The Minnesota Historical Society is marking the 150th anniversary of the US-Dakota War with a new exhibit and other programs. The exhibit opens June 30th at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. Visitors can view documents, images and artifacts, and add comments about the war’s meaning. The Historical Society also is launching an interactive website: www.usdakotawar.org featuring oral histories, photographs, letters, newspapers and government documents. Staff members are recording oral histories from Dakota elders and settler descendants as well. Beginning in May, the public will be able to listen to stories told by descendants in a cellphone tour along the Minnesota River Valley. The US-Dakota War broke out in August 1862, with fighting lasting six weeks. Hundreds of settlers and soldiers were killed along with an unknown number of Dakota. The Brown County Historical Society is preparing an exhibit on the war entitled “We Will Never Forget” that will open August 24th at the Brown County Museum in New Ulm.