Chief Bemidji, whose real name was " Shay-Now-Ish -Kung," received his new name from Lake Bemidji which was called Bay-me-ji-ga, or "lake with cross waters." He was born near Inger, Minnesota, in 1833 or 1834 and lived in the Leech Lake and Cass Lake area. In 1860, he married a Leech Lake Pillager Indian woman and they had eight children, three boys of whom died at early ages. Four daughters and one son grew up and lived to older ages. In 1882, Chief Bemidji's wife died. Saddened by her death, he loaded all his possessions and children in his birch bark canoe and paddled up the Mississippi River to settle on the south shore of Lake Bemidji. He was the first permanent settler of Bemidji (from p. 107,"The Bemidji Area Looking Back" 2004).
The formal portrait of William Hoffman of Prairie Island. Hoffman was a member of the Mdewakanton band of Dakota. His Dakota name was Ta Shunke Maza which translates to Iron Horse.
Formal portrait of Julia and Mabel Rouillard on the occasion of Mabel's confirmation. Julia's husband Thomas was the lay minister at the Church of Messiah.
Five young Ojibwe women in western dresses each holding a wooden stick used to play Double Ball. Double Ball is a woman's game that resembles Lacrosse. The women are identified as wives of John Druilard. Two frame buildings and Lake Superior are visble in the background.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
The largest of nine American Indian burial mounds in the vicinity of Shady Lane and Lake Avenue along the shore of White Bear Lake prior to its demolition in April of 1889.
Portrait of Old Shoto. Photograph taken with a magazine by ars olclone camera. Contemporary handwriting on back. He is one of Chief Shakopee's braves, he was baptized by Father J. J. Girrimondi of St. Mary's church in 1894; he died in 1899. He is standing in front of a teepee with an open door.
Shoto walking with two walking sticks in Shakopee. Father J. J. Girrimondi of St. Mary's Church baptized 90-year-old Shoto in 1894 and buried him 1899. Shoto was one of Chief Shakopee's braves.
Portait of Shoto in front of tepee. The book, "The Shakopee Story" says that Shoto was one of Chief Shakopee's braves. He was baptized by Father J. J. Girrimondi of St. Mary's Church in 1894. He died in 1899.
St. Benedict's Industrial School was established in 1884 when St. Benedict's Convent contracted with the U.S. government, through the Catholic Indian Bureau, for support of 30 girls from the White Earth Indian Reservation (White Earth Band of Ojibwe). Since St. Benedict's Convent had sent sisters to teach at the White Earth mission in 1878, recruitment contacts could easily be made. However, the parents were reluctant to have their daughters leave home and the children did not take to the rigors and formalities of institutional life and education. As a result of the resistance of the Ojibwe, most of the students who came from the reservation were of not fully native but of mixed white and Indian blood. Thus, the sisters inadvertently became a part of the suppressive system which disregarded the spirit and culture of the American Indians. "The federal government, aided by church-sponsored missionaries, marched steadily toward its goal of assimilation for Indians. The drive was particularly strong between the 1880s and the 1930s. Their aim was detribalization, individualization and 'Americanization' of the American Indian." (Berg, p. 159) In the boarding schools, students, taken from their homes, were given a new wardrobe, new language and a whole new way of life. It is not surprising that before the turn of the century the government rescinded the contract system. But it has taken almost another century and the experience of assimilating peoples of different cultures for the American people to begin to appreciate the enrichment that multicultural living can offer. (SBMA, McDonald, pages 120-122 and Sister Carol Berg, OSB, "Agents of Cultural Change: the Benedictines in White Earth," Minnesota History, winter 1982, page 159).