In 1862, long-brewing tensions in the Minnesota River Valley between the Dakota people and the U.S. government erupted after broken treaty promises, delayed money and food, the loss of Dakota homelands to expanding farms and towns, and cultural misunderstandings with new settlers. After a council of Dakota leaders met in August, some Dakota warriors attacked the Redwood (Lower Sioux) Agency and nearby trader’s stores on August 18, beginning the six-week U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. Fighting spread across southwestern Minnesota, including major battles at New Ulm, Fort Ridgely, Birch Coulee, and Wood Lake, and affected farms, settlements, towns, and Dakota villages alike. By the Battle of Wood Lake on September 23, more than 500 settlers, agency employees, traders, soldiers, and others had been killed, along with a smaller, unknown number of Dakota people. Some Dakota surrendered and released captives, while others were captured by soldiers. A military court condemned more than 300 Dakota men to death; 38 were eventually hanged, and the rest were sent to a prison in Iowa, where many died during the journey or their three-year sentences. Almost all Dakota were then forced from their homeland, while women and children who had not fought were taken to a concentration camp at Fort Snelling, where hundreds died during the winter of 1862–63, and most survivors were later moved to Crow Creek in what is now South Dakota. Some exiled Dakota eventually returned to Minnesota, but many families were permanently broken apart, while some immigrant settlers returned to their homes and others never did. The war had repercussions far beyond Minnesota, contributing to later fighting farther west as indigenous people struggled to retain their homelands and way of life.