# Ramsey County Historical Society The **Ramsey County Historical Society** is a Minnesota historical society that publishes a [[Dakota Land Acknowledgement]]. The statement names [[Alexander Ramsey]], the [[governor]] for whom Ramsey County is named, quotes his 1862 extermination line, and lists six commitments.[^1] It carries no adoption date, no budget line, and no metric against any of the six commitments. The Society retains Ramsey's name.[^1] Ramsey was the first president of the [[Minnesota Historical Society]], a separate statewide body, and began donating his own papers to it in the 1860s.[^2] On September 9, 1862, as governor, he 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."[^2] The record shows what the Society's acknowledgement contains and what it does not attach to its commitments. It does not establish why the statement was drafted as it was. The Society works under a federal framing of the State's apparatus that is active and pending. The [[United States Department of Justice]] Office of Public Affairs issued release No. 26-21 on January 14, 2026, under the title *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*.[^3] The release states that Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as "a matter of general public importance."[^3] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds no other U.S. state so described. That is the project's catalogue finding, not an independently established fact. The release's title names the State, not the Society.[^3] ## Who The Ramsey County Historical Society is the publisher of the land acknowledgement statement on its website.[^1] The statement does not identify the body that adopted it or the date of adoption.[^1] The county's namesake, Alexander Ramsey, served as a U.S. commissioner in 1851 for two treaties with the [[Dakota]]. The first was the [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux]] on July 23, and the second was the [[Treaty of Mendota]] on August 5.[^4] Under these treaties roughly 24 million acres were ceded at about seven and a half cents an acre.[^4] MNopedia records that the [[traders' paper]], presented alongside the treaty, was "not read aloud or translated." That paper redirected roughly one-third of the Dakota's cash payments to fur traders.[^4] Dakota signatories alleged intimidation and fraud, and Ramsey was a principal figure accused. Congress investigated, and the U.S. Senate exonerated him in 1854.[^5] MNopedia records that the exoneration came "despite evidence uncovered in its own investigations suggesting improprieties."[^5] The Minnesota Historical Society notes that the 1862 extermination sentence was not in Ramsey's prepared manuscript but appeared in all published versions of the speech.[^2] Thirty-eight Dakota men were executed at [[Mankato]] after the war, according to the Minnesota Historical Society's record of the trials and hanging.[^6] ## What The acknowledgement is the Society's own account of its relation to the land and to the county's name. It names Ramsey, quotes the 1862 line, and sets out six commitments.[^1] Against those six commitments the published statement records: - no adoption date; - no budget line; - no metric by which any commitment could be measured.[^1] The Society continues to carry Ramsey's name.[^1] Taken together, the documented output of the statement is a set of published commitments with no measure attached.[^1] ## In the at-issue record At-issue pair 27, in the tier titled *The Name on the Courthouse*, sets the Society's acknowledgement beside its terms. The acknowledgement names Ramsey, quotes the extermination line, and lists six commitments, yet carries no adoption date, no budget line, and no metric against any of the six.[^1] The pair is anchored to the January 2025 presidential action *Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing*.[^7] The pairing's stated rationale is that "a published commitment with no measure is the gesture the order is about."[^7] The record does not establish whether that order applies to the Society. The pairing does not adjudicate the question. ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Alexander Ramsey was the first president of the Minnesota Historical Society and a donor of his own papers to it from the 1860s.[^2] - The Ramsey County Historical Society is the publisher of the Dakota Land Acknowledgement that names Ramsey.[^1] ### What - The Minnesota Historical Society's own reference work uses the term "concentration camp" for the stockade below [[Fort Snelling]].[^8] That stockade held roughly 1,600 Dakota non-combatants, mostly women, children and the elderly.[^8] An estimated 130 to 300 of them died before removal.[^8] ### When - July 23 and August 5, 1851: Ramsey served as commissioner for the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota.[^4] - 1854: the U.S. Senate exonerated Ramsey after the congressional investigation.[^5] - 1860s: Ramsey began donating his papers to the Minnesota Historical Society.[^2] - September 9, 1862: Ramsey delivered his address to the special session of the Legislature.[^2] - November 7, 1862: the Fort Snelling stockade was established.[^8] - May 1863: the Dakota held there were removed.[^8] - Undated: the Society's land acknowledgement carries no adoption date.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Ramsey County Historical Society, *Land Acknowledgement Statement* (undated) — names Ramsey, quotes the 1862 line, lists six commitments with no adoption date, no budget line, no metric. https://rchs.com/about/land-acknowledgement-statement/ [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Alexander Ramsey* (U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 history page) — Ramsey as first president of the Minnesota Historical Society and donor of his own materials from the 1860s; the September 9, 1862 address. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/alexander-ramsey [^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — title of the release; certification by Attorney General Pamela Bondi. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^4]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, 1851* — treaty dates, cession, and the traders' paper. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/event/treaty-traverse-des-sioux-1851 [^5]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *Ramsey, Alexander (1815–1903)* — allegations by Dakota signatories, the congressional investigation, and the 1854 Senate exoneration. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/ramsey-alexander-1815-1903 [^6]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Trials and Hanging* (U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, Aftermath) — the execution of 38 Dakota men at Mankato. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/aftermath/trials-hanging [^7]: The White House, *Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing* (presidential action, Jan. 2025) — anchor instrument for at-issue pair 27. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/ [^8]: Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, *U.S.-Dakota War of 1862* — the Fort Snelling stockade, its establishment on November 7, 1862, the numbers held and the estimated deaths, and removal in May 1863. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/event/us-dakota-war-1862