 Fort Ripley was ostensibly built to protect the Winnebago Indians, who had been relocated by Henry Rice from Iowa to central Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, between the Crow Wing and Long Prairie rivers.Rice hoped the Winnebago would act as a buffer between the warring Ojibwe and Dakotah.His plan was unsuccessful and in 1855 the Winnebago were moved to the Blue Earth River in southern Minnesota.