The Genesis of Washington Avenue

The Genesis of Washington Avenue. . , [Caption:] Little Crow, A Sioux Chief, circa 1836, Prior to European settlement, the path defining what would become Washington Avenue, along with the Mississippi River, served as a major highway for trade and travel by the Dakota, Ojibwe and other American Indians before them for thousands of years. Skilled hunters and trappers, they were also careful stewards of the land, reseeding rice beds and maintaining healthy soil through controlled burns. A deeply spiritual people, they perceived the divine wherever they looked , in a thunderbolt from the sky, the swoop of an eagle, the twisted branches of an old cedar tree , and thus held the land and natural water resources in high reverence., However, after the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, at which Chief Little Crow played a notable role in the negotiation, the land west of the Mississippi was purchased from the Dakota and opened for settlement in the following year. And, as land became available, speculators who valued industrial enterprise raced to claim land and waterpower rights at St. Anthony Falls, thus dramatically changing the landscape of the Minneapolis riverfront and the Indian footpath forever., Image Source: Minnesota Historical Society, Little Crow, A Sioux Chief. Lithographer: Charles Bird King (1785-1862). Art Collection, Lithograph 1836. Text Sources: Washington Ave: from the first street of Minneapolis to 21st century boulevard. St. Anthony Fall Historic Dist website. http://www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/history_12000.shtml. http://www.tolatsga.org/ojib.html. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Crow. http://www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/history_treaties.shtml. http:www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/history_early.shtml.