WAS THE TREATY SYSTEM FLAWED OR was it INTENTIONAL?

After all Dakota land was taken and the Dakota were abolished from the state of Minnesota, every treaty signed with the Santee was nullified.

Treaty at Prairie Du Chien, signed August 19, 1825

​1825 – A treaty is signed in Michigan Territory with the Sioux, Chippewa, and others, allegedly, to introduce map boundaries to native tribes and to establish the idea of land ownership to lessen inter-tribal wars.

It was the first step in the process of identifying land parcels for ownership by native people. It
​set the stage for the U.S. Government to set future reservation boundaries, and to identify future parcels to be ceded (sold for money and promised goods).
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The same strategy was used time and again as white settlement moved further into Indian land. In 1851, the tactic had spread westward into Dakota Territory with the signing of the Horse Creek Treaty/Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, when lines on a map divided land in similar fashion. That same year, map marking in Minnesota Territory had advanced to the point of ceding nearly all Dakota controlled land to the U.S. Government and establishing a strip of land 10-miles wide, 130-miles long on each side of the Minnesota River for the Dakota to control. To read more, access The Thirty-Ninth Man,  click here.​

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Traverse des Sioux Treaty, Minnesota Territory - July 23,1851

Major chiefs and lead men from the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands stood with dignity, and the air was filled with a solemnity as thick as that surrounding a burial. They were dressed in the beautifully beaded buckskins and moccasins that were reserved for important ceremonies like the one they now attended.
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​Chief Big Gun, representing the Wahpeton, and the Orphan, head chief of the Sisseton, stood in front of their contingents, both wearing full headdresses, stunning and impressive to behold. They were accompanied by delegations consisting of the principal men of each band.

Joseph Renshaw Brown had Indians sign for bogus claims for credit given.

​There were women present as well and a cadre of warriors from the various bands in high paint and feathers milled about and looked on from a distance as goods intended as presents from the White Father, were heaped in a pile. With this treaty, the Sisseton and Wahpeton ceded their lands in southern and western Minnesota Territory, along with some lands in Iowa and Dakota Territory for a promised payment of $1.665 million in cash and annuities.

As Reverend Stephen Riggs read the contents of the treaty in the Dakota language, all present knew deep within that their lives would be changed forever. One of the Wahpeton chiefs, Sleepy Eye, who made his camp a short way upstream from Traverse des Sioux and would soon move his band further upriver, spoke to the commission.
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​“I seek provisions within this treaty that will guarantee help for my people before the ground becomes white. My people will be very hungry when that time comes.” He began to deliver a long speech, complaining that the amount paid for their land was insufficient, and began listing other grievances. He was silenced by the commission, as terms of the treaty had already been agreed to. 

Lawrence Taliaferro - (pronounced Toliver)

There were others who spoke, and then signatures were affixed to the document. In many cases, the Indians were able to sign their own names, a result of the schooling given by the missionaries. After signing the treaty documents, they moved to a makeshift table made from an upright barrel where they signed a second document presented by Joseph R. Brown and Martin McLeod, which authorized payment of claims by traders from the Indians’ annuities. Those placing their mark on the paper had no idea what they were signing.

It seemed there was no end to the treachery of the traders or of the agents of the U.S. Government present at the proceedings.

Thirteen days later, on August 5, 1851, at Mendota, near Fort Snelling, the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands added their signatures to the treaty documents. Chief Wabasha, as head of the Santee delegation, was dressed in his ceremonial attire, looking splendid and larger than life. To his right sat his number two chief, Little Crow, and the chiefs and headmen of all the bands. Shakpe/ Shakopee, son of the Shakopee who was killed running the gauntlet, was there as well. All signed the treaty; all did so with remorse.

​The treaty ceded all land in the Minnesota Territory with the exception of the newly established stretches along both sides of the Minnesota River running a distance of 130 miles, each strip averaging ten miles in width.

In addition to annuity payments, provision was also stipulated that specified amounts of money to be provided for the erection of mills and blacksmith shops, opening farms, fencing and breaking land, and other “beneficial objects as may be deemed most conducive to the prosperity and happiness of said Indians . . .”
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With these treaties, Dakota people sold most of their land to the U.S. in exchange for $3.75 million, at an estimated price of twelve cents per acre. When the treaties were signed, the traders claimed to be owed almost half a million dollars for goods given to the Indians on account.

As recognized by Lawrence Taliaferro with the signing of the Treaty of St. Peter in 1827, it was now clear to anyone wishing to look with open eyes: the fur trade had transformed itself into land speculation and outright thievery through entries for fictitious credit given by the traders.

What easier way to make money than to steal funds the Indians would receive for their lands after signing the treaties? Land speculators, including Henry Sibley as agent for Pierre Chouteau, began buying land adjacent to the reservation established by the treaty. 

To learn more about this period, see The Thirty-Ninth Man –  click here.​​​​

Before the end of the year, seven thousand Dakota Sioux were moved from their native land to the Minnesota River strips, opening huge parcels to settlement at the purchase price of one dollar twenty-five cents per acre.

The 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was the catalyst that set in motion the Indian wars that would wrack the Dakota Nation and culminate with the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Tears Of Sorrow – click here.

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September 17, 1851
1,100 miles west
Horse Creek, Dakota Territory
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Fort Laramie National Historic Site - site with tipis across Laramie River where the treaty of 1868 was negotiated. Initially, the treaty was supposed to be signed at the fort but there was not enough grass for the native horses. Eventually it was decided to move downstream where Horse Creek enters the North Platte in Nebraska. The treaty is sometimes referred to as the Horse Creek Treaty.

The U.S. Government gathers representatives from ten Native American Nations, ostensibly, with the intent of negotiating to end intertribal rivalries and seek peace among the Nations. Its goal is to separate each Indian Nation in a manner similar to that established by the 1825 treaty with the Chippewa, Sioux, and various other tribes, which led to the formation of the Minnesota Territory in 1849.

This new 1851 treaty signing takes place where Horse Creek intersects the North Platte River near the western edge of Dakota Territory. Many Lakota Sioux know this treaty as the Horse Creek Treaty. The U.S. Government records it as the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

It covers an area bordered on the south by the North Platte River; the west, by the Powder River; the north, by the Heart River running east to where it meets the Missouri River, then downstream until the Missouri meets the White River, at which point it goes in a straight line south-southwest until it intersects the Platte just southeast of the starting location. 

Representatives from the Lakota, Cheyenne, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Shoshone, Crow, and Arapaho take part in the treaty discussions.

The treaty allows the United States to build forts at select locations and provides for safe passage for individuals en-route to the gold fields of Colorado, California, and points west. It also names the Black Hills as Sioux land without encroachment by white settlers.

In 1868 a new Fort Laramie Treaty would be used to end Red Cloud's War, redefine the Black Hills as perpetual Sioux land, and establish The Great Sioux Reservation.

To learn more about the Lakota treaties and final betrayal read Tears Of Sorrow –  click here.