Available for Pre-formed Groups
Begins and ends in Minneapolis

Includes:  7 nights’ lodging, 7 breakfasts, 3 dinners, professional tour director/historian, deluxe motorcoach, driver and step-on guide gratuities, baggage handling (1 bag per pax), admission and park entrance fees as required for program, airport transfers.

Call 800-888-8306 for a customized quote for your group.

Tour Highlights:

• Fort Snelling
• Fort Ridgely
• Lower Sioux Agency
• Sod Houses on the Prairie
• Fort Sisseton Historical Festival
• rendezvous encampment
• Pipestone National Monument
• Historic New Ulm
• Traverse des Sioux History Center
• Historic Murphy’s Landing

Tour Itinerary:

Day 1 – Airport transfers provided.  Tour historic Fort Snelling, headquarters for the tragic conflict.   Mississippi River dinner cruise. Overnight: Burnsville, MN. (D)

Day 2 – Tour Fort Ridgely where two major battles of the conflict occurred. Here we’ll gather background and set the scene for the unfolding story. Then visit the Lower Sioux Agency, site of the first organized Indian attack of the War of 1862. Native American interpreters offer their perspective.  Visit Harkins Store, maintained as it was at it’s prime in 1870. Costumed guides maintain vintage goods on the shelves and a fire in the pot-bellied stove on cool mornings. Overnight:  Redwood Falls, MN.  (B)

Day 3 – Visit an authentically-built sod house.  Travel.  Overnight:  Watertown, SD. (B)

Day 4 – Attend the Fort Sisseton Historical Festival. Built in 1864 in response to the nearby Sioux uprising, the fort is today recognized as one of the nation’s best preserved frontier forts, with 15 original buildings intact. See infantry drills, muzzle-loading contests and tomahawk throws, Native American dancing, stroll through a mountain man encampment where re-enactors sell their home-made goods and authentic period foods. Overnight:  Watertown, SD.  (B)

Day 5 – Visit Pipestone National Monument, a centuries old red stone quarry still worked by the Sioux.   This evening enjoy a traditional feast and interpretive Native American program. Overnight:  Pipestone, MN (D)

Day 6 – The little German settlement of New Ulm endured two Indian assaults during the Dakota Conflict. Learn the story of its brave defenders, sample the atmosphere (and locally brewed beer) of the German descendants and take time to shop in the charming ethnic shops of this unique village. Overnight: New Ulm. (B)

Day 7 – Visit Traverse des Sioux History Center, the historic river crossing where the fateful treaty that started it all was signed. We’ll celebrate new friends and a deeper understanding of our heritage at the living history village of Murphy’s Landing with a festive farewell dinner. Overnight: Burnsville, MN (D)

Day 8 – Airport transfers included. (B)