As we approach the 250th birthday of the United States next July, WCCO's Ari Bergeron takes a looks back through the eyes of Minnesota over those same 250 years.
This month we focus on Fort Snelling, a key cornerstone of Minnesota becoming part of the U.S. and also a key site for the indigenous population of the state going back much further.
The fort itself may only be 200 years old, the but the site dates back thousands of years, says the Minnesota Historical Society's Bill Convery. This National Historic Landmark resides on Dakota homeland, known as Bdote.
"This is literally a site with a 10,000 plus year history," says Convery. "People have been coming to the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers for not just hundreds, but thousands of years. To work, to hunt, to thrive, to play, to interact, to trade, to negotiate."
Native people traded with each other along the region’s waterways for thousands of years, while European traders arrived in the mid-1600s.
After that, French and British traders sought furs from Native trappers. They offered woolen blankets, cotton and linen cloth, metal goods, firearms, fishing gear, and more in exchange.
But it wasn't until the early 1800's that the Fort came alive in the form we can still see today, towering over those two rivers just south of the Twin Cities.
"Zebulon Pike, an officer from the United States, met with Dakota leaders here to negotiate for permission to build a fort on this site in 1805," Convery explains. "And in 1820, the U.S. Army started building a fort on this site. It was completed in 1825."
It was originally called Fort St. Anthony and was renamed in honor of Col. Josiah Snelling, who supervised its construction.
Fort Snelling's history is a complicated one. There were slaves present at the fort, even though Minnesota was technically in free territory. And the fort's history in conflicts with native people's is also dark, with the fort being used as a concentration camp during the Dakota Wars of 1862, and two Native American leaders hanged outside of its walls in 1865.
"There are stories that run the emotional gamut of Fort Snelling," says Convery. "There are stories of triumph and pride. There are stories of slavery and terror and pain. This is a complicated place. You know, history is messy."
The fort was the spot Minnesota grew out of. The U.S. government incorporated Minnesota Territory in 1849. Two years later, the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota were signed. The government acquired millions of acres of land from the Dakota people.
As a result, a flood of settlers and land speculators moved to Minnesota. The territory’s population was 6,077 in 1850. By 1860, it was 172,023, not including Native Americans.
Throughout it's history, Fort Snelling was involved in five major wars - the Civil War, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the Spanish-American War, and of course WWI and WWII.
A year after World War II ended, Fort Snelling was decommissioned as an active military post.
Eventually, as air travel became more popular following WWII, the Metropolitan Airports Commission acquired around 700 acres of Fort Snelling land to expand Wold-Chamberlain Field into what is now MSP International Airport.
In 1960, Fort Snelling became the state’s first National Historic Landmark. Five years later, the Minnesota Historical Society began restoration. That also included Fort Snelling State Park which covers 1,700 acres. Its recreational and natural history trails include Wita Tanka (Pike Island) and the site of the concentration camp built after the US–Dakota War of 1862.
These important sites are commemorated at the park.