Convicted by Design: The Trials of Šákpe and Wakháŋ Ožáŋžaŋ, 1864–1865

Abstract This article examines the cross-border abduction, military trials, and execution of Šákpe (Little Six) and Wakháŋ Ožáŋžaŋ (Sacred/Holy Light), two eastern Dakota leaders who sought refuge in British Territory after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 (August 18 to September 23, 1862). Often treated as an epilogue to the war, their story challenges conventional periodizations and geographic boundaries. I argue that their abduction, trials, and execution reveal how U.S. military and governmental authorities extended the war’s violence through extralegal and ethically fraught practices, such as hiring agents to abduct the men across international lines and sentencing them to death in a military tribunal without substantive evidence. Expanding the timeline and terrain of the conflict, I foreground the efforts of White settlers, officials, and soldiers to punish Dakota resistance long after the war’s formal end. The trial transcripts of Šákpe and Wakháŋ Ožáŋžaŋ not only highlight how their cases diverged from earlier Dakota trials, but also offer opportunities to center Dakota voices and perspectives that have long been excluded from the broader history of this period.