# Pilot Knob *Place in Mendota, Dakota County, Minnesota, at which the Treaty of Mendota was signed on August 5, 1851.* Pilot Knob is the place where the [[Treaty of Mendota]] was signed on August 5, 1851.[^1] The project's record places it in [[Mendota]], [[Minnesota]], inside the boundaries of present-day Dakota County.[^1] The [[Minnesota Historical Society]] lists two commissioners as signers, [[Luke Lea]] and [[Alexander Ramsey]]. It also lists [[Little Crow]] (Ta-oya-te-duta), [[Wabasha]] and roughly eighty other [[Mdewakanton]] and [[Wahpekute]] signers.[^1] By the treaty's text, the bands ceded "all their right, title and claim to any lands whatever."[^1] The project's at-issue record treats the treaty signed at Pilot Knob as the root of title for land in Dakota County. The sources cited here establish the signing place, the date, the signers and the cession language. They do not establish the chain of title for individual parcels.[^1][^2] ## Where The treaty was signed at Pilot Knob.[^1] The project's at-issue record places Pilot Knob in Mendota, inside the boundaries of present-day Dakota County.[^1] ## When The Treaty of Mendota was signed at Pilot Knob on August 5, 1851.[^1] ## Who The commissioners were Luke Lea and Alexander Ramsey.[^1] Little Crow (Ta-oya-te-duta), Wabasha and roughly eighty other Mdewakanton and Wahpekute leaders also signed the treaty.[^1] ## In the at-issue record The project's at-issue entry AI-Dakota-089 is filed under *VII. The Founding Instruments — Still on the Books*. The entry states: "Every land title in the county descends from a document signed within it."[^2] The entry gives the cession clause in a fuller form than the passage cited above. In that form, the bands ceded "all their lands and all their right, title and claim to any lands whatever, in the Territory of Minnesota, or in the State of Iowa." The Minnesota Historical Society's record confirms the central span of that clause.[^1] The entry cites a White House presidential action as its anchor: *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System* (May 2026).[^2] The text of that action is not part of the record assembled for this article. This article therefore does not characterize the action's content or its bearing on the treaty.[^2] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Treaty of Mendota* (undated web page) — establishes that the treaty was signed on August 5, 1851 at Pilot Knob. It names the commissioners Luke Lea and Alexander Ramsey and the signers Little Crow (Ta-oya-te-duta), Wabasha and roughly eighty other Mdewakanton and Wahpekute leaders. It gives the treaty text "all their right, title and claim to any lands whatever." https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/treaty-mendota [^2]: The White House, *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System* (May 2026) — cited as the anchor of the project's at-issue entry AI-Dakota-089 on Dakota County land title. The text of the action is not in the record for this article. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/