Treaty of Traverse des Sioux

was the region's elder statesman. In the fall of 1849, Governor Alexander Ramsey had tried and failed to purchase land from the Dakota. Past treaty payments to fur traders had already become a national scandal. An act of the United States Congress passed on March 3, 1847 prohibited annuities, money and goods to be paid to anyone other than heads of families or individuals in all future treaties. Former fur trader Joseph R. Brown recruited his mixed-blood brother-in-law, Gabriel Renville (Tiwakan), to help build support for the treaty among Sisseton and Wahpeton leaders. Historian Gary Clayton Anderson writes, "Given the circumstances, Renville, in working with Brown, obviously assumed that he was helping his people out of what had become an increasingly unsustainable lifestyle." == Negotiations ==

At 5:30 am on June 29, 1851, the treaty commissioners left Fort Snelling on board the steamboat Excelsior, traveling with a large group including newspaper reporters, as well as traders and "mixed-blood" assistants associated with Henry Hastings Sibley. They arrived at Traverse des Sioux before noon the following day. The Wahpeton and Sisseton bands of the Upper Dakota (sometimes spelled Dahkotah on treaties) were hesitant to sign away so much land, but older members of the tribes believed that the results of the 1825 First Treaty of Prairie du Chien and the Black Hawk War limited their choices. == Treaty ==

The Wahpeton and Sisseton bands ceded their lands in southern and western Minnesota Territory, along with some lands in Iowa and Dakota Territory. In exchange, the United States promised payment of $1,665,000 in cash and annuities. Through the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and the Treaty of Mendota, the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands of the Lower Sioux ceded territory of nearly of land. The US paid the Dakota an annuity the equivalent of 7.5 cents an acre and charged settlers $1.25 an acre. The US set aside two reservations for the Sioux along the Minnesota River, each about wide and long. Later the government declared these were intended to be temporary, in an effort to force the Sioux out of Minnesota. The Upper Sioux Agency was established near Granite Falls, Minnesota, while the Lower Sioux Agency was established about downstream near what developed as Redwood Falls, Minnesota. The Upper Sioux were not satisfied with their reservation because of low food supplies, but as it included several of their old villages, they agreed to stay. The Lower Sioux were displaced from their traditional woodlands, and were dissatisfied with their new territory of mostly prairie. The Sioux also resented the separate "trader's paper" that was included in the treaty. Traders' papers were documents that contained the names of traders, included in the aforesaid claims, who were due fees from previous trades. At signing of the Traverse des Sioux treaty, the assembled chiefs were led to an upright barrel where an old acquaintance of the tribe, Joseph R. Brown, stood. The trader's paper sat on the barrel, and the assembled chiefs, assuming it was a third copy of the treaty, signed the paper without comment. This paper ensured that the cash annuity, to be paid the Sioux for fifty years, went directly to the traders instead for several years. Further claims that were subsequently added ultimately ensured the tribe received no money from the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White analyzes and translates back into English the Dakota-language version of the treaty for the first time, highlighting discrepancies between what the Dakota and treaty negotiators thought they were agreeing with. == Aftermath ==

Despite these issues, the crush of settlers moving into the area meant more Anglo European people encroaching on Sioux land. As the US had promised increased annuity payments in exchange for more land cessions, Sioux leaders went to Washington, D.C. in 1858 to sign another pair of treaties, the Yankton Treaty and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Treaty; these ceded the reservation north of the Minnesota River. The US intended the treaties to encourage the Sioux to convert from being nomadic hunters gathers to Anglo European farming, offering them compensation in the transition. The forced change in lifestyle and the much lower than expected payments from the federal government caused economic suffering and increased social tensions within the tribes. Tensions erupted in the Dakota War of 1862. == Terms ==

The preamble begins with, The abbreviated terms of the treaty were: 1. Peace and friendship shall be perpetual 2. Land to cede 3. Stricken out by U.S. Senate. 4. Payments and other payments held in trust. 5. Laws against liquors in Indian country. 6. Rules and regulations to protect the rights of persons and property among the Indians. Signers included Sleepy Eye, of the Sisseton Sioux. == See also ==