Andrew Myrick

Andrew J. Myrick (born May 28, 1832)(died August 18, 1862), was a trader with an Indian wife who operated a store in southwest Minnesota near the Minnesota River in the late part of his life.

Claim to fame

Myrick worked at the Lower Sioux Agency to the southeast. When another group of Indians appeared at the Lower Sioux stores on August 15, Indian Agent Thomas Galbraith wouldn't let them take any food since they didn't have any money. Payments to the Indians had not been made, partly due to delays caused by the American Civil War. When the tribesmen appealed to Myrick to allow them to take food on credit, he said, "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung." He made this retort while involved in a confrontation between Dakota tribesmen, the United States government, and other traders. His comment is considered an inciting factor in the Sioux Uprising that began shortly thereafter.

Death

In the summer of 1862, eastern bands of Sioux Native Americans were living in a reservation along the southern bank of the Minnesota River. Two agencies were established to distribute food and other supplies to the Indians. In a meeting at the Upper Sioux Agency on August 4, the local agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs directed food to be releasedFact|date=August 2008 in order to alleviate hunger among a community that was dealing with food shortages. Within days, the Sioux Uprising began, leading to hundreds of deaths across southwest Minnesota. Myrick was killed on the second day of fighting at the Battle of Lower Sioux Agency as Dakota warriors took revenge at the agency settlement. When his body was found days later, it was discovered that grass had been stuffed in his mouth.

References

*Douglas Linder. [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dakota.html The Dakota Conflict Trials of 1862] (1999).