Minneapolis/Saint Anthony Falls Historic District

The Saint Anthony Falls Historic District is an area of Minneapolis, nestled between downtown, Northeast Minneapolis, and Southeast Minneapolis. The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Understand
The district is an architectural, historical, and natural gem in the historical heart of Minneapolis. Its history dates from use as sacred and utilitarian site by the indigenous peoples of the region, through being the center of one of the Midwest's great milling districts, to today's mix of commercial, residential, and recreational uses.

Indigenous displacement by US settlement
An understanding of this historic area is not complete without considering how it came into the hands of white European settlers. At the time of this area's European settlement, the majority of what is now southern Minnesota was occupied by the Eastern Dakota (Sioux) people who had lived in the region for thousands of years. (The areas of northern Minnesota were occupied by the Anishinaabe, or Ojibwe, peoples.) After the formation of the United States and as white settlement headed west, the lands of Minnesota were ceded to, or taken by, state and federal governments.

The first of these land transfers relevant to the Twin Cities was Zebulon Pike's 1805 Treaty of St. Peters with the Dakota, which sold a large portion of the land on which the Twin Cites now sits, for a mere $2,000. However, the status of this treaty (it was never "proclaimed" by the President) and its boundaries were murky.

A much less ambiguous cession of the Dakota lands in this historic district east of the Mississippi came in June 1838 with the proclamation of the Treaty of 1837 with the Dakota. Not long thereafter in 1849 the Minnesota Territory was formed, and the township of Saint Anthony platted on the east bank to harness the Falls of St. Anthony.

In 1851, the treaties of Traverse de Sioux and Mendota ceded the Dakota lands west of the Mississippi to white settlement. In 1855, on the west bank of the river, the platt for Minneapolis was submitted. Only three years later, in 1858, Minnesota became a state.

The last nail in to coffin of Dakota occupation in Minnesota was the Dakota War of 1862 – 1863, after which Congress abrogated all treaties with the Dakota and they were exiled from the state (with State-sponsored bounties for their scalps). In less than 60 years since the first treaty in 1805, all Dakota had been driven from Minnesota.

Read

 * Saint Anthony Falls Rediscovered: The heritage of Minneapolis's St. Anthony Falls Historic District. Minneapolis Riverfront Development Coordination Board (1981).
 * The Falls of St. Anthony: The waterfall that built Minneapolis. Kane, Lucile M. (1987). Minnesota Historical Society Press. (Earlier edition was published as The Waterfall That Built a City in 1966.
 * Oldest Twin Cities: A guide to historic treasures. Severson, Julie Jo (2023). Reedy Press.

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