Sentence:  Activity by British traders and the presence of a <WSD>colony</WSD> on the Red prompted the United State War Department in 1819 to send Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Leavenworth from Detroit to put a post 300 miles northwest of Prairie du Chien , until then the most advanced United States post . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government