Ground Zero in what many consider Minnesota's most difficult and
yet most significant historical era is here at the Lower Sioux
Agency Historical Site near Morton. After the killings at Acton,
full warfare flared when Dakota warriors attacked and killed
traders and government employees on the morning of Aug. 18,
1862. This is also where the retelling of the history has begun
as the Minnesota Historical Society prepares to observe the
150th anniversary of the U.S. Dakota War of 1862. The Historical
Society led media representatives and historians on a tour
Monday that included stops at the Lower Sioux Agency, Birch
Coulee Battlefield, Fort Ridgely, and the Traverse des Sioux
history Center near St. Peter. "It is our most difficult history
but that is also why it is probably one of our most important,''
said Kevin Maijala, manager of curriculum development and
teacher education with the Minnesota Historical Society. The
violent events of the six weeks of war that followed the attack
at the agency are marked by