The Anishinabe-Dakota War

Long bitter enemies, the Anishinabe of Wisconsin and to the north of Lake Superior intensified their war against the Dakota people of northern Minnesota, Ontario and Wisconsin after the whites arrived. After the Anishinabe-Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) War ended around 1730, the Anishinabe, Blackfoot and the Nakota tribes (they include the Arikara, Assiniboine, Crow, Hidatsa, and the Mandan, united in the Iron Confederation, with possibly the Arapaho and the Cheyenne tribes. The Dakota tribes were extremely upset with their very close kin tribes the Nakota, after learning they had joined with their bitter Anishinabe enemy in a confederation.

By the late 1730s, the Anishinabe and their allies were waging an intensified war against the Dakota of Ontario and northern Minnesota. By the 1760s, the Dakota tribes had been driven out of Ontario and northern Minnesota, to South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. However, from time to time, the Dakota who remained in central and southern Minnesota and South Dakota, launched raids against the Anishinabe who settled down to live on their former land in northern Minnesota. They also launched raids against the Anishinabe and their Nakota allies in North Dakota.

When the United States forced their way into the Minnesota region the Anishinabe-Dakota War was still raging, and even after the United States started to settle in Minnesota the Anishinabe and the Dakota were prone to raiding each others settlements. By the 1850s the war was over. For nearly 200 years the Anishinabe and Dakota were constantly at war against each other, and the number of war casualties both nations endurred during the time period (1700-1850) was likely in the 10,000s.