The Rise and Fall of the Minnesota Middle Ground: Henry Hastings Sibley and the Ethnic Cleansing of Minnesota

Henry Hastings Sibley (1811-1891), fur trader and eventual first governor of Minnesota, worked closely among the sub-division of “Sioux” Indians known as the Dakota. Sibley first aided in the development of what historian Richard White called a “Middle Ground,” a racially mixed and symbiotic society. Later in his life, however, he assisted in negotiating treaties that transformed that frontier society into a racially divided and oppressive one. The result was the outbreak of hostilities between Indians, Whites, and mixed-race people in the Great Sioux Uprising, and ultimately the ethnic cleansing of Minnesota. This study approaches Sibley’s involvement on a microhistorical level, exposing the larger ethnohistorical and cultural framework of a racially mixed society. Sibley’s experience shows that it was still an important lucrative feature of fur trading and frontier life fifty years after. The end of the fur trade meant the destruction of the “Middle Ground” in Minnesota.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bergstrom, Jordan Scott

Contributors dc:contributor

• Brian Carroll
• Daniel Herman
• Roxanne Easley

• Native Americans
• Dakota Conflict
• Sibley
• Indigenous Studies
• United States History

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/142

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-1157