How the West Was Lost - Season 2 Episode 3 Let them Eat Grass

The Dakotas ("friend") thrived in what is today Minnesota until American settlers began to convert the area to farmland. By the 1830s droves of settlers had moved into the Minnesota River Valley. The Dakotas, who the whites called Sioux ("enemy"), tried to live peacefully with the settlers, but by 1851 both groups knew it wasn't working. The settlers persuaded the Dakotas to move to a reservation. Their promises of food and amenities for the Dakotas were not kept and after 10 years of broken promises the Dakotas were starving. Bloodshed was inevitable when a trader told the Dakotas they could eat their own grass. Led by Chief Little Crow, the Dakotas embarked on a tragic war.