Treaty of Traverse des Sioux

Treaty of Traverse des Sioux
by Francis Davis Millet

The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (10 Stat. 949) was signed on July 23, 1851, at Traverse des Sioux in Minnesota Territory between the United States government and the Upper Dakota Sioux bands. In this land cession treaty, the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota bands sold 21 million acres of land in present-day Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota to the U.S. for $1,665,000.[1][2]

The treaty was instigated by Alexander Ramsey, the first governor of Minnesota Territory, and Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. They were assisted by territorial Congressional delegate Henry Hastings Sibley and the traders who sought compensation for business losses which appeared on their books as "Indian debts."[3]

Governor Ramsey and Commissioner Lea justified the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and the Treaty of Mendota to the United States Congress on the basis of an "overwhelming tide of migration...increasing and irresistible in its westward progress."[4]

  1. ^ Folwell, William Watts (1921). A History of Minnesota. Vol. 1. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society. pp. 272, 278, 281.
  2. ^ "Curator's Choice". Minnesota History. 57 (6): 328–329. Summer 2001. JSTOR 20188266.
  3. ^ Wingerd, Mary Lethert (2010). North Country: The Making of Minnesota. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 186–189. ISBN 978-0-8166-4868-9.
  4. ^ "1851 Dakota Land Cession Treaties". Relations: Dakota & Ojibwe Treaties. Retrieved 2021-08-22.