People have lived along this river for thousands of years. In the early 1800's, this landscape was home to a band of Dakota Indians called the Wahpeton, or People of the Leaves. About 325 villagers lived in a riverside town called Little Rapids in pitched-roof lodges built of wood and bark. They spent their summers growing and stockpiling corn in oak barrels for long, cold winters. By the mid 1800's, the Dakota way of life began to be pressured by white settlement. As increasing conflicts arose, Chief Mazomani (Iron Walker), a Dakota leader, tried to make peace between the Dakota and whites. He participated in the negotiation and signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851 and traveled to Washington D.C. in 1858 to negotiate the U.S.-Dakota Treaty. Chief Mazomani continued to work for peace. Records indicate that he died trying to negotiate the release of captives during the Dakota Uprising of 1862. The Refuge's Mazomani Trail is named in his memory.