Bdóte, the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, has been a site of incalculable spiritual, cultural, and historical significance to the Dakota people for centuries. However, today this sacred landscape is contained within an area officially known as the Unorganized Territory of Fort Snelling. So how, exactly, did the area of Bdóte come to be claimed by the US government?

It’s a story that has been told many times quite simply, but the truth is far more messy and complicated.

Join us as we unpack the tangled and controversial history of this site. In this part one of two, we’ll explore the larger context needed to make sense of this event, and then learn how a rogue army general’s traitorous conspiracy to sell half of the United States to the Spanish government inadvertently set into motion the sequence of events that w ...