Violation
Dakota 1851 treaties, 1862 war and the Act of Feb. 16, 1863
Not yet reviewed by this nation. What follows comes from public records and research. It does not speak for the nation.
After the 1862 war Congress declared the Dakota treaties abrogated in 1863 and forfeited their Minnesota lands and annuities.
- Treaty
- Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota
- Nations
- Dakota (Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Sisseton, Wahpeton)
- When
- 1862-1863
- Land affected
- The Minnesota reservations and annuity entitlements; removal from the state.
What happened
In 1851, after the treaties of Mendota and Traverse des Sioux, the United States removed most of the Dakota people in Minnesota Territory to a reservation on either side of the Minnesota River, the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) says. The Treaty of Washington in 1858 confined them to a smaller area south of the river.
MNHS writes that the United States "failed to fulfill its treaty obligations." By the summer of 1862, it says, many Dakota on the reservation were starving: the corn crop had been meager, annuity payments were late, and traders refused credit. War broke out in August 1862. On November 5, after what MNHS calls rushed and unauthorized trials, a military commission sentenced 303 Dakota men to death. President Lincoln pardoned all but thirty-eight, who were hanged at Mankato on December 26, the largest mass hanging in American history. MNHS says about 1,600 Dakota non-combatants were imprisoned that winter in a concentration camp at Fort Snelling.
Then Congress passed the Act of February 16, 1863 (12 Stat. 652). Its preamble says the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands had forfeited their annuities by making war. The Act declared their treaties "abrogated, and annulled" as to any future obligation on the United States. It forfeited their Minnesota lands and annuities to the United States, and said the money should help pay settlers' damage claims.
MNHS says the Dakota at the fort were removed in spring 1863 to a reservation in Dakota Territory and later Nebraska. The government let a few who had supported peace stay.
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.
all lands and rights of occupancy within the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims heretofore accorded to said Indians
Act of February 16, 1863, 12 Stat. 652 (Statutes at Large, via GovTrack)After the war, the US government nullified its treaties with the Dakota, dissolved their reservation, and publicly executed thirty-eight Dakota men in Mankato
U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 (MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society)The US government fails to deliver annuity payments to the Dakota, continuing a years-long trend of broken treaty promises.
U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 (MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society), chronology
Research notes. The 1851 treaties' acreage and the Senate's changes to them were not confirmed and are omitted, as are the Fort Snelling death estimates, the Crow Creek deaths, scalp bounties and later Mdewakanton exemptions. MNHS says 'about 1,600' non-combatants at Fort Snelling. The scanned Statutes page prints the year as 1868 in its header (an OCR/printing quirk); the Act belongs to the 37th Congress and is dated February 16, 1863. Dakota communities' own accounts were not consulted; Mankato is a place of mourning.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
- Crow Creek Sioux Tribe
- Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
- Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana
- Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota
- Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota
- Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska
- Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota
- Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate
Working with these nations
- Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Oyate) Nation government Pe' Sla (1,942 acres, Nov 30, 2012)
- Owamniyomni Okhodayapi (formerly Friends of the Falls) Native-led Dakota-led restoration and return of care for sacred St. Anthony Falls (Owamniyomni) site in Minneapolis, with… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Lakota People's Law Project (program of Sacred Defense Fund) Native-led Legal advocacy Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) Native-led Youth programs Website
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) Nation government Ojibwe treaty rights in ceded territories, natural resource stewardship, manoomin, and a Land Conservancy program… Give on their site Website
- Dream of Wild Health Native-led Owns a 30-acre farm in Hugo MN Give on their site Website
- Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) Native-led Environmental and climate justice Give on their site Website
- Native Governance Center Native-led Strengthening Native nation governance and capacity to exercise sovereignty Give on their site Website
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
- Honor the Earth Native-led Pipeline resistance, sovereignty, energy justice Give on their site Website
- Indian Law Resource Center Native-led Legal assistance to Indigenous nations to protect lands, resources, treaty and human rights Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
These links were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named 5
Concerns the instrument 2
Located in 1
Policy era 1
- Reservation1851
Sources
The record’s fields
- What happened
- Dakota 1851 treaties, 1862 war and the Act of Feb. 16, 1863 -- The 1851 treaties (Traverse des Sioux, July 23; Mendota, Aug. 5) ceded large tracts of Minnesota Territory; the Senate struck the article that defined the reservation. Annuities were about two months late in summer 1862 and much compensation went to traders for disputed debts. The war began Aug. 18, 1862. Military commissions sentenced 303 men to death; Lincoln approved 38; they were hanged at Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862, the largest one-day mass execution in U.S. history. About 1,658 non-combatants were held at Fort Snelling, where an estimated 102 to 300 died. The Act of Feb. 16, 1863 (12 Stat. 652) declared the Dakota treaties annulled 'so far as said treaties or any of them purport to impose any future obligation on the United States' and forfeited all annuities to the United States. The Dakota were expelled from Minnesota; about 1,300 survivors were moved to Crow Creek in May 1863 and more than 200 died within six months; others went to the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska. Minnesota offered a $25 scalp bounty.
- Legal aftermath
- Treaty obligations annulled by statute without individual findings of guilt (the Act applied to bands including non-participants; the details of individual exemptions, e.g., 208 Mdewakanton, are noted in secondary sources). Later land bases for survivors included Crow Creek and the Santee reservation in Nebraska.
- Kind
- Violation
- Confidence
- High
- Nation review
- Not yet reviewed by this nation
- Notes
- Some details not yet checked against a source