# Treaty of Washington (1837) — Dakota Land Cession **Also known as:** Treaty with the Sioux of the Mississippi, 1837 On September 29, 1837, the United States concluded a land cession treaty with the Mdewakanton Dakota nation at Washington, DC. The treaty ceded the lands east of the Mississippi River — roughly the present-day St. Croix River valley — to the United States. In exchange, the Dakota received annuity payments, goods, and a usufructuary reservation of rights. ## Key Terms - **Lands ceded**: East-bank Mississippi River corridor; approximately 35 million acres (unverified — 🔲 needs primary source confirmation) - **Usufructuary rights**: Mdewakanton retained the right to hunt, fish, and gather on ceded lands "until required to leave by the President of the United States" - **Annuities**: Annual payments in goods and money; specific amounts 🔲 TBD - **Consideration**: Trader debts acknowledged and partially paid from treaty proceeds — the trader-debt mechanism is the founding instance of what would become the standard land-cession payment structure ## WTFism Flag The usufructuary rights clause was understood by the Dakota as a permanent guarantee of continued access. The clause was revoked by executive order in 1850 — without new treaty, without congressional approval, and without compensation — precipitating the winter removals and starvation conditions that preceded the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War. The 1837 Treaty's usufructuary clause is therefore the founding instance of a promise written into a federal treaty and unilaterally revoked by executive action. **[WTFism: The federal government's authority to revoke the 1837 usufructuary rights was contested at the time and remains contested — the Mille Lacs Band v. Minnesota (1999) SCOTUS case held that the 1837 Ojibwe usufructuary rights were never validly extinguished, suggesting the 1850 executive order revocation was itself illegal.]** ## Connection to Toll-and-Immunity Architecture The 1837 Dakota treaty is Toll Position 1 in the Toll-and-Immunity Architecture (Era I, 1849–1899). The timber and agricultural land transferred under the treaty was absorbed into the Permanent School Fund framework after the Organic Act (1849) and Enabling Act (1857–58) established the state's trustee role. The state became trustee of lands whose title derived from this cession — and then appraised, sold, and administered those lands without independent oversight. ## Primary Source Links - [Treaty of Washington, Sept. 29, 1837 — 7 Stat. 538](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/mn02.asp) - [Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. 2](https://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sio0493.htm) - [UMN TRUTH Project — Dakota Cession Land History](https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf) - 🔲 TBD: Senate Executive Journal records of treaty ratification; annuity payment records (National Archives) #Acts_Amendments_and_Antecedents