 In 1814 the U.S. government built Fort Shelby , later rebuilt as Fort Crawford , near modern Minnesota in what is now Prairie du Chien , Wisconsin . Fort Crawford would play a significant role in U.S. involvement in Minnesota , particularly as the site of the Treaty of Prairie du Chien . The first major U.S. military presence inside the boundaries of modern Minnesota was Fort Saint Anthony , later renamed Fort Snelling ( after the fort 's commander Josiah Snelling ) . The land for the fort , at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers , had been acquired in 1805 by legendary explorer <unk> Pike . When concerns mounted about the fur trade in the area , construction of the fort began in 1819 and was completed in 1825 . One of the missions of the fort was to mediate disputes between the Ojibwe and the Dakota tribes . Lawrence Taliaferro , an agent of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs who became an important figure in these <unk> , spent 20 years at the fort , finally resigning in 1839 . 
