History of Survivance: Upper Midwest 19th-Century Native American Narratives

Archaeological Sites

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This short tract in the Dakota language describes the American Bible Society, founded in 1816. The Santee Normal Training School instructed Dakota children in the Dakota language. These children came from families who were removed from Minnesota to Nebraska after the U.S.-Dakota War in 1863. Reverend A.L. Riggs founded the school in 1870 as an academy to train Native teachers. The school developed a printing press in 1871 and produced many materials in the Dakota language.

Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2115 Cliff Drive, Eagan, MN 55122

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Loss of land, culture, religion, and livelihood began in earnest for the Native people of Minnesota starting with the early 19th century. The establishment of American Army forts not as places of trade so much as places to keep Indians out started in 1819 with the founding of Fort Snelling near modern-day Minneapolis. Though missionaries were in the area long before actual congregations, the oldest established church in Minnesota was St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Mendota in 1840; it was built with the specific mission to minister to both the settlers and the Indians of the area. The first railroad began to snake its way through the territory in the mid-1850s, bringing with it a new rush of White settlers.
All of these colonial missions necessitated treaties between the US government and Native nations ceding Native land. While treaties may have started out small-scale in the early 1800s, by the 1830s the United States was claiming huge swathes of Native land by force and coercion.

Colonization

Ancient Legacies

Colonial Narratives

Conflict

Reservation Era

Survivance

Pierre Bottineau and G. A. Bracket chart the course westward for the Northern Pacific Railway, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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Pierre Bottineau and G. A. Bracket chart the course westward for the Northern Pacific Railway in 1869. This photo also includes an Indian woman, two Indian men, and twenty-five railroad scouts. Photo of the expeditionary force was taken on the second day out.

New Brighton Area Historical Society, PO Box 120624, New Brighton, MN 55112

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With the sense of Manifest Destiny in full swing, the railroad system started being built in Minnesota circa the mid-1850s. This image is of Pierre Bottineau and G.A. Bracket, along with three Dakota and several White workers, charting the course westward for the Northern Pacific Railway near Minneapolis in 1869. The impact of the railroad on the Dakota people of Minnesota was severe, resulting in a spike in the Euro-American population that led to yet more land loss and pressure to assimilate into American culture.

History of Survivance: Upper Midwest 19th-Century Native American Narratives

Railroads

Railroads