1
The Effect of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux on Dakota
Chance Steward
HIST 395-01 Minnesota History
Word Count: 2,493
2
In the early 1800s, the native Dakota people of present day Minnesota
experienced pressure from European settlers who ambitiously craved the space and
resources the fertile Minnesota land offered. White settlers aspired to secure native land
titles to generate space for industry, farming, and to disband the natives. The pressure
increased with an influx of immigration as migrants pushed further west. To resolve the
matter, the U.S government constructed a plan to purchase the land from the Dakota
and relocate the native people to reservations. To do so, the Treaty of Traverse des
Sioux was composed and presented to the Dakota people. While the Sisseton and
Wahpeton bands of the Dakota were reluctant at first, they signed two copies of the
treaty on July 23, 1851.
1
The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux transferred ownership of
much of southern and western Minnesota from the Dakota to the United States.
2
With no
appropriate translation, the Dakota leaders signed what was thought to be a third copy of
the treaty. Instead, a “Traders Paper” was signed, relinquishing much of the land
payment to fur trading companies on account of claimed debts owed to them by the
Dakota people.
3
Strife, starvation, and war for the Dakota people would follow after the
signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Of the estimated 6,100 Dakota people of
present day Minnesota in 1851, 374 remained in 1867.
4
The Treaty of Traverse des
Sioux only advanced Dakota disunity and stimulated the eradication of Minnesota’s
Dakota by means of the Dakota Expulsion Act of 1863.
1
Colin Mustful, “Q&A: What Were the Treaties of Traverse Des Sioux and Mendota”, last modified
2016, accessed November 17, 2017, http://www.colinmustful.com/qa-what-were-the-treaties–of–
traverse-des-sioux-and-mendota/.
2
Eric W. Weber, “Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851,” MNOpedia, Minnesota Historical Society, last
modified 2017, accessed November 18, 2017, http://www.mnopedia.org/event/treaty-traverse-des-
sioux-1851.
3
Anita Gual, “Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851,” Road to Statehood Slide 34.
4
“Relations: Dakota & Ojibwe Treaties,” Minnesota Indians Affairs Council, Minnesota Humanities
Center, accessed November 20, 2017 http://treatiesmatter.org/treaties/land/1851-Dakota.
Conflict emanated as white settlers pushed deeper into Indian lands. In 1850,
influential men like the Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey and fur trader-politician
Henry Sibley persuaded the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Luke Lea to negotiate
the purchase of the land from the native Dakota.
5
Ramsey and Sibley argued that the
beautiful and fertile lands were being underutilized and were of no use to the Dakota.
Instead, settlers should have access to plow, till, and farm the land.
6
When offered, the
Dakota people were unwilling to engage in treaty discussions due to previous disputes.
The Dakota were wary of the U.S. government’s credibility after not being paid the full
amount promised in an 1837 treaty. Discussions also went sour in 1842 when the U.S.
Senate rejected the Dakota’s attempt to make all of southern Minnesota exclusively and
permanently Indian Territory.
7
While the Dakota were reluctant to attend treaty talks, in 1850, both the Sisseton
and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota were in arduous situations as the animals they had
hunted for food and trade were not abundant enough to support their people anymore.
8
By selling their land to the United States, the Dakota recognized an opportunity to
survive and support their people. A land cession treaty with annuity payments had the
