Prior to settlement by Europeans, the vicinity of the Long Prairie River was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwa. However, according to Schoolcraft, in 1832 the land about this river was uninhabited, being a boundary or war road between the Ojibwa and the Dakota. In the Chippewa treaties in 1847, the land on the west bank was ceded by the Pillager Chippewa as a homeland for the Menomini, and the land on the east bank was ceded by the Lake Superior Chippewa and the Mississippi Chippewa as a homeland for the Winnebagos, in anticipation of Indian removal out of Wisconsin upon statehood. The Menomini refused removal and never came to Minnesota, so the land was subsequently ceded to the United States. Many of the Winnebagoes were removed, but due to ongoing skirmishes between the Pillager Chippewa and the Dakota Sioux, the Winnebagoes were in constant danger, so they requested relocation to southern Minnesota, near Mankato, and in 1855 ceded the land to the United States. Settlers had begun farming the region's prairies and clearing its timber by the 1860s.