Minnesota, state, United States: U.S. Absorption and Settlement

The eastern part of Minnesota had been included in the Northwest Territory and was governed under the Ordinance of 1787; the western part was joined to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase. Further exploration was pursued by Jonathan Carver (1766–67), Zebulon M. Pike (1805–6), Henry Schoolcraft (1820, 1829), and Stephen H. Long (1823).

Only after the War of 1812, however, did settlement begin in earnest. In 1820 Fort St. Anthony (later Fort Snelling) was founded as a guardian of the frontier. A gristmill established there in 1823 initiated the industrial development of Minneapolis. Treaties (1837, 1845, 1851, and 1855) with the Ojibwa and the Sioux, by which the U.S. government took over Native American lands, and the opening of a land office at St. Croix Falls in 1848 initiated a period of substantial expansion.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Notable Institutions and Natives
• Cooperatives and Population Shifts
• Discontent and Reform Politics
• Native American Resistance and New Settlement
• Territorial Status and Statehood
• U.S. Absorption and Settlement
• Ancient Inhabitants and European Exploration
• Government and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures

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