Nicollet County Historical Society

Nicollet County Historical Society Join the Society on Thursday, April 16th, 6:30pm, at the Treaty Site History Center for a roundtable discussion revolving around the Treaty Site’s new exhibit, the Treaty of 1851, Dakota War, and their lasting consequences. Experts including Dr. Bill Lass and others will speak and answer questions. Audience participati...on is encouraged.

The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was signed on July 23, 1851 near the present day Treaty Site History Center in St. Peter between the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota and the United States Government. Signed by U.S representatives Luke Lea and Alexander Ramsey and 35 Dakota delegates, the treaty of Traverse des Sioux and, a month later, the Treaty at Mendota, ceded Dakota Lands from present day Moorhead to Winona, south to the Iowa border.

The Dakota sold 35 million acres for $1,665,000 in cash and annuities in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. The Dakota were paid less than 8 cents per acre. The government then sold the same land to white settlers for $1.25 an acre. Of the $1,665,000, $275,000 was kept to pay debts with traders and to relocate the Dakota to reservation lands they retained in the treaties. Another $30,000 was set aside for reservation improvements. The remaining $1,360,000 was put in trust by the U.S. Government, with only the interest, 5 percent over 50 years, to be paid.

The Dakota never received the full amount agreed upon in the treaty. Many Dakota were angered and betrayed. Mazasha, whose village was located at Traverse des Sioux, spoke in 1852, "You can take the money back. We sold our land to you, and you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the money, I will be glad, and all our people will be glad, for we will have our land back.”

The summer of 1851 7,000 Dakota move to Upper and Lower Sioux reservations. However, the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty after it was signed and abolished the reservations. Millard Fillmore, president from 1850-1853, agreed to let the Dakota live there until the land was needed by whites. Stripped of the land and most of the money guaranteed by the Treaty, many Dakota that lived along the Minnesota River became discontented. For a few that anger and distrust boiled over in 1862 and caused the Dakota Conflict.