The War in Words is the first book to study the captivity and confinement narratives generated by a single American war as it traces the development and variety of the captivity narrative genre. Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola examines the complex 1862 Dakota Conflict (also called the Dakota War) by focusing on twenty-four of the dozens of narratives that European Americans and Native Americans wrote about it. This six-week war was the deadliest confrontation between whites and Dakotas in Minnesota’s history. Conducted at the same time as the Civil War, it is sometimes called Minnesota’s Civil War because it was—and continues to be—so divisive.

 

The Dakota Conflict aroused impassioned prose from participants and commentators as they disputed causes, events, identity, ethnicity, memory, and the all-important matter of the war’s legacy. Though the study targets one region, its ramifications reach far beyond Minnesota in its attention to war and memory. An ethnography of representative Dakota Conflict narratives and an analysis of the war’s historiography, The War in Words includes new archival information, historical data, and textual criticism.

Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola is a professor of English and the director of the William G. Cooper Jr. Honors Program in English at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is the editor of Women’s Indian Captivity Narratives and the coauthor of The Indian Captivity Narrative, 1550–1900.

"Everyone teaching the Dakota War or captivity narratives, or seeking a cultural lens into a microcosm of nineteenth-century Indian Wars, will find this an essential addition to their library. . . . Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola has given us an interesting and effective way to think about this complicated moment in Minnesota history—a moment many groups are still struggling to come to terms with."—Wendy Lucas Castro, Southwest Journal of Cultures

"A combination of literary history, historiography, and cultural contextualization, this cogent book situates the little-known literature produced by this unresolved conflict in the context of genre studies, American Studies, public memory, and trauma and reconciliation."—S. K. Bernardin, CHOICE

"The War in Words presents a new perspective on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, providing a deeper understanding of it through a more serious look at the complex identities and backgrounds of those who have shared its stories. . . . This work will undoubtedly provide an example of an approach to understanding the personal responses to war that may prove useful to those readers and scholars engaged in peace studies, truth commissions, and historical representations of war."—Erin Griffin, Studies in American Indian Literatures

"Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola delves into what is one of the most hotly contested topics in Minnesota history—the ongoing legacy of the 1862 Dakota War. . . . It is clear from the first pages that Stodola has taken great care in crafting a balanced analysis of her material."—Diane Wilson, Minnesota History

"The War in Words will be an invaluable source for scholars in many different fields."—Linda M. Clemmons, South Dakota History

"The War in Words is a well-researched and carefully constructed analysis of the historical and literary records produced following the controversial and chilling conclusion of the Dakota War."—Theresa L. Gregor, American Indian Culture and Research Journal