 Birch Coulee, known to the Dakota as "Tanpa Yukan" (Place of the White Birch), is deep and runs for a total of down to the Minnesota River.A few hundred yards to the west of the coulee, the prairie rises slightly onto a gentle knoll.On September 1, 1862, a burial detail of about 170 Union Army volunteers and civilians under Major Joseph R. Brown camped on the prairie west of Birch Coulee.