page_title: Territorial era of Minnesota
section_title: Society
hierarchical_section_title: Territorial era of Minnesota / Society
context_page_description: The territorial era of Minnesota lasted from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to Minnesota's achieving statehood in 1858. The Minnesota Territory itself was formed only in 1849 but the area had a rich history well before this. Though there was a long history of European presence in the area before 19th century, it was during the 19th century that the United States began to establish a firm presence in what would become Minnesota.
  Many of the facets of Minnesota culture that are perceived as the area's early history in fact originated after this period. Notably, the heavy Scandinavian immigration for which the state is known, and the pioneering days chronicled by author Laura Ingalls Wilder occurred after statehood in the later 19th century. Unlike these later years, the first half of the 19th century was characterized by sparsely populated communities, harsh living conditions, and to some degree, lawlessness.
  This era was a period of economic transition. The dominant enterprise in the area since the 17th century had been the fur trade.
context_section_description: Until the 1850s the Native American population vastly outnumbered the population of European ancestry in the area. Nevertheless, the division between "Indian" and "white" during this era was always somewhat vague. In general persons of mixed descent were considered "white" if they dressed in European clothing and adopted European customs. "Indians" were those who lived in traditional native lifestyles. (Such ethnic ambiguity mostly disappeared in North America in the latter 19th century but still exists today in Latin America). Even as the U.S. began to establish its authority over the region and some settlers from the U.S. began to arrive, the Native American population continued to hold significant political and social influence as a result of the fur trade. As experienced hunters they were important to one of North America's major business enterprises. The decline of this trade during the later part of the era marked the decline of Native American influence.
  Following the 1837 treaty the Saint Croix Triangle, between the Saint Croix and Mississippi Rivers, had been opened to U.S. settlement. Still until the later establishment of the Minnesota Territory this triangle remained an island of "white" culture and settlement. The vast majority of the Minnesota area, though, was "Indian country". Contemporary accounts of larger towns such as Mendota, Saint Anthony, and Saint Paul in the 1840s indicate that the majority of the population was predominantly of French and Métis ancestry. Even in these communities European culture, was not strictly dominant. Commenting on Minnesota's culture of the 1840s, Governor Alexander Ramsey described the streets of Saint Paul saying that it was common to see "the blankets and painted faces of Indians, and the red sashes and mocassins of French voyageurs and half-breeds, greatly predominating over the less picturesque costume of the Anglo-American race."
  It is in fact likely that a very large percentage of the "white" population reported in the 1850 census was of partially Native American ancestry. Many men of mixed racial ancestry became respected members of "white" society. William W. Warren, for example, was the son of an American entrepreneur (who hailed from New York before he began working in John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company) and a mixed-blood Ojibwe mother (whose father had been in the old French and British fur trade). He was educated in the East and in the early 1850s lived on the Upper Mississippi, in part working as an independent translator and Indian Agency contractor. Warren was a good writer—his newspaper articles were eventually published as the only 19th century compendium of Ojibwe history and was elected to the territorial legislature before his death from consumption.
  With the establishment of the Minnesota Territory in 1848 and the treaty of 1851 waves of immigrants from the U.S. and Europe came to the territory rapidly changing the demographics. Even as these changes occurred in many areas the vagueness of the racial divisions between "Indians" and "whites" persisted. As late as 1857 it was common practice in some jurisdictions for men to be allowed to vote based on whether or not they were wearing European clothing. According to some observers natives at a given polling location would share a single pair of trousers each wearing them only long enough to cast a ballot.
  Logging and trading communities in the territory, such as International Falls, were often known as centers of lawlessness and vice. Saloons were commonly the social centers of the towns with brothels and "bath houses" adding to the character of the society. These gathering places attracted trappers, traders, smugglers, and numerous others traveling through the countryside.
  The late 1840s and 1850s witnessed large-scale immigration from the Eastern U.S. and Europe. By 1860 approximately 80% percent of Minnesota's U.S.-born population came from New York and New England. The state was in fact for a time known as the "New England of the West". Maine, in particular, contributed a large number of immigr
caption: William Whipple Warren (c. 1851)
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