"Turtle Mountain" or "Turtle Mountains"? Tribal historian and linguist Pat Gourneau noted that Indigenous languages traditionally didn’t use the plural. The Turtle’s back, head, heart, and tail were referenced by Indigenous people as parts of one elevated landform. Travelers, explorers, and cartographers identified landmarks accordingly.
Diverse tribal creation stories of the Great Flood were comparable to the biblical deluge. Describing how North America was rebuilt on the Turtle’s back.
The Souris Plains Heritage Association writes: “The hills cover an area of about a thousand square miles, half in North Dakota, half in Manitoba. The geographic feature called Turtle Mountain has long been noted and referred to in the diaries and maps of early explorers as a major landmark and important landform.”
On this date in 1865, Captain Palliser’s expedition map had just been published, showing the 1,000-square-mile Turtle straddling the 49th parallel.
Geologist John P. Bluemle described how the hills formed, noting: “They may rise only about 700 to 800 feet above the surrounding plains, but in that context—surrounded by a sea of grass—they truly do appear mountainous.”
In 1859, New York Evening Post correspondent Manton Marble visited the region. His account and illustrations were published in Harper’s Magazine. He described crossing the prairie and spotting the “long, clear blue line of the Turtle Mountain, crowned with its double peaks.” The heart and back of the Turtle include Boundary Butte on the border and Butte St. Paul in the U.S.
In Indian Boyhood, Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman recalled: “Our party appeared on the northwestern side of Turtle Mountain; we had been hunting buffalo all summer, in the region of the Mouse River. Our teepees rose in clusters along the outskirts of the heavy forest on the sloping side of the mountain.”
He described a vivid landscape: rolling yellow plains checkered with buffalo, elk in the streambeds, deer in abundance, and trout in the brooks. Beavers dammed the streams, moose and bears roamed the forested islands, and waterfowl, cranes, swans, and loons gathered in great numbers.
“To me, as a boy, this wilderness was a paradise and land of plenty. We didn’t have the luxuries of civilization, but we had every convenience, opportunity, and luxury of Nature. We were encamped near Turtle Mountain’s Heart.”
The men often sent a lookout to the top.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- John P. Bluemle, North Dakota Geological Survey. North Dakota's Mountainous Areas: The Killdeer Mountains and The Turtle Mountains. https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn15.asp
- Charles Alexander Eastman, Indian Boyhood (Toronto: General Publishing Company, Dover Editions 1971). Encampment at “Turtle Mountain’s Heart.” Pages 193-197.
- Manton Marble, To Red River and Beyond. Harper's Magazine, 1860.
- Turtle Mountain - Souris Plains Heritage Association Southwest Manitoba, Canada.
- http://vantagepoints.ca/stories/turtle-mountain/
- Patrick "Au-Nish-E-Nau-Bay" Gourneau, A Search for Boundary Butte. Rolla: Star Printing, 1971
- Patrick "Au-Nish-E-Nau-Bay" Gourneau, History of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Rolla: Star Printing, 1974
- A Section of a General Map of the Routes in British North America Explored by the Expedition Under Captain Palliser (1865)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palliser_expedition#/media/File:A_Section_of_a_General_Map_of_the_Routes_in_British_North_America_Explored_by_the_Expedition_Under_Captain_Palliser_(1865)_(2211818555).jpg
