Why are there no Sioux in Minnesota?

Answer 1

There are four Sioux (Dakota) communities in Minnesota and many more who live in urban areas. There are 60,000 Native people in Minnesota and a large portion are Sioux. 35,000 in the St Paul/ Minneapolis area. Probably another 40% list part native on the census. The US census does nt break it down by tribe.

The four communities in Minn. are:

Shakopee Mdewakanton, south of the Twin Cities

Prairie Island - near Red Wing

Lower Sioux -near Redwood Falls

Upper Sioux - near the city of Granite Falls

There are three main reasons why there are less Sioux in Minnisota than there might be.

1) Starting around 1640 the Ojibwe came in contact with the French. Through their friendship with the French traders, the Ojibwe gained guns. They drove their traditional enemies the Sioux to the west and out of much of Minnisota.

2)Smallpox. Around 1780 smallpox reached the Great Plains. The Comanche got it from the Spanish who brought it to the Shoshone , their close relatives. From there it spread north across the plains. By October 22nd, 1781,it was at a Hudson's Bay Company post on the North Saskatchewan River. It is recorded in at least thirteen different winter counts kept by plains Indians in the years 1779-83. Usually at least 1/3-1/2 of the population died.

3) The original Minnesota Dakota Community was established by treaty with the US in 1851. The treaty set aside a 10-mile wide strip of land on both sides of the Minnesota River as the permanent home of the Dakota. After the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862, all treaties were torn up and the Dakota were forced from their homes in the state.

The four communities were reestablished in their current localities by acts of Congress in 1886. The four Dakota Communities today represent small segments of the original reservation that were restored to the Dakota by Acts of Congress or Proclamations of the Secretary of Interior.