PEN @ Gay Nel 
(Opel eI Dele lee 
THE DAKOTA. 
The introduction to the Dakota Grammar and Dictionary, published 
by the Smithsonian Institution im 1852, commences with this paragraph: 
The nation of Sioux Indians, or Dakotas, as they call themselves, is supposed 
to number about 25,000. They are scattered over an immense territory, extending 
from the Mississippi River on the east to the Black Hills on the west, and from the 
mouth of the Big Sioux River on the south to Devils Lake on the north. Early 
in the winter of 1837 they ceded to the United States all their land lying on the 
eastern side of the Mississippi; and this tract at present forms the settled portion 
of Minnesota. During the summer of 1851 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with 
Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, negotiated with the Dakotas of the Mississippi and 
Minnesota, or St. Peters Valley, for all their land lying east of a line running from 
Otter-Tail Lake through Lake Traverse (Lac Travers) to the junction of the Big Sioux 
River with the Missouri; the Indians retaining for their own settlements a reservation 
on the upper Minnesota 20 miles wide and about 140 long. This purchase includes all 
the wooded lands belonging to the Dakotas, and extends, especially on the south side 
of the Minnesota River, some distance into the almost boundless prairie of the West. 
Beyond this, the Indians follow the buffaloes, which, although evidently diminishing 
in numbers, still range in vast herds over the prairies. This animal furnishes the 
Indian with food and clothing, and a house, and, during the summer, with the ‘ bois 
de vache” for fuel. In the winter these sons of the prairie are obliged to pitch their 
tents at or in the little clusters of wood, which here and there skirt the margins of 
the streams and lakes. 
The interval of thirty years has made such changes in this people as 
to require an almost entirely new statement. First, as regards numbers: 
The above statement was made mainly by estimation, and not on actual 
count. Only a small portion of the Dakota were at that time receiving 
annuities. In this case the estimate was largely under the truth. Since 
that time, when the western Dakota were at war with our Government, 
they were variously estimated as numbering from 40,000 upward. But as 
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