On August 16, at the Embassy Suites in Minneapolis, MN, the OIW held its 33rd Annual Assembly. The timing was perfect - 150 years to the day, August 17, found us at the very site where this war began. Before the Sioux uprising could be brought under control, at least 450 - and perhaps as many as 800 - whites were killed, mostly non-combatants. Measured in terms of the number of lives lost, the outbreak was the worst in American history, and launched a series of Indian wars on the northern plains that did not end until 1890 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

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We spent the first night at the Embassy Suites in Minneapolis (actually Bloomington), the next two nights in Mankato, MN, and our last night (the 19th) was back in the Embassy Suites for our banquet and wrap up. Some of the sites we visited include New Ulm, Mankato, Upper & Lower Sioux Agency, Fort Ridgley, the site of the battle of Birch Coulee, the bank in Northfield robbed by the James and Younger brothers and Fort Snelling.