Pelagie Faribault’s Island: Property, Kinship, and the Meaning of Marriage in Dakota Country

Catherine Denial

48 he easiest facts to discover She was, like many women of her August 9 of that year, Col. Henry Tabout Pelagie Faribault are life time, illiterate. If she spoke her life Leavenworth welcomed interpreter markers: she was born in 1783, mar- story aloud, it has long since faded Duncan Campbell, Indian Agent ried in 1805, and bore eight children. into silence. Testimony to her exis- Lawrence Taliaferro, fur trader Jean These are the commonly shared tence is found only in documents Baptiste Faribault, and 22 local milestones by which a woman’s im- created by men for quite different Dakota men to the place he called portance is often understood and ends: trade narratives, wills, legal Camp Coldwater, the temporary communicated in western culture: briefs, and military plans for imag- she was fathered by someone; she ined contingencies. Pike Island, strategically located between married a man; she gave him heirs. It was in one of these documents Mendota and at the juncture Yet nothing about Pelagie’s inner that I encountered Pelagie for the of the Mississippi and St. Peter’s rivers, life survives in these details or in the first time—a name in a clause at the portrayed in Edward K. Thomas’s view of documentary record of the region. end of a treaty penned in 1820. On the fort, about 1850

Catherine Denial, assistant professor of history at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, is at work on a manuscript about the American project of nation- building in preterritorial , as expressed through ideas about marriage, family life, and Native kinship structures. home of the U.S. Fifth Infantry just Jean Baptiste Faribault and kin to did, and she not only received it but above the juncture of the Mississippi Little Crow’s band.2 maintained ownership even as Euro- and St. Peter’s (Minnesota) rivers. A shallow reading of the treaty Americans became more populous in The goal of the meeting was to final- document tells us little about the the region and insisted that a woman ize an agreement for the construc- region into which the United States of French and Indian ancestry should tion of a permanent fort in the had begun to expand, or, crucially, own nothing at all. As late as 1858, Upper Midwest. By the day’s end, the opinions of the people already the U. S. government paid Pelagie’s the assembled Dakota had signed living there about this intrusion. heirs $12,000 for land that it contin- a contract gifting a 15-acre reserve The document is dry, the prose spare ued to recognize had belonged to her overlooking the rivers to the U.S. and bureaucratic. It provides a and not her husband—even though military, and within a month, handful of certainties: that 32 men Congress never ratified Leaven- construction of Fort St. Anthony conducted business on this spot on worth’s treaty.3 It is through Pelagie’s (renamed Fort Snelling in 1825) that day. In the histories of the region life, and the lives of other women like had begun.1 that followed American settlement, her, relegated to the fringes of the documentary record, that we discover a more complex story than conven- In Euro-American law and custom, Pelagie should tional histories would have us believe. not have received land in her own right. But she did, and she not only received it but maintained ownership hen Col. Leavenworth even as Euro-Americans became more populous Wentered the Upper Midwest in the region and insisted that a woman of French in 1819, he did not speak the Dakota language. He was confronted with and Indian ancestry should own nothing at all. ready evidence of the continued influence of British traders in the The contract signed by Leaven- the moment was preserved because region, and yet he was armed with worth, six of his officers, Taliaferro, it was seen as uncomplicated and orders to “gain the confidence and Faribault, Campbell, and the Dakota pivotal: the United States had ar- friendship of all the Indian tribes leaders was short but precise. The rived; more Americans would follow; with whom you may have any inter­ Dakota, by inking the document more edifices would be built. The course . . . [and] hold treaties of with their marks, were considered treaty signaled the beginning of the friendship with the tribes within our to “have given, granted, conveyed, end for established patterns of living limits” (emphasis in the original).4 and confirmed” title to a military re- among the region’s native and mixed- It was, under these circumstances, serve to the U.S. government. The heritage inhabitants. Leavenworth’s personal decision to boundaries of the acreage were de- Yet Pelagie Faribault’s presence negotiate for land on which to build scribed with reference to a number of in the document greatly complicates a United States fort. Such an agree- markers—rivers, caves, the military’s that story. If the 1820 treaty gave no- ment had technically been hammered temporary encampment, and the vil- tice that the American state had its out 14 years before, when Zebulon lages in which Dakota leaders Little eyes set upon the Upper Midwest, it Pike signed a treaty with the Dakota Crow, Black Dog, and White Bustard also indicated—through Pelagie— bands of the region. lived. Finally, the contract acknowl- the strength of the cultural systems That treaty, however, was never pro- edged two other grants from the already in place there and the ability claimed by the president.5 Dakota: a one-square-mile tract of of native and mixed-heritage individ- When Leavenworth decided to land to Duncan Campbell, inter- uals to frustrate the transformation enter into a treaty with Little Crow’s, preter and kin to several local Dakota of Indian country into an American White Bustard’s, and Black Dog’s people; and ownership of Pike Island state. In Euro-American law and bands, he acted as the agent of a in the middle of the custom, Pelagie should not have re- powerful, if fledgling, empire whose to Pelagie Faribault, wife of trader ceived land in her own right. But she imperial designs he well understood.

50 Minnesota History Yet his actions were also shaped by more mundane concerns. Three days before the August 9 treaty signing, he had endured a torrential thunder- storm in the inadequate shelter of an ill-constructed log cabin.6 His com- pany had been drastically depleted by scurvy during the winter of 1819, and he was operating in a region where strong ties to the trade system were the surest avenue to influence and power. Viewed from the vantage point of the banks of the Mississippi River, the U.S. government’s belief in its own imperial destiny—and its Col. Henry Leavenworth, Jean Baptiste Faribault, a widower policies to facilitate American ascen- about 1820 by the time of this photograph, ca. 1860 dancy across the continent—meant little. The young nation’s goals could between several Dakota and Ojibwe business.10 In addition, Pelagie and not be met by the simple assertion communities in 1786 and 1787.8 Jean Baptiste often lived apart, a of power and a theoretical cultural Pelagie’s own marriage perpetu- typical arrangement for established superiority. It would take friendship, ated these connections between kin- fur-trade couples. While Jean Bap- family connections, and personal ship and trade. In 1805 she wed tiste traveled to trade, Pelagie main- relationships between Leavenworth Jean Baptiste Faribault, a French tained permanent residences with and individuals like Pelagie Faribault Canadian born in 1774 in Berthier, their children on lands at Prairie du for any transformation to occur. Canada. Faribault had entered the Chien, then Pike Island, and finally fur trade as an employee of the North at Mendota, the township across the West Company in 1798 and began river from Fort Snelling.11 ince her birth in 1783, his career trading at the mouth of Jean Baptiste’s prestige in the SPelagie Faribault had been inti- the Kankakee River in present-day region owed something to his ability mately connected to all the groups Illinois. The following year, he relo- to act as a host to travelers and other with whom Leavenworth needed cated to a more western post on the traders, an ability that rested upon to establish strong relationships in Des Moines River, where his primary the labor of Pelagie. The nuts and 1820. Her father, Joseph Ainse, the trading partners were drawn from bolts of hospitality—sleeping accom- son of French parents, was born on Dakota bands. In 1804 Faribault modations and food—were her re- Mackinac Island in 1744.7 He en- renewed his contract, established a sponsibility, whether by reference to tered the Upper Midwest as a fur post at the juncture of the St. Peter’s the tenets of Euro-American culture, trader and fathered Pelagie with a and Mississippi rivers and then, in the blended, mixed-heritage commu- Dakota woman whose name is lost accordance with Dakota custom, nities of the Upper Midwest, or the to us, solidifying his trade connec- took Pelagie as his wife.9 Dakota community in which she was tion to his wife’s band. Ainse’s work The glimpses of Pelagie’s life that raised.12 There is scattered evidence was greatly facilitated by the kinship survive in the historical record sug- that suggests Pelagie performed this ties he could claim with local Dakota gest her importance in facilitating duty skillfully. Fur trader Philander groups, while his ability to speak Jean Baptiste’s success as a trader. Prescott rested with the Faribaults the Dakota language and familiarity She bore eight children during her during a journey upriver in 1820 and with their cultural practices helped marriage, and by the time the 1820 enjoyed his welcome to such a degree him land the position of Indian agent treaty was being negotiated, the that he would have stayed longer, had under the British. He was called upon eldes­ t, Alexander, was old enough he not feared that Native groups (who to negotiate what peace he could to assist his father with his fur-trade had set up camp by the Fari­baults’

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MNHist_Sum10_inside_REV.indd 51 6/17/10 10:21 AM home) would steal the goods he had ties. Faribault, through trade and and linguistic knowledge he pos- left outside. In 1819, Col. Leaven- kinship ties, was a known quantity sessed. All of these things were made worth also stayed with the Faribault to the Dakota who lived near the St. possible by his wife: by her family family in Prairie du Chien and later Peter’s and Mississippi rivers—a man connections, her language skills, and fondly recalled “the very polite and who spoke their language, under- her labor as a hostess. In effect, Jean hospitable manner in which I was stood their cultural practices, and, Baptiste’s power was owed to Pelagie treated while with you.” 13 through Pelagie, was acknowledged and, as a result, it was appropriate We have no way of knowing what as family. Faribault was more use- in Dakota eyes for her to gain a gift interaction occurred between Pelagie ful to Leavenworth than individuals from the proceedings in acknowl- and Leavenworth during his stay like Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian edgement of her work.16 with the family, but it is certain that agent who had arrived in the re- The transaction likely looked a friendship flourished between the gion with the Fifth Infantry in 1819. quite different from Leavenworth’s colonel and Jean Baptiste. Leaven- Taliaferro’s previous experience perspective. In Euro-American so- worth recorded that he had learned in the Upper Midwest had been a ciety, a woman’s property became much about the Dakota from the short stint as a member of the Third her husband’s on the occasion of latter, so much so that he encour- Infantry at Chicago in 1816 and an their marriage. The laws of coverture aged Jean Baptiste to accompany even shorter stint at Green Bay the suspended a woman’s legal identity him upriver as an interpreter and following year. Despite his commit- within that of her husband, granting also promised military assistance if ment to establishing positive rela- him control over her land and earn- ings while they were wed.17 Within the cultural system Leavenworth In effect, Jean Baptiste’s power was owed to best understood, the Dakota grant Pelagie and, as a result, it was appropriate to Pelagie was in every sense a grant to her husband; Leavenworth likely in Dakota eyes for her to gain a gift from the expected the land to be governed proceedings in acknowledgement of her work. and controlled by Jean Baptiste. Faribault’s contemporaries, as well Faribault would settle close to the tions between the U.S. government as subsequent historians, interpreted proposed fort. In the period between and local Native groups, Taliaferro the transfer of Pike Island to Pela- Leavenworth’s departure for the had no previous experience with the gie Faribault in much the same way Upper Mississippi and Faribault’s Dakota and could not yet speak their Leavenworth did: it was a gift to the move north, Jean Baptiste proved language.15 husband, made through the body of himself even more indispensable his wife. when he directed the colonel to the Yet Pelagie and Jean Baptiste hemlock that grew at Lake St. Croix. uch was the context in were not married according to the With scurvy decimating his forces, Swhich Leavenworth negotiated dictates of Euro-American law. It Leavenworth wrote to “assure you with the Dakota on August 9. The was as a Dakota woman, married that the hemlock is considered of the treaty, though an imperfect expres- according to the “custom of the greatest consequence to us, and the sion of the United States’ goals, was country,” that Pelagie facilitated her only thing that can save the existence made possible by connecting webs of husband’s entry into Dakota cul- of our men and officers.” 14 families and friends. Jean Baptiste ture. When viewed from within the By the summer of 1820, then, Faribault occupied a singularly pow- boundaries of that culture, Pelagie’s Leavenworth had incurred an in- erful position at the negotiations. formal debt of gratitude to Jean His power came not from military Facing: Pike Island, narrowly separated Baptiste. It was largely because of his might or any particular expression from the fort and its gardens, in Topo- help that Leavenworth could claim of wealth, but from the friendship he graphical Sketch of Fort St. Anthony, success in making friendly overtures had forged with the Fifth Infantry’s 1823, by Sgt. Joseph E. Heckle (marginal toward the local Dakota communi- commanding officer and the cultural notes by Maj. Josiah H. Vose)

52 Minnesota History

grant had a particular resonance. ing the rivers was capable of shelter- prices for staples such as muskrat It formalized (rather than created) ing almost 250 members of the Fifth furs tumbled in the East.23 Native the Faribaults’ residency in the area, Infantry, their families, servants, and communities came to believe that, by for while Pelagie had spent most of slaves. The river valley had become virtue of the annuities and services her married life in Prairie du Chien, home to American traders such offered to them, the treaties would her early years had been among the as Henry H. Sibley and Joseph R. help mitigate that season’s failed wild Mdewakanton, and her husband Brown, traders who had chosen not rice harvest, clear their debts, and aid frequently lived among the Dakota to enter into lasting “custom of the them in continued tenure on their at the mouth of the St. Peter’s River country” marriages to facilitate their remaining lands.24 as he traded.18 In addition, the grant work. A number of missionaries from These circumstances—national, (whether Leavenworth understood the American Board of Commission- regional, and local—came together to this or not) acknowledged Dakota ers for Foreign Missions had also set- create the moment in 1837 in which cultural practices, wherein home and tled in the region—the first in 1829. the U.S. government negotiated trea- hearth were controlled and owned Acting with the blessing of the War ties with the Dakota and Ojibwe by women. Tipis and bark lodges, the Department, they set up homesteads communities that had land east of raw materials used to create clothes with the intent of assimilating Native the Mississippi River. In return for and bedding, and the means to pro- people into American society and land cessions, the Dakota and Ojibwe cess and cook food were all women’s converting them to Christianity. As were promised financial settlements, purview.19 The grant of land on many as 365 civilians lived around agricultural equipment, and the as- which a domestic residence might the Fort Snelling area: missionaries, sistance of blacksmiths and farmers be established was congruent with employees of the Indian agency, fur in practicing both crafts. The latter gendered Dakota practice. traders, early settlers, general labor- provisions represented a clear at- That the 1820 treaty captured the ers, and their families.21 tempt on the part of the federal gov- complexities of the moment and the Nationally, the U.S. government’s ernment to pressure the communities fragility of the United States’ posi- relationship with Indian people had into making adaptations to American culture and suggested the nation’s in- creasing power to dictate the fashion The grant (whether Leavenworth understood in which the region would develop.25 this or not) acknowledged Dakota cultural Yet Pelagie’s island stands, again, as testimony to the uncertainties practices, wherein home and hearth were surrounding U.S. expansion. Since controlled and owned by women. she was a French-Dakota woman who had received Pike Island as a tion in the region may sound logical swung toward a policy of removal. Dakota gift in an agreement that to modern ears, although earlier Locally, the potential for land ces- Congress never ratified, her land historians did their best to write such sions from the Dakota and Ojibwe occupied something of a precarious uncertainties out of the record.20 Yet was extremely attractive to American position during treaty negotiations. even more telling than the situation settlers. The eastern side of the Mis- Although tangible practices— in 1820 was the situation in 1838, sissippi River was pine country, and including the construction of Fort when the U.S. government set about American settlement in upper Illinois Snelling on land demarcated by buying Pelagie’s land. and southern Wisconsin had created Leavenworth’s treaty—suggested While the American popula- an insatiable demand for timber to that the agreement was observed in tion of the region was still small in use in construction.22 Fur traders spirit, if not in law, the Faribaults 1838, it had grown since 1820 and favored the negotiation of treaties to feared that the 1837 treaty with the the increases were manifest in very help cover the debts incurred by local Dakota might supersede the 1820 particular ways. The garrison at Fort Indian communities, debts that had agreement, especially since no pro- Snelling was now complete. The escalated as the eastern shores of the tective clause suggesting otherwise stone structure on the bluff overlook- Mississippi became overhunted and had been entered into the new docu-

54 Minnesota History

MNHist_Sum10_inside_REV.indd 54 6/17/10 10:24 AM ment. The Faribaults felt it prudent to engage Samuel C. Stambaugh and Alexis Bailly (both ex-fur traders, the first a close friend of Jean Baptiste and the second married to the Farib- aults’ daughter Lucy) to lobby key figures in Washington for the protec- tion of the Pike Island claim.26 Stambaugh and Bailly were suc- cessful, impressing upon Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett that Jean Baptiste “is a very respectable old man, a Frenchman, and has resided among that tribe forty-two years.” As ever, behind the invocation of Alexis Bailly, from an 1858 painting Lucy Faribault Bailly, Faribault’s name lurked Pelagie, by Theophile Hamel about 1858 their representatives making specific reference to the importance of kin- east of the Mississippi, and to meet pasture.” While pastures may seem ship in the social fabric of the region. the practical and security needs in a mundane consideration, livestock “[T]he Ferribault family is the most controlling land so close to Fort were often targeted by Native groups powerful and influential among the Snelling. As Stambaugh described during periods of hostility. The loss Indians,” wrote Stambaugh it, “The head of the island is sepa- of milk and beef cattle was a particu- to Poinsett in January 1838. “It is rated from the walls of the fort by larly troubling prospect for a fort still families of this description who do much good or much evil among the Indians, with whom they are con- By their actions, the men who sat in judgment nected by bonds of blood; and [the] upon Pelagie’s case upheld Dakota gender Government would save much blood and treasure, if proper pains were practice, regardless of their intellectual and taken to secure their friendship.” ideological understanding of marital law. Poinsett was convinced. Stambaugh and Bailly secured his promise that a small slough, about fifty yards, in dependent on external suppliers for “the rights of Pelagie Faribault to width. . . . [B]y damming this slough, most of its subsistence needs.27 the island in question should not or throwing a wall across it at both Convinced of the island’s value be prejudiced by their not being ends, the island can be made a part to the military, Congress took up the inserted in the treaty.” Two things of the main land.” Taliaferro claimed issue of the Faribaults’ claim in 1838, are notable in this promise: Poinsett he had, as early as 1820, suggested and on April 25 a joint resolution gave weight to the unratified 1820 to Leavenworth that “in times of authorized the Secretary of War to agreement, and he did not mention difficulty or danger from the tribes, contract with the Faribaults for the Jean Baptiste’s name. the post would require the island purchase of Pelagie’s land.28 Poinsett (though small) as a place of safety for finalized negotiations on March 12, the public cattle and horses (being 1839, agreeing to buy the island for reaty considerations directly under the guns of the fort.)” $12,000 (about $239,000 today), Taside, the government still re- In 1838, Maj. Joseph Plympton, the subject to congressional approval. mained interested in controlling Pike commanding officer of the fort, wrote No objection was raised by the War Island. That interest was twofold: that the military should “embrace Department or Congress to Pelagie’s to finish the work of extinguish- Pike’s Island, which I consider to be ownership of the land, despite her ing all forms of Indian title to lands of vital importance to this Fort as a status as a married woman. A Euro-

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MNHist_Sum10_inside_REV.indd 55 6/17/10 10:25 AM American woman of the same era but reflected their larger attempts to could be gifted property while she stamp the social relations of Euro- was married, but the property would American society on the region. The only remain hers (as opposed to her inhabitants of the region, however, husband’s) if her family could afford were not so malleable, even on paper, to create a trust for the property’s as the Indian agent and commanding protection. It would be many years officer of the fort might wish. before a married Anglo woman There was policy, there were could independently sell, contract, ideals, and then there was the real- or rent out her own land.29 Pelagie’s ity of the national colonial venture. ownership of Pike Island, however, All parties who worked for the U.S. depended upon her being Dakota; government—Plympton, Taliaferro, at least part of her value as a marital Poinsett, and Commissioner of partner rested on the same. She lived Indian Affairs T. Hartley Craw- outside the boundaries of coverture, Lawrence Taliaferro, painting, ford—agreed that Pike Island was a had been married by the custom of about 1830 valuable, even necessary, holding for her own community, and owned all Fort Snelling. Yet while Plympton that related to the home. By their ac- culture. They focused their objec- and Taliaferro argued that the U.S. tions, the men who sat in judgment tions on Jean Baptiste, criticizing any government should ignore the 1820 upon Pelagie’s case upheld Dakota claim he could make to the island on agreement and simply act as if the gender practice, regardless of their the basis of his citizenship and resi- land belonged to the nation, the of- intellectual and ideological under- dency. They neither acknowledged ficials stationed in Washington had a standing of marital law. The decision was not met happily at Fort Snelling. Taliaferro immedi- Moving Pelagie Faribault to the center of the narrative ately wrote to the Secretary of War, arguing that Dakota title to the land is a necessary act. It reveals the uneven application of had been extinguished by Pike’s imperialism’s tenets in the region, the necessity of the treaty in 1805, and—even if that American system adapting, for a time, to the cultural agreement were overlooked—com- landscape of the Dakota, and the power that individuals, pletely extinguished by the treaties of 1837. Taliaferro rounded out his tally too often considered uniformly powerless, could claim. of offenses by bringing up the issue of residency: no one had made a per- nor tackled the question of Pelagie’s different assessment of the situation. manent home on the island for 15 ownership of the land, or the fact Eyeing the unrest among midwestern years. Maj. Plymp­ton sided with that she had maintained residency Indian groups, understanding the Taliaferro, adding that Jean Baptiste there in Jean Baptiste’s absence until scarcity of game in the area, mind- was a Canadian and “alien.” The fort’s a flood made the island uninhabit- ful of the power of traders to influ- commanding officer also forwarded a able in 1822. Taliaferro and Plymp­ ence relationships with local Native letter he had received from Talia- ton did their best to make Pelagie communities, and—crucially—with ferro, which pointed out that Jean disappear. The woman that emerged no personal investment in the rapid Baptiste had no claim to the land be- from their discussions of the island ascendancy of American systems of fore 1820: He had not taken up resi- was a woman with no control over dence there until after Leavenworth her property; a woman subject to Facing: Jean Baptiste Faribault was had suggested he do so.30 the strictures of coverture. This tac- living at “Ferribault, Rice County,” in Taliaferro’s and Plympton’s ar- tic not only served them in trying 1858 when the U.S. Treasury compen- guments were made squarely from to argue that the Faribaults should sated him as “the husband of the said within the tenets of Euro-American not be made rich by the island’s sale Pelagie Ferribault . . . deceased.”

56 Minnesota History government at the St. Peter’s, Craw- s the events of 1820 and permit the narrative of American ford and Poinsett acknowledged that 1838–1839 demonstrate, Pela- expansionism to be defined by those the United States did not yet possess gie Faribault occupied a legal, social, who, because of race, gender, wealth, the power required to dictate the and cultural space quite different and education, stood most ready to outcome it wanted in the Pike Island from the standard Euro-American record their participation in the pro- matter. In Crawford’s own words, “As model of the time—an extension cess, we pen an uncomplicated story a principle of general observance, the of the particular circumstances of that suggests—erroneously—how United States, in my judgment, can- the Upper Midwest with its myriad easily this Midwest was won. Moving not recognise such grants [as were cultures, their different ideas of Pelagie Faribault to the center of the made to Pelagie Faribault]. . . . This gendered behavior, and their under­ narrative is a necessary act. It reveals case, however, occupies a position standing of land. Yet that story is the uneven application of imperial- of its own. . . . The island is wanted easily missed if we prioritize the ism’s tenets in the region, the neces- for the purposes of the Government. thoughts, actions, and life stories sity of the American system adapting, To avoid delay, and difficulty, and of men over women, literate over for a time, to the cultural landscape controversy, it may be judicious . . . illit­erate, military over civilian, and of the Dakota, and the power that to purchase it. All Indian claim will Americans over the Dakota and their individuals, too often considered uni- be put at rest.” 31 mixed-heritage descendents. If we formly powerless, could claim. a

Notes 1. “Original grant, by Sioux Indians, of a lon Montgomery Pike (Norman: University document: Ainsé, Ainsse, Hanse, and tract of land in the vicinity of Fort Snelling,” of Oklahoma Press, 1949), 51–53. The 1805 Hainse. Ainse was the most common spell- appended to Samuel C. Stambaugh, A State- treaty was, nevertheless, treated as though ing I encountered. ment and Explanation of the Origin and legal for many years. Indeed, Thomas For- 8. Anderson, Kinsmen, 67–69, 71–72; Present Condition of the Claim of Pelagie syth, Indian agent to the Sac and Fox, ac- Gen H. H. Sibley, “Memoir of Jean Baptiste Ferribault (Washington, D.C.: Union Office, companied Leavenworth into the Upper Faribault,” Collections of the Minnesota 1856), Everett D. Graff Collection of Western Midwest in order to distribute to the Da- Historical Society (St. Paul, 1880), 3: 173; Americana, Newberry Library, Chicago; kota $2,000 of goods intended to fulfill the “Tableau Généalogique de la Famille Fari­ Marcus L. Hansen, Old Fort Snelling, terms of the treaty, as interpreted by Con- bault Branche Canadienne,” and “Famille 1819–1858 (Iowa City: State Historical Soci- gress in 1808. See Gary Clayton Anderson, Faribault Huit Générations 1669–1937,” ety of Iowa, 1918), 26–28. This article uses Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Faribault Family Genealogies, MHS. “Fort Snelling” throughout for consistency’s Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 9. Rentmeester, Wisconsin Creoles, 244; sake; similarly, “Faribault” appears here as 1650–1862 (1984; repr., St. Paul: Minnesota Sibley, “Memoir,” 168–77; Anderson, Kins- the family name, despite various spellings Historical Society Press, 1997), 99. men, 67. in archival sources, including Ferribault, 6. Minnesota Climatology Working 10. “Tableau Généalogique,” and Records Feribault, Farribault, and Feribo. Group, University of Minnesota, “Annual from the Alexander Faribault Bible, vol. 36, 2. “Original grant, by Sioux Indians, of a Climatological Summary, Ft. Snelling, MN, p. 15–16, Faribault Family Genealogies. On tract of land in the vicinity of Fort Snelling.” Year 1820,” http://climate.umn.edu/doc/ Alexander’s career in the fur trade, see 3. Treasury Department, “The United twin_cities/Ft%20snelling/1820sum.htm Rhoda R. Gilman, Henry Hastings Sibley: States to Jean Baptiste Ferribault and Pela- (accessed Mar. 26, 2010). Charlotte Van Divided Heart (St. Paul: Minnesota Histori- gie Ferribault, his wife,” order of payment, Cleve (born en route to the Fort Snelling cal Society Press, 2004), 69, 113; Donald D. Feb. 6, 1858, originals of all cited Pike Island site in 1819) remembered being told of a vi- Parker, ed., The Recollections of Philander documents in Record Group 217, file 7483, olent storm in which “the roof of our cabin Prescott: Frontiersman of the Old North- National Archives and Records Administra- [at Cantonment New Hope] blew off, and west, 1819–1862 (Lincoln: University of tion, Washington, D.C., copies in Pike Island the walls seemed about to fall in. My father Press, 1966), 130–31; Anderson, Claim, Fort Snelling Papers, Minnesota His- . . . held up the chimney to prevent a total Kinsmen, 153. torical Society (MHS). The circumstances downfall.” Charlotte O. Van Cleve, Three 11. Sibley, “Memoir,” 173–79. surrounding this payment are the subject of Score Years and Ten: Life-Long Memories of 12. For the perspective of regional Amer- the author’s continuing research. Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other Parts ican women on their domestic responsibili- 4. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, to of the West (1888; repr., : Har- ties, see Maida Leonard Riggs, ed., A Small Col. Henry Leavenworth, Dec. 29, 1819, rison and Smith, 1895), 18. Bit of Bread and Butter: Letters from the Pike Island Claim. 7. For details of the Ainse family’s back- , 1832–1869 (South Deer- 5. “Treaty with the Sioux, 1805,” in ground, see Les and Jeanne Rentmeester, field, MA: Ash Grove Press, 1996); Mrs. Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: The Wisconsin Creoles (Melbourne, FL: John H. (Juliette Augusta) Kinzie, Wau- Laws and Treaties (Washington, D.C.: Gov- privately published, 1987), 187. As with bun: The Early Day in the Northwest (1856; ernment Printing Office, 1904), 2: 1031; W. many names from this period, the spelling repr., Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1901). Eugene Hollon, The Lost Pathfinder: Zebu- of Ainse varies widely from document to For analysis of domestic work among

58 Minnesota History blended communities, see Lucy Eldersveld 26–31, 37–39; Spector, What This Awl 24. Anderson, Kinsmen, 146–51. Murphy, A Gathering of Rivers: Indian, Means, 67–77. 25. For the Dakota, $300,000 was in- Métis, and Mining in the Western Great 20. Henry Sibley’s reminiscences pro- vested with the caveat that 5 percent of that Lakes, 1737–1832 (Lincoln: University of vide an excellent example of this impulse: sum be distributed annually to the commu- Nebraska Press, 2000), 59–69. For Dakota “The settlement of Minnesota has been sin- nities of the signatories; $110,000 was set work roles, see Janet D. Spector, What This gularly free from the disorders and deeds of aside for mixed-heritage individuals con- Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a violence, which have almost invariably ac- nected to the villages in question; and Wahpeton Dakota Village (St. Paul: Minne- companied the same process in other west- $90,000 earmarked to settle Dakota debts sota Historical Society Press, 1993), 67–77; ern Territories and States.” By remaining with traders. Besides money associated with Samuel W. Pond, The Dakota or Sioux in free from “persons who are popularly said the blacksmith and agricultural operations, Minnesota As They Were in 1834 (1908; to ‘live by their wits,’” he concluded, Minne- the Ojibwe received $9,500 in cash, $19,000 repr., St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society sota avoided “those scenes of sanguinary in “goods,” $2,000 in “provisions,” and $500 Press, 1986), 26–31, 37–39. violence, which have disgraced the earlier in tobacco. “Treaty with the Sioux, 1837,” and 13. Parker, Recollections of Philander history of so many of the border States.” “Treaty with the Chippewa, 1837,” Kappler, Prescott, 27–28; H. Leavenworth to Mr. Henry H. Sibley, “Reminiscences of the ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 2: Ferribault, Jan. 19, 1820; Lawrence Talia- Early Days of Minnesota,” Collections of the 492–94. ferro to Maj. J. Plympton, July 10, 1839— Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, 26. Here and below, S. C. Stambaugh to both Pike Island Claim. 1880), 3: 273. J. R. Poinsett, Jan. 17, 1838 (emphasis in 14. Leavenworth to Ferribault, Jan. 19, 21. While Sibley did have a relationship original); J. R. Poinsett to S. C. Stambaugh, 1820; Sibley, “Memoir,” 176. with a Dakota woman in 1840–41, he was Aug. 13, 1840—both Pike Island Claim. 15. Lawrence Taliaferro, “Auto-Biography by then well established in the fur trade, and 27. Stambaugh to Poinsett, Jan. 17, of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro,” Collections of there is little evidence that he considered 1838; Lawrence Taliaferro to J. R. Poinsett, the Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, the relationship a long-term commitment. Apr. 19, 1839; Lawrence Taliaferro to J. C. 1894), 6: 190–99; Lawrence Taliaferro to See Gilman, Sibley, 36–61, 75–76; Nancy Calhoun, June 30, 1821; Maj. J. Plympton J. C. Calhoun, June 30, 1821, Pike Island and Robert Goodman, Joseph R. Brown: to Brig. Gen. R. Jones, Mar. 26, 1838—all Claim. Adventurer on the Minnesota Frontier, Pike Island Claim. On the sort of supplies 16. See Sibley, “Memoir,” 176; Taliaferro, 1820–1849 (Rochester, MN: Lone Oak brought into the fort from Prairie du Chien “Auto-Biography,” 198–99; Anderson, Kins- Press, 1996), 129–36; Jedediah Stevens, and St. Louis, see Van Cleve, Three Score men, 67; Gilman, Sibley, 53. Diary, Sept. 8, 1829–Apr. 2, 1830, Jedediah Years, 36; Col. John H. Bliss, “Reminis- 17. Sir William Blackstone, Blackstone’s D. Stevens Papers, MHS; Helen White and cences of Fort Snelling,” Collections of the Commentaries: with Notes of Reference to Bruce White, Fort Snelling in 1838: An Eth- Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, the Constitution and Laws of the Federal nographic and Historical Study (St. Paul: 1894), 6: 335, 342. Government of the United States, and of the Turnstone Historical Research, 1998), 11. 28. Senate Joint Resolution 10, 25th Commonwealth of Virginia, ed. St. George 22. Ronald N. Satz, Chippewa Treaty Cong., 2d sess., Apr. 25, 1838. Tucker (1803; repr., New York: Augustus Rights: The Reserved Rights of Wisconsin’s 29. J. R. Poinsett, J. B. Ferribault, Pela- M. Kelley, 1969), 2: 441. See also Linda K. Chippewa Indians in Historical Perspective gie Ferribault, S. C. Stambaugh, Alexis Kerber, No Constitutional Right to be La- (Madison: Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Bailly, Mar. 12, 1839, Pike Island Claim; dies: Women and the Obligations of Citizen- Arts and Letters, 1991), 13–17. Nancy F. Cott, Public Vows: A History of ship (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998), 23. Frederic Ayer to David Greene, Oct. Marriage and the Nation (Cambridge, MA: 13–15; Hendrik Hartog, Man and Wife in 4, 1837; Thomas S. Williamson to David Harvard University Press, 2000), 52–53. America: A History (Cambridge, MA: Har- Greene, May 3, 1838; Frederic Ayer to Sec- 30. Taliaferro to Poinsett, Apr. 19, 1839; vard University Press, 2000), 106–07. retary of War, Sept. 28, 1837; W. T. Boutwell J. Plympton to T. H. Crawford, July 18, 18. Pike himself met Faribault just below to David Greene, Nov. 8, 1837; S. R. Riggs to 1839; Lawrence Taliaferro to J. Plympton, the mouth of the St. Peter’s River in 1805, David Greene, June 22, 1838—all American July 10, 1839, Pike Island Claim. where the latter had established camp. Pike, Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 31. T. Hartley Crawford to J. R. Poinsett, “21st Septr., Saturday,” in Donald Jackson, sions Papers, MHS. Feb. 28, 1839, Pike Island Claim. ed. The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike with Letters and Related Documents (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 1: 35–36. The treasury order is in Record Group 217, U.S. General Accounting Office, National 19. Waziyatawin Angela Wilson, Remem- Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; copy in Fort Snelling Papers, ber This! Dakota Decolonization and the Eli Taylor Narratives, trans. from the Dakota Minnesota Historical Society. All other images are in MHS collections. by Wahpetunwin Carolynn Schommer (Lin- coln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005), 132; Pond, Dakota or Sioux in Minnesota,

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