Ceding Contempt: Minnesota’s Most Significant Historical Event

In Minnesota’s fading frontier the once vibrant Dakota Indians were compelled and coerced to cede their bountiful homeland to those opportunists that would usher in a new era.

In 1851, the Dakota Indians signed the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, selling their lands west of the Mississippi River. Frank Blackwell Mayer, a young artist from Baltimore, traveled to Minnesota to witness the negotiations between the Dakota Indians and the United States Government. Mayer captured images of the Dakota Indians and the fleeting frontier through a variety of Illustrations. But he also found more. He found a beautiful land and a burgeoning, multicultural society who sought a prosperous future. He also discovered the unique and extraordinary nature of the Dakota nation.