Previously called Blue Earth Mound, Sibley Mound, and Camp Lincoln, today's Sibley Park was previously used as an internment camp for Indigenous People captured during the Dakota War of 1862.  

The park is named for Sibley Mound, a defining characteristic of the land. Some connect its name to General Henry Sibley who later used it as an internment camp, but this remains unproven with the mound garnering its name long before the atrocities in 1862.^[2]  

303 Dakota were held here after military style commissions for regarding their execution took place. Additionally, 11 Winnebago and ~50 Dakota women were also held here. President Lincoln, amidst calls for revenge for the war, pardoned all but 38. The 38 were taken to downtown Mankato before being simultaneously executed (pictured).^[1][3] 

Buffalo : Hayes Litho. Co., ca. 1883

Dakota

Hundreds of Dakota were captured by Henry Sibley. Names of those executed in Mankato. 

Winnebago

During the trials which started taking place at Camp Release (in today's Montevideo, MN) a Winnebago individual named Otanka who lived among the Dakota implicated 11 other Winnebago in his testimony. These Winnebago were held at Camp Lincoln. General Sibley denied them attorney representation during their military trials, however the tribunal still acquitted them.^[2]  

Henry Sibley 

Henry Hastings Sibley was the first Governor of the State of Minnesota. Before becoming an elected official, he would work as a fur trader and was influential at the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. He served one term from 1858-160 and did not seek reelection. During the Dakota Conflict of 1862, Governor Alexander Ramsey appointed Sibley as colonel of the volunteers. Henry Sibley would be involved in the Battle of Birch Coulee and Battle of Wood Lake. 

After the war had ended, Sibley would go on to create the Military Commission which conducted 392 trials for murder, participation in murder, participation in violence, and rape. Sibley approved all but one of the 307 death sentences before passing the results to General Pope, who then cut the list down to 303.[4]