St. Croix Riverway Time and the River: A History of the Saint Croix

CHAPTER 1:
Valley of Plenty, River of Conflict (continued)

A Social History of the Fur Trade in the St. Croix Valley

One of the enduring historical myths of the Upper Midwest is the heroic image of the fur trade explorer and his hardy voyageur companions. The myth rests on the very real role these men played establishing the first white businesses and settlements in the region and the romantic impulse of those who latter read the trader's memoirs and journals to try and imagine just what the Midwest looked like when all was wilderness. Fur traders did act as wilderness explorers but many aspects of their business were anything but heroic. It is vital to balance the picture of the fur trader as an explorer and pioneer with the less flattering portrait of the fur trader as a pusher of dangerous and addictive substances, a fomenter of intertribal and intratribal conflict, and as a participant in environmental degradation. Nor is it historically valid to dismiss their Indian trading partners as innocent victims. The fur trade brought the Indians products vital to life in the forests of the Upper Midwest: copper kettles, steel knives, firearms, and wool blankets. The fur trade was neither a European creation nor an Indian innovation but a social and economic process forged out of desire for a better life and all too human weaknesses. Fur traders, the Chippewa, and the Dakota of the St. Croix were joined together in a commerce that was at once alluring, enriching, dispiriting, and destructive.

Documenting the exact nature of the fur trade in the Wisconsin and Minnesota is complicated by the spotty nature of the surviving historical sources. While little can be said about the French era along the St. Croix, for example, there are other periods when the historical record opens up a window on the fur trade. One such time is the period between 1802 and 1805. George Nelson, a veteran Nor'Wester, produced a memoir of his first year as a fur trader, which he spent in the St. Croix Valley from 1802 to 1803. Michel Curot left a journal of his year as a fur trader in the region during the winter of 1803-1804. Finally, the much-studied journal of John Sayer documents the 1804-1805 trading season. All three men established posts in different parts of the St. Croix Valley: Nelson at Yellow Lake, Curot on the Yellow River, and Sayer on the Snake River near modern day Pine City, Minnesota. The period from 1803 to 1805 was a tense time for the fur traders because of a split in the ranks of the Nor'Westers. One of the most prominent members of the Northwest Company, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, along with several other partners, split with the established firm and formed the rival New Northwest Company. Known on the frontier as the X Y Company, the upstarts went head to head in competition with the Northwest Company, greatly expanding the demand for the fur and food produced by Indian hunters. [40]

Easily the most striking feature that emerges from a close reading of the 1802-1805 period is the importance of alcohol in the fur trade. The Northwest and XY companies hauled vast amounts of liquor over the portage between the Brule River and Upper Lake St. Croix. In 1803, Michel Curot reported to his superiors that the rival Northwest Company had brought in fifty-six kegs of high wine. This highly potent distilled beverage was akin to today's grain alcohol and like the latter had to be diluted before being consumed. Yet, even when broken down several times it remained very intoxicating. Archeologist Douglas Birk estimated that fifty kegs of high wine could be diluted into over one thousand gallons of liquor for trade. Added to this massive amount of alcohol was the much smaller volume of rum and high wine imported by Curot and the XY Company. Operating on a much smaller scale Curot had at least seven kegs of high wine at the start of the trading season and received an additional one in the spring. It is there for not unlikely that between them the fur traders had close to thirteen hundred gallons of liquor for the trading year. Fur Trader George Nelson estimated the Chippewa population of the area to be "not above fifty families" with "about 60, or 65 warriors." Even if one assumes a generous estimate of a two-to-one adult male-female relationship and a two-to-one children-adult ratio, the Chippewa in the region did not number more than four hundred people. This figure is consistent with the size of the St. Croix band in 1851 when American authorities proposed to move them west of the Mississippi River. In other words the fur traders in 1803 were stocked with enough alcohol to provide every adult Indian with more than seven gallons of high wine. [41]

While the years 1802-1805 may have been the high-water mark of the use of alcohol in the fur trade there is little doubt that spirits occupied a critical role in the trader's inventory both before and certainly afterward. Some Chippewa used alcohol in the same manner as most people today. The traders document tastings being offered to trappers coming to trade as a social prelude prior to conducting business or high wine being requested by Indians upon the death of a child as a consolation. But the ugly face of what may very well have been addiction also appears in the trader's journals. When sixteen-year-old fur trader George Nelson landed at the junction of the St. Croix and Yellow Rivers in 1802 he was greeted by a mob of young Indian men:

The Indians, the moment they saw us gave the whoop. They were all drunk, the N.W. Co. had a little before given liquor. They came rushing upon us like devils, dragged our Canoe to land, threw the lading ashore, ripped up the bale cloths, cut the cords & Sprinkled the goods about at a fine rate. Such noise, yelling & chattering! "Rum, Rum, what are you come to do here without rum?"

Only a year before on that very spot the Yellow Lake band and members of the Snake River band had suffered five dead, and six wounded when a drunken party led to a vicious knife fight. Nonetheless, the Chippewa refused to let the traders proceed until they assented to "make our presents of liquor also." The result was, according to Nelson, "singing, dancing & yelling, & fighting too." On January 4, 1804 John Sayer noted rather causally in his journal, "Indians still Drunk & Quarrelsome amongest themselves. 2 got Stabbd but not dangerous." Just over a week later he noted "this forenoon 2 Young Lads arrived from the Drunkards Lodge & report that the Indians were near Killing each other, at the same time requested a Small Keg of Rum which I refused them." [42]

As Nelson and Sayer's experience indicates the alcohol trade brutalized the Indians who then turned that behavior on the traders. A Chippewa he knew by the name of Le Grand Male frequently intimidated Michel Curot. On November 1, 1803 Le Grand Male arrived at Curot's door drunk from drink he had already procured at the nearby Northwest post and demanding more. Curot refused but Le Grand Male would not take "no" for an answer. "All The night it was the same Demand and the same reply," Curot reported. "I had much trouble with this savage. I received several Blows of his fist, one especially that made my upper Lip swell up." Two weeks earlier a group of Chippewa intent on a binge entered the Northwest Company post on the Snake River. They threatened to kill Joseph Reaume, the trader, tapped a barrel of pure rum, and "pillaged" the post for "ten days and ten nights." In January Curot again had problems when one of his assistants, Bazile David, refused to give rum to three Chippewa hunters who were spending the night at the post. Curot had already given them a small keg of undiluted high wine and the hunters were drunk. "A moment afterwards Le Jeune Razeur Like an enraged creature Struck David, saying to him, 'Dog, thou sayest that hast no Rum.'" The hunters then angrily left the post. They returned the next morning with a nine-gallon keg obtained from the Northwest Company and they demanded what rum remained at Curot's post. The trader anxious to match his competition and be rid of his troublesome guests acceded to the request. The abuse drunken hunters inflicted upon their own families went largely unrecorded. Although George Nelson noted one incident near the Brule Portage that provided an insight into what may have been all too common behavior. The traders had given rum to an Indian family with whom they had passed the night. The Indians drank through the night "very quietly & comfortably." Trouble came in the morning "when words ensued" and the son, a boy of sixteen or so years "fell upon this mother & beat her, striking with his fists & Kiicking her in the face & body!!!" Nelson's experienced companions dissuaded him from intervening, saying: "for if you do they will all three get upon you; besides it is among themselves–we dare not interfere." Shaken the young fur trader thought "Surely the curse of God will fall on these people." Little did he appreciate that he was that curse. [43]

How the St. Croix Chippewa viewed the traders and the impact of the fur trade on their lives and families can only be glimpsed at through the journals of the fur traders. Traders who came to establish posts along the St. Croix River did so at the sufferance of the Indians. While the posts were a convenience to the Chippewa, they seem to have adapted a proprietary attitude toward the goods the traders brought each fall. The Chippewa men who tore apart George Nelson's canoe's to find rum in 1802 were not humble supplicants awaiting a gift from the fur trader, rather they were men taking what they felt was their due. A year later when Michel Curot and his men came to blows with a group of hunters determined to have a keg of rum one of the Indians said "that it [the rum] all belonged to them, that in the Spring they would have some plus [beaver pelt]." George Nelson recorded in his reminiscences that Indians "would often. . .burst open the Shop door & take out what rum they pleased & compelled the people to mingle it to their taste." What traders regarded as begging or badgering by the Indians for something to drink was regarded by the Chippewa as merely giving them access to those things that were meant for them to begin with. [44]

Not all Chippewa embraced the fur trade with the same vigor nor did all become enamoured of high wines. George Nelson reported that one Chippewa leader admonished the traders "If you will persist to trade here, trade fairly as men & not wait till you think us too far drunk to perceive how you steal from us & insult our females." Others blamed the fur traders for the negative impact of alcohol on their lives. "You are the cause of this blood being shed by bringing poisoned rum to us," retorted one Indian after a drunken brawl. [45]

The drinking of the Chippewa must be viewed from the perspective of the high level of alcohol use in general on the frontier. The fur traders, although they seldom admitted it in their journals, which might be read by their superiors, often indulged in heavy drinking. Michel Curot noted in his journal that his rival John Sayer had an escalating drinking problem. "Since I have come into the fort I have noticed that Mr. Sayer is Very fond of Drink," wrote Curot, "there has been Scarcely a night, that he has not gone to bed Drunk." More scandalous to Curot than Sayer's habit of hiding pots of alcohol for himself about the post was the latter's willingness to drink the high wine prepared for Indian use. "I should Never have Believed that he would be fond enough thereof To Drink the Savage's Rum." Nor was Sayer selfish about sharing his drink with others. While his men labored to build the Northwest Company's Snake River post in 1804 Sayer noted in his journal that he "gave each a Dram morning & Evening & promised to do the same till our Buildings are Compleated provided the[y] exert themselves." Providing men engaged in heavy labor with alcoholic stimulants was standard practice in early nineteenth century business and in the armed forces. Nonetheless, Sayer was later dismissed from the Northwest Company, a decision that in part reflected his heavy use of alcohol. [46]

The presence of the fur traders in Chippewa territory, the heavy use of alcohol in their commerce, exasperated tensions that were already building among the St. Croix River bands. Compared with their Dakota rivals the Chippewa were highly individualistic. They lacked many of the rituals and shared experiences, such as the annual buffalo hunt, that made the Dakota a much more communal society. One of the reasons the Chippewa adapted much more readily to the new fur trade economy than the Dakota was their more fluid, independent social structure. Bands, even families, that simply acted for themselves with no restraints were able to adjust to the need to change geographic location or lifestyle much more rapidly than larger groups constrained by the need to form a consensus among many extended families. This flexibility and individualism were traits that had served the Chippewa well in the century and a half since the fur trade had begun. In fact these were traits that the Chippewa shared, although nowhere near to the same extent, with the growing number of Anglo-American settlers on the frontier. Nonetheless, as fur traders established more and more posts among the Chippewa and became a larger year round presence in their lives the bands became open to the interference and manipulation of the traders. [47]

One of the most divisive practices of the fur traders was the creation of chiefs. Traders attempted to elevate individual hunters status by giving them dress coats, flags, and other presents. They flattered themselves that if they treated this hunter as special he would be so regarded by other Indians in the community. Francious V. Malhiot, a Northwest Company trader in the Lac du Flambeau area made the following speech when he created a new chief:

Kinsman–The coat I have put on thee is sent by the Great Trader; by such coats he distinguishes the most highly considered persons of a tribe. The Flag is a true symbol of a Chief and thou must deem thyself honored by it. . .love the French as thou dost, watch over their preservation and enable them to make up packs of furs...As first chief of the place, thou must make every effort so that all the Savages may come and trade here in the Spring. . .

As Malhiot indicated the goal was to have this chief influence others to honor their debts at the trading post and not go to the competition. But far from picking the most admirable hunters (both from a Chippewa and a trader's perspective) men of the worst character were often selected by intimidated traders who hoped to end abusive behavior. In his memoir George Nelson described a group of frustrated traders who decided, "that by making a chief of the greatest scoundrel among them would perhaps have a good tendency." That was Malhiot's strategy in 1804 but it did not work. Similarly Le Grand Razeur, the Chippewa who attacked one of Michel Curot's men had earlier been made a chief. Worst of all chief making caused fissures among the Chippewa. Curot reported a stabbing among the Yellow Lake band during the winter of 1804. The "chief" refused to do anything to resolve the problem, "fearful on his own account." This caused Curot to reflect, "I believe that Band although Partly nephews and Brother in law [are] Jealous of whomever is made chief giving Preferment to any of them, Since each of them separately believes himself as Great a Man as an Other." [48]

The Chippewa often resented the practice of making phony chiefs. When John Sayer offered the coat and flag to the hunter Pichiquequi the latter responded angrily, even after Sayer tried to sweeten the offer with free rum. Pichiquequi "replied that he was not a chief and that Since he was thirsty he would go hunting either for a [fur] or a deer that he could trade for Rum, that he did not command any savages, that they were all Equal and [he and his people] would go where they liked to trade and that he himself would do the same."

A Chippewa hunter described in Nelson's memoir manifested this same spirit of independence. Following the formal presentation of the chief's uniform and flag the hunter turned to the fur traders with a look of "utmost contempt":

No doubt, you Frenchmen, you think yourselves wonderfully cunning: --no doubt you were very certain. . .. that my eyes would be blinded by the Dazzling stuff you have been Displaying here with so much ceremony before us? Undeceive yourselves. I am born free & independent. I despise those tokens of Slavery. I am not a Slave to wear oth[ers] clothing (livery). My old clothes satisfy me; & when they are worn out I know how to procure others.

Nelson was not present at the council when the traders attempted to elevate hunter to chief so the exact words he recorded must be regarded as narrative license. Nonetheless, the hunter's eloquent statement of autonomy and personal independence reflected sentiments that Nelson must have seen manifested many times in his long career of trading with the Chippewa. [49]

Another way in which the fur traders created fractures in Chippewa society was the practice of taking Indian women as brides. These liaisons created a family connection between a trader and the Indian trappers. The traders further benefited from a women's companionship and the help of someone skilled in contending with the north woods wilderness and fluent in the local language. In return her family received the assurance of the trader's material help, at least as long as he was stationed in their area. Most of these relationships were formed a la facon du pays, without legal contract according to the customs of the country. As a trader's wife an Indian women entered into a more pleasant, if more socially precarious, world. The amount of work expected of her, particularly the heavy work of portaging or moving camps, greatly decreased. On the other hand there was the prospect that her husband might abandon her after a few years. "She will not do for me or any Indian," complained a Chippewa who hoped to be rid of a lazy second wife, "[the] best way is to give her to the whites. With them she will have only snow-Shoes and maggacins to make, & with them she will have as much men as she desires. . .they take women, not for wives–but use them as Sluts–to satisfy the animal lust, & when they are satiated, they cast them off." This harsh statement taken from George Nelson's memoir reflected a bitter reality. Fur trader John Sayer spent the winter of 1804-1805 at the Snake River post with Obemau-unoqua, his Chippewa wife. They were married for at least ten years and she bore him two sons, yet there is only a single reference to her in Sayer's diary: "my Squaw brot about 4lbs [maple] Sugar." The daughter of a notable Chippewa leader, Obemau-unoqua was abandoned by her husband in 1805 when he retired to Canada and took a white wife. [50]

Some fur traders formed loving and stable relationships with their Indian wives. Joseph Duchene, usually known by the name "La Prairie," spent more than a half-century in the Saint Croix Valley with Pimeegee-shigo-qua, his Chippewa wife. Many of the employees of the Northwest Company and the X Y Company in the region also had Chippewa wives. Bazile David, who already had one spouse, tried to take "a Young girl 9 or 10 years old For his wife." His superior, Michel Curot, however intervened and "sent her back." David was instructed to "take another one, who is Larger." Gardant Smith, another of Curot's engages had a very independent minded Chippewa wife who took the position that since a man could have two wives she chose to have two husbands. She regularly left Smith for weeks or months at a time, returning with furs or meat she traded for on her own account. In the end two husbands were not enough for her. Two Chippewa men contending for her favors came to blows, leading to the fatal stabbing of one. The wives of the traders were fed from the rations of the post and although they received no pay, they performed significant work preparing food and tending to fires. They could also significantly increase their husband's salary by snaring small animals and dressing the skins. Indian women often assisted traders contrary to the wishes of Chippewa men. When a group of carousing Chippewa men plotted to kill George Nelson and his three companions it was two Indian widows, living in a tent nearby who warned the traders of the danger. [51]

The product of fur trade marriages, the Metis, or mixed-blooded offspring significantly influenced Chippewa society. The Metis were a significant portion of the population of the Upper Midwest. Historian Jacqueline Peterson estimated that by the late 1820s the Metis south and west of the Great Lakes numbered between 10,000 and 15,000. Some of the Metis were formally educated in the east, dressed and behaved like whites, and entered into fur trade society as clerks, or in the case of the women as wives of white traders. Those denied the opportunity for education worked in the lower levels of the fur trade or simply joined their mother's people, where most were accepted as equals. John Sayer seems to have devoted little attention to promoting the prospects of his mixed-blood sons Henry and John. It is possible that Henry was attached to the Snake River post in an informal manner. At one point Sayer, in his usual delicate style, refers to "Henries Squaw." Joseph Duchene, "La Prairie," was much more supportive of his Metis children and they played a significant role in his trading operations. One of the most successful trappers among the Snake River Band of Chippewa was an Indian known as "Chief Marin," who may have been the son of Joseph Marin, who was active in the fur trade during the French regime. The Metis were a people capable of moving in either the white or the Indian world. They frequently participated in the councils of the Chippewa, but their outlook was not always the same as their kinsmen and their interests could be quite different. In latter years this often played an important role in treaty negotiations with the United States government. [52]

Chippewa society remained dynamic and creative throughout the period of the fur trade. The new economic conditions fostered by the European-American traders within their society caused substantial material and cultural changes. Indian women, both Chippewa and Dakota, played a new and vital role in the fur trade economy. As men focused more of their attention on trapping fur bearing animals the women's work of preparing pelts became more important to the family economy. The critical role of this women's work to the fur trade may have been reflected in the rise of polygamous marriages, although the evidence on this point is only suggestive. Only very successful hunters were able to take more than one wife. Ethnologists have contended that polygamy was an example of boasting or conspicuous consumption. Yet the amount of work required to properly prepare hides was considerable and industrious hunters could not expand their trapping without having additional assistance preparing the furs. Domestic harmony was facilitated among polygamous households by the practice of taking the first wife's sister as a second, and on rare occasions, third spouse. Close contact with the fur traders made the lives of all Chippewa women more complex. Traditional tasks such as gathering wild rice became more important as trading posts required large amounts of rice to subsist through the winter. During the eighteenth century the amount of rice previously gathered for simple domestic use had to be augmented by rice gathered for commercial purposes. To meet this need it is likely that Chippewa women seeded large areas of lakeshore with rice to meet the growing demand. Indian women also took on new horticultural responsibilities. By the nineteenth century potato patches, raised from seeds obtained from the traders, became a fixture at village sites. Together with maize from traditional cornfields, potatoes became an important means of subsistence. Even the Dakota of the lower St. Croix, constricted by their war with the Chippewa from ranging as far as they had in the past, began to rely more on the farming of the Indian women. [53]

As the value of furs, even deer hides, increased the use of these materials in Chippewa and Dakota domestic life declined. Buckskin which had been the principle material for both men's and women's outer garments was replaced by broadcloth, augmented in the winter by capotes and leggings made of woolen blankets. Indian women adapted to the new materials artfully, and by the late eighteenth century were producing warmer and more durable clothing than had been traditionally available. Long proud of their weaving skills, which produced mats made of cedarbark and swamp rushes, Chippewa women adapted to the availability of glass trade beads to produce new bolder embroidery. While the use of beads was new, the designs followed traditional floral patterns blending old and new. Older crafts such as the original dental pictograph art, which Chippewa women produced by biting on thin sheets of birchbark, continued in spite of the new products available and the new demands on women's time. [54]

The creative blending of old and new also marked the rise of the Midewiwin rites. The Midewiwin was a set of ceremonies performed by an organized hierarchy of priests to protect tribal traditions, cure the sick, and slay the evil. Some form of the Midewiwin evolved among most of the Indian tribes of the Upper Midwest. For the Chippewa the Midewiwin had both a nationalistic and religious function. Its ceremonies brought together Chippewa from all across the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi regions. William Warren, the part-Chippewa historian of the 1880s, described the Midewiwin as the occasion for an annual "a national gathering" when "the bonds which united one member to another were stronger." Although the evidence is by no means clear, the Midewiwin appears to have originated some time after the Chippewa first became involved in the fur trade and it may have been a cultural adaptation to the rise of individual wealth among Chippewa hunters. The community strains brought by geographic expansion were a further factor stimulating the growth of the medicine society. The Jesuit relations that provide such a thorough look at Algonquian society between 1640 and 1700 make no mention of the Midewiwin, which supports the thesis the society was of historic origin. Membership in the Mide society was selective and could be obtained only after long periods of instruction. After initiation a member then advanced through eight degrees or rankings, at each level learning more of tribal lore, healing remedies, and conjuring power. Midewiwin rituals were secret and instruction was only possible after a considerable exchange of material wealth, from the novice to the priest. The Midewiwin, which continues to this day, was a creative means of redistributing the new wealth created by the fur trade and warding off the threat posed by Christianity. [55]

Figure 6. The opening page of Michel Curot's 1803-1804 journal of his year as a fur trader in the St. Croix Valley. The original is in the National Archives of Canada.