YANKTON SIOUX MESSENGER

Peg Meier
Star Tribune
Published November 18, 2004

A nationally significant treaty between the United States and the Yankton Sioux in 1858 has been acquired by the Minnesota Historical Society, thanks to private donors, and will go on display in St. Paul next week. "This extraordinary document is the rarest item I've come across in the almost 30 years I've been with the Historical Society," Patrick Coleman, acquisitions librarian, said Wednesday.The elegant hand-written treaty was written with feather pen and ink. Signed by white and Indian leaders, it is one of only two or three original copies of the 1858 agreement. The copy had been owned by a private collector in Canada.The treaty called for the Indians to cede more than 11 million acres of land known as the Yankton Delta, between the Big Sioux and Missouri rivers in exchange for a 430,000-acre reservation. The land the Indians gave up is what is now generally South Dakota, although at the time of the signing, just before Minnesota became a state, it was part of Minnesota Territory. The Yankton were to receive services or $1.6 million in annuities, paid over 50 years. They actually received little. A treaty provision gave the government a loophole; at the discretion of the president, the money could be withheld if the Indians did not "make reasonable and satisfactory efforts to advance and improve their condition." Said Coleman: "It was a no-win situation for the Indians." Yankton leaders spent five months in Washington, D.C., beginning in December 1857, while the treaty was being negotiated. They refused to sign until they were given the rights to quarry the stone they long considered sacred at Pipestone, Minn. Those rights still exist. To acquire the manuscript, private donors contributed $40,000. No tax money was involved, and the Historical Society was able to quickly obtain the document that other institutions with large endowments would have wanted, Coleman said. "It gives us great honor to house a piece of history that has such enormous significance," he said.

Tribal conflicts

The story of that treaty starts in 1851, when the U.S. government negotiated the earlier Traverse des Sioux Treaty with Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota Sioux people. Through that treaty, the Sisseton and Wahpeton ceded most of their lands in southwestern Minnesota Territory, including land that the Yankton also claimed. Intertribal conflicts broke out. At the same time, white farmers wanted to control the fertile land, and towns were forming. The secretary of the interior called for the Yankton to be removed.The U.S. government brought 16 Yankton leaders to Washington. The Indians didn't agree among themselves on the bargaining. Yankton Chief Struck-by-the-Ree had seen white settlement advance and thought the Indians would have to acquiesce. (Lewis and Clark had happened to be in a Yankton village on the Missouri River when Struck-by-the-Ree was born in 1804. Legend says they asked to see the new baby, held him and proclaimed that he would grow up to a great peacemaker.) Other Yankton, such as Smutty Bear, lived farther north, thought they could keep their land and didn't want to sign the treaty. (His name is a poor translation of "The man who makes himself dark like a bear," meaning he used camouflage). But Struck-by-the-Ree was able to keep the peace and persuade most of his tribe to adjust to their new situation. The U.S. Senate ratified the document on Feb. 16, 1859, and it became official with the signature of President James Buchanan 10 days later. (The Historical Society copy is not signed by the president.) One treaty copy is in the National Archives. Officials don't know if the copy that the Historical Society has acquired originally belonged to the Yankton or if it was an extra copy. It's a 12-page manuscript, about 20 inches wide by 17 inches long. It had been tightly bound for a long time with a ribbon, and the pressure broke bottoms of the pages. Overall, though, the document is in great shape. How rare?

Coleman said an unidentified Canadian who owned the treaty put it up for sale about a month ago. Robert Rulon-Miller, a Twin Cities rare-book dealer, heard of it and brought it on consignment to the Historical Society. Rulon-Miller told Coleman, "Now let's look at your other Indian treaties to compare it." Coleman had no others. The document is so rare that Alan Woolworth, the Historical Society's expert on early Indians, said initially, "I hope you can get your money back, because it's bound to be a fake." It isn't, he and others decided after examining it carefully. Coleman said the first prospective donor who saw it said, "Put me down for five." Five what? Coleman wondered. Five thousand dollars, it turned out. Other donors include Historical Society board members and a Twin Cities law firm that works extensively with Indians. Coleman said the donors' quick action kept the document from being auctioned to a high bidder, such as libraries at Yale and Harvard universities. In the past 10 or 15 years, large-endowment institutions have swept up many documents of prime interest to the Midwest that Coleman had bid on. A pleased Nina Archabal, Historical Society director, said, "This document will long serve the public and remind us of an important story that is too easily forgotten."