In the mid-eighteenth century, the Wahpekute and Mdewakanton bands of the Dakota tribe moved from northern Minnesota into southern Minnesota as a result of a loss in battle to the Ojibwe.
The Wahpekute settled in the region that would later become Rice County, with semi-permanent settlements around Cannon and Cedar lakes. Here, they lived mainly in forested areas and used the Cannon and Straight rivers for transportation. Though the Wahpekute lived here, numerous other tribes also had claims to the region, leading to disputes over contested land.
The Cannon River proved fruitful in the fur trade for the Wahpekute and other new arrivals: in 1826, Alexander Faribault set up a trading post along the Cannon River. In 1834, both Faribault and the Wahpekute moved their trading post and communities to the junction of the Cannon River and the Straight River. The groups traded peacefully with one another for a time.
In 1851, as a response to increased migration to Minnesota territory, the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and the Treaty of Mendota were passed by the US government. These treaties forced the Wahkepute to resettle on reservations in Redwood Falls and Morton, Minnesota.
The US-Dakota War of 1862 resulted in many of the Dakota people to be forcibly and violently exiled from southeastern Minnesota.
Today, four federally recognized and one federally unrecognized Dakota communities exist in Minnesota: Prairie Island, Lower Sioux, Upper Sioux, Shakopee, and Mendota. To learn more about their history and current efforts to interrupt past injustices, visit these resources:
