Treaty of Fond Du Lac - 1847 Treaty of Fond Du Lac

1847 Treaty of Fond Du Lac

The second treaty of Fond du Lac was signed by Issac A. Verplank and Henry Mower Rice for the United States and representatives of the Ojibwe of Lake Superior and the Mississippi on August 2, 1847 and proclaimed on April 7, 1848. This treaty ceded lands in a triangular area west of the Mississippi River, bounded by the Prairie du Chien Line, Mississippi River, Crow Wing River and Long Prairie River.

According to the oral histories of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, representatives from the Ho-Chunk Nation negotiated with the Lake Superior and Mississippi Chippewas before treaty discussions with the United States took place to guarantee the safety of the Ho-Chunk Nation who was about to be displaced with the admission of Wisconsin Territory into the Union as the State of Wisconsin, per Treaty of Washington (1846). However, due to frequent skirmished by the Pillager Chippewa, the Ho-Chunks were in constant danger of raids and were relocated to southern Minnesota in 1855. The Ho-Chunk Nation, subsequently, ceded their Minnesota areas to the United States per Treaty of Washington (1865) for relocation to a safer area in Nebraska.