The Arikara (i.e. the Balani, Aricaria, or Arickarees) we early inhabitants [before 1700] of Northern Minnesota and a known to have been neighbors of the Mandans and the Gros Ventres on the Missouri in the eighteenth and early nineteen: century. The Arikara left northern Minnesota and went back down the Minnesota river about the same time [1701] as the Otoes and the Iowas [Eokoras known to have had about 20,000 warriors, one time] and took up residence on the Missouri. The Arikara were in the Red Lake area for some time before the Dakota (Sioux) and the Dakota before the Ojibwa (Chippewa).
The Mandan Indians likely separated from the Mantantons of Minnesota. They were found at the mouth of the Minnesota river in 1689 by Perrot and by LeSeuer in 1701. They then moved across. to or up the Missouri river later to make their homes. The Mandan or Mantantons were visited by LaVerendrye in 1738 and again in 1804 by Lewis and Clark. This Tribe also sent hunting parties and scouting parties out in different directions and more than likely visited Northern Minnesota via the Minnesota and Red Rivers as far as the "Pembinar" (Pembina) and Red Lake river area. There is no evidence to indicate that they stayed for any length of time
The Gros Ventres (Hidatsa or Minitari) were originally branch of the Dakota Siouan [Sioux of the Missouri Valley. They traditionally had once lived in and about the sources of the Mississippi in Minnesota and eastward to the St. Louis. They are mentioned in Warren's History of the Ojibwa, page 178. They also were supposed to have lived in earthen wigwams and this was confirmed by Lewis and Clark upon their visits to the area. This group were likely the earliest of the expelled Ohio mound-builders to reach Minnesota as far as the Minnesota and Red rivers. They were driven out by the Dakota (Sioux) and moved westward coming up the Missouri to take homes. Here they banded together with the members of the Mandan and Arikara Tribes near the present site of Old Fort Berthold, North Dakota. There was also an Algonquian Tribe called "Gros Ventres of the Plains" by the French in the early fur trading days as referred to by Alexander McKenzie, in History of the Fur Trade, page 87.
The Dakota (Dacotah, meaning allied or leagued) is the same as Sioux, a name given the Dakota by early visitors [likely French] who used the last two syllables of the name "Nadouessioux." The Dakota were mentioned as early as 1634 by Nicolet and were known in the Minnesota area by the Ojibwa as the Nadouessen, Nadouessioux, or Nadowaysioux [meaning country of the common enemy], their first name. The Dakota lived about the source of the Mississippi and are also believed to have been the Ohio mound-builders that fled down the Ohio river and came up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. These may have been some of the Omaha (Maha) and their groups who descended the Ohio and then divided - - - those going down were called the Kwapa and those that came up the Mississippi River were called the Omaha. Another division may have occurred at the mouth of the Missouri river spreading these Indians over the buffalo country of the Missouri and the Mississippi into Tribes or kinships known to be friendly with the Mandans, the Hidatsa, and the Issanti of the lower or southern Minnesota. The Issanti or Issantees [and Issati mentioned by Father Hennepin] lived about or near Isantandi or Knife Lake which is one of the Mille Lacs. There were said to be rocks near the lake which were used to make knives (isan) and likely this was the source of the name.
The Dakota (Sioux) stock also embraced the Crows farther up the Missouri river, the Sissetons, the Wahpetons, the Yanktons, the Yanktonais, the Tetons and their numerous sub-tribes. These comprised the Brule, the Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, Minneconjou, Two Kettles, the Ogallala, and the Hunkpapa. These were all linguistically- related with the Hidatsa, the Mandans, the Issanti and believed to be of the same tongue as the early Cherokee.
The Winnebago group, though originally from central Wisconsin- and northwestern Illinois, had been forced to move temporarily to northern Minnesota, Iowa, and finally to a reservation in Nebraska. Their dialect is said to be of the oldest Siouan stock. It is said that the Iowa group including the Otoe group sprang from the Winnebago and according to Mr. Pond, they occupied a considerable part of Minnesota but were later expelled by the other Dakota Tribes.
The Assiniboins (or Stone Sioux) broke away or separated from the Dakota (Sioux) and moved northward into the Lake of the Woods region and somewhat to the west. This separation was earlier than American historic records. Nicolet mentions them in 1634. Here they formed a close alliance with an Algonquian Tribe known as the Kilistino (or Cree). There were wars between the Dakota (Sioux) and their "rebel" enemies as late as 1820 and in Minnesota as long as the Sioux remained in and about that area Raiding parties of the Sioux were always headed northward against the Assiniboins and were seen and encountered also by the Ojibwa, the Cree, and possibly the Monsoni since these tribes were common enemies.
The Cheyenne, the Kilistino (or Cree), and the Monsoni are all of Algonquian stock and their tribes were possibly longer residents in Minnesota than the Dakota (Sioux) stock. The Cheyennes were on the upper Minnesota and were driven into the Dakotas and then to the southwest as the Dakota took over that area. Some habits of the Sioux were adopted by the Cheyenne. The Monsoni remained in the extreme north of Minnesota and northward from there as well as the Cree in the Rainy Lake area. These groups came mainly with the fur traders and seemed to have concerned themselves with trapping, fur trading, and hunting.
When Radisson and Chouart (Groseilliers) visited central Minnesota in 1659, the Ojibwa had not reached Minnesota except for a few hunting and raiding expeditions. However, some Algonquian people, mostly Crees and Ottawas, accompanied the French- men on their excursions into Northern Minnesota as early as 1660 but they retired with the Frenchmen to the Lake Superior area. Minnesota was always known to the Ojibwa at that time as the land of the Nadowa (first name of the Dakota Sioux or enemy) and because of this fear they stayed away.
About the year 1730 and earlier, bands of Ojibwa who lived at Rainy Lake and others who had already penetrated as far to the north and west as Pembina and Red Lake, often joined with the friendly Kilistino (or Crees) and the Assiniboins (Stone Sioux) on their annual journey toward Hudson Bay. This was a yearly ad- venture for these brave warriors and trappers to take their yearly catch of rich furs and trade for such much-needed items as clothing, blankets, foods stuffs, fire arms and ammunition, trinkets, and generally some fire water. With these supplies, in return for their furs, they would return to their families and to hunting each year. This continued until trading posts were established closer.
Just when the Sioux or Dakota were driven out of Northern Minnesota is not clear in history but the following events give some clues. In 1736, the Sioux ranged from Mille Lacs to and beyond the Iowa line and about this time began a treacherous hostility against the French who had long been their friends. The Sioux had a change of heart perhaps because the French were furnishing arms to their enemies, the Cree, the Ojibwa, and the Illinois and at the time were trying to be friendly to the Sioux. This prompted the Sioux to send out-expeditions or war parties numbering from about 25 to 150 warriors. A war party going northward, having 130 warriors, resulted in the raid and massacre of the Verendrye Party in June, 1736 on the Rainy River near Lake of the Woods.
In 1737, the Sioux sent a party of thirty warriors to the vicinity of Lake Superior which resulted in the killing of an Ojibwa family. From this- time on the Ojibwa began a relentless march against the Sioux in central and northern Minnesota which lasted nearly a century.
In 1739, the Sioux were still around Mille Lacs Lake and were likely driven away entirely soon after the battle of Kathio in 1744 or 1745 which lasted three days. J. V. Browers wrote on September 1, 1900 fixing the approximate date as 1750 that "The Sioux were driven or forced away from Mille Lacs by the Ojibwa". The Ojibwa Chief, Biauswah, and his warriors in 1746 forced the Sioux from their village of Sandy Lake and later made it their home. It was from here that later war parties were sent out against the Sioux gradually forcing them westward.
The Ojibwa, in 1748, drove the Fox (O-Dug-Amies) from the region of the Wisconsin "rice lakes" and also drove the Sioux from their hunting grounds and sites around lakes Winnibogoshish and Cass. It was from Leech Lake that the Dakotas sent out three war parties (supported by other Dakota warriors) to finally expel the Ojibwa invaders. One Dakota party was sent against the Rainy Lake group, likely Crees, who had many times come to the aid of the Ojibwa. The Sioux met defeat after a severe battle, which lasted three days and was fought near the present site of Big Falls on the Big Fork River which is northeast of Red Lake. Many brave warriors were lost on both sides but the Sioux loses were greater. The party sent out against the Ojibwa, that had settled in the Pembina region, and also their allies the Assiniboins, returned without encountering any enemy. The Indians in those days had a common instinct in being able to avoid each other, especially the enemy, if out-numbered. The Sioux party, sent against the Sandy Lake Ojibwa conquerors, met an Ojibwa War party on its way to Leech Lake and the famous battle of "Cut-Foot Sioux" took place. The battle lasted one-half day. From this time on the Sioux began a retreat out of the northern area and about 1750 the Ojibwa began occupying the abandoned sites of the fleeing Sioux. There followed many peaceful periods and then war periods between the peace-pipe truces which lasted for some time even after 1850.
The year 1770 is designated as about the approximate date or time that the Ojibwa completed its conquest and occupancy of the northern timbered areas of Minnesota including the Red Lake area and as far southward as Little Falls, on the Mississippi River. Some Sioux bands still dominated isolated lake areas in parts of north-central Minnesota as late as 1796. One map shows a group in the vicinity of "White Bear Lake".
In 1792 Jean Baptiste Cadotte, a well known explorer and fur trader and a large group of others set upon an expedition from Fond du Lac via the St. Louis River to Sandy Lake, thence up the Mississippi to Leech Lake and crossing over to Cass Lake and up to Red Lake. From here they continued on down the Red Lake River west. Since this expedition passed through Red Lake in 1792 or 1793, an aged and intellectual Chief of the Red Lake band called Wa-won-je-gwon, stated that from the time of this expedition can be dated the settlement of Red Lake by the Ojibwas permanently. It is known that the Ojibwa were at Red Lake much earlier but likely they had occupied the areas as semi-permanent homes as they were known to be a migrating people in the earlier years. The traders that came through Red Lake at this time with the expedition also sounded the lake (Red Lake) and found it to be only 8 fathoms deep at the deepest point.
In the early 1800's or slightly prior, a group of ten Dakota lodges and Dakota Indians succeeded for a number of years to occupy the headwaters of Thief River which empties into the Red Lake River. Here the Dakota managed to live from year to year in fear but in their rich hunting grounds evading and escaping the search of Ojibwa war parties. They built high embankments of earth around their lodges for defense so as not to be noticed by passing or searching Ojibwa. They even discarded the use of their guns, because of the loud report made by them which might give their location away, and reverted to the use of their primitive bows and arrows in killing the wild game used for food. The Assiniboins and Crees finally learned of their existence and notified the Ojibwa who organized a War Party and after a fierce battle the Dakota were entirely annihilated.
A historical map drawn in 1806 by M. Lewis shows a great change from the early maps in that it reads: "Algonquin Tribe of 200 men rove South of Lake Winnepeg on the Red River of the North", "Mouth of Pembinar-Chipaways [Chippewas] from Sand Lake 200 men rove", "Chipaway Vill [Village] 400 men" on Leech Lake. This map is important in that it establishes that the Chippewas were in possession of these areas at that date.
Another early map drawn in 1806-7 by William Clark listed Indians as follows: "Chippewas at the source of the Prairie and St. Louis Rivers" "Chippewas where the Red Lake River joins the Red River of the North". "Chippewas on the Mississippi above Sandy Lake", and "N. W. Co." fur trading post at the east end of Red Lake.
A geographical map of 1821 places the "Chippoways [Chippewas] Algonquins" as west of Lake Superior and south of the Pigeon River in the Highlands westward to the Mississippi. The "Chippeways [Chippewas] Sauter" are at Sandy Lake and westward.
Hunting parties of Sioux and small scouting parties were still seen and encountered as late as 1823 by Count Beltrami west of Red Lake on the Red Lake River. However, the northern part of Minnesota was almost completely dominated by the Ojibwa at this time and seldom were any Sioux seen.
In 1830 the "Chippeways" [Chippewas] are shown as far south as Crow Wing River by John Melish.
Reproduced with the Permission of the Beltrami County Historical Society.