The White Report on eligibility

whitereporttn.pngHistorian Bruce White sent me this report (21 page PDF) he wrote for the Organization of Mendota Dakota (OMD) earlier this year.

On the cover it reads:

Eligibility under the 1888, 1889, and 1890 Federal Appropriations for the Mdewakanton Sioux of Minnesota

A Report Prepared for the Organization of Mendota Dakota, April 2006

Bruce M. White, PhD Turnstone Historical Research
St. Paul, Minnesota

On page 9, are these two paragraphs about our Mendota ancestors. Bolded italics are mine:

Among the families that McLaughlin singled out in describing his census were the Mdewakanton mixed bloods from the Mendota community at the mouth of the Minnesota River, opposite Fort Snelling. Mendota had a mixed Sioux-white community since the early 19th century. Some of the Sioux mixed bloods there worked for fur trader and later governor and general Henry H. Sibley. They aided Sibley when he prosecuted the war against the Sioux in 1862 and after. These mixed blood Sioux did not leave Minnesota in 1863 but remained throughout the late 19th century, providing a haven to which other Sioux would later return from the West (Meyer 1993: 270, 286). The Mendota Mdewakantons clearly fit the definition of those “loyal” to the United States, who were intended to be benefited by the Appropriation Acts.

McLaughlin mentioned the LeClaire, Auger, and Wigley families of Mendota origin, who were all listed on the later Henton rolls and who derived their Indian ancestry from Angelique Renville, a woman of three-quarters Mdewakanton blood. Angelique Renville-who married the French bookkeeper of Henry H. Sibley, Hypolite Dupuis- derived her Sioux ancestry in the Kaposia community near St. Paul led by Chief Little Crow. Her family, he wrote, was “born among Medawakantons and always lived among them, sharing in all the Medawakanton annuities, while such annuities were provided and issued without questioning their right.” McLaughlin said he was “well acquainted” with Angelique Dupuis before she died.