[February 11, 2014]Barbara Stroud-Borth is a
retired pastor who during her pastoral education served a one-year
internship with the Lakota Indians. She had an interest in the
Native American culture and requested the assignment. During her
time with the Lakota, she learned about Sarah Wakefield, and through
the years since then she has spent time studying the events that
surrounded the Wakefield capture and the final outcome of the Dakota
conflict.
Stroud-Borth said that last fall, she decided she was going to
create a portrayal of Sarah Wakefield. She began by compiling her
research. In December she wrote her script. She said that since then
she has practiced her presentation no less than twice a day.
When
she delivered the presentation on Saturday, at both the Mount
Pulaski and Postville courthouses, it was filled with emotion. There
were happy times during the Wakefield captivity and very sad times.
During her performance Stroud-Borth at times wept for the situation
and showed her frustration and anger at those who persecuted not
only her, but the Indian who saved her life.
Sarah Wakefield was born and raised in the eastern United States.
As an adult she traveled west, as did many young people in that day,
seeking greater opportunities. There she met and married her
husband, who was also from the East.
Her husband was an Indian agency doctor in the Dakota region.
During their time in the region, they interacted with many of the
Indians and knew many of them on a personal level as they came to
her husband for medical treatment.
In 1862 the Dakota War broke out in Minnesota, where the
Wakefields were located. There were two Indian agencies, for the
north region and the south region. Each agency was responsible for
distributing food to the Indians, but there was an alleged shortage,
so they stopped distributing. Some of the Indians learned that there
was food in the warehouses on the agency compounds, and they took
steps to break into the warehouses and take the food.
In fear for his wife and children, the doctor made arrangements
for Sarah Wakefield, their infant daughter and young son to be taken
to the cavalry fort. Along the way, their driver was murdered by an
Indian. Sarah and her children were spared due to an Indian named
Chaska, who defended them against the murderer and persuaded that
Indian to allow them to live.
Chaska then took Wakefield and her children into his home with
his mother, and they remained Chaska's captives for six weeks.
Wakefield and her children were held as bargaining chips for
Chaska. He worked to keep them alive and safe with the intent of
turning them over to the cavalry so that his own life might be
spared.
During her time with Chaska and his mother, Wakefield was treated
well and taken care of along with her children. She cooperated with
the Indians, doing chores and helping out. She had been told that
white women who cooperated were treated better and their lives were
spared. For Wakefield, this was her only means of staying alive,
something she knew she had to do for the sake of her children.
After six weeks, Chaska took Wakefield and her children and gave
them back to the cavalry. He was taken prisoner, and Wakefield set
about trying to defend him and show the whites that Chaska had been
honorable.
However, it all backfired. Many believed that Wakefield had
fallen in love with Chaska and had "become his wife" during the
captivity. They thought she was trying to protect him and was lying
about the events that occurred while she was in captivity.
She did all she knew how to do to save her Indian friend, but in
doing so she left a stain on her own reputation. Even her husband
was not completely convinced that Wakefield was not in love with the
Indian.
During that same period of time, President Lincoln was contacted
about plans to execute over 300 Indians for crimes committed against
the whites. The result was that Lincoln personally commuted the
death sentence for 300 Indians, including Sarah Wakefield's Chaska.
However, in what was called a "mistake" that Wakefield never
entirely believed, another Indian with the same name was set free
and Wakefield's protector was hanged.
Wakefield tried to help the Indians after her release. She wrote
a letter to President Lincoln beseeching him to stop the inhumane
treatment of the Indians, but he never responded. She also
volunteered to work in a newly formed Indian encampment, but no one
accepted her.
Her last act to defend herself and Chaska was to write the book
"Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees." In the end, telling her story made
little difference and in some cases made things worse for the woman.
Sarah Wakefield lived her life in sorrow. She was talked about as
being friendly with Chaska as a wife to a husband, but her true
feelings were more that she regarded him as a brother. After her
return, her husband doubted her and took to drinking. Also, being a
man of medicine, he took to self-medicating and eventually died.
Every year celebrations are hosted at the Mount Pulaski and
Postville Courthouses in honor of our 16th president, Abraham
Lincoln, who in his earlier years practiced law in both courthouses.
