Lower Sioux Indian Community To Get Ancestral Land Back From Minnesota, MN Historical Society

Thursday, February 04, 2021

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Lower Sioux Indian Community tribal leaders say that land with historical significance will be returned to the Community from the State of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society.

According to Community Council President Robert Larsen, plans are being finalized for the land acquisition, with the closing date of the transfer expected on Feb. 12. The land includes MHS parcels at the site where the U.S. Dakota War of 1862 started, which eventually led to the the “largest single day, mass execution in U.S. History.”

“This transfer is of great historical significance,” the tribe said in a release. “The United States established the Lower Sioux Agency site in 1853 in response to the Mendota Treaty of 1851, between the Mdewankanton and Wahpekute bands of Dakota. In 1862, after a decade of United States’ unfulfilled treaty obligations, the Dakota raised arms fighting for enforcement of the treaties. Many lost their lives on both sides. On December 26, 1862, the United States imposed the largest mass execution in the history of the United States – 38 Dakota men were hung in Mankato, MN, for defending their people.”

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