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Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post

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Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1929

Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, ca. 1929.

Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post debuted its services as a general store for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in 1918. In future decades, it evolved into a center for local Ojibwe to trade and sell their art and educate visitors about Ojibwe culture.

Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post opened in 1918 when new businessman Harry D. Ayer acquired a trader’s license from the White Earth Indian Agency allowing him to trade with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. After receiving federal permission, Ayer began to trade tools, food, and clothing out of a small building he leased from the Minnesota government along Shaub-uush-kung Bay on Mille Lacs. The post operated as a general store for the Mille Lacs Band, selling or exchanging credit for essential supplies such as needles, thread, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, bread, and vegetables. Non-essential items included snuff, candy, soda, and tobacco.

In March 1925, the federal government forced Harry and his wife, Jeanette, to vacate the building. One month later, in April, they moved three miles south along the lake to an area called Vineland Bay. Construction consumed the following months and on November 12, 1925, the trading post opened inside a newly built and permanent building that Harry and Jeanette owned themselves. Harry worked as the buyer and trader for the post, travelling to the southwestern United States to purchase or trade items to sell at his store. Jeanette supervised and ran the store with the help of day clerks.

The Mille Lacs Band highly valued the trading post. The store employed only local Ojibwe community members and operated a credit system that greatly aided locals during tough economic times. Local Ojibwe traded their cultural work and traditional harvests to pay debts owed to the store. According to the oral history of Fred Benjamin, a Mille Lacs Band member, not once was a local community member turned down; because of this, the trading post quickly gained an impressive collection of handcrafted Ojibwe art. Annual treaty payments from the Indian Service were paid out to the Ojibwe at the trading Post.

The 1920s and 1930s brought affordable automobiles and improved roads to the area, both of which attracted tourists from the Twin Cities to northern Minnesota. The influx of visitors inspired the Ayers to expand the post’s business. In May of 1929 they added cabins (for rent) and a dining hall to the property and constructed an additional room. The extra space served as a museum for Ojibwe artwork, including beaded pieces like necklaces and earrings as well as birch bark items like toy canoes and small baskets. Other Native American artwork from Harry’s visits to southwestern states, like silver jewelry, rugs, and pottery, were also displayed in the additional room.

That same month, a small boat works (factory) was added to the property where boats of high quality were created. They were of various sizes and functions ranging from sports to leisure. The factory employed local Ojibwe men to work as laborers and as guides to visiting fishermen.

The post reached its peak year in 1937. By that time, it had evolved from a sales operation into a cultural center for art sales, trading, and education about Ojibwe life. The fishing and tourist resort was in full swing, and sales and museum visits soared.

The post enjoyed a fruitful business of art and culture over the next two decades. The boat works met its end in 1939, when it closed down after a decade in which it produced over 200 boats. The rental cabins and dining hall were dissolved in 1940. However, the trading post’s business of buying and trading Native American artwork continued to thrive. Its collection of Native American arts and crafts, as well as its legacy, grew to became not only a vital aspect of the lives of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe but also an enriching and unique contribution to Minnesota tourism and recreation in the northern lake regions.

In 1959, the post ceased to operate as an independent enterprise. The Ayers donated their collections and land to the Minnesota Historical Society, which reopened the post as an historic site in 1960.

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Historic Structures Report of Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post Site, June 1992
Mille Lacs Indian Museum, Onamia
Description: Researched history prepared for the Minnesota Historical Society done by U.S. West Research on the historic site of the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post.
Internet Archive. Minnesota Small Craft Project Report, Section 9.
https://archive.org/stream/2017MSCProjectReportIA/2017-MSC-Project-Report-IA_djvu.txt

Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. Trading Post History.
http://www.mnhs.org/millelacs/learn/trading-post

OH 35
Oral history interview with Fred B. Benjamin, June 1992
Oral History Collection, Mille Lacs Indian Museum, Onamia
Description: Benjamin discusses his experiences working at the Indian Trading Post with the store’s owners, Harry and Jeanette Ayer.

P612
Harry D. Ayer and family papers, 1878‒1966
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: The correspondence, legal papers, financial records, Indian estate records, ledgers, inventory books, school notebooks, and personal record books of Harry D. and Jeannette Ora (Foster) Ayer.

Related Images

Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1929
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1929
Me-gee-see, Dick Gahbowh, and John Mitchell at Mille Lacs Trading Post
Me-gee-see, Dick Gahbowh, and John Mitchell at Mille Lacs Trading Post
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1915
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1915
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1920
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1920
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1920
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1920
O-gee-tup (Heavy Sitter), Harry Ayer, and Jeanette Ayer at Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post
O-gee-tup (Heavy Sitter), Harry Ayer, and Jeanette Ayer at Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1930
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1930
Boat works at Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post
Boat works at Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1935
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1935
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1935
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1935
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1935
Mille Lacs Indian Trading Post, 1935
Sample card of glass seed beads
Sample card of glass seed beads

Turning Point

On November 12, 1925, the Indian Trading Post opens its doors to a newly constructed and permanent building that serves as a Mille Lacs-area cultural store and museum.

Chronology

1918

Harry Ayer acquires a trading license from the White Earth Indian Agency that allows him to trade with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

1925

The Minnesota government forces the Ayers to relocate their trading post in March.

1925

In April, the Ayers settle in a new location along Vineland Bay.

1925

Not wanting to officially open his newly relocated trading post on Friday the 13th, Harry Ayer places a yeast cake on the shelf on Thursday the 12th. As a result, the post’s official "opening" date is November 12.

1929

The trading post’s rental cabins, dining hall, and boat works are fully functioning in May. An additional room serves as a museum of Native American art.

1937

The trading post and its resort reach the height of their success.

1939

Boat Works factory closes down after ten years of constructing boats.

1940

The post’s cabins and dining hall are dissolved. The trading post begins to focus its business on trading and selling Native American art.

1959

The Ayers donate the trading post to the Minnesota Historical Society.

1960

The Minnesota Historical Society begins to operate the Mille Lacs Indian Museum on the site.