Native American Vengeance: Grass in His Mouth

In this episode we explore the chilling moment when a heartless comment—“let them eat grass”—became a spark that ignited a war. We trace the starvation, the politics, the desperate plea for help, and the grim vengeance that followed. This isn’t just history—it’s a powerful reminder of consequences, words, and human failure. We talk about Myrick, his involvement and demise, then we chat with Comedian Jonathan Burns. Did you know The Internet Says It’s True is now a book? Get it here: https://amzn.to/4miqLNy

Now, to really understand this story, we need to set the stage. It’s 1862, and the United States is in the middle of the Civil War. But while everyone thinks of battlefields like Antietam, Gettysburg, and Shiloh, there was another conflict brewing far from the eastern battlefronts, in the Minnesota River Valley. This was the homeland of the Dakota Sioux people, who had been living there for generations. But by this point in history, their land, their resources, and their way of life had been drastically altered by treaties with the U.S. government — treaties that were often unfair, misunderstood, or outright ignored.

Back in 1851, two treaties — the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and the Treaty of Mendota — had forced the Dakota to cede huge portions of their land in Minnesota to the U.S. government. In return, they were promised reservations along the Minnesota River and annual payments in cash and goods. On paper, it might have looked like a compromise. In practice, it was devastating. The Dakota were left with only a fraction of their traditional lands, lands that were less suited for hunting and farming. The annual payments, which were supposed to help them survive this transition, were constantly delayed, reduced, or outright stolen through corrupt practices.

And that’s where traders like Andrew Myrick come in. Myrick was a storekeeper in Minnesota. The Dakota, deprived of much of their land and hunting grounds, were now reliant on credit at these trading posts to feed their families while waiting for the government annuities to arrive. The traders would front them food, flour, and supplies, and then when the annuities finally came in, they would deduct what was owed.

But in the summer of 1862, a crisis hit. The Civil War had stretched the U.S. government’s resources thin. Payments that were already often late were delayed even further. Food supplies were dwindling. The Dakota were facing starvation. And when tribal leaders approached the traders for credit — just enough food to keep their families alive until the government checks came through — Andrew Myrick refused. His infamous response was: “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung.”

Now, it’s one thing to refuse credit, but to add an insult like that when people are literally starving? That kind of cruelty doesn’t just get remembered — it lights a fire. And it did.

The Dakota people were desperate. Children were dying of hunger. The traders’ warehouses were full of food, but it was withheld. This wasn’t just a minor inconvenience. It was survival. And Myrick’s words became a symbol of the disdain, disrespect, and betrayal they felt from both the traders and the government.

Tensions finally boiled over in August of 1862. A group of young Dakota men, hungry and frustrated, killed several white settlers after an altercation. This sparked what would become the Dakota War of 1862 — also known as the Sioux Uprising.

It’s worth pausing here to understand that this wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment rebellion. This was decades of broken promises, corruption, starvation, and humiliation finally erupting into violence.

On August 18, 1862, the Dakota attacked the Lower Sioux Agency, a hub of government and trading post operations. One of their first targets? Andrew Myrick. And when they found him, they killed him. But they didn’t stop there. When his body was discovered later, his mouth had been stuffed full of grass — a gruesome but symbolic retaliation for his callous remark.

The Dakota War of 1862 raged for six weeks, from August to late September. During that time, Dakota warriors attacked settlements, stagecoach routes, and forts throughout the Minnesota River Valley. Hundreds of settlers were killed, and many more fled eastward in panic. The U.S. military, already stretched thin by the Civil War, scrambled to respond. Eventually, soldiers under Colonel Henry Sibley pushed back against the Dakota forces, and by late September, the Dakota resistance collapsed.

But the aftermath was brutal. After the fighting ended, over 300 Dakota men were taken prisoner and tried by military tribunals. The trials were rushed, often lasting less than five minutes, with little or no defense offered. Out of these trials, 303 Dakota men were sentenced to death.

President Abraham Lincoln, who was dealing with the Civil War on multiple fronts, personally reviewed the cases. He commuted most of the death sentences but approved 38 executions. On December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Dakota men were hanged in what remains the largest mass execution in American history. Thousands of Dakota women, children, and elders were also forced into internment camps, where many died from disease and exposure. And eventually, most of the Dakota were expelled from Minnesota entirely.

The story of Andrew Myrick’s insult and its gruesome aftermath is often told as a kind of dark irony — a cruel man who dismissed starving people with the words “let them eat grass” ends up with grass stuffed in his mouth. But it’s also a reminder of the larger tragedy: a whole community of people displaced, starved, and punished for a situation largely created by broken treaties and government neglect.

It’s also a story that gets remembered differently depending on who’s telling it. In some accounts, Myrick is just a minor figure, a footnote in the larger Dakota War. But among Dakota oral histories, his words are remembered as a turning point — the moment when humiliation became too much to bear.

Now, when we zoom out and look at history, it’s striking how often hunger plays a role in sparking revolutions and uprisings. The French Revolution was driven in part by food shortages. The Irish Potato Famine reshaped not just Ireland but also the United States through waves of immigration. And here in Minnesota, starvation was the catalyst for a desperate and deadly war. Food — or the lack of it — can change the course of nations.

And in this case, a single man’s cruelty crystallized that desperation into rage.

So if there’s a “moral” here, it’s not just about Andrew Myrick getting his comeuppance. It’s about the dangers of indifference to human suffering. His words may have been callous, but they became a symbol of something much bigger: a system that valued profit and power over people’s lives. And when that happens, history shows us, people will fight back.

And that’s the story of Andrew Myrick, the Dakota War of 1862, and how the phrase “let them eat grass” ended in tragedy. The internet says it’s true.

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