French-African Indians: Interpreters in Nineteenth-Century Minnesota Ojibwe Country

My project examines the intersections of migration, intermarriage and changing constructions of race and identity in nineteenth century Minnesota. I focus on George and Stephen Bonga – brothers of mixed Ojibwe and African ancestry. They were tri-lingual, prosperous fur traders, both married to Ojibwe women. Their grandparents were French-speaking African slaves and their father was a fur trader who married an Ojibwe woman. George and Stephen had fluid identities that worked to their advantage in the fur trade era, as they slipped among the categories “white,” “mixed-blood,” and “Indian.” Although they were educated out East as youth, they maintained kin ties to the Pillager band of Ojibwe Indians in northern Minnesota.

This paper explores how the Bonga brothers navigated a changing Ojibwe social world that was undergirded by centuries-long patterns of migration, but that increasingly faced pressure to “settle” in permanent communities. As the fur trade waned, the Bongas took on roles as interpreters at U.S. – Ojibwe treaty sessions and for missionaries traveling through Ojibwe country. Utilizing primary resources, I look at Stephen’s role as an interpreter in the 1830s at both US – Ojibwe treaty sessions and for the Methodist missionary Alfred Brunson, who worked primarily in Dakota country. I also examine George’s role as an interpreter for missionaries and Indian agents in the 1830s and 1860s. I investigate how their roles challenge prevalent notions about Native American history and narratives of Indian removal, black-white racial dichotomies, and Ojibwe historical agency.

Furthermore, I ask: How did the Bongas’ skills as fur traders, their identities, and their kin ties enable them to adapt new roles as interpreters? How do the Bongas’ migrations through Ojibwe, Dakota, and Euro-American communities speak to their complex identities and changing notions of race? And how do their stories change narratives of Native American history?