Minnesota Dakota Diaspora

Abstract

In the early Nineteenth Century, the Sioux had divided into three sub-divisions– the Dakota, the Nakota, and the Lakota. The Dakota occupied most of the territory now known as the state of Minnesota. During that century, through a variety of legal and illegal means, the Dakota lost the overwhelming majority of their land and were legally banished from Minnesota by federal law. This manuscript describes the process by which they lost not only their land but their right to live in Minnesota.