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MN History special 56/4 8/22/07 1:47 PM Page 172

A DAY IN THE LIFE ofOjibwe

One winter day late in was a staple trade item, and 1850, Ojibwe thought back gambling was as common over the year that was end- as trade.2 ing. He was 30 years old. Warfare was taboo in the Both he and his tribe shared colder months when Ojib- the same name, a point of we and his family focused pride for the young man. their energies on hunting, Ojibwe was neither a civil fishing, and trapping. If nor a war chief. He was not a men had been diverted to spiritual leader. However, war, the people would have like many of his people, he starved to death. Therefore, was, through circumstance both the Ojibwe and and birth, directly and inex- traveled to tricably linked to the huge the border regions in the shifts and changes affecting winter and often lived, his community. His father, hunted, and fished togeth- Zoongakamig (Strong er. The Ojibwe called this Ground), and uncle Bagone- practice biindigodaadiwin— giizhig (Hole-in-the-Day I) to enter one another’s had been defending Ojibwe lodges.3 lands and livelihoods from The winter before this, the Dakota Indians and Ojibwe and his cousin American intruders since Bagone-giizhig II had visit- the early 1800s, and 1850 ed and hunted with the was a time of great change.1 Dakota at Crow Wing. In the fall of that year Daguerreotype of Ojibwe’s cousin Bagone-giizhig Then, in spring, they went Ojibwe had traveled to on a daring raid to the Crow Wing with other mem- (Hole-in-the-Day) II, 1855 heart of Dakota territory bers of his band and family around St. Paul with only to winter where they could two other companions. hunt for food and trap beaver and saw that hundreds of other Ojibwe After traveling by for more muskrat to sell for supplies. They had people had already gathered. Crow than 80 miles, they ambushed a lone harvested, parched, jigged, and Wing always became densely populat- Dakota man. Ojibwe shot and stored in pitch-lined birch- ed at that season. A winter hunting scalped him, then quickly retreated bark containers near the portages site for Ojibwe living at Sandy Lake, across the river, being chased all the and trails they used during the win- Mille Lacs, and since the while by nearby Dakota warriors.4 ter, as their people had been doing early 1800s, it had become a true, Now, Ojibwe gambled and told sto- for centuries. Ojibwe saw the ducks rugged border town after the 1847 ries with his Dakota friends in the beginning to migrate, but a mallard Ojibwe treaty ceded the region. evening. He and his sometimes ene- or wood duck would have been a del- White traders had flooded in to take mies knew that after winter was over icacy, a rare treat, for him. Ojibwe advantage of the new Ho-chunk they would return to their summer didn’t have a shotgun, and those who (Winnebago) and reser- villages and perhaps fight each other. did saved their ammunition for big- vations as well as the older Ojibwe Such alliances weren’t normal for ger game or kept it in reserve in case communities. By 1850 Crow Wing Ojibwe or his band, but he was living there was any trouble with Dakota had a substantial white population as in trying times. In 1850 the reserva- warriors. well as a growing and powerful tion system was beginning to put an When he arrived at Crow Wing he mixed-blood trading elite. Liquor end to older life cycles and challenge

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his entire culture. Ojibwe, his friends and family, and his Dakota counter- parts were all profoundly affected by the vast changes taking place. Like many natives, Ojibwe’s growing-up years had been filled with tragedy. Both of his brothers and his mother had been killed by Dakota warriors. And, like many others, Ojibwe’s father, Strong Ground, had died of alcohol poisoning in 1845. His uncle, Bagone-giizhig I, had fall- en out of an oxcart in a drunken stu- por after treaty negotiations with the in 1847 and had been crushed to death.5 By 1850, when the creation of Min- nesota Territory was being lauded as one of the greatest advancements of civilization in the region, Ojibwe and his people were feeling more pres- sure on their lands, livelihoods, and lives than ever before. The that had enabled them to sustain and even increase their standard of living during the period of French explo- rations was declining. In order to keep his children well fed, Ojibwe, like other Indian people, had to use every resource at his disposal. While the Ojibwe and Dakota had a complex and sometimes bizarre relationship, nothing was as strange as their newest neighbors, the Amer- icans. When Americans began to talk of land cessions, Ojibwe found the concept hard to fathom. He and many other young Indians didn’t trust the American officials, but times were hard. Game was increas- ingly scarce, and even their children went hungry. When the Americans Page from the 1850 Sandy Lake promised annual payments of food and money in return for land ces- annuity-payment rolls, acknowledging receipt of superfine sions, Ojibwe and others in his com- flour and pork valued at $1,500 munity said no. But when the Amer- icans said that the Indians could still

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hunt and fish on that land, Ojibwe and knew it intimately. Now he was NOTES and many companions acquiesced. being forced off of it, and his skills as Ojibwe felt trapped by the new a woodsman had no testing ground. 1 Ojibwe (1820–1911) was the son of treaties. He needed the money and Ojibwe was faced with a gut-wrench- Strong Ground, a leader from Sandy food annuities to support his family, ing decision and the ultimate test of Lake who had helped establish a new but he had never depended on any- his character and resourcefulness. village around Gull Lake. William W. one for that before. He was even How would he meet that attack? Warren, History of the Ojibway People (1885; more frustrated when white people Would he run and seek refuge in reprint, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical streamed into the ceded lands and, alcohol? Would he try to adapt to the Society [MHS] Press, 1984), 47; Mark in clear violation of the treaties, ways of the white man for everything Diedrich, The Chiefs Hole-in-the-Day of the stopped him from hunting there. from religion to economy? Would he Mississippi Chippewa (: Coyote White traders offered Ojibwe food cling ever stronger to the ways of his Books, 1986), 14. on credit, but when the next treaty prayerful people and fight the on- 2 Crow Wing became a populous, signing came they used those claims slaught by refusing to give in? The permanent Ojibwe settlement under the to take most of his annuity payments. dilemma that Ojibwe faced on that leadership of Ojibwe’s cousin, Hole-in- Trapped like the otter he harvested December day in 1850 was that of all the-Day II; Diedrich, Chiefs Hole-in-the-Day, every winter, Ojibwe had to sign Ojibwe people. 13; Julia A. Spears, “Reminiscence of more treaties to get more annuities. Hole-in-the-Day,” 2, Julia A. Spears and The more he gave up, the harder it Family Papers, MHS. On the treaty, see became to live as he and his ances- Ojibwe stood firm for everything he William W. Folwell, A tors had for centuries. valued—to protect his family, his peo- (St. Paul: MHS, 1956), 1:310, 324. And just when Ojibwe thought ple, and their shared culture. He sur- 3 Warren, History of the Ojibway, 267. things couldn’t get any worse, they vived that way through Minnesota 4 Diedrich, Chiefs Hole-in-the-Day, 21. did. In the fall of 1850 he and his statehood, the U.S.-Dakota conflict in 5 Diedrich, Chiefs Hole-in-the-Day, cousin, the young chief Hole-in-the- 1862, and removal to a new reserva- 14–15. See also, Stephen R. Riggs, Day II, along with some 3,000 Ojibwe tion at White Earth in the late 1860s. Tah-Koo Wah-Kan: The Gospel Among the people had gone to Sandy Lake to He was alive to hear about the Battle of Dakotas (Boston: Congregational Sabbath receive their annuity payments. The the Little Big Horn. He lived to witness School and Publishing Society, 1869), invigorating feeling of being party to the advent of electricity, the telephone, 444; Mary Eastman, Dahcotah: Or, the Life such a large gathering quickly turned and the first radio transmission in and Legends of the (1849; reprint, to horror, however. American 1906, although he never acquired any Minneapolis: Ross and Haines, 1962), officials fed the Indians spoiled meat. of these luxuries in his own home. He 205. Bagone-giizhig’s death was widely As many as 400 people died from outlived Queen Victoria, who died in reported in local newspapers. food poisoning and dysentery. 1901. At the ripe age of 91, Ojibwe 6 Minnesota Democrat (St. Paul), Jan. Ojibwe, Hole-in-the-Day II, and other passed away at his home on White 21, 1851; Helen H. Tanner, ed., Atlas of Indians felt that the poisoning was Earth in 1911.7 Indian History (Norman: intentional. American officials Many of his tribesmen were not so University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), claimed it was an accident, however, resilient. They succumbed to the bullets 167; Diedrich, Chiefs Hole-in-the-Day, and no reparations were made.6 and diseases brought by the invaders. 21–22. Ojibwe had always been proud of Or they took their own lives slowly 7 Ojibwe was active in affairs at White his warrior traditions. The Dakota through vicious drinking. While many Earth, even in his later years. See Melissa scalp he took in the spring of 1850 perished in the assault on their lives Meyer, The White Earth Tragedy: Ethnicity was not his first. Yet, more than his and livelihoods, Ojibwe and people like and Dispossession at a Minnesota skills as a fighter, he was proudest of him survived to tell their stories and Reservation, 1889–1920 his self-sufficiency, his ability to feed build a new future for their families (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, his family and live well by the work of and all who came after. Resiliency and 1994), 105. his own hands—hunting, trapping, survival, even more than tragedy and and fishing. He loved the land—the change, are the legacy of Ojibwe’s life pristine lakes and huge stands of and times. ^ white and red pine. As much as any- body ever could, he owned that land —Anton Treuer and David Treuer

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