MDL Minnesota Studies Resources

Traverse des Sioux treaty site
In 1851, Dakota leaders signed the Treaty of Mendota and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, giving up most of their ancestral land in exchange for cash payments, goods, education, and small reservations.

Dakota people and Dr. Williamson at Upper Sioux Agency
The Upper Sioux Agency was the federal administrative home for the Dakota reservations on the Minnesota River.

Leech Lake Indian Agency
This government agency was located on the Leech Lake Ojibwe reservation.

St. Benedict’s Mission at White Earth Indian Reservation
Reservations often included mission churches and schools run by local religious leaders like the Sisters of St. Benedict.

Grand Portage reservation photos
The Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe reservation was established by the Treaty of 1854. There, they received annuity payments and goods from the government, part of the treaty terms.

These records document the years of Minnesota Territory, 1849-1858.

Message from the Governor of the Territory of Minnesota to the first Legislative Assembly, 1849

Acts, Joint Resolutions and Memorials passed by the First Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Minnesota, 1850

Territorial laws, statutes, and Supreme Court records, 1850s

Rise and Progress of Minnesota Territory, 1855

These maps show some of the new towns planned for Minnesota Territory.

• St. Anthony, 1848
• Waheoka, 1854
• Northfield, 1855
• Eureka, 1855
• Duluth, 1856
• Dakota, 1856

Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858. These materials relate to the early state.

Constitutional Convention for the State of Minnesota, 1857: 

• Republican debates and proceedings
• Democratic debates and proceedings

Portrait of Henry H. Sibley, first Minnesota State Governor

Minnesota state government officers, 1860

An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota

Minnesota History Timeline, Part 1
Part 1 of this timeline explores significant moments in the history and development of Minnesota from prehistory to 1900.