School Sisters of Notre Dame, Mankato

Map of Minnesota Territory, J. H. Young (1856)

Treaty and parcel research for Red Rock Township parcels:

School Sisters of Notre Dame 109;
School Sisters of Notre Dame 40;
School Sisters of Notre Dame 218; and

Lansing Township parcel:

School Sisters of Notre Dame 74

Contextualization Conversation

A Dakota Place

Mni Sota Makoce

The ultimate aim of a Dakota life, stripped of accessories, was quite simple: One must obey kinship rules; one must be a good relative. No Dakota who has participated in that life will dispute that. In the last analysis every other consideration was secondary—property, personal ambition, glory, good times, life itself. Without that aim and the constant struggle to attain it, the people would no longer be Dakotas in truth. They would no longer even be human. To be a good Dakota, then, was to be humanized, civilized. And to be civilized was to keep the rules imposed by kinship for achieving civility, good manners, and a sense of responsibility towards every individual dealt with.

Anpétu Wašté Win (Beautiful Day Woman, Ella Cara Deloria) | Speaking of Indians (1944)

“Valley of the St. Peters,” watercolor by Seth Eastman (c. 1846-1848)

European Contact

The Doctrine of Discovery at Mni Sota Makoce

“Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson,” rendering by Charles W. Jefferys (1934)

European Treatment Report

“An accurate map of North America: drawn from the best modern maps and charts, and regulated by astron'l. observants” by Edmund Burke (1757)

The Treaty Period

Settler Colonialism

Beneficial.

“Several days elapsed before they would consent to any but terms of the most extravagant character . . . . Finally, on the 23rd of July, they were induced to sign a treaty, which, while it secures to the Government a large territory, second to none in value in the northwest, embodies provisions of a simple, but most beneficial character for the poor savages themselves, and well calculated, we think, if judiciously carried out, the same and elevate them from their present degraded condition.

Report of U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Luke Lea & Governor of Minnesota Territory Alexander Ramsey (1851)

Control.

“In the application of this policy to our wilder tribes, it is indispensably necessary that they be placed in positions where they can be controlled, and finally compelled, by stern necessity, to resort to agricultural labor or starve…. [I]t is only under such circumstances that his haughty pride can be subdued, and his wild energies trained to the more ennobling pursuits of civilized life.”

Report of U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Luke Lea to Secretary of Interior Alexander H. H. Stuart (1850)

Alexander Ramsey, 1850 daguerrotype

Abrogated.

“Be it enacted . . . [t]hat all treaties heretofore made and entered into by the Sisseton, Wahpaton, Medawakanton, and Wahpakoota bands of Sioux or Dakota Indians . . . with the United States, are hereby declared to be abrogated and allulled, so far as said treaties or any of them purport to impose any future obligation on the United States, and all lands and rights of occupancy within the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims heretofore accorded to said Indians… [are declared] to be forfeited to the United States.

Relief Act of Feb. 16, 1863, oh. 37, 12 Stat. 652 (1863)