History of Minnesota

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area thaton March 3rd 1849 by combining parts of the
has since become the state of Minnesota wasIowa and Wisconsin Territories. The state of
populated by a variety of Native AmericanMinnesota, consisting of the eastern portion of the
peoples including the Anishinaabe and the Sioux.Minnesota Territory, was admitted as the 32nd
French fur traders, who reached the area in thestate of the Union on May 11th 1858.
17th century, were the first Europeans to arrive.Treaties made between white settlers, and the
Later in the century, they were followed bySioux and Ojibwe, gradually forced the Native
Ojibwe Indians who migrated Westward into theAmericans off their lands and into smaller and
area.smaller reservations. The deteriorating conditions
The lands that were later to form the state ofsuffered by the Native Americans, eventually
Minnesota was acquired by the United States in aculiminated in the Sioux Uprising of 1862. The
two step process: the lands East of the MississippiSioux were defeated after a war lasting just 6
River were acquired by the 1783 Treaty of Parisweeks, and, following the war, 38 Indians were
at the end of the American Revolution (1775 toexecuted in a mass execution and most of the
1783), whereas the lands to the West of therest set into exile in Nebraska.
Mississippi were purchased from France as part ofMinnesota's economy was initially centered around
the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.logging and farming. However in the late 19th and
The first American settlement of the regionearly 20th centuries, industries began to emerge
began in 1805, when Zebulon Pike acquired land inprincipally flour milling and iron-mining. Following
the area. This was followed by the constructionWorld War II, farming was mechanized, and a
of Fort Snelling, which took place between 1819number of new high technology industries began
and 1825. The Minnesota Territory was formedto emerge in the state.