The Santee Dakota face starvation as their food rations are held hostage in a U.S.-guarded warehouse. The cavalry refuses to release the Dakota rations, which they pilfer for themselves. In retaliation, Chief Little Crow leads an attack on American settlements in Minnesota, which inspires other bands of Dakota and Lakota to launch their own reprisals. U.S. President Lincoln sends General John Pope to end the uprising. Pope declares his “purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux…. They are to be treated as maniacs and wild beasts.” (https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/lincoln-and-the-sioux) Some of the bands flee into Canada and others are eventually forced onto reservations in Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota (“List of Indian massacres”).