Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/108

 CHAPTER VII. INDIAN TREATIES. Prairie du Chien in 1825— Second Treaty in 1830— Treaty of 1837— Doty Treaty in 1841— Treaty of Mendota in 1851— Land Open to Settlement — Prairie Island Indians. While the whites, at their own inclination, were shifting the sovereignty of the vast tract including within its scope what is now Goodhue county, the Indians, nevertheless, had claims which the nations had, in a measure at least, to acknowledge. The Sioux were not only in practical, but in actual possession, and it was only after long negotiations that the country was opened for permanent white settlement. The treaty of Prairie du Chien, signed in 1825, was important to the Sioux living in this vicinity, in that it fixed certain boun- daries. The eastern boundary of the Sioux territory was to com- mence on the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the "Ioway" river, running back to the bluffs, and along the bluffs to the Bad Ax river; thence to the mouth of Black river, and thence to "half a day's march" below the falls of the Chip- pewa. The boundary lines were certainly, in some respects, quite indefinite, and whether this was the trouble or not, at any event, it was but a few months after the treaty when it was evident that neither the Dakotas nor Ojibways were willing to be governed by the lines established — and hardly by any others. The first article of the treaty provided : ' ' There shall be a firm and per- petual peace between the Sioux and the Chippewas ; between the Sioux and the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes ; and between the Ioways and the Sioux.*' But this provision was more honored in the breach than the observance, and in a little time the tribes named were flying at one another's throats and engaged in their old-time hostilities. On the part of the Sioux this treaty was signed by Chiefs Wabasha, Little Crow, Standing Buffalo. Sleepy Eye, Two Faces, Tah-sah-ghee, or "His Cane;" Black Dog. Wah-ah-na-tah, or "The Charger;" Red Wing, Shakopee, Penishon and Eagle Head, and also by a number of head soldiers and "principal men." The Chippewa signers were 74