Treaty of Mendota

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The Treaty of Mendota (10 Stat. 954) was signed in Mendota, Minnesota, on August 5, 1851, between the United States federal government and the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota people of Minnesota.

The agreement was signed near Pilot Knob on the south bank of the Minnesota River and within sight of Fort Snelling. The treaty stipulated that the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands were to receive US$1,410,000 in return for relocating to the Lower Sioux Agency on the Minnesota River near present-day Morton, Minnesota along with giving up their rights to a significant portion of southern Minnesota.

With the signing of the Treaty of Mendota along with the earlier Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (10 Stat. 949), most of southern Minnesota became open to white settlement.

Map of ceded territory can be seen through the Library of Congress here in orange