STATE OF MINNESOTA.

TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS.

In 1837 two important treaties were made with the native tribes of Indians. The first one was made by Gov. Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin, with the Chippewas, at Fort Snelling, on the twenty-ninth of July of that year, whereby the Chippewas ceded to the United States all their pine, or agricultural, lands on the St. Croix river, or its tributaries in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

On the twenty-ninth of September of the same year, at the city of Washington, a treaty was made and executed by Joel R. Poinsett, a special commissioner representing the United States, and about twenty Indian chiefs, accompanied by Maj. Taliaferro, their agent, and Scott Campbell, an interpreter. Through the influence and by the direction of Gov. Dodge, this delegation of chiefs had proceeded to Washington for the purpose of making this treaty, by which the Dakotas ceded to the United States all their lands east of the Mississippi river, including all the islands in the same. The Indians were to receive as consideration for the same $300,000, to be invested in five per cent stocks, the increase of which should be paid to them annually$110,000 in cash, to be divided among the mixed bloods, and $90,000 in payment of debts owing by the tribes.

In 1851, three other treaties were made with the Sioux and with the Chippewa bands of Indians, whereby large tracts of land were ceded to the United States. These treaties were absolutely necessary both to the United States and to the Indians. The buffaloes which once fed in myriads upon every prairie and upon every stream of the territory, now confined their range to the western borders of Minnesota, and left thousands of red men, who depended almost entirely upon the buffalo for their

food and raiment, to destitution and starvation. The Indians were compelled, therefore, either to change entirely their habits and become at once an agricultural people, or to give up their lands and themselves to the guardianship of the United States, and thus secure annual supplies and the paternal care of the government, as they gradually struggled out of the tepee and blanket into the farm house and civilization. Equally necessary was the possession of this territory by the government.

In view of the great extent of country desired, and the importance of the transaction, and the long continued friendship of the Dakota nation, President Fillmore departed from the usual mode of appointing commissioners, and deputed the Hon. Luke Lea, the commissioner of Indian affairs and Gov. Alexander Ramsey, to meet the representatives of the Dakotas, and to conclude with them a treaty for such lands as they might be willing to sell.

On the twenty-seventh of June, 1851, Commissioner Lea arrived in St. Paul on the steamboat Excelsior, and on the twentyninth, he, in company with Gov. Ramsey, landed at Traverse des Sioux, where the great council was to be held, and the treaty consummated with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux. Great delay in the proceedings was caused by the non-arrival of certain Sioux chiefs from the upper country, and it was not until the eighteenth of July that the council convened, and the preliminaries to the treaty commenced. During this interval of about twenty days they all entertained themselves as best they could with races, dances, suppers, sham fights and all sorts of fun. The editor of the Minnesota Pioneer was present and sent daily reports to St. Paul, and some were very amusing. In his report of the ninth of July he says: "Old Six, chief of the Shakopee band, took up a cup the other day in which he smelt whisky a small quantity of which some one had brought for medicinal purposes, and when about to drink it, one of our camp forbade him. He then took our folks aside one by one, and begged and implored them to give him a good swig of whisky-that he actually needed it, and that although a strong temperance man, his health now required a dram. Of course Old Six got nothing by his motion. The next morning he delivered a powerful temperance address to his band, denouncing whisky as fiercely as Father Mathew could have done."

On the eighteenth of July, all the chiefs having arrived, proclamation was made, and being convened in grand council and the

pipe of peace having been passed around, the council was opened by an address from Gov. Ramsey. On the twenty-third of July the treaty was concluded and signed by the chiefs, by which they ceded to the United States all the lands claimed by these bands east of the Sioux river and Lac Traverse towards the Mississippi, excepting a reservation one hundred miles long by twenty miles wide, on the head waters of the Minnesota river.

This sale included 21,000,000 acres of the finest land in the world. By this treaty, the Indians were to remove within two years to this reservation; to receive from our government after removal $275,000 to enable them to settle up their affairs and to become established in their new home; $30,000 was to be expended in breaking land, erecting mills and establishing a manual labor school; and they were also to receive for fifty years from that time, an annuity of $68,000 payable as follows, to-wit: cash $40,000— civilization fund $12,000-goods and provisions $10,000-educational fund $6,000.

The news of this treaty was received in St. Paul with every demonstration of joy; flags were raised; bonfires lighted; muskets discharged and bells rung. The Pioneer of July 31st said; "The news of this treaty exhilarates our town, and it looks fresh, lively and blooming! It is the greatest event by far in the history of the territory since it was organized. It is the pillar of fire that lights us into a broad Canaan of fertile lands. We behold now clearly, in no remote perspective, like an exhibition of dissolving views-the red savages with their tepees, their horses and their famished dogs, fading, vanishing, dissolving away, and in their place a thousand farms, with their fences and white cottages, and waving wheat fields, and vast jungles of rustling maize, and cities and villages crowned with spires, and railroads with trains of cars rumbling afar off; and now, nearer and nearer the train comes, thundering across the bridge into St. Paul, fifteen hours from St. Louis, on the way to Lake Superior. Is this a dream? What but a dream then is the history of the Northwest for the last twenty years?"

On the twenty-ninth of July, 1851, Gov. Ramsey and Commissioner Lea met the chiefs and leading men of the Med-ay wa kantoan and Wah-pay-koo-toy bands of Sioux, at a grand council at Mendota, to negotiate another treaty for the sale of other lands, which treaty was concluded on the fifth of August, and signed by sixty-four chiefs, head men and warriors. By this treaty, these bands of Indians ceded and relinquished all their lands in

the territory of Minnesota and state of Iowa, and in consideration thereof the United States was to reserve for them a home of the average width of ten miles on either side of the Minnesota river, and bounded on the west by the Fe-hay-tom-bay and Yellow Medicine river; on the east by the Little Rock river, and a line running due south from its mouth to the Little Warajar river; to pay them the following sums of money, to-wit: For settling debts and aid in removal $220,000; for erection of buildings, and opening farms, $30,000; civilization fund, to be paid annually, $10,000; educational fund, paid annually, $6,000; goods and provisions, annually, $10,000; cash, $30,000. The annuities were to continue for fifty years from date of treaty.

The commissioners in their report of Aug. 6, 1851, to Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, secretary of the interior, say, "the amount of land acquired by these treaties is computed at over thirty-five (35) millions of acres." Embraced in the articles of cession as part of the above purchase were 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 of acres in amount lying in the state of Iowa, between the line of the old "neutral ground" and the northern and western boundaries of the state. This tract of country, and generally all lands whatever in the state of Iowa claimed by the Sioux were therefore embraced in the articles of cession of both treaties.

The senate of the United States on the twenty-third of June, 1852, did advise and consent to the ratification of each of these treaties, with amendment to each, which amendments were subsequently ratified by the Indians, and on the twenty-fourth of February, 1853, President Millard Fillmore issued his proclamation accepting, ratifying and confirming each of the said treaties as amended.

The third treaty of 1851 was effected by Gov. Ramsey with the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewas at Pembina, by which they ceded certain territory sixty-five miles in width, by one hundred and fifty miles in length, intersected by the Red River of the North. [The forty-ninth parallel of latitude being the northern boundary line, and Goose river, which flows into the Red river from the west, and Buffalo river which empties into it from the east, being the southern boundary.] For this land our government was to pay $30,000 in cash, and $20,000 annually for twenty years. From an apprehension, especially among southern senators, after the confirmation of the two treaties with the Sioux, that too much country was being opened to settlement this treaty with the Chippewas was not confirmed.

On the third of October, 1863, a treaty was concluded at the old crossing of Red Lake river, about twelve miles east of the present city of Crookston, by Alexander Ramsey and Ashley C. Morril, and the chiefs and head men of the Red Lake and of the Pembina bands of Chippewa Indians, for the cession of a large tract of country, of which the boundaries are as follows: Commencing at the intersection of the national boundary with the Lake of the Woods, thence in a southwest direction to the head of Thieving river, thence following that stream to its mouth, thence in a direct line to the head of Wild Rice river, thence following the boundary of the Pillager cession of 1856 to the mouth of said river, thence up the channel of the Red river to the mouth of the Cheyenne, thence up said river to Lake Chicott near the eastern extremity of Devil's lake, thence north to the international boundary, thence east on said boundary to the place of beginning. Embracing all of the American valley of the Red river, except a small portion previously ceded, and estimated to embrace 11,000,000 acres. This treaty was signed by the chiefs and head men of these Chippewa bands and by the commission on the third day of October, 1863, advised and consented to by the senate, with amendments, March 1, 1864. The Indians on the twelfth of April, 1864, ratified their amendments, and President Lincoln, by his proclamation of the fifth of May, 1864, ratified and confirmed the treaty.

The Hon. Henry M. Rice was largely instrumental in consummating other treaties with the Indians in 1853, 1854 and 1863, and at other times, with the Chippewas and Sioux, by which a large portion of the remaining land in Minnesota was ceded to the whites, and thrown open to settlement.

Ex-Gov. Ramsey, Gen. Sibley, H. M. Rice and a host of others were the warm friends of the Indians, and in all their dealings with them, either officially or as private citizens, they acted equitably towards them, and protected them in their rights.