# Military Contingency Fund *Minnesota State fund named in the record as the source of the 1863 Dakota scalp bounties under General Orders No. 41.* The **Military Contingency Fund**, also called the State's Military Contingency Fund, is a fund of the State of [[Minnesota]]. The record names it as the source of the bounty payments made under [[General Orders No. 41]] of July 4, 1863.[^1][^2] According to the dossier the record draws on, the orders paid scouts $1.50 a day plus $25 per [[Dakota]] scalp. The dossier states that the money came from the fund by executive order rather than by legislative appropriation.[^1] The record's account of the fund is secondary. The at-issue pair that names the fund lists two record sources, on the domains mnhs.org and open.mitchellhamline.edu, but no URL for either is in the record.[^3] The only linked document is the 2025 federal presidential action that the pair sets beside the 1863 orders.[^4] The record does not carry the fund's enabling authority, its balances, its figures for any other year, or a total disbursed under the orders.[^1][^2] ## Who According to the dossier, General Orders No. 41 was issued by Adjutant General Oscar Malmros at the direction of Governor [[Alexander Ramsey]].[^1] The at-issue pair also attributes the orders to "Governor Ramsey's direction."[^3] The dossier records that Ramsey was the first president of the [[Minnesota Historical Society]] and began donating his materials to it in the 1860s.[^1] ## When On September 9, 1862, Ramsey told a special session of the [[Minnesota Legislature]]: "The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State." The dossier cites the Minnesota Historical Society's note that the sentence was not in the prepared manuscript but appeared in all published versions.[^1] The dossier also quotes a Minnesota House publication, which states that the speech "provided political justification for the subsequent forced removal of Dakota people from Minnesota in 1863 and the execution of 38 Dakota men in [[Mankato]]."[^1] General Orders No. 41 was issued on July 4, 1863.[^1][^2][^3] Later orders raised the per-scalp payment. The record does not give their dates.[^1][^2] ## How The dossier states that the bounty was "funded from the State's Military Contingency Fund by executive order rather than legislative appropriation."[^1] The at-issue pair gives the same account: "no legislative appropriation, no vote, no record of debate."[^3] The history table agrees, recording the payments as drawn from the fund by executive order with no appropriation.[^2] The record carries no enactment of the Legislature that authorizes or ratifies the bounty. Beyond the absence noted in its sources, it does not establish whether any such action occurred.[^1][^3] ## How much - **Scout pay:** $1.50 a day under General Orders No. 41 of July 4, 1863.[^1][^3] - **Initial bounty:** $25 per Dakota scalp under the same order.[^1][^2] - **Later bounties:** successor orders raised the figure to $75, then to $200.[^1][^2][^3] - **Totals:** the record gives no total disbursed from the fund under these orders and no appropriation figure for the fund in this period.[^1][^2] ## In the at-issue record - **Ramsey package, pair AI-Ramsey-023** (rank 23, in the section *Tier II — The Name on the Courthouse (Pairs 21–36)*). The pair sets the executive-order funding of General Orders No. 41 beside a White House presidential action of March 2025, *Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse*.[^3][^4] The pair states its reason for the juxtaposition this way: "a bounty funded by executive order out of a contingency fund is unappropriated spending in its purest form."[^3] The record does not show that the 2025 action itself refers to Minnesota or to the 1863 orders.[^4] ## Notes [^1]: *Warren E. Burger Apex Dossier*, §VI, *The Prior-Period File — The County's Own Name* (September 2, 2026; validated dossier section) — states that General Orders No. 41 was issued July 4, 1863 by Adjutant General Oscar Malmros at Ramsey's direction; that it paid $1.50 a day plus $25 per Dakota scalp; that it was funded from the Military Contingency Fund by executive order rather than legislative appropriation; and that successor orders raised the bounty to $75, then $200. It also covers the September 9, 1862 speech and Ramsey's role at the Minnesota Historical Society. The dossier's own source notes (26–28) are not in the record; no URL is in the record. [^2]: Ramsey County history table, row HE-0043 (companion to *Ramsey County Complete History*, September 2, 2026) — Jul 4, 1863: General Orders No. 41, $25 per Dakota scalp, paid from the Military Contingency Fund by executive order with no appropriation; later orders raised the figure to $75, then $200. No URL is in the record. [^3]: At-issue pair AI-Ramsey-023, Ramsey package (record entry, dated 1863-07-04) — states that General Orders No. 41 was issued at Governor Ramsey's direction and paid $1.50 a day plus $25 per Dakota scalp, rising to $75 and then $200, from the Military Contingency Fund by executive order with "no legislative appropriation, no vote, no record of debate"; it lists sources at mnhs.org and open.mitchellhamline.edu. No URL for those sources is in the record. [^4]: The White House, *Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse* (March 2025) — the presidential action serving as the anchor for pair AI-Ramsey-023. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/protecting-americas-bank-account-against-fraud-waste-and-abuse/