Historic Site

Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site Information

Hours of Operation

Open every weekend from April 21st to October 15th, 2023
(No exceptions ie LSIC Gov closures)

  • Hours are Friday thru Sunday, 10am-5pm

Admission Rates

  • Adults $6
  • Seniors & College Students $5
  • Children ages 5-17 $4
  • Free for children age 4 and under and MNHS members and Lower Sioux Community Members
Lower Sioux Historic Site
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Address & Phone Number

Phone: 507-697-8674
Fax: 507-697-6310

Location:
32469 Redwood County Highway 2
Morton, MN 56270

History

In 2007, the Lower Sioux Indian Community began managing the site through a cooperative agreement between the tribe and the Minnesota Historical Society. The Lower Sioux Agency was established in 1853 by the U.S. government to serve as administrative center for government efforts to remove the Bdewakantunwan and Wahpekute bands of Dakota to its reservation lands and to colonize them to become self-sufficient farmers. This reservation was just four percent of the land the Dakota previously inhabited.

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Tribal Historical Preservation Office Contact

Cheyanne St. John

Director

Ext. 8672

As the United States drifted toward civil war, promises to the Dakota tribes were all but forgotten amidst the graft and corruption in the Indian service. Frustrated and provoked by a series of broken promises and by reservation policies that forced cultural change, Dakota warriors decided to go to war with the United States on a hot August Sunday in 1862. The fighting lasted six weeks and took the lives of nearly five hundred whites, mostly civilians, and an unknown but substantial number of Dakota.

To learn more about the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, visit the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site and learn stories of the people who lived and worked here, the history of life and early settlement on the Minnesota River, and human impact of the environment.

Teepee at Sunset
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