When Sarah was captured, a Dakota named Chaska recognized her and refused to let the other Indians harm her or her children. After the conflict, Sarah demanded that Chaska not be harmed. Despite Sarah's pleas, he was one of the 38 Dakota hanged at Mankato on December 26, 1862, the largest mass execution in American history.
After Sarah was reunited with her husband, they moved to Shakopee. When he died in 1874, she moved to the Gladstone area of Maplewood. She penned a book titled: Six Weeks in the Sioux Teepees explaining her ordeal. It is unclear why she moved to the lake which bears her name today. Apparently Sarah didn't farm herself, but one of her daughters, Lucy (Nellie) Wakefield was listed as a farmer in the 1881 Ramsey County Township Directory. Sarah knew when it was a good time to get out of Gladstone and sold the land during the boom time in 1887 for $25,000. She moved to St. Paul where she died in 1899.