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Description

Early Map of Minnesota Territory

Scarce early map of Minnesota Territory by J.S. Redfield, lithographed by Sarony & Co. of New York.

The map shows early counties, towns, rivers, lakes, topographical features and several eary roads.

An annotation on the Upper Mississippi notes "Pembina Treaty rejected by U.S.Senate," a reference to a failed treaty with the Ojibwe Indians.

Following the creation of Minnesota Territory, the government entered into negotiations with the local tribes to acquire lands. The Dakota relinquished any claim to the Red River Valley in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and to most of the rest of the future State of Minnesota in the Treaty of Mendota in 1851. Within a few weeks, the United States Indian Commissioners also negotiated a separate treaty at Pembina whereby the Red Lake Band and the Pembina Band of Ojibwe ceded their rights to over 5,000,000 acres in the Red River Valley land extending 30 miles on each side of the Red River.

In the face of opposition from Southern states concerned about the balance of free and slave states as a result of Minnesota expansionism, and in order to preserve and obtain ratification of the Sioux treaties and land cessions which also had just been secured, the Northern sponsors of the Pembina treaty withdrew their support, the Senate denied confimation, and the Ojibwe land cession failed.