History of Minnesota
Originally the Dakota were the dominant Native American culture throughout area but during the 1700's, the encroaching white population from the East, forced the Ojibwe, into Minnesota territory. Years of bitter fighting between the two tribes followed and today, the Dakota and the Ojibwe remain the two main indigenous groups in the state. When the Europeans arrived they created trading relationships with the Indians.In the early 1800s, Minnesota's forests and grasslands were exploited for lumbering and grain milling interests. In the early 1900s some of the world's richest iron ore deposits were discovered in the Northeast, it was these that led to growing immigrant populations and large cities like Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth.
