A contemporaneous operation, similar in its results, took place with the half-breeds of the Sioux nation. Account has already been made of a gift of land which the Sioux were permitted to bestow on their half-breeds in the treaty at Prairie du Chien in 1830. The tract designated, roughly rectangular, long known as the “Wabashaw reservation,” lay on the Mississippi, running down river from Red Wing thirty-two miles, and back into the country fifteen miles. The treaty provided that the President might in his discretion grant title to parcels of one section in fee simple to individual breeds; and it was the expectation of the able men who were working the scheme that they would soon be in possession of extensive properties at slight outlay. Agent Taliaferro, the incorruptible Sioux agent, revealed the plan in so forceful a way that neither President Jackson nor any successor would grant title to individuals. Failure to get possession of land was followed by efforts to get money. The half-breeds had no desire to settle on the reservation. In 1841 the unratified “Doty treaty” with the Sioux included a sum of $200,000 to be paid the breeds for the reservation, which they were to surrender. Again in 1849, when Commissioners Ramsey and Chambers attempted to obtain a treaty of cession of the Sioux, they only succeeded in securing an agreement of the half-breeds to accept some such sum. The Senate refused to ratify. A similar article was injected into the treaties of 1851, and this was rejected by the Senate, to the disappointment of patient waiters. The matter awaited the intervention of Delegate Rice, whose knowledge and skill in Indian affairs had obtained him influence in Congress. On July 17, 1854, a bill which had been introduced by him, providing for the survey of the Wabashaw reservation in Minnesota, “and for other purposes,” was approved. The “other purpose” was to give the President authority to issue certificates or scrip to individual Sioux half-breeds, under a _pro rata_ division of the tract. These certificates might be located on any lands of the United States, not reserved, unsurveyed lands included. In express terms the law forbade the transfer or conveyance of the scrip. The tract was surveyed, and in the course of two years 640 individual breeds were assigned 480 acres each. Later 37 persons obtained each 360 acres; in all 320,880 acres were disposed of. Very few of the beneficiaries settled on the reservation. In many cases the scrip went to pay traders’ debts, and in many others the beneficiaries got “dogs and cats” for it. White men who had taken half-breed wives profited most. The size of some families is remarkable.