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JL: In the 1851 treaties they treated [signed treaties] with the Sisseton and Wahpeton first because they knew that they were starving and would be more ready for a treaty. 1837 treaties gave the Eastern Dakota, the Mdewakanton--and I think the Wahpekute were in that treaty -- so much money that some of them stopped hunting. And there were western Indians who also wanted a treaty because they were coming in to live among their eastern relatives off of the money that they were getting on their treaties. That whole process is very complicated.
And I'll mention this: whenever anybody wants to say that the whites stole the Indian land, I ask where did the Dakota Indian get their land? Because before they were here there were Cheyenne, Oto, Arapaho, Iowa. They were forced off by the Dakota Indians when the last of the Dakota were forced out by the Ojibwe out of northern Minnesota.
