Many early fur traders customarily married into Indian tribes, and when the Indians ceded their lands, the rights of their half-breed descendants were not always identified. The government addressed this in 1830 through the Prairie Du Chien Treaty, which set aside a tract of land for the half-breeds of the Oto, Iowa, Omaha, and Santee Sioux tribes between the Great and Little Nemaha rivers. In 1838, John C. McCoy surveyed the land and placed the western boundary as specified, but this created problems because later white settlers were to settle on Indian lands west of McCoy's line. Congress ordered the land resurveyed, and in 1858 the McCoy line was made official. On September 10, 1860, Louis Neal received the first patent. Owners were never required to live on their property, and many eventually sold their lands to whites. One of the original survey lines is now partly identified by Half-Breed Road, which runs in a southeast direction from here, and descendants of some pioneer fur traders still live in the area.