This year Whistling Shade will depart from its usual light summer fare to publish a special war issue. Our purpose here is to present first hand accounts from different wars, both by soldiers and civilians—an area of war reporting that is mostly neglected by the mainstream media. We have also included a selection of war fiction and poetry which, in many cases, closely shadows real life events. I’d like to thank all those who contributed to this issue—veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, nurses, journalists, and those with family who served in the wars—for sharing their experiences.
Filled with fate and drama, wars have naturally been a favorite subject of literature, and writers like Ernest Hemingway and Wilfred Owen owe their reputations to it. The accounts in our war issue, though fascinating reading and of historical interest, will also, I hope, make obvious the terrible cost of our wars. Most wars are unnecessary. Typically conflicts over land and resources, they are exacerbated by cultural ignorance, religious fanaticism, or nationalist politicians until violence breaks out. Here in Minnesota, war may seem a distant and unlikely prospect, but it was here that the Ojibwe, driven out of the east by pressure from the Iroquois, fought the Dakota for the the northeast forests; the two peoples were bitter enemies for over a century afterwards. It was also here that the Dakota, made desperate by bad treaties, bad harvests, the delay of annuities, and tensions with settlers, in 1862 attacked New Ulm and Fort Ridgely, and raided other settlements. In the aftermath of the Dakota Conflict (or Sioux Uprising, as it is also called), remnants of the tribe were kept in a prison camp on Pike Island below Fort Snelling; most of the Dakota were expelled from Minnesota, and thirty eight Dakota warriors were hung in Mankato, the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Since that dark time, nearly a hundred and fifty years have passed without a war being fought in Minnesota. Hopefully, through education, tolerance and justice we can maintain this most precious resource—a lasting peace.
- Joel Van Valin