1863 & 1864: Land Cession Treaties with the Ojibwe (Mississippi, Pillager, Lake Winnibigoshish Bands)

Clark W. Thompson and Benjamin Thompson

A banker, land and railroad speculator and Minnesota legislator, Clark W. Thompson received a political appointment to the important position of Northern Superintendent of Indian Affairs, centered in Minnesota. His tenure, which began in 1861, was characterized by wide-scale fraud and contributed significantly to the Dakota War of 1862.

Clark’s brother Benjamin was placed in charge of selecting the place to which Dakota were forcibly removed after the War: Crow Creek in what is now South Dakota. He became the Indian agent there, a place characterized by “the lack of rain, the lack of timber, the dryness of the creeks, the isolation, and the unproductiveness of the prairie.” Under his direction, “rations were given on Saturday, eaten up by Sunday and the Indians starved for the rest of the week.”

Clark signed 3 Ojibwe treaties in 1863 and 1864, as well as treaties with the Omaha and Ho-Chunk in 1865. Benjamin signed Ojibwe treaties in 1864 and 1866, and a post-removal treaty with the Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota in 1867.

Henry Mower Rice (and Edmund Rice)

Henry Mower Rice (signer of Ojibwe treaties in 1847, 1854, 1855 and 1863) began his career selling goods to military forts and trading with the Ojibwe and Ho-Chunk. Arriving in St. Paul, he purchased land claims around the area of St. Paul. (The use of funds from his employer, Pierre Chouteau, for his own land speculation led to embarrassment when his books were audited.) He eventually parlayed his trading connections and political ambitions into a position of power in US politics and US-Indian relations.

In 1847, Rice became the spokesman for the Ojibwe at a land cession treaty in Washington. In 1851, he offed to secure Dakota signatures on a land cession treaty if he were paid $10,000. Fur traders put up the money, and the Dakota sold millions of acres of their land. "Just how he accomplished this masterstroke has never been fully determined." (Wingerd, North Country.) When Minnesota became a State, Rice became the State's first US Senator.

Henry and his brother Edmund (a US Representative from Minnesota) acquired extensive land holdings, directorships in railroads, and other interests that related to US-Indian relations, becoming the chief rivals of Henry Sibley in both business and politics.

Morrison and Kittson

The Morrison/Kittson family developed an intricate network of connections - business interests, political positions, and family ties - that spanned the entire treaty-making era for Ojibwe people in what is now Minnesota.

William Morrison and his brother Alan (who signed the Ojibwe treaties of 1847) were prominent fur traders who married into both Ojibwe and white families. (Morrison County is named after them.) Their mixed-blood children received "half breed" tracts in an 1826 treaty. Their white children became business leaders in Minnesota. Alan's son John, a signer of 1863 and 1864 Ojibwe treaties, became chief of police at White Earth. William's son D. G. Morrison, who signed treaties in 1863 and 1866, was one of the original incorporators of Fond du Lac, which became Duluth.

One of William's wives was a sister of Norman Kittson (for whom Kittson County is named), one of the most prominent early Minnesotans in the freight and transportation industries.

Alan Morrison and his nephew D. G., as well as Norman Kittson, were Territorial legislators.