H.O.P. into the Park – History of the Dakota Half Breed Reservation | Whitewater State Park

Whitewater State Park Naturalist Program

Meet at the Whitewater Valley Visitor Center.

Join us for our monthly H.O.P. into the Park (Healthy Older People) program, hosted by the Friends of Whitewater State Park. This month, Katie Himanga will talk about the history of the Dakota Half Breed Tract. Pressed by the U.S. Government to cede land they held in Wisconsin, Dakota people signed a treaty in 1830 that included a provision creating an Indian Reservation at Lake Pepin. It was intended to be the home, into perpetuity, of the mixed heritage descendants of traders and their Dakota wives. The reservation extended downriver from present-day Red Wing to Kellogg, and inland 15 miles from the shore of Lake Pepin. But the treaty did not stop settlers and land speculators from claiming ownership of reservation land.