 By 1851 , treaties between Native American tribes and the U.S. government had opened much of Minnesota to U.S. settlement . Fort Snelling was no longer a frontier outpost . Efforts to establish Minnesota as a prominent future state in the Union were swift . In 1851 territorial legislature petitioned the U.S. Congress for land to build a railroad between Milwaukee , Wisconsin and Saint Paul . That same year the legislature incorporated the University of Minnesota and established its endowment ( though the University would not admit students until many years later ) . 
