The Milford Reservation Line

The Milford Reservation Line. . In 1850 the Minnesota Territory had a white population of about 6000. In 1858, a year before Minnesota became a state, the population was 150,000. , One of the reasons for this enormous growth was the opening of the “Suland,” land belonging to the Dakota Indians. In two treaties, one at Traverse de Sioux (St. Peter) and the other at Mendota, the United States bought the Dakota land for three million dollars, about 10 cents an acre. , The United States Government allowed the Dakota to keep a strip of land, ten miles on each side of the Minnesota River. The eastern boundary of this reservation was a north-south line from the Little Cottonwood River north and crossing the Minnesota River at the mouth of Little Rock Creek. The Dakota people moved into their reservation in 1853, but in 1858 the part of the reservation north of the Minnesota River was sold. , In 1858 surveyors marked out the boundaries of the reservation. When surveyors drew the north-south boundary, the mouth of the Rock Creek was about 700 yards east of where it is today. This marker is on the 1858 north-south reservation line. , This marker was erected in 2012 with funds donated by the descendants of Benedict Juni Sr. and his wife, Ernestine Klingbeil Massipust Juni.