# Dakota *Native American people comprising the Eastern and Western Dakota divisions of the Sioux, whose treaty cessions and 1862–1863 removal are documented in Minnesota's founding record.* The Dakota (Dakȟóta or Dakhóta) are an Indigenous people of North America and make up two of the three principal divisions of the Sioux. The Eastern Dakota are also called the Santee. The Western Dakota are the Yankton and Yanktonai. They hold federally recognized tribal governments in the United States and band governments in Canada.[^1] In the Dakota language the name means "ally or friend."[^1] In [[Minnesota]], the documentary record of the Dakota is largely a record of land cession and removal. A sequence of instruments ceded much of the Dakota land in the state: the 1805 Pike purchase, the 1825 boundary-setting at Prairie du Chien, the 1837 cessions east of the Mississippi, the two 1851 treaties and the 1858 cession north of the Minnesota River.[^2] After the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, roughly 1,600 Dakota and mixed-race non-combatants were held in a stockade below Fort Snelling, and an estimated 130 to 300 of them died there.[^3] The 1863 federal Dakota Expulsion Act then made it illegal for Dakota people to reside in the state. The Minnesota Historical Society records that the act "has never been repealed."[^4] Official accounts can be set beside that record. Hennepin County's own history page says Zebulon Pike "purchased land from the Dakota Indians."[^5] The treaty record shows that two of seven Dakota leaders signed, that no consideration was named in the document, and that the President never proclaimed the treaty.[^6] The April 11, 2023 *TRUTH Project Final Report* of the [[University of Minnesota]] and the [[Minnesota Indian Affairs Council]] describes the university's founding Board of Regents as having used a "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources."[^7] ## Who The Eastern Dakota comprise four bands: - the Mdewakanton (Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ); - the Wahpekute (Waȟpékhute); - the Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ); - the Wahpeton (Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ). These bands are associated with central Minnesota, the eastern Dakotas and northern Iowa. The Western Dakota, the Yankton and Yanktonai, are associated with the Upper Missouri and are known collectively by the endonym Wičhíyena. Together with the Lakota they form the Sioux nation. The three groupings speak closely related, mutually intelligible dialects of a Mississippi Valley Siouan language. Dakota autonyms include Ikčé Wičhášta ("Indian people") and Dakhóta Oyáte ("Dakota people").[^1] ### Dakota communities in the record - **Cloud Man's Mdewakanton village** counted 207 people in 1839 (54 women, 72 men and 81 children) and was abandoned that year.[^8] - **Inyan Ceyaka Otunwe**, a Wahpeton summer agricultural village near present-day Jordan on the Minnesota River, has burial mounds showing occupation as early as 100 CE. Its leader Mazamani II was a signatory of the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Jean Baptiste Faribault of the North West Fur Company began trading at the village in 1802.[^9] ### Officials and traders - **The 1851 commissioners.** The U.S. commissioners at Traverse des Sioux were Luke Lea, Henry Sibley and [[Alexander Ramsey]].[^10] - **The traders' document.** After the official copies were signed, trader Joseph R. Brown presented the document that directed annuities to traders' claimed debts.[^10] - **The 1854 exoneration.** Several Dakota alleged intimidation and fraud in the handling of the 1851 treaty funds, and Ramsey was among the principal figures accused. MNopedia records that the U.S. Senate exonerated him in 1854, despite evidence from its own investigations suggesting improprieties.[^11] - **The 1853 finding.** The project's record attributes an adverse 1853 finding to a federal investigation, the [[Young commission]]. The verbatim wording of that finding has not been checked against a printed primary source.[^11] ### Earlier European contact - **Louis Hennepin.** Hennepin, the Recollect friar for whom Hennepin County is named, was captured by a Dakota party on April 11–12, 1680. He was held near Mille Lacs until late June or early July. MNopedia records that he renamed the falls for St. Anthony of Padua.[^12] - **Jonathan Carver.** Carver reached the Minnesota River on December 7, 1766 and wintered with a Dakota band. The land grant later claimed in his name appears only in the posthumous 1781 third edition of his *Travels*. According to MNopedia, the grant "has never been confirmed by other sources."[^13] ## What ### Treaties and cessions **Overview.** The Minnesota Historical Society's treaty summary lists five instruments: - the 1805 Pike purchase of 100,000 acres at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers; - the 1825 Prairie du Chien boundary-setting; - the 1837 cessions east of the Mississippi; - the 1851 treaties; - the 1858 cession north of the Minnesota River.[^2] **The 1805 Pike treaty.** The treaty is dated September 23, 1805. According to the Treaties Matter record: - two of seven Dakota leaders signed; - roughly $200 in gifts and whiskey changed hands, against land Pike valued at $200,000 in his own journal; - the document named no consideration; - the Senate inserted $2,000 years later; - the treaty was never proclaimed by the President; - an 1856 Senate committee found no evidence that the Dakota considered the agreement binding.[^6] **The 1837 treaty.** The Dakota treaty was concluded in Washington on September 29, 1837. Its terms included $90,000 routed to fur traders for claimed debts. The Ojibwe treaty of the same year was concluded on July 29, 1837 at present-day Mendota.[^14] **The 1851 treaties.** The [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux]] (July 23, 1851) and the [[Treaty of Mendota]] (August 5, 1851) together transferred about 24 million acres at roughly seven and a half cents an acre, according to MNopedia.[^10][^15] The Historical Society's treaty summary gives approximately 21 million acres.[^2] The Traverse des Sioux treaty provided a reservation ten miles wide on each side of the Minnesota River. More than 100,000 settlers arrived within the following decade.[^10] ### The war, the stockade and the expulsion **Mankato.** The war ended at Wood Lake on September 23, 1862. Military commissions sentenced 303 Dakota men to death. President Lincoln's review reduced that number by 265, and 38 men were hanged at Mankato on December 26, 1862. These figures are as recorded in the project's at-issue file from Minnesota Historical Society material.[^16] **The stockade.** On November 7, 1862, a stockaded camp was established on the river bottom below Fort Snelling. It held roughly 1,600 Dakota and mixed-race non-combatants, mostly women, children and the elderly.[^3] An estimated 130 to 300 died of mumps, measles and pneumonia, and of assaults by soldiers and civilians. Survivors were removed to Crow Creek in May 1863.[^3][^17] MNopedia uses the term "concentration camp" for the site, which it defines as "a place where people are confined, often in poor conditions, without regard to legal norms of arrest."[^3] **The 1863 expulsion.** The federal Dakota Expulsion Act of 1863 made it illegal for Dakota people to reside in Minnesota and nullified all Dakota treaties. It applied regardless of whether an individual had been involved in the war.[^4] The Dakota were exiled to reservations in Nebraska, the Dakotas and Canada. After 1870 Dakota people began returning to Minnesota and established the reservations that exist there today.[^1] ## Where **Bdote.** Bdote, "where two waters come together," is where Dakota tradition holds the people were created. The site has been inhabited for at least ten thousand years. The fort there went up in 1820.[^18] Hennepin County was established by the Territorial Legislature on March 6, 1852.[^5] **Dakota County.** Dakota County was created in 1849 as one of the nine original counties of Minnesota Territory and is named for the Dakota people. Its history page identifies Mendota as "the first European settlement in Minnesota."[^19] **Carver County.** In Carver County, MNopedia records Dakota seasonal hunting and gathering. It also records the Dakota-derived place names Waconia ("fountain or spring") and Chanhassen ("tree of sweet sap").[^20] **Earlier homeland.** Before the 17th century, Eastern Dakota territory lay around Lake Superior, in present-day northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Wars with the Ojibwe during the 1700s moved the Dakota south.[^1] ## How **The 1837 payment to traders.** The documents show traders being paid out of the Dakota cessions. The 1837 Dakota terms routed $90,000 to fur traders for claimed debts.[^14] **The 1851 traders' paper.** At Traverse des Sioux, a third document was presented after the two official treaty copies were signed. It directed annuity funds to traders' claimed debts. MNopedia states that it was "never read aloud or translated." All but two leaders signed it, believing it to be another copy of the treaty.[^10] **Causes of the 1862 war.** The Wikipedia account attributes the outbreak of the 1862 war to late U.S. treaty payments and low food supplies.[^1] **What the record does not show.** The record shows the documents and their sequence. It does not establish the motives of the commissioners, traders or signers. ## How much - **1805 Pike treaty:** about $200 in gifts and whiskey, against Pike's own valuation of $200,000; the Senate later inserted $2,000.[^6] - **1851 treaties:** about 24 million acres at roughly seven and a half cents an acre, per MNopedia; the Historical Society's treaty summary gives about 21 million acres.[^10][^15][^2] - **1837 Dakota treaty:** $90,000 routed to fur traders.[^14] - **The Morrill Act:** the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 provided federal land-grant capitalization. The project's claim:link record ties the University of Minnesota's capitalization under that act to Dakota-ceded land.[^21] ## How many - **Signers in 1805:** two of seven Dakota leaders signed the Pike treaty.[^6] - **Signers of the 1851 traders' paper:** all but two Dakota leaders.[^10] - **Cloud Man's village in 1839:** 207 residents.[^8] - **The stockade:** roughly 1,600 people held, of whom an estimated 130 to 300 died.[^3] - **The military commissions:** 303 death sentences, 265 removed on review, and 38 executions.[^16] ## Omissions in official accounts **Hennepin County's history page.** The page describes Pike as having "purchased land from the Dakota Indians." It also records that the county was originally to be named Snelling County, and that "the final choice was designed to honor Father Hennepin."[^5] The treaty record for the same transaction shows the following:[^6] - two of seven Dakota leaders signed; - no consideration was named in the document; - the $2,000 figure was inserted by the Senate years later; - the treaty was never proclaimed by the President; - an 1856 Senate committee found no evidence that the Dakota considered it binding. **The TRUTH Project report.** The *TRUTH Project Final Report* of April 11, 2023 states the harm under the "Dakota" vocabulary.[^7] The project's validated record finds that the report does not name the Mdewakanton / "Sioux half-breed" descendants of the [[Lake Pepin]] Reservation, which was set aside by the 1830 [[Treaty of Prairie du Chien]]. The same record states that these descendants filed suit against the United States in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on [[Indigenous Peoples' Day]], October 13, 2025, seeking land and federal recognition, with claims of about $5 billion and represented by attorney [[Erick Kaardal]]. The project's record also notes that the report's acreage and dollar figures do not reconcile across versions, so none of them is used here.[^7] ## In the at-issue record The [[TRUTH Project]] report and the treaty record are paired in the project's at-issue file. Each at-issue pair cites an anchor document; the anchor supports only the pair's framing, not the historical facts. - [[At issue 060 - Hennepin County's own history page describes Zebulon Pike]]: the county's "purchased" against the 1805 treaty record. Anchored to *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos* (March 2025).[^22] - [[At issue 061 - Pike valued the land at $200,000 in his]]: the $200 / $200,000 gap and the 1856 Senate finding. Anchored to *Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse* (March 2025).[^23] - [[At issue 062 - The Minnesota Historical Society's own reference work uses]]: the Historical Society's "concentration camp" usage. Anchored to *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos*.[^22] - [[At issue 065 - The 1837 Dakota treaty routed $90,000 to fur]]: payments to traders under the 1837 and 1851 treaties. Anchored to *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System* (May 2026).[^24] - [[At issue 066 - Bdote where two waters come together is where]]: Bdote, the 1820 fort and the 1852 county. Anchored to *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos*.[^22] - [[At issue 068 - Louis Hennepin was captured by a Dakota party]]: Hennepin's 1680 captivity. Anchored to *Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos*.[^22] - [[At issue 070 - The U.S. Dakota War ended at Wood Lake]]: the 303 sentences and 38 executions. Anchored to the White House fact sheet on the new Department of Justice division for national fraud enforcement (January 2026).[^25] ## In the Minnesota record ### When - **April 11–12, 1680:** Louis Hennepin captured by a Dakota party.[^12] - **December 7, 1766:** Jonathan Carver reaches the Minnesota River.[^13] - **September 23, 1805:** Pike treaty.[^6] - **1820:** fort built at Bdote.[^18] - **September 29, 1837:** Dakota treaty concluded in Washington.[^14] - **1839:** Cloud Man's village counts 207 people and is abandoned.[^8] - **1849:** Dakota County created.[^19] - **July 23, 1851:** Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.[^10] - **August 5, 1851:** Treaty of Mendota.[^15] - **March 6, 1852:** Hennepin County established.[^5] - **1854:** U.S. Senate exonerates Ramsey.[^11] - **1856:** Senate committee finding on the Pike treaty.[^6] - **1858:** cession north of the Minnesota River.[^2] - **September 23, 1862:** war ends at Wood Lake.[^16] - **November 7, 1862:** stockade established below Fort Snelling.[^3] - **December 26, 1862:** 38 men hanged at Mankato.[^16] - **1863:** Dakota Expulsion Act.[^4] - **May 1863:** survivors removed to Crow Creek.[^3] - **After 1870:** Dakota return to Minnesota begins.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Dakota people* (revision 1377114585, retrieved October 27, 2026) — divisions, bands, language and autonyms; overview of the 1862 war, exile and return. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_people [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Minnesota Treaties*, U.S