Chanshayapi

Chanshayapi lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, a broad valley where cottonwood and willow line the banks and the prairie opens to the south. Dakota communities, especially the Mdewakanton band, lived in villages along this river and drew water, fish, wild rice and timber from its corridor. Traders from Fort Snelling and the Hudson's Bay Company's routes came up the valley to exchange guns, blankets and metal goods for furs. Villages were moved as seasons and game changed, and the bottomland was used for planting corn, squash and beans.