Trade earrings

Trade earrings

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

Bone trade beads

Bone trade beads

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

Tanned muskrat pelts

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

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.

Dakota beaded knife sheath

Dakota beaded knife sheath

A Dakota, possibly Yankton, beaded knife sheath dating to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Two beaded tassels are attached to the sheath's bottom; one tassel ends in metal cones. A string ending in metal cones connects the sheath's sides on either side of its opening. The reverse side of the sheath is undecorated save for a few rows of blue beads near the opening.

Dakota glass, clay, and agate beads

Dakota glass, clay, and agate beads

Double string of beads includes glass, clay and agate beads; the strand is divided into four rings that are separated by a flat white bead with double holes. The beads are mostly amber colored with a few faceted, round, or cylindrical beads. Additional colors range from plain blue, yellow, or green to multicolored figured beads. The beads were restrung in 1962, but the original bead order has since been restored.

Dakota beaded glass necklace

Dakota beaded glass necklace

Dakota necklace made from a string of light pink amber glass beads of various sizes and shapes. The beads are European glass of the type used in the fur trade, are worn, and have been restrung on a nylon cord. Made ca. 1890.

Light blue glass trade beads

Light blue glass trade beads

Three opaque light blue pony beads made between 1700 and 1837.

Dakota beaded leather bag

Dakota beaded leather bag

A Dakota beaded and quilled leather storage or "possibles" bag. The bag is rectangular in shape, with porcupine-quilled red lines on the front and beaded geometrics on the sides, and is decorated with tufts of yellow and purple horsehair emerging from metal cones. Made by Nancy McClure Faribault, wife of David Faribault, circa 1880.

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