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Historic Contact
Fur Trade
A dynamic period in the border lakes region history, the Fur Trade in northeastern Minnesota was driven by a European desire for quality fur. This era stimulated a clash and a melding of cultures with British, French, and American voyageurs trading goods with the Ojibwe Indians who occupied this area soon after the fur traders first entered the region.
French Fur Trade (c. 1680-1761)
Initial contact between Europeans and Native Americans occurred with the French who reached the west shore of Lake Superior during the mid-Seventeenth Century (Ray 1974). Tribal groups existing at this time were: Dakota, Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibwe. Tribes in adjacent areas that took part in the Contact Period and subsequent fur trade were known as the Ottowa, Monsoni, Potawatomie, Menominee, and the Fox.
French traders and Ojibwe were mutually dependent upon each other during the fur trade. The Ojibwe provided animal pelts, winter food supplies, equipment such as canoes, and snowshoes whereas, the French in exchange provided them with manufactured and specialty items, such as guns, cloth, clothing, copper kettles, tobacco, and many other products. Complex social relationships also played an important role in the trade period. Two phases of the French fur trade were evident in Northeastern Minnesota: the French Contact Phase (mid 1600s-1700) and the French Expansion Phase (1713-1763) led by Pierre Charles La Verendrye (Gilman, 1982).
British Fur Trade (1765-1860)
This period begins after France is defeated in the Seven Years War which ended with the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Three fur trade companies were prominent in the northern lakes region: North West Company, XY Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. The North West Company, one of the first in the Moose Lake area, expanded to Lake Vermilion. North West and Hudson 's Bay merged in 1821.
British-American Fur Trade (c. 1812-1868)
The British-American fur trade began after the War of 1812 (the Treaty of Ghent, 1815) and ended around 1870 (Gilman, 1982). For a time, both British and American posts were operating on the Border Lakes. In addition to the British companies were the American Fur Company and the Northern Lake Company. As the fur trade declined, fishing, mining, shipping and lumbering assumed prominence in the region.
Historical Highlight: Stephen Bonga
Historical Highlight: Eighteenth Century Distances
American Indians: Contact and Beyond
1903 Ojibwe Indian village on Basswood Lake near Washington Island. Chief Blackstone in foreground. Teepees are covered in Birch bark.
When the first Europeans moved westward from Lake Superior in the mid 17th century, they likely encountered numerous groups of American Indians, many of whom spoke different languages and dialects. Historic documents indicate the presence of at least four distinct tribal entities at this time: the Ojibwe, an Algonquian speaking people whose migration story points to an East Coast origin; the Dakota (Woodland Sioux) who would be pushed south by the well-armed Ojibwe; the Assiniboine, a Siouan-speaking people who occupied the plains-boreal forest transition zone west of Rainy Lake; and the Cree, an Algonquian-speaking people occupying the boreal forest region north of the present day Minnesota-Ontario border.
The contact period between American Indians and European Fur Traders led to both a reduction in the indigenous population, and the drastic reorganization of the existing socio-political system. Consider the following passage concerning Native American habitation of Basswood Lake from the late 18th century journal of Sir Alexander Mackenzie:
Before the small-pox had ravaged this country [in 1780], and completed what the Nodowasis [Sioux] in their warfare had gone far to accomplish, the destruction of its inhabitants, the population was very numerous: this was also a favourite part, where they made their canoes, etc., the lake abounding in fish(Nute, Grace Lee 1951 The Voyaguer's Highway, Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul, MN: 66)
Circa 1900 Ojibwe Indian families building birch bark canoes. Man in foreground gumming canoe is Chief Blackstone. Round birch bark structure in far background is called a waginogan.
By the early 19th century, various Bands of Ojibwe occupied areas within, and adjacent to, the current boundaries of the Superior National Forest. In 1854 and 1866, these bands ceded large tracts of land to the US Government in exchange for reservation allotments and the retention of off-reservation hunting and gathering rights. Attempts to assimilate American Indians into the dominant socio-economic system followed in the late 19th century with passage of the Dawes Act and the forced removal of children to boarding schools. Despite these attempts, the Ojibwe of Northern Minnesota continued to exercise their autonomy by congregating both on and off reservation at traditional resource gathering locations.
The industrial period of the Late 19th and early 20th centuries drastically changed the landscape, infrastructure, and economy of Northern Minnesota. Within this changing world, some Ojibwe found opportunities for wage labor in the burgeoning mining, logging, and tourist industry. On the west side of the Forest, Ojibwe men such as John Linklater and Henry Chosa operated equipment on Hoist Bay of Basswood Lake for the Swallow & Hopkins Logging Company. On the east side of the Forest, Frank Powell and Freddie Douillard found gainful employment as fishing guides for the resorts on Saganaga Lake. Ojibwe women found seasonal employment in the resorts and garnered extra wages by selling traditional foodstuffs such as Mahnomen (wild rice), blueberries, and maple syrup to tourists.
The 21st century finds the Bois Forte and Grand Portage Bands of Chippewa and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa actively engaged in the management and use of their ancestral lands. The Grand Portage and Bois Forte Bands participate in many cooperative projects through the 1854 Treaty Authority, an inter-tribal natural resource management agency that manages off reservation hunting, fishing, and gathering rights within the 1854 Treaty area. Currently, the Superior National Forest and 1854 Treaty Authority are working on species distribution studies of moose and lake sturgeon within the ceded territory.