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The Fur Trade

In 1827, the American Fur Company (AFC) achieved a monopoly on the fur trade in what is now Minnesota. The Company suddenly increased its prices by 300 percent; American Indians, returning from the hunt with expectations of trading for their yearly supplies, found themselves cast into a debt cycle that would increase in the decades ahead. American Indians would receive virtually unlimited credit as long as they maintained the most precious collateral: land.

American Fur Company Buildings at Fond du Lac, ca. 1827

As game was overhunted and demands for furs changed, the system collapsed under a burden of debt. In 1834, AFC departments were sold to partners who included the Chouteaus, Henry Sibley, and Hercules Dousman. The business strategy of the reorganized companies changed from fur trading to treaty making. In 1837, economically stressed Dakota and Ojibwe people began selling land in what became Minnesota. Fur traders, through their political connections, were able to divert government payments for American Indian land into their own pockets. In effect, land cession treaties became a vast government bailout of fur trade corporations.

Animal Tracks, Pike Island

Fur Company Owners Who Signed Treaties

Charles Borup, Northern Fur
The Chouteau Family
Richard Chute, Chouteau Co. (also see timber, transportation)
George Davenport (see mining)
Hercules Dousman
William Laidlaw, Columbia Fur Co.
Manuel Lisa, Missouri Fur Co.
J. F. A. Sanford, AFC
Henry Sibley, AFC

Prominent Fur Trade Employees Who Signed Treaties

William Atkin
Joseph R. Brown
William Hempstead
A.R. McLeod
Martin McLeod
Alan Morrison
Henry Rice
Lyman Warren

Family Members

Clement Beaulieu
Paul Beaulieu
Charles Borup
Charles Oakes

Beaulieu, Borup, Oakes

Brothers Paul H. and Clement H. Beaulieu were sons of a French fur trader and grandsons of a prominent Ojibwe leader. There were trading at La Pointe, Wisconsin when an Ojibwe delegation from present-day Minnesota arrived there to sign a treaty there, and soon followed the Ojibwe back to present-day Crow Wing to take advantage of trading opportunities.

Clement worked initially for the American Fur Company; by the time of the Civil War, he was the primary supplier of all trade goos to the Ojibwe. His former AFC associate Henry Sibley named him an officer in the Minnesota militia, and after the Civil War he became a Indian agent. Paul became a surveyor for the Stevens Expedition, an excursion on behalf of the Pacific Railroad. When the White Earth Ojibwe reservation was created, Paul was the first person on the Ojibwe rolls to move there.

Paul and Clement had two sisters, Julia and Elizabeth, who married respectively Charles Oakes and Charles Borup (who had been the AFC representative at La Pointe). These brothers-in-law entered business together, forming some of the earliest banking ventures in Minnesota. With Clement Beaulieu, they owned the Northern Fur Company (a successor to AFC), and presented claims for debt payments at the 1854 Ojibwe treaty.

Paul Beaulieu signed treaties with the Ojibwe in 1845, 1855, 1863 and 1864. Clement Beaulieu, Borup and Oakes all signed the 1842 Ojibwe treaty in Wisconsin. Clement also signed the 1855 treaty in Minnesota Territory, and Oakes signed an 1847 land cession treaty.

Family Members

Hercules Dousman
Scott Campbell
A. J. Cambell

Dousman and the Campbells

The Campbell siblings were children of a British fur trader and a Dakota woman. Some sources say that their grandmother was a sister of Little Crow, but which Little Crow is unclear. (The name was carried by generations of men.) Antoine Campbell signed the Dakota treaties of 1858). Scott Campbell was a long-time interpreter for Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro, and signed the multinational treaties at Prairie du Chien in 1825 and 1830, treaties with the Dakota in 1836 and 1837, and the Ojibwe land cession treaty of 1837.

Their sister Margaret had a long relationship with Hercules Dousman, who began working for the American Fur Company in 1826. By 1834, when Astor sold the company, Dousman was in a position to become a major stockholder in the fur trade, in partnership with the Chouteau family of St. Louis and Henry Sibley. Often working in tandem with Sibley, Dousman diversified his business interests as the fur trade declined, amassing a fortune through steamboats, land speculation, timber, and railroads. All of these businesses required obtaining the assets of American Indian people, and Dousman pursued his interests by signing treaties with the Ojibwe in 1837, with the Ho-Chunk in 1846, and with the Dakota in 1836 and 1851. In this last treaty, traders such as Dousman asserted their own interests so aggressively that he later said, “The Sioux treaty will hang like a curse over our heads for the rest of our lives.”

Two of Scott Campbell’s sons were hung for their involvement in the Dakota War of 1862: Baptiste, by the US military in Mankato; and John, by a lynch mob. Their fate stands in stark contrast to the financial benefits gained from US-Indian relations by their uncle Hercules.

Family Members

Chouteau Relatives: Hempstead, Lisa, Gratiot

Political, business and family connections in the US profoundly shaped US-Indian relations. One illustration of how close these connections were can be found in the Hempstead family.

Edward Hempstead moved west from Connecticut as a young lawyer, immediately after the Louisiana purchase, and established a lucrative law practice. By the next year he was signing treaties with the Delaware and Piankeshaw, and became the first elected representative from west of the Mississippi. His family followed him to St. Louis.

His brother Charles Hempstead, also a lawyer, soon relocated to Galena, IL, and started lead mines, eventually furthering his interests by signing treaties with the Ojibwe and Ho-Chunk in 1829.

William Hempstead, presumably the brother of Edward, signed the international land cession treaty at Prairie du Chien in 1830.

Their sister Mary married Manuel Lisa, a very prominent fur trader west of the Mississippi and an off-and-on rival and partner of the Chouteau family, a fur trade powerhouse. Lisa had signed seven treaties in 1815 and 1817, including two treaties with the Dakota.

Sister Susan Hempstead married Henry Gratiot shortly after moving to St. Louis. Gratiot was the nephew of Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, who founded the Chouteau family in Missouri. His father had personally financed the military operation of George Rogers Clark on the western front in the Revolutionary War. Henry Gratiot became a major player in lead mining in Wisconsin Territory, and in US relations with the Ho-Chunk nation. He signed treaties with the Ho-Chunk in 1828 and 1829, and with the Chippewa and their allies in 1829.

Family Members

Lawrence Taliaferro
John F. A. Sanford
John Emerson

Taliaferro, Emerson, and Sanford

Lawrence Taliaferro, long-time Indian agent at Fort Snelling, signed seven US-Indian treaties, including the 1837 treaties at which Ojibwe and Dakota people made the first large land cessions in what is now Minnesota, and the multinational treaty at Prairie du Chien in 1825.

Taliaferro was related to other treaty signers through two partnerships:

• While at Fort Snelling, Taliaferro married a woman who, according to many sources, was a daughter of Cloud Man, a Dakota signer of the Sisseton Wahpeton treaty of 1851.

• As a slaveholder, Taliaferro “owned” Harriet Robinson, and officiated at Harriet’s marriage to Dred Scott. Dred Scott, in turn, was the slave of two signers of US-Indian treaties: brothers-in-law John Emerson and John F. A. Sanford.

Emerson was a surgeon at Fort Snelling in the 1830’s, and signed the 1837 Ojibwe treaty that ceded land in what is now Minnesota. Fur trader Sanford signed three treaties with the Kansa, Sauk and Fox in the 1820s and 1830s. He married into the powerful Chouteau family of St. Louis. (Through family and business partnerships with William Clark, John Jacob Astor, Henry Sibley and many others, the Chouteau family virtually ran the fur trade west of the Mississippi.)

Family Members

Solomon Sibley
Charles Trowbridge
Henry H. Sibley
Frederick Sibley

Sibley and Trowbridge

One of the first acts of Congress under the Constitution was to “privatize” westward expansion. In 1787, a corporation called the Ohio Company of Associates was given land to settle in Ohio, with the idea that companies could sell land to settlers more aggressively and efficiently that the government could. With this act, corporate interests became a driving force in the US acquisition of Indian land.

The second-in-command for the Ohio Company was Ebenezer Sproat, whose daughter Sarah married Solomon Sibley. Sarah and Solomon moved from the Ohio settlement to what is now Michigan, where Solomon became the first mayor of Detroit and engaged in land speculation, signing a treaty with the Ottawa in 1821.

Solomon and Sarah had two sons and a son-in-law who signed US-Indian treaties:

• Henry Sibley, co-owner of the American Fur Company, business partner of the Chouteau family from St. Louis, military general and Governor of Minnesota, land speculator, owner of a gold mining company, etc., signed 10 treaties including the 1837 treaty at which the Ojibwe first ceded land in what is now Minnesota.

• Frederick Sibley, a fur trader, army contractor and inheritor of a lucrative limestone quarry and other real estate in Detroit, signed the 1851 Mdewakanton Wahpekute treaty by which the Dakota ceded 16,000,000 acres to the US.

• Charles C. Trowbridge, a banker, lawyer, lumber manufacturer and Indian agent who played a prominent role in US-Indian affairs in Michigan, signed a treaty with eastern Ojibwe in 1820 and the multinational treaty at Prairie du Chien in 1825.

Another brother-in-law of Henry Sibley was Franklin Steele, who controlled the water power at St. Anthony Falls.

Family Members

Henry Schoolcraft
William Aitkin
Samuel Abbe
Lyman Warren
Truman Warren
William Warren

Schoolcraft, Aitkin, Warren

Henry Schoolcraft, who signed the 1825 multinational treaty at Prairie du Chien and 8 other Ojibwe treaties, first made a name for himself as a mineralogist, identifying copper and lead deposits. In 1819 he wrote a book entitled Lead Mines of Missouri that drew the attention of Lewis Cass, Michigan Territorial Governor. The next year, on an expedition with Cass, Schoolcraft bribed local Ho-Chunk men to show him the location of lead mines in the Prairie du Chien area. He was then appointed the head US Indian agent for all of the vast Michigan Territory. He appointed his brothers and brothers-in-law to positions in the Indian Affairs bureaucracy, and they signed Ojibwe treaties in what is now Michigan.

Schoolcraft's first wife was a member of a prominent eastern Ojibwe family. She shared with him the stories that became a primary source for Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha. Through a network of marriages with her relatives (French, American and Ojibwe), other treaty signers joined the same extended family as Schoolcraft. Lyman Warren became a prominent fur trader and signed treaties with the Ojibwe from what is now Minnesota in 1842 and 1837. His son Truman signed Ojibwe treaties in 1855, 1863, 1864, and 1867. Lyman's son William, who signed an 1847 Ojibwe land cession treaty, forged an identity that straddled two worlds, writing an important history of the Ojibwe people and serving in the Minnesota Legislature.

William Warren's wife, Mathilda Aitkin (daughter of fur trader William Aitkin) also had a relationship with treaty signer Samuel Abbe. Aitkin (for whom Aitkin County is named) advocated the introduction of whiskey into the Indian trade; he signed Ojibwe treaties in 1842 and 1847. Abbe wend on to the join the board of directors of railroad and canal companies, and signed an Ojibwe treaty in 1863.

Family Members

Joseph Renshaw Brown
Nathaniel Brown
A.M.A. Brown

Joseph, Nathaniel and A.M.A. Brown

Joseph Renshaw Brown came to Minnesota at age 14 as a drummer boy at Fort Snelling. He left the army at about age 20 and entered the fur trade. Marriages into two prominent Dakota/French/US families helped ensure his financial success, and he diversified his business interests into transportation and land speculation. He founded the Minnesota towns of Stillwater and Henderson, and co-owned the Dakota Land Company which founded Sioux Falls and other South Dakota towns. Brown County is named after Joseph Renshaw Brown.

His brother Nathaniel also engaged in Minnesota politics as well as in railroads and land speculation.

Joseph Brown led a delegation to Washington for the 1858 land cession treaties, signed a treaty with the Ho-Chunk in 1859, and signed the 1867 Sisseton Wahpeton treaty that established a Dakota reservation in South Dakota. Nathaniel accompanied Joseph to Washington for the 1858 Dakota treaty, and Joseph's son A.M.A. Brown signed the 1867 treaty.

Family Members

Martin McLeod
A.R. McLeod

Martin McLeod and Alexander R. McLeod

These men were related, but exactly how is unknown. Living near Montreal in 1836, they joined the “Indian Liberating Army,” an absurd venture by James Dickson to establish an empire in California, with Dickson as emperor. When the expedition fell apart in Minnesota, Martin stayed, entering Territorial politics and promoting immigration from Canada. He signed the Mdewakanton Wahpekute Dakota land cession treaty of 1851.

Alexander was the son of a hapless but noted fur trader for the Hudson Bay Company who played a role in the settlement of Oregon. He also joined the Hudson Bay Company after the Dickson expedition, a tenure that ended in the early 1840’s amid charges of “sexual misconduct.” He moved to Minnesota in 1842, still under the age of 30, and signed a treaty with the Pillager band of the Ojibwe in 1847.

Family Members

Allan Morrison
D. G. Morrison
John Morrison
John Kittson

Morrison and Kittson

The Morrison/Kittson family developed an intricate network of connections - business interests, political positions, and family ties - that spanned the entire treaty-making era for Ojibwe people in what is now Minnesota.

William Morrison and his brother Alan (who signed the Ojibwe treaties of 1847) were prominent fur traders who married into both Ojibwe and white families. (Morrison County is named after them.) Their mixed-blood children received "half breed" tracts in an 1826 treaty. Their white children became business leaders in Minnesota. Alan's son John, a signer of 1863 and 1864 Ojibwe treaties, became chief of police at White Earth. William's son D. G. Morrison, who signed treaties in 1863 and 1866, was one of the original incorporators of Fond du Lac, which became Duluth.

One of William's wives was a sister of Norman Kittson (for whom Kittson County is named), one of the most prominent early Minnesotans in the freight and transportation industries.

Alan Morrison and his nephew D. G., as well as Norman Kittson, were Territorial legislators.

Family Members

Henry Mower Rice

Henry Mower Rice (and Edmund Rice)

Henry Mower Rice (signer of Ojibwe treaties in 1847, 1854, 1855 and 1863) began his career selling goods to military forts and trading with the Ojibwe and Ho-Chunk. Arriving in St. Paul, he purchased land claims around the area of St. Paul. (The use of funds from his employer, Pierre Chouteau, for his own land speculation led to embarrassment when his books were audited.) He eventually parlayed his trading connections and political ambitions into a position of power in US politics and US-Indian relations.

In 1847, Rice became the spokesman for the Ojibwe at a land cession treaty in Washington. In 1851, he offed to secure Dakota signatures on a land cession treaty if he were paid $10,000. Fur traders put up the money, and the Dakota sold millions of acres of their land. "Just how he accomplished this masterstroke has never been fully determined." (Wingerd, North Country.) When Minnesota became a State, Rice became the State's first US Senator.

Henry and his brother Edmund (a US Representative from Minnesota) acquired extensive land holdings, directorships in railroads, and other interests that related to US-Indian relations, becoming the chief rivals of Henry Sibley in both business and politics.