What's in a Treaty?

You can examine the actual Treaty of Traverse des Sioux document by clicking on each page in the Annotated Documents section on this web page. 

In 1851 the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, which, along with the subsequent Treaty of Mendota with the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands, ceded to the United States most of southern and central Minnesota. At Traverse des Sioux, the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota ceded 21 million acres for $1,665,000, or about 7.5 cents an acre. Of that amount, $275,000 was set aside to pay debts claimed by traders and to relocate the Dakota. Another $30,000 was allocated to establish schools and to prepare the new reservation for the Dakota.

The U.S. government kept more than 80 percent of the money ($1,360,000), with the Dakota receiving only the interest on the amount, at 5 percent for 50 years. The terms of the Mendota treaty were similar, though with even smaller payments. The treaties of 1851 also called for setting up reservations on both the north and south sides of the Minnesota River. But when the treaties came before the U.S. Senate, the reservations were eliminated, leaving the Dakota with no place to live. Congress required that the Dakota approve this change before it would appropriate cash or goods, both desperately needed. President Millard Fillmore agreed that the Dakota could live on the land previously set aside for reservations, but only until it was needed for white settlement.

Also see the Traders' Paper.