“From 1805-1858, treaties between the U.S. government and the Dakota significantly altered the physical, cultural and political landscape of what is now Minnesota. In 1805 the U.S. government acquired the land on which Fort Snelling was built, beginning U.S. territorial expansion into the region. In the space of a few decades, the Dakota ceded approximately 30 million acres of land (nearly 47,000 square miles) to the U.S. government. These treaty negotiations coincided with the decline of the region’s fur trade, and many former traders turned from fur trading to land speculating. In an 1837 treaty, the Dakota ceded approximately 5 million acres to the U.S. government. In 1851 two additional treaties reduced Dakota lands by approximately 24 million acres, leaving the Dakota a reservation along the Minnesota River that was 20 miles wide and 150 miles long. Through two more treaties in 1858, the year Minnesota became a state, the U.S. government acquired the northern half of the reservation. The 1851 treaties established that the Dakota would be paid by the U.S. government for the ceded land in yearly installments called ‘annuities.’ The U.S. government invested the money it paid for the land, and paid the Dakota out of the annual interest the money gained rather than the principal. Further funds were reserved in the treaties to pay off debts claimed by traders, pay for supplies and foodstuffs, and to pay for programs that promoted the acculturation of the Dakota into American society.”