Map by Charles C. Royce titled “Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784–1894.” Public domain.

Map showing land cessions made by Native Americans in the present-day state of Minnesota between 1784 and 1894.

Detail of a map of land claimed by France for King Louis XV and the route of the Mississippi River (Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississippi), 1718. Map by Guillaume de L'Isle, published by Chez l'Auteur. The map shows three French fur trading forts, labeled “Vieux forts,” just below the label “Saut de S. Antoine” (S.t Anthony Falls, Minneapolis). Two of them were likely trading posts built by Le Sueur (1695 and 1700). The third remains a mystery. Ten years later a fourth fort would be built at the site of Frontenac. The Root River is listed as “R. aux Ecors.” The Prairie du Chien area is at the mouth of the Wisconsin River, listed as “Ouisconsing R.” From this river to the west is the “Chemin des Voyageurs”—the Voyageurs’ Trail—ending at a large “Aiaouez” (Ioway; Bahkhoje) village whose residents traded buffalo products and pipestone with Europeans. From the maps collection of the MInnesota Historical Society, St. Paul (G3700 1718 .L5 Reserve 4F).

View of Dakota canoers on the Mississippi River eighteen miles above Prairie du Chien. Watercolor on paper by Seth Eastman, 1846-1848.

The village of Wakan Ozanzan (Medicine Bottle) on the Mississippi River (at present-day Pine Bend) in a view recorded by Seth Eastman in the 1840s and printed by Henry Lewis as a lithograph on paper ca. 1855.

Red Wing's village, seventy miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, ca. 1846–1848. Watercolor by Seth Eastman.

Wabasha III, a Dakota leader, ca. 1860. Photograph by Charles A. Zimmerman.

Seated, left to right: Nop Ska, Dr. Frank Powell, and (probably) Green Rainbow, 1879. An autograph below the photograph reads, “Fraternally and with sincere respect, I am, dear fellows, Yours, “Nop-Ska.” Others unknown. Photograph collection (2006.14), Lanesboro Historical Preservation Association, Lanesboro, Minnesota. Used with the permission of the Lanesboro Historical Preservation Association.

Letter sent from David Olmsted to Antoine Grignon requesting tea and sugar, June 21, 1851. Olmsted was living at and managing a trading post at Long Prairie at the time. From the Eben Douglas Pierce papers (Manuscripts Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison). Used with the permission of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Hay-nee-ah-cha (Soaking Mountain, also known as Trempealeau Mountain), Trempealeau Bay, Mississippi River. Photograph by Grant Pavek, date unknown. Used with the permission of Grant Pavek.