In 1851, the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Dakota Indians at Traverse des Sioux. This treaty opened millions of acres to land-hungry settlers and speculators. The treaty provided reservation land along the upper Minnesota River and a promise of money and food for decades to come.

Just over a decade later, with funds not reaching the Dakota on the Upper and Lower Sioux agencies, and the Indians suffering from near starvation, the conflict of 1862 erupted, resulting in the execution of 38 Dakota in Mankato.