Location:
-Located 7 miles west of Red Lake Falls.
Special notes:
-Look for a well-marked hiking trail on the right side of the road.
General info:
The "Old Crossing" of the Red Lake River, where thousands of oxcarts passed, and where the making and signing of the Old Crossing Treaty occurred, is one of the outstanding historical places of northwestern Minnesota. The Old Crossing Treaty memorial, a bronze life-size figure of a Chippewa Indian holding a peace pipe, was erected in 1932 by the U.S. government to commemorate the signing of a peace treaty with the Chippewa Indians in 1863. Representing the U.S. government was Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota's first Territorial Governor, who came from St. Paul escorted by a small detachment of U.S. soldiers. When Ramsey reached the Old Crossing, the Red Lake band of Chippewa were already there with their chiefs Mons-o-Mo, May-dwa-gun-on-ind, Little Rock, Broken Arm, and Leading Feather. Two days later the Pembina band arrived with Red Bear of Pembina and Little Chief of Turtle Mountain as their leaders.
T. M. McCall writes in Centennial History of Polk County. "To Ramsey's chagrin, Charles Bottineau (a son of Pierre Bottineau), who escorted the Pembina Indians to the conference, had brought not only chiefs and head men as he had been directed, but also almost the whole body of Indians and half-breeds. . . So instead of a small group of leaders assembled on the grounds, they were thronged with more than sixteen hundred Indians and half-breeds."
After two weeks of negotiations the Chippewa turned over millions of acres of fertile land in return for approximately $510,000. Pierre Bottineau was a guide for the expedition and served the Pembina band as interpreter in the negotiations.
The ceded area is approximately 180 miles long, north and south, and approximately 127 miles wide, east and west, at the extreme length and width, containing approximately 11,000,000 acres according to Alexander Ramsey's estimate and report.