07/24/2026
On July 23, 1851, US government officials and Sisítuƞwaƞ and Waḣpétuƞwaƞ Daḳóta representatives signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, after several weeks of treaty negotiations with more than 1,000 Daḳóta Oyáte (people) gathered around Oíyuweġe (a Daḳóta term for ford/crossing).
The treaty had three primary results: First, it ceded much of the southern and western portion of Minnesota to the US for about seven and a half cents an acre. Second, Daḳóta people retained a reservation of land ten miles wide on each side of the Minnesota River. The treaty said nothing about rights to hunt and harvest outside the reservation's boundaries. This caused tensions when the US government fell short on its promise to provide food for Daḳóta people.
Finally, the treaty arranged for payment to the Sisítuƞwaƞ and Waḣpétuƞwaƞ bands for the land they had ceded. Unbeknownst to Daḳóta Itaƞc̣aƞ (leaders), an illegal addendum was added to the treaty, a document known as the “traders papers” that forfeited more than a third of the Daḳóta cash payments to a group of traders, including Henry Sibley and his associates.
Many of the Daḳóta leaders felt deceived by the treaty and its process. Added to the failed promises of earlier treaties, the misdirection over the traders papers further eroded trust in the government's word. Mdewákaƞtuƞwaƞ and Waḣpékute bands signed a similar treaty twelve days later. The pattern of deceit and failed promises laid the groundwork for the US-Dakota War of 1862.
Image: Traverse des Sioux treaty marker. Approximately 1950. Minnesota Historical Society. Saint Paul, MN.
