Indian Burial Ground

U.S. Army Captain Seth Eastman was a trained artist who served twice on the frontier at Minnesota’s Fort Snelling, from 1830 to 1832 and again from 1841 to 1848. His extensive firsthand, peaceful encounters with Native Americans gave him extraordinary opportunities to observe their customs and practices, which he documented in his art. According to scholar Christian F. Feest, this Dakota graveyard with its elevated burial sites was located along the present-day Minnesota River, seven miles above Fort Snelling. The fencing was intended to keep animals away from the lower graves.