immediately
presented to the world a very attractive field for immigration. The most
desirable lands in the new territory were on the west side of the
Mississippi, but the title to them was still in the Indians. The whites
could not wait until this was extinguished, but at once began to settle
on the land lying on the west bank of the Mississippi, north of the
north line of Iowa, and in the new territory. These settlements extended
up the Mississippi river as far as St. Cloud, in what is now Stearns
county, and extended up the Minnesota river as far as the mouth of the
Blue Earth river, in the neighborhood of Mankato. These settlers were
all trespassers on the lands of the Indians, but a little thing like
that never deterred a white American from pushing his fortunes towards
the setting sun. It soon became apparent that the Indians must yield to
the approaching tidal wave of settlement, and measures were taken to
acquire their lands by the United States. In 1851, Luke Lea, then
commissioner of Indian affairs, and Alexander Ramsey, then governor of
the Territory of Minnesota and ex-officio superintendent of Indian
affairs, were appointed commissioners to treat with the Indians at
Traverse des Sioux, and, after much feasting and talking, a treaty was
completed and signed, on the twenty-third day of July, 1851, between the
United States and the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux, whereby
these bands ceded to the United States a vast tract of land lying in
Minnesota and Iowa, and reserved for their future occupation a strip of
land on the upper Minnesota, ten miles wide on each side of the center
line of the river. For this cession they were to be paid $1,665,000,
which was to be paid, a part in cash to liquidate debts, etc., and five
per cent per annum on the balance for fifty years, the interest to be
paid annually, partly in cash and partly in funds for agriculture,
civilization, education, and in goods of various kinds; which payments,
when completed, were to satisfy both principal and interest, the policy
and expectation of the government being that at the end of fifty years
the Indians would be civilized and self-sustaining.

Amendments were made to this treaty in the senate, and it was not fully
completed and proclaimed until Feb. 24, 1853.

Almost instantly after the execution of this treaty, and on Aug. 5,
1851, another treaty was negotiated by the same commissioners with two
other bands of Sioux in Minnesota, t