Dakota Reservation and the Leavenworth Road

Dakota Reservation and the Leavenworth Road. . In the summer of 1851 the Dakota Indians, a group of Native Americans who lived in Southern Minnesota, sold their land, 35 million acres, to the United States for $3,000,000. The Dakota agreed to move to a reservation which included land ten miles on each side of the Minnesota River. In 1858, the US government purchased the northern half of the reservation. , The eastern part of the reservation was in Brown County with the boundary running south from Little Rock Creek to the Little Cottonwood and then at a 65° angle going northwest to western Minnesota. One of the few places where this angle can be seen is near this marker. The fields just to the northwest of this marker and the tree line and bushes follow the angle of the 1851 reservation line. , Also near this marker was the New Ulm to Leavenworth Trail. This trail allowed the settlers in the Leavenworth area to bring their produce to New Ulm and to purchase supplies. The road ended where Old Leavenworth was laid out. Some of the settlers in Leavenworth and southern Milford used the Leavenworth Trail to flee to New Ulm at the time of the US–Dakota War of 1862. , This marker was erected 2012 with funds from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Legacy Program in cooperation with the Sleepy Eye Historical Society and Leavenworth Township.