Native Americans | Page 18

Edna Larrabee and Beulah Brunelle

Edna Larrabee and Beulah Brunelle in 1948. Composite of photographs published in the Minneapolis Star, November 22, 1948.

Escape from Shakopee State Reformatory for Women, 1949

Beulah Brunelle (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and Edna Larrabee escaped from Shakopee State Reformatory for Women five times between 1946 and 1949. Though most of the breakouts ended in their recapture within a few days, their fourth escape, in 1949, led to eight months of freedom and allowed the two women to live together as a couple while traveling around the United States.

Raccoon hide

Tanned raccoon hide used at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading post in Onamia, Minnesota. Created no earlier than 1918.

Tanned beaver pelt

Tanned beaver hide marked "HA" on the flesh side with numerous discontinuous small holes to form the letters. "HA" are probably the initials of Harry Ayer. Date unknown but before 1959. Ayer was the original proprietor of the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post in Onamia, Minnesota, in which this pelt was found. The object is probably Ojibwe in origin.

Canoe

Birchbark canoe (possibly Ojibwe) created ca. 1900.

Trade earrings

Pair of metal hoop earrings (ear bobs) used as trade goods between 1750 and 1837.

Bone trade beads

Hair-pipe bone beads used in the fur trade no earlier than 1700 and no later than 1837.

Tanned muskrat pelts

Muskrat fur pelts on display at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading post in Onamia, Minnesota. Created no earlier than 1918.

Fur Trade in Minnesota

The North American fur trade began around 1500 off the coast of Newfoundland and became one of the most powerful industries in US history. In Minnesota country, the Dakota and the Ojibwe traded in alliance with the French from the 1600s until the 1730s, when Ojibwe warriors began to drive the Dakota from their homes in the Mississippi Headwaters region. Afterward, the Dakota continued trading in the south while Montreal traders and their Ojibwe allies established a network of trading posts in the north. For the next 120 years, the fur trade dominated the region’s economy and contributed to the development of a unique multicultural society.

Dakota beaded moccasins

Leather moccasins beaded with a geometric design. Originally owned by John Other Day (Wahpeton Dakota) and given to Stephen Return Riggs, a missionary and government interpreter among the Dakota in southwestern Minnesota, ca. 1860.

Gale Family Library