Historical & Contemporary Presence of Indigenous People
Timeline of Treaties with the Dakota
This timeline is meant to inform those engaging with the Uniting Cultures exhibit about the Dakota people who occupied this land and the ways that their land was taken from them to provide for the needs of European immigrants. This history must be acknowledged and understood, as our nation continues to struggle with its long term effects on all Minnesotans. This timeline was created by UMN Morris student A J Vizenor. It is not a complete timeline, but it provides a starting point for understanding the important ways treaties have affected us all.
1805 Treaty of St. Peters (Pikes Purchase)
The Dakota cede 100,000 acres of land from the intersection of land at the intersection of the Mississippi and Minnesota River.
Treaty enabled the US to build a military fort on the land.
Only two of seven leaders at negotiations signed the treaty.
The land was valued at $200,000 but the U.S Senate only agreed to pay $2,000 when they approved the treaty.
1825 treaty at Prairie du Chien
Established boundaries and buffer zones between the Dakota and Ojibwe.
1830 “Half Breed Tract”
A small amount of land is purchased at “neutral ground” in northern Iowa.
Land along the west bank of the Mississippi from Redwing to Wabasha is allocated for Dakotas of mixed descent.
1837
A delegation of Mdewakanton Dakota travel to Washington D.C under the pretext of settling their southern boundary but were pressured into ceding all their lands east of the Mississippi for minimal pay. The land was valued at $1,600,000.
1851 Treaties at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota
Eastern bands of Dakota are coerced into treaties that ceded all remaining lands in Minnesota and Iowa under threat of military force.
This totaled to 35 million acres. The Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota At Traverse des Sioux ceded 21 million acres. The Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands at Mendota ceded about 14 million acres
Combined payment was about $3,075,000 meant to be paid mostly in the form of annuities.
Dakota leaders at Traverse De Sioux were tricked into signing the “Traders’ Papers” which turned over cash payments meant for the Dakota to their mixed relatives and traders.
Treaties also called for the establishment of reservation on the north and south side of the Minnesota river however, the U.S. Senate eliminated the reservations leaving the Dakota without land to live on.
President Millard Filmore agreed to allow the Dakota to live on the land originally intended for reservations until it was need for white settlement.
1853
The Lower Sioux Agency is established in what would become Redwood county, MN as a administrative center for the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands of Dakota and newly established reservations.
This becomes the site of the outbreak of the US-Dakota War in 1862.
Fort Ridgely is built at the south east side of the reservation.
1854
The Upper Sioux Agency is established in what become Yellow Medicine County, MN.
After the treaties of 1851 settlers wanted more farmlands in southeastern Minnesota and attempted to acquire the Wabasha reservation also knows at the “Half-Breed Tract” established in 1830. Settlers originally attempted to make a cash payment of $150,000 but failed.
This land could not technically be obtained through treaties as the Congress did not recognize mixed race as Native or as a separate nation so officials issued paper deeds called “half-breed scrip” to the mixed Dakota living on that land. The scripts were then sold to settlers.
1858 land cession treaties
Minnesota becomes a state.
A large delegation of Dakota leaders from the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands travel to Washington D.C. to discuss their reservations.
U.S. officials were being pressured by settlers and spectators to acquire more Dakota land.
Rich farmland and rapid increase of railroads near Dakota territory.
Leaders were coerced into ceding the north side of the Minnesota river which was the most fertile farmland in the state.
Estimates value the land at about $5 a acre however the Dakota were paid $266,880 or 30 cents per acre.
The money was distributed in 1860 however most of it went to paying debts claimed by traders.
The southern portion of the reservation was divided into allotments for the Dakota however white settlers began to settle the small amount of land still reserved for the Dakota before the deal had been ratified.
1862
The Dakota war begins on August 18, 1862 and ends six weeks later on September 23.
Thousands of Dakota go to Canada seeking political asylum and the remaining are arrested and marched 120 miles to Fort Snelling.
Hundreds die from harsh conditions, disease and starvation. The survivors are later relocated to the Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota.
Abraham Lincoln condemns 39 Dakota men to death and 38 Dakota men are hung in Mankato on December 26 1862
This is the largest execution in U.S. history.
1863 Dakota Expulsion Act
In retaliation of the War federal law is passed that repeals all Dakota treaties and makes it illegal for the Dakota to live in Minnesota regardless of their involvement in the war of 1862.
This law was never repealed.
1938 Proclamation
Upper Sioux federally recognized.
Today
There are 4 federally recognized Dakota communities in Minnesota and one unrecognized community in Mendota; Prairie Island, Lower Sioux, Upper Sioux, and Shakopee