Whitestone Hill Massacre / Dagen H - September 3

The Whitestone Hill Massacre occurred on this day in 1863. / This day in 1967 is known in Sweden as Dagen H, or H Day, the day that left-hand traffic in the country switched to right-hand traffic.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, history enthusiasts, you get not one, but two events
in history today. Heads up that you also might hear
two different hosts, me and Tracy V. Wilson. With that said,
on with the show. Welcome to this Day in History
Class from how Stuff Works dot Com and from the
desk of Stuff You Missed in History Class. It's the
show where we explore the past one day at a

(00:20):
time with a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and et.
September three, The white Stone Hill Massacre took place on
this day in eighteen sixty three. This massacre followed the U. S.
Dakota War of eighteen sixty two, and that war followed

(00:42):
a whole series of unfair and exploit of treaties between
the United States and the Dakota people. These treaties lead
to more than six thousand Dakota living on a narrow
strip of land south of the Dakota River. There was
a massive food shortage in this area and there was
no game to hunt anywhere on that small strip of

(01:03):
land that they were living on, So people were starving,
especially because they weren't supposed to be hunting outside of
this small piece of territory they've been assigned to. And
then in August eighteen sixty two, four young Dakota men
killed five white settlers. It's not clear what exactly happened here,

(01:23):
but one of the stories is that it started with
an argument over some stolen eggs that then escalated into
real violence. This set off a huge war between the
United States and the Dakota. More than six hundred people
were killed, and most of them were white civilians. Between
seventy five and a hundred Dakota soldiers died and more

(01:45):
than seventy white soldiers, and afterward, nearly four hundred Dakota
men were put on trial and thirty eight of them
were executed in a mass hanging on December twenty six,
eighteen sixty two. Congress also revoked all the treaties between
the United States and the Dakota, and the Dakota Expulsion
Act made it illegal for the Dakota to be in Minnesota,

(02:08):
which is where most of this had happened. The United
States really wasn't satisfied that the hostilities were over, so
even though the Dakota had already been forced out of
Minnesota and into Dakota territory. Two expeditions were mounted to
try to hunt down any survivors. On September three, eight
sixty three, three hundred men led by Colonel Albert E.

(02:30):
House found a large group of Native people encamped at
white Stone Hill. Some of these people were refugees from
the Dakota War, but none of them had had anything
to do with the fighting. This was basically a group
of people who weren't involved. It was a large multi
tribal gathering that was preparing for winter, so they were
hunting and they were drawing bison meat. They had thousands

(02:53):
of pounds of bison meat that was drying on racks.
That was their food stores for the winter. About half
of the adult men were away hunting when the army
found this encampment. After about three hours of negotiations between
the indigenous people in the military, a force led by
General Alfred Sully charged into the middle of this gathering.

(03:14):
Most of the people killed in the first assault were women, children,
and elderly men. Cavalry and artillery ran down the people
who tried to flee. Estimates range for between a hundred
and four hundred Native Americans killed, and almost a hundred
and fifty surrendered. Most of the roughly twenty fatalities among
the U. S Army were people who had been caught
in crossfire. Afterward, under Sully's command, the army gathered everything

(03:40):
that was useful and they burned it, including all of
that meat that was being dried for winter. And the
words of soldier f E calledwell quote, Sully ordered all
the property destroyed, tps, buffalo skins, and all their things,
including tons and tons of dried buffalo meat and tallow.
It was gathered wagons, piled in a hollow and burned,

(04:02):
and the melted tallow ran down into the valley into
a stream. Hatchett's camp kettles and all things that would
sink were thrown into a small lake. The people who
escaped were round up the next day and taken to
a pow camp, and the immediate aftermath of this, Sully
and his men described the event as a huge success,
a necessary coda to the Dakota War, getting rid of

(04:25):
the people who had been among the belligerents. This may
have been influenced by the fact that a lot of
them had family members who had died in the war
and so they had treated this as something of an
act of revenge, but it was immediately clear to other
people that this shouldn't be framed as a successful military campaign.
In November of eighteen sixty three, Sam Brown, who was

(04:46):
working as an interpreter at the Pow camp, wrote a
letter to his father and which he said, quote, I
hope you will not believe all that is said of
Sully's successful expedition against the Sioux. I don't think he
ought to brag of it at all, because it was
what no decent man would have done. Pitched into their
camp and just slaughtered them. You can learn more about
this in the November twenty three episode of Stuff You

(05:09):
Missed in History Class called the Dakota War of eighteen
sixty two and the white Stone Hill Massacre. Thanks to
Tari Harrison for all of her audio work on this podcast.
You can subscribe to This Day in History Class on
Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
Tune in tomorrow for the end of a riot. Greetings everyone,

(05:37):
Welcome to This Day in History class, where we learn
a smidgen of history every day. The day was September three,
nineteen sixty seven, traffic in Sweden switched from being on

(05:57):
the left side of the road to the right side
of the road. The day is officially known as haggar
traffic Comlaganeden, or the right hand traffic diversion. It's also
called doggin Hoa or h day for short. The change
caused some disruption, but not much, since Sweden had been

(06:18):
preparing for the switch for a while. Most countries in
the region drove on the right side of the road,
though some European countries like Ireland, written and Iceland stuck
to driving on the left side. Many of Britain's former
territories still drive on the left as well. Left side
driving can be traced back to ancient Rome. It's not

(06:41):
clear why ancient Romans traveled on the left, but it
could have been so they could use their weapons with
their right hand when someone approached. The practice of staying
on the left side of the road continued into medieval Europe,
but by the nineteenth century the United States, Canada, to France,
and Germany had adopted the key right rule. More European

(07:05):
countries standardized driving on the right side. Throughout the twentieth century.
That became an issue for Swedish drivers. Since important and
Swedish mate cars had steering on the left side, and
places that have right hand side regulations, drivers sit on
the left hand side. That way drivers can see past
the vehicle in front of them, but passing a car

(07:27):
in Sweden was difficult and dangerous since drivers sat and
drove on the left side. This awkward setup led to
many head on collisions on two lane highways as drivers
ventured into oncoming traffic to pass a vehicle. Also, people
from nearby countries like Denmark, Norway and Finland were used

(07:48):
to driving on the right side, so they often got
an accidents when they visited Sweden because of the confusion.
So the Swedish government decided to take the issue of
whether Sweden should it to right hand side driving to
a vote in the nineteen fifty five referendum. Of people
opposed the switch, but by nineteen sixty seven there were

(08:11):
a lot more vehicles on the road and safety was
a concern. The government decided to go forth with the
change anyway. They started a whole campaign to make the
transition smooth. They created signs and stickers with the logo
for the transition. The logo was an h with an
arrow going from the left side to the right side

(08:31):
of the letter beneath the H was the planned date
for the switch September three, nineteen sixty seven. The government
put out pamphlets, P s, a S and products that
marketed the switch. A song about H day hit number
five on Swedish music charts. In addition to the public
relations campaign, Sweden had to go through major infrastructure changes.

(08:56):
Signs had to be reversed, intersections in one way streets
had to be dealt with, and bus stops had to
be moved. In the days leading up to H day,
the new system was explained on TV, on the radio
and in newspapers. On the morning of the change, all
non essential traffic was ordered to stay off the roads.

(09:18):
At four fifty in the morning, the phrase now is
the time to change over was announced over loud speakers.
The entire project cost about six hundred and twenty eight
million kronor or two point six billion kronor the equivalent
of three hundred and sixteen million US dollars. On the
Monday after H Day, slightly fewer traffic accidents than average

(09:42):
were reported. The number of motor insurance claims went down,
but this improvement was likely due to safer than normal driving.
By nineteen sixty nine, accident and fatality rates had gone
back up. Since h Day, other nations have change what
side of the road they dive on to. I'm Eve

(10:04):
Jeff Coo and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. If you feel like
correcting my pronunciation or my accent on anything that I've
said in the show, feel free to leave a very
kind comment on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. At T d
i h C podcast, Thanks for showing up. We'll meet

(10:27):
here again tomorrow. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
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