1847 Ojibwe Land Cession Treaties

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.