was commuted he was hanged with 37 other men following the trial.
Early years[edit]
Sarah F. Brown was born on September 29, 1829, in Kingston, Rhode Island. Her parents were Sarah and William Brown.[1] She left Rhode Island in 1854, due to a disagreement with her mother that left them uncommunicative.[2]
Marriage[edit]
She moved to Minnesota in 1854, where she met Dr. John Luman Wakefield,[3] whose brother was James Wakefield, an attorney.[2] She married him in Shakopee, Minnesota in 1856, becoming Sarah F. Wakefield. Her husband, a graduate of Yale University Medical School, was from Winsted, Connecticut.[1] He had a medical practice in Shakopee, was a land speculator, and was a legislator.[3] The family was amongst the first settlers of Big Earth City and Dr. Wakefield worked as a physician at Yellow Medicine, an Upper Sioux Agency.[3] Having moved in 1861, they lived in a well-appointed house, on a bluff, next to the Agency building, at the confluence of the Yellow Medicine and Minnesota Rivers.[4]
Wakefield was described as:
Gregarious to strangers, prone to anxiety, and fiercely protective of her two young children, she was plain-looking and stout enough that the Dakota called her Tanka-Winohinca Waste, meaning "large good woman."
— Scott W. Berg, 38 nooses : Lincoln, Little Crow, and the beginning of the frontier's end [2]
The couple had four children:[5][2]
- James O Wakefield, born in 1857
- Lucy E Wakefield, born in 1860
- Julia E Wakefield, born about 1866
- John R Wakefield, born about 1868
Dakota War of 1862[edit]
When the Dakota War of 1862 broke out, Wakefield fled with her children towards Fort Ridgely,[3] escorted by an agency clerk, George Gleason.[6] Chaska (We-Chank-Wash-ta-don-pee), a Dakota man, held Wakefield and her children with his family during the six-week battle. After the war, the three Wakefields were returned to Camp Release. During a trial after the war, Wakefield testified that Chaska was her protector, which played a part in his sentence being commuted. Whether confusion with a man named Chaskadon or done intentionally, Chaska was hanged with 37 others at Mankato, Minnesota.[3] Wakefield was vilified for standing up for Chaska.[7]
Death[edit]
After her husband died in 1875, Wakefield moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.[3] She died there on May 27, 1899.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Namias, June (February 2000). "Sarah F. Brown Wakefield". American National Biography. Retrieved 2023-01-22.
- ^ a b c d Berg 2012, p. 17.
- ^ a b c d e f "Sarah F. Wakefield". The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Minnesota Historical Society. 2013-02-13. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
- ^ Berg 2012, pp. 16–17.
- ^ "Sarah F. Wakefield", 1870 U.S. census, population schedules, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration
- ^ Berg 2012, p. 18.
- ^ Berg 2012, p. 1.
Sources[edit]
- Berg, Scott W. (2012). 38 nooses : Lincoln, Little Crow, and the beginning of the frontier's end. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-307-37724-1.
Further reading[edit]
- Wakefield, Sarah F., and June Namias. Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees: A Narrative of Indian Captivity. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1997.
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