Editing Fort Snelling (section)

===Land cession treaty===
[[File:Zebulon Pike.jpg|left|thumb|Lieutenant Zebulon Pike acquired the land for the fort in 1805]]

In 1805, Lieutenant [[Zebulon Pike]] signed a treaty he was unauthorized to create, known as [[Pike's Purchase]] ([[Treaty of St. Peters|1805 Treaty of St. Peters]]). There were seven Dakota members present, with only two signing the treaty: Cetan Wakuwa Mani (Petit Corbeau) and Way Aga Enogee (Waynyaga Inaźin). It ceded 155,320 acres of land in the area  (400&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>).<ref name=":3" /> The document offered an unspecified amount of money, later valued at $2,000, for the land.  The treaty states:<blockquote>Article One — That the Sioux nation grants unto the United States for the purpose of establishment of military posts, nine miles square at the mouth of river St. Croix, also from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters, up the Mississippi to Include the falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river.<ref>Government relations with the Dakota Sioux (1851–1876), University of Montana Dissertation, Kenneth Burton Moore, 1937 [https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3487&context=etd]</ref></blockquote>Legal scholars, historians, and the Dakota have long raised questions about the validity of the 1805 treaty.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news|last=Edgerton|first=Jay|date=October 8, 1955|title=Pike Treaty Was Long Disputed|page=6|work=The Minneapolis Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92702973/the-minneapolis-star/|access-date=2022-01-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1955|title=On the Historical Horizon|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20175977|journal=Minnesota History|volume=34|issue=8|pages=355|jstor=20175977}}</ref> Although Pike was an army officer, he was not authorized to sign a treaty on behalf of the United States, nor were there any formal witnesses.<ref name=":8"/> Pike represented the treaty as having been agreed with the entire Sioux nation, but in reality it was only signed by representatives of two Mdewakanton villages.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Meyer|first=Roy Willard|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsantees0000meye_j1w9/page/26/mode/2up|title=History of the Santee Sioux: United States Indian policy on trial|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1967|location=Lincoln|pages=24–27|isbn=9780803281097}}</ref>

From a legal point of view, there was insufficient description of the land the signers intended to [[Conveyancing|convey]].<ref name=":8"/> Furthermore, there was no consideration, or payment terms, stated in the treaty.<ref name=":8"/> Pike wrote in his journal he thought the land was worth US$200,000, but within the treaty itself he left the payment amount blank,<ref name=":2" /> deferring to Congress to determine the final amount to be paid.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anderson|first=Gary Clayton|title=Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota–White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650–1852|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1984|isbn=0-87351-353-3|pages=82}}</ref> On April 16, 1808, when the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] finally ratified the treaty, it approved payment to the Dakota in the amount of only $2,000.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Pike|first=Zebulon |url=https://archive.org/details/expeditionsofzeb01pikeuoft|title=The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike|publisher=Francis P. Harper|year=1895|editor-last=Coues|editor-first=Elliott |volume=1|location=New York|pages=83, 238–240}}</ref> Payment for the ceded lands only arrived in 1819, when the [[United States Department of War]] sent Major Thomas Forsyth to distribute approximately $2,000 worth of goods.<ref name=":52">{{Cite journal|last=Forsyth|first=Thomas|date=1908|title=Journal of a Voyage from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony, in 1819|url=https://archive.org/details/collectionsstate06stat/page/n389/mode/2up|journal=Wisconsin Historical Collections|volume=6|pages=188–189|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> In 1838, Indian agent [[Lawrence Taliaferro]] paid a further $4,000 to try to settle the matter with the other Dakota band.  The issue was raised in subsequent treaty negotiations in the 1850s.<ref name=":8"/>  In 1863, the US Congress passed an act which "abrogated and annulled" all treaties with the Dakota people.<ref name="Vogel 2013">{{Cite journal|title=Rethinking the Effect of the Abrogation of the Dakota Treaties and the Authority for the Removal of the Dakota People from their Homeland|first=Howard|last=Vogel|journal=William Mitchell Law Review|volume=39|issue=2|year=2013|pages=538–581|url=https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1491&context=wmlr}}</ref>  The moral legitimacy of the land title is still disputed.<ref name="Čhaŋtémaza 2020">{{Cite journal|title=Where we stand: The University of Minnesota and Dakhóta Treaty Lands|last1=Čhaŋtémaza (Neil McKay) |first2=Monica|last2=McKay|journal=Open Rivers|issue=17|year=2020|url=https://openrivers.lib.umn.edu/article/where-we-stand/}}</ref>

[[Pike Island]], at the mouth of the [[Minnesota River]], was later named after Zebulon Pike.<ref name="mngeo">{{cite book|author=Upham|first=Warren |url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageograp00upharich/page/510/mode/2up|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|year=1920|location=St. Paul|pages=169–170|access-date=2021-08-22}}</ref>