I created this image to mark the 150th anniversary of the event of the 1862 U.S./Dakota war. The war spread through the Minnesota River Valley and ended with the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota on December 26, 1862, in Mankato MN. The Dakota were hanged simultaneously in the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. Of those tried, 303 men were sentenced to death. After review of the court hearings President Abraham Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but forty Dakota men. Of the condemned forty only thirty-eight were hanged on December 26, 1862. —Gordon Coons

Gordon Coons is an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Northern Wisconsin and a descendant of the Ottawa tribe in Michigan. Now living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gordon is a self taught artist, creating and experimenting with a variety of media including linoleum block prints, paintings, pen and ink drawings, and creations in stone, wood, and assembled sculptures. Although his artwork is more contemporary, each piece portrays a unique view of traditional Native stories or is a record or impression of Indigenous history in North America.