"When the government payments came the traders were on hand with their books, which showed that the Indians owed so much and so much, and as the Indians kept no books they could not deny their accounts, but had to pay them, and sometimes the traders got all their money. I do not say that the traders always cheated and lied about these accounts. I know many of them were honest men and kind and accommodating. . . . But there was always trouble over their credits."
Wambditanka, Mdewakanton Dakota leader, 1894
Treaties stipulated that the Dakota receive their payment in a combination of cash, annuities (in the form of goods, cash, and services), and repayment of debts to traders. Sometimes, traders took this opportunity to claim debts owed to them by Dakota who had bought goods on credit.
After Wahpeton and Sisseton leaders signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, they were ushered to another document, which some later said they were tricked into signing. The Traders’ Paper, as the document is known, turned over about a third of the Dakotas’ cash payments to a group of traders, including Henry Sibley and his associates, to satisfy years of debts allegedly accumulated in the fur trade.
"[A]nd and being desireous to pay to our traders and half breeds the sums of money which we acknowledge to be justly due to them, do hereby obligate and bind ourselves, as the authorized representatives of the aforesaid Bands, to pay to these individuals hereinafter designated, the sums of money set opposite to their respective names, so soon as the same shall be paid us in accordance with the Fourth Article of the Treaty aforesaid."
Source: “Treaty with the Sioux—Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands, 1851,” Jul. 23, 1851, 10 Stats. 949, found in Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. ii, ed. Charles J. Kappler (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904).
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