Pike Island

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Fort Snelling and Pike Island, 1850
Fort Snelling and Pike Island, 1850

Pike Island, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a portion of the 100,000 acres of land purchased from the Mdewakanton Sioux Indians by Zebulon Pike in September of 1805, which later was to become Fort Snelling, Minneapolis, and Saint Paul.[1] The U.S. government wanted to build a fort to protect American interests in the fur trade in the region, and Pike negotiated the treaty. Pike Island is at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, below the bluff where Fort Snelling is situated. The island and the fort are now part of the Minnesota Fort Snelling State Park. Pike valued the land at $200,000, but the U.S. Senate later agreed to pay only $2000.[1]

This drawing of the mass hanging in Mankato, Minnesota was long a familiar icon in Minnesota.
This drawing of the mass hanging in Mankato, Minnesota was long a familiar icon in Minnesota.

In 1819, Colonel Henry Leavenworth invited Jean-Baptiste Faribault, a French Canadian, and his family to settle on Pike Island near the new fort to help promote the fur trade.[2] An 1821 treaty gave ownership of Pike Island to Elizabeth Pelagie Ferribault, a Dakota Indian, and wife of Jean-Baptiste Faribault.[3][4] The six-week Dakota Indian War (Dakota Conflict) of 1862 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of settlers and Indians. As a result of this, more than 400 Dakotas were tried, and 302 men condemned to be executed at Mankato, Minnesota. President Lincoln eventually commuted the sentences of all but 38 Dakota, who were hanged in a mass hanging which took place on December 12, 1862.

Dakota Concentration Camp, 1862
Dakota Concentration Camp, 1862

During this time, more than 1600 Dakota women, children, and old men were held in an internment camp on Pike Island. Living conditions were poor, and disease struck the camp, killing more than three hundred.[5] In May of 1863, the survivors were forced aboard steamboats and relocated to Crow Creek, in the southeastern Dakota Territory, a place stricken by drought at the time. The survivors of Crow Creek were moved three years later to the Santee Reservation in Nebraska.[6][7]


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The Treaty Story. Minnesota Territory. Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  2. ^ Alexander Faribault. City of Faribault Heritage Preservation Commission (2003). Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  3. ^ Krahn, Lisa A.. Was Jean-Baptiste A Spy?. Upper Mississippi Brigade Articles. Upper Mississippi Brigade. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  4. ^ Ska, Kunsi. A Family Outing. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  5. ^ Monjeau-Marz, Corinne L. (October 10, 2005). Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862–1864. Prairie Smoke Press. ISBN 0-9772-7181-1. 
  6. ^ Where the Water Reflects the Past. The Saint Paul Foundation (10-31-2005). Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  7. ^ family History. Census of Dakota Indians Interned at Fort Snelling After the Dakota War in 1862. Minnesota Historical Society (2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
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