of the Union. Nearly all of Minnesota, about as large as both those states, was owned at that time by the Indians. Two great tribes that figure conspicuously in Indian history, the Dakotas and the Ojibways, were here, the Dakotas occupying nearly half the area, and the Ojibways the other half in the north. We happened to be located with our towns and earlier settlements in the southern part of this region, in the Dakota country. And from that early beginning, in fifty years, with the country occupied in wars and troubles of one sort and another, we have been growing to an extent that no one probably at the time anticipated. By even the most farsighted, it could scarcely have been anticipated. We have large towns, quite large towns. Here is one close west of us, probably with a population of two hundred thousand, or more; we in the capital city count somewhat less, but we are very willing to be equal with our neighbor, and may some day attain it. We have other towns of sixty, and twenty, and twelve thousand inhabitants. We have a university which would be the pride of any state, surpassed in its number of students by only one or two others in the Union. We have every kind of institution which usually shows the growth of civilization and increased population, and all this has been achieved in fifty years of time. I doubt whether in the whole history of our country any instance of so great progress of a new state can be pointed out.

So late as 1851, after the treaties with the Dakota Indians at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, I was instructed by the government to take a party and proceed to the Red river valley, near the British line, to make a treaty with the Ojibways of Red river, and with those on the west side of the river, for the extinguishment of their title, that the government might distribute lands for homes among the settlers who had come down in great numbers from the Red river country, as it was then called, comprising the Selkirk settlements. This was probably in the month of August or September of 1851. We had a military escort, not a very large one, for our protection in the Indian country; and a great number accompanied the expedition, for one purpose and another. We proceeded to Sauk Rapids. The roads of course were very indifferent, the settlements had just commenced, and there with considerable difficulty we were assisted in crossing the Mississippi river,

and thence passed out to the Bois des Sioux river, which is one of the headwaters of the Red river of the North. We passed down the far side of the Red river, and at a point which I suppose to have been about ten miles west of where the city of Fargo now is, we came across a monstrous herd of buffalo. I think there must have been five thousand in it. We traveled with them, and they with us. We were indifferent to each other. We occasionally killed one. And so we went down to near the crossing of the river, near the present town of Pembina. There we camped for three or four weeks and negotiated a treaty with those Indians. In all that distance, I was going to say, in all that long line of four hundred miles, we did not see, excepting those who belonged to our own party, a white man or a white woman, an Indian, or a mixed-blood,— not one in over four hundred miles. We saw no other human beings than those who were with us. Since that time progress has taken place in that formerly uninhabited and unimproved country. Now all that country is occupied by farms, villages, and towns; it is cut up into counties; and the organizations which characterize a prosperous and cultured people have followed. Schools have been erected, colleges established, and every kind of benevolent and charitable institution. You have them everywhere, just as perfect as in any state in this Union.

But I need not further recall the past, nor contrast it with the present time, tracing the steps of our advance. These themes will be well considered by those gentlemen who have been specially appointed to address you. They will review the work accomplished by this Historical Society, and the progress of Minnesota and of the United States, during the fifty years since the organization of our society and of Minnesota Territory.

ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH OF THE MINNESOTA

HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

BY GEN. WILLIAM G. LE DUC.

Because I am one of the few surviving members of the Minnesota Historical Society whose record of membership dates back to the year 1850, the year in which the active life of the society began, I have been assigned the task of reciting such of the incidents of organization and growth as may be recapitulated in the brief period of ten to fifteen minutes. The limitation of time will therefore permit me only to outline the beginning and somewhat of the progress of a beneficent literary institution, which in the most unpretentious manner began its existence in a frontier log tavern on Bench street in the then village of St. Paul, fifty years ago. This subject has heretofore been treated by other members of the society, and I can add but little, if anything, beyond a repetition or verification of statements made at previous meetings.

The society had its origin in the suggestion and action of one whose unpopularity at that time and afterward tended to hinder, rather than to promote, any scheme he might have proposed or been associated with. Seeking the real genesis of the Minnesota Historical Society, the reason why the Secretary of the Territory, Charles K. Smith, took active interest. in this matter, I found in the printed records of the society, in an address made by our venerable President Ramsey, that he surmised that Mr. Smith had been connected with a historical society in his native state, Ohio, and saw the importance of collecting the past and current history of the new country to which he had been sent as secretary of the territorial government. This suggestion is very close to the truth.