Dakota Sioux were the region's sole residents until French
explorers arrived around 1680. Nearby Fort Snelling, built in 1819 by the
United States Army, spurred growth in the area. The United States government
pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, allowing people
arriving from the east to settle there. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature
authorized present-day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in
1856. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began
between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the east-bank city of St
