Politics | Page 87

Dred and Harriet Scott in Minnesota

African Americans Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson Scott lived at Fort Snelling in the 1830s as enslaved people. Both the Northwest Ordinance (1787) and the Missouri Compromise (1820) prohibited slavery in the area, but slavery existed there even so. In the 1840s the Scotts sued for their freedom, arguing that having lived in “free territory” made them free. The 1857 Supreme Court decision that grew out of their suit moved the U.S. closer to civil war.

Engraved portrait of Henry M. Rice

Engraved portrait of Henry M. Rice, c.1860.

Color map of Indian Land Cessions and Reservations in Minnesota to 1858

Native American Land Cessions and Reservations to 1858

Map of the lands within Minnesota Territory ceded by Native Americans by 1858. Created by Alan Ominsky ca. 1999. Reproduced in Making Minnesota Territory, 1849–1858 (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1999), page 7.

Annuities being paid at the Fond Du Lac reservation

Annuities being paid at the Fond Du Lac reservation, c.1865.

Treaty of La Pointe, 1854

The second Treaty of La Pointe (1854) ceded most Ojibwe land on the northern and western shores of Lake Superior to the U.S. government. It also established the Grand Portage and Fond du Lac reservations. In exchange, the Ojibwe received annual payments and a guarantee that they could continue to hunt and fish throughout this territory.