Causes: Presidential Pardon for Dakota 38 & 2.

It seemed appropriate to put this into my Causes series.  This petition needs to reach 100,000 signatures by the end of March 2014.  Please sign and share liberally!

From the Change.org petition site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Grant an immediate posthumous Presidential Pardon for the Dakota 38 & 2. The trials were an embarrassment to our country.

In 1862 nearly 400 Dakota men were found guilty of capital crimes. The trials were a mockery of our justice system.

1)The trials lasted on average between 3&5 minutes each.
2)There were no defense attorneys
3)No defense was allowed
4)The trials were in English which most of the men did not speak.

Lincoln commuted most of the sentences but had two clerks draw up a list for hanging to appease the frontier. 38 Dakota were hung the day after Christmas 1862 in Mankato. The largest mass execution in US history. Two were hung later.
Pardons are usually for the living however there is a president to right historical wrongs.
The Dakota deserve to know their ancestors were not criminals, but men fighting to protect their women, children and their way of life. Calling them criminals is just wrong.

Click here for background information.

More background information.

Click here to go to the website where you can sign the petition.