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In 1862, Norwegian settlers in Minnesota suffered from Sioux Indian attacks. One settler, E. O. in St. Peter, wrote his family in Stavanger, Norway on September 9:
"I will now describe everthing to you as thoroughly as I am able, and as far as my heart, which is trembling with fear, will allow me. That which I suspected and wrote about in my last letter has come about. The Indians have begun attacking the farmers. They have already killed a great many people, and many are mutilated in the cruelest manner. Tomahawks and knives have already claimed many victims. Children, less able to defend themselves, are usually burned alive or hanged in the trees, and destruction moves from house to house. The Indians burn everything on their way - houses, hay, grain, and so on. Even if I describe the horror in the strongest possible language, my description would fall short of reality. These troubles have now lasted for about two weeks, and every day larger numbers of settlers come into St. Peter to protect their lives from the raging Indians. They crowd themselves together in large stone houses for protection, and the misery is so great that imagination could not depict it in darker colors. A few persons with their hands and feet burned off. May I never again have to see such terrible sights."
Source: "The Promise of America", Lovoll, Odd S., p. 130.
