“Sisseton & Wahpeton Dacotah Indians”

Sisseton ‘people of the swamp’ and Wahpeton ‘people of the leaf’ once lived near the Mississippi in Minnesota. By 1851 they lived along the Minnesota River and near Lakes Big Stone & Traverse. Then by Treaty they ceded their land east of Red River, Lake Traverse and the Big Sioux to the U.S.A. and accepted a small reserve on the Minnesota near Lac qui Parle. In the War on the Indian Outbreak in 1862 most of them were friendly and aided the whites Congress decreed all Indians bad, forfeited their rights and until 1867 they wandered to the NW until a new Treaty, signed by Gabriel Renville, Wamiupiduta and Tacandupahotanka created a new ‘flat iron’ reserve for them from Lake Traverse SW to Lake Kampseska and NW to Re Ipehan ‘head of the Coteaus.' The Agency was at Lake Traverse, first agent Capt. C.H. Mix,

who was succeeded by Benj. Thompson and then Dr. Jared W. Daniels who moved the agency in 1870 to a point 2 mi. W and ½ mi. N of here where the ‘old Agency’ building now stands.

Presbyterian Missionaries led by Stephen Riggs and Thomas S. Williamson had been with these Indians since 1835 and in 1870 Goodwill Mission, a mile N of Old Agency was created with Wyllys K. Morris its leader and teacher. The Church still stands.

Gabrielle Renville, a half-breed son of Joseph Renville, rendered heroic service to the whites in 1862 as leader of Renville’s Rangers and in 1874 a house was built for him by a grateful government. He died in 1892. On the high coteau 2 mi. W and 1¼ mi. S stands his monument, overlooking an unmatched vista of the Whetstone & Little Minnesota Valleys. It is well worth seeing.

Roberts County, south of Sisseton on Highway 81 near old agency