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Treaty

Sioux (Mdewakanton and Wahpekuta [Wahpekute]) at Washington, DC (1858)

The 1858 treaty with the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota ceded their north-bank lands along the Minnesota River and allotted the south bank.

Signed
June 19, 1858
Senate
Ratified
Land set aside for the nations
about 999,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On June 19, 1858, in Washington, Commissioner Charles E. Mix signed a treaty with the chiefs and braves of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands of the Dakota. Article 1 made the part of their reservation south of the Minnesota River a reservation, to be surveyed, with 80 acres allotted to each head of a family and the rest held in common. The preamble recites that the 1851 treaty had set aside a strip ten miles wide on either side of the river, and that the Senate struck that provision from the treaty, so the bands were living on the tract only by Presidential permission.

Treaties Matter says "Dakota people were taken to Washington to sign away the northern half of their holdings along the Minnesota River." The ceded land was to be sold to settlers, with up to $140,000 going to pay the Dakota people's "just debts." Railroad promoters and land speculators had interests in the strip.

After the Dakota War of 1862, Treaties Matter says, "the U.S. abrogated all of its treaties with the Dakota, seized the remaining 10-mile wide strip, and exiled them from the State." Dakota lands in Minnesota were restored in part beginning in the 1880s.

Good to know. Each of the two 1858 Dakota treaties let the chiefs and headmen authorize up to $70,000 from the land proceeds to pay the bands' just debts and buy goods; Treaties Matter's $140,000 is the two treaties together.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Supported by the sources below; some details rest on one source.

  1. Dakota people were taken to Washington to sign away the northern half of their holdings along the Minnesota River1858 Land Cession Treaties with the Dakota, Treaties Matter
  2. all of which provisions in said amendment were assented to by said IndiansTreaty with the Sioux, 1858 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. the U.S. abrogated all of its treaties with the Dakota, seized the remaining 10-mile wide strip, and exiled them from the State1858 Land Cession Treaties with the Dakota, Treaties Matter

Research notes. Treaties Matter's $140,000 for debts covers the pair of 1858 treaties; each treaty's Article 3 allows up to $70,000 of land proceeds for debts and goods. Article 2 did not itself fix a price for the north-bank land: it left the Senate to decide the bands' title and compensation. The treaties of 1858 for these bands and for the Sisseton-Wahpeton share one history and are described together by Treaties Matter. The treaty was ratified March 9, 1859, and proclaimed March 31, 1859.

What the treaty did to the land

About 999,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

  1. 1851

    Land kept

    About 738,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Sioux (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Medewakanton, and Wahpekute bands)

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

    area 440

  2. 1851

    Land kept

    About 738,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Sioux (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Medewakanton, and Wahpekute bands)

    By Treaty of Mendota (Mdewakanton and Wahpekute), 1851

    area 440

  3. 1858

    This treaty

    About 999,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Sioux (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Medewakanton, and Wahpekute bands) and Sioux (Medewakanton and Wahpekute bands)

    The 1858 treaty with the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota ceded their north-bank lands along the Minnesota River and allotted the south bank.

  4. 1863

    Land lost

    About 738,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Sioux (Sisseton, Wahpeton, Medewakanton, and Wahpekute bands)

    The 1899 record: “Their reserve in Minnesota to be sold by U. S. for their benefit”

    area 440

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-sioux-1858-0781reference work
    Treaty with the Sioux, 1858 June 19, 1858. | 12 Stats., 1031.

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.