Factually Interesting on Instagram: "He Told Them to "Eat Grass": The Symbolic Death That Began the Dakota War On the first day of the Dakota War of 1862, trader Andrew Myrick was killed. Myrick was a trader who had infamously told the starving Dakota people, during a time of famine and withheld annuity payments, to "eat grass or their own dung." The Retribution: When fighting broke out, Myrick was found dead, with his head cut off. Symbolic Justice: In an act of profound and grim symbolic justi