 A series of missionaries, including Samuel and Persis Dentan, John and Nancy Aiton, and Joseph and Maria Hancock, were sent to work with the Red Wing band beginning in the late 1830s.In 1851 a U.S. delegation led by Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota's territorial governor, asked to meet with regional Dakota leaders.They wished to purchase the vast lands belonging to the Dakota.