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Treaty

Sioux (Sans Arcs) at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory (1865)

The Sans Arcs Sioux treaty of October 1865 paid $30 per family a year for twenty years to leave overland routes.

Signed
October 20, 1865
Senate
Ratified

What happened

On October 20, 1865, a United States commission met chiefs and head-men of the Sans Arcs band of Dakota (Sioux) at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory. Commissioners were Governor Newton Edmunds, Edward B. Taylor, Major-General S. R. Curtis, Brigadier-General H. H. Sibley, Henry W. Reed and Orrin Guernsey. It is one of several separate band treaties made there in the fall of 1865.

In Article 1 the band acknowledged itself "subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and authority of the United States." It promised to stop hostilities against United States citizens and to use its influence, and force if necessary, to keep other Sioux bands or neighboring tribes from hostile acts. Later articles had it stop attacks on other tribes unless attacked first, and send quarrels with other tribes to the President.

Article 4 is the exchange. The band would "withdraw from the routes overland" already or later established through its country. In return the United States agreed to pay $30 for each lodge or family, annually, for twenty years, in articles chosen by the Secretary of the Interior, as long as the band kept the treaty.

Article 5 protected individuals who chose to settle on band land to farm. When twenty lodges or families had settled to farm and told their agent, each would get $25 a year for five years in implements and improvements. At one hundred families they would be entitled to a farmer and blacksmith at government expense, and to teachers at the Secretary's option. Any Senate amendment, the treaty adds, would bind the band as if the chiefs had agreed to it. It was ratified March 5, 1866, and proclaimed March 17, 1866.

Good to know. This treaty ceded no land.

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

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. hereby acknowledge themselves to be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and authority of the United StatesTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Sioux (Sans Arcs) at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory (1865)
  2. the sum of thirty dollars for each lodge or family, annually, for twenty yearsTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Sioux (Sans Arcs) at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory (1865)
  3. shall receive the sum of twenty-five dollars annuallyTribal Treaties Database (Oklahoma State University): Sioux (Sans Arcs) at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory (1865)

Research notes. This account covers the signed terms only; the treaty text does not say what happened afterward, including later treaties. The text shows no cession of land.

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.

Who is doing the work today

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Sources

  1. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-sioux-sans-arcs-band-1865-0899reference work
    Treaty with the Sioux-Sans Arc Band, 1865 Oct. 20, 1865. | 14 Stat., 731.

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