A "Memorial" to Steal the Land...

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Dakota Territory General Assembly seeks to remove Ojibwe

In 1873, European settlers were intent on taking the land of the Pembina and Red Lake Ojibwe bands in the Red River Valley.  Although these lands were ceded by treaty, the half-breed members of these bands had the right to select lands (taken under scrip) within the Red River Valley.  However, the greed of the settlers was apparent in their wanting to remove ALL Ojibwe from the region - even the half-breed Metis who had a right to select lands before the lands could be opened to white settlement.  The letter, sent to the US Department of Indian Affairs read as follows:
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Your memorialists, the legislative assembly of the Territory of Dakota, would most respectfully represent that the Pembina band of Chippewa Indians are still occupying the lands on the Dakota side of the Red River of the North, which were ceded by the said band, and the Red Lake Band of the Chippewas, in their treaty with the United States in 1863, and that the occupation of said lands by said Pembirna band is a great nuisance to the white settlements on the Pembina and Red Rivers, and also retards the establishment and growth of new settlements on the ceded lands.

Your memorialists therefore pray that said last-named band of Indians be removed from the ceded lands and settled upon their reservation at the White Earth agency in Minnesota according to the stipulations in said treaty.

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Approved January 6, 1873.

I certify that the above is a true copy of a memorial passed at the tenth session of the legislative  assembly of  the Territory of  Dakota, and approved by me on the 6th day of January, A.D. 1873.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of the Territory, this 10th day of January, A.D. 1873.

John A. Burbank, Governor