# Dakota Removal Acts (1863) ## February 16, 1863 + March 3, 1863 | The Legal Expulsion of the Dakota from Minnesota **Status**: Stub — primary sources linked; narrative to be expanded **Decade**: 3 — Civil War, Dakota War, and Expulsion (1860–1869) **Category**: Antecedents and Acts (What) **[WTFism]**: Two federal acts, passed within 15 days of each other, made it a federal crime for any Dakota person to reside in Minnesota. Combined with the Morrill Act (January 27, 1863 MN acceptance) and the Mankato mass execution (December 26, 1862), the expulsion completed a 12-month sequence: war → military trials → mass execution → treaty abrogation → physical removal → land grant to university. The Dakota did not return to Minnesota in any legal, organized form for decades. The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community — descendants of the dispossessed Cohort 2 population — remains federally unrecognized as of 2026. --- ## The Two Acts ### Act 1: Treaty Abrogation Act (February 16, 1863) | Item | Detail | |------|--------| | Citation | 12 Stat. 819, Ch. 119 | | Date | February 16, 1863 | | Effect | Abrogated and annulled **all existing treaties** with the Sisseton, Wahpeton, Mdewakanton, and Wahpekute (Santee Sioux) bands; declared all Dakota lands in Minnesota **forfeited** to the United States; voided all annuities due to the Dakota | | Secondary source | Healing MN Stories: https://healingmnstories.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/this-day-in-history-congress-exiles-dakota-from-minnesota-1863-civilization-fund-act-passes-1819-and-more/ | ### Act 2: Sioux-Dakota Removal Act (March 3, 1863) | Item | Detail | |------|--------| | Full title | "An Act for the Removal of the Sisseton, Wahpaton, Medawakanton and Walhpakoota Bands of Sioux or Dakota Indians, and for the disposition of their Lands in Minnesota and Dakotas" | | Citation | 12 Stat. 803, Ch. 103 | | Date | March 3, 1863 | | Effect | Physically expelled the four named bands from Minnesota; authorized military removal to Crow Creek Reservation (present-day South Dakota); made Dakota presence in Minnesota a federal offense | | Secondary source | Minnesota Legal History Project: http://www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org/archives.cfm?article=362 | | Secondary source 2 | Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community: https://www.mendotadakota.org/below-and-attached-are-remarks-in-the-federal-congressional-record-submitted-by-keith-ellison-on-december-19-2012-note-in-yellow-below-the-dakota-expulsion-act-of-1863-a-federal-law-making/ | --- ## Implementation: Crow Creek Removal (Summer 1863) Following the Removal Act, U.S. Army forces transported expelled Dakota — including women, children, and elderly who had no role in the 1862 war — primarily by steamboat to Crow Creek Reservation on the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. The site was semi-arid, the soil was poor, and rations were inadequate. Estimates of deaths from starvation and disease at Crow Creek in 1863–1864 range from 300 to over 1,000 (of approximately 1,300 removed). --- ## Sequencing with Other Decade 3 Acts | Date | Event | |------|-------| | July 2, 1862 | Morrill Land Grant Act signed — allocates 94,631 Dakota-ceded acres to MN for UMN | | August 17, 1862 | U.S.-Dakota War begins | | September 9, 1862 | Ramsey's "exterminate or expel" address to MN Legislature | | September 23, 1862 | Battle of Wood Lake — organized Dakota resistance ends | | December 26, 1862 | Mass execution of 38 Dakota men at Mankato | | January 27, 1863 | MN Legislature accepts Morrill Act land grant | | February 16, 1863 | **Treaty Abrogation Act — all treaties voided, all lands and annuities forfeited** | | March 3, 1863 | **Sioux-Dakota Removal Act — physical expulsion authorized** | | Summer 1863 | Dakota removed to Crow Creek by U.S. Army | --- ## Cross-References - `Antecedents/Treaties_1851_Traverse_Mendota.md` — the voided treaties - `Antecedents/Morrill_Act_1862.md` — concurrent land-to-UMN pipeline - `Arena/Mankato_Execution_Site.md` — site of the December 26 execution that preceded the acts - `Arena/Crow_Creek_Reservation.md` — removal destination (stub to create) - `Federally Recognized Tribes/mn-shell-corporations-us-dakota-war-essayV-three-essays.md` - `Toll-and-Immunity-Architecture/01_1849-1899_Founding_Toll_Positions.md` - *Smith v. United States*, U.S. Court of Federal Claims (filed Oct 13, 2025) — Cohort 2 / Mendota Mdewakanton Tucker Act claim; the 1863 acts are the foundational dispossession instruments #Acts_Amendments_and_Antecedents