Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (Sisseton and Wahpeton), 1851

What happened

On July 23, 1851, Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Alexander Ramsey, governor of Minnesota Territory, signed a treaty at Traverse des Sioux on the Minnesota River with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota. In Article 2 the bands ceded all their lands in Iowa and all their lands in Minnesota Territory east of a line running from the Red River of the North to the Sioux River. In Article 4 the United States agreed to pay $1,665,000. That included $275,000 to the chiefs to settle their affairs and move, and $30,000 for schools, mills and farms. The other $1,360,000 was to stay in trust with five per cent interest paid for fifty years. The Senate struck out Article 3, which had set aside land for them.

The Minnesota Historical Society says the Dakota were in a weak bargaining position because they believed the United States would take the land if they did not sell. It says that after signing, the leaders were directed to a "traders' paper" directing the government to pay traders' claimed debts from the treaty money, and that no one read it aloud or translated it, so many believed it was another copy of the treaty. It says the treaty, with the Treaty of Mendota, opened twenty-four million acres to settler-colonists.

Why Treaties Matter says the treaty provided a strip of land 20 miles wide along the Minnesota River, that the Senate removed it but it was later reinstated by legislation, and that "little of the payment was received." The treaty was proclaimed on February 24, 1853.

Good to know. MNopedia's twenty-four million acres covers both 1851 Dakota treaties together. The statement that little of the payment was received comes from Why Treaties Matter.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error