On this date in 1870, the Chippewa-Sioux Peace Agreement was signed at Fort Abercrombie by leaders of the two rival tribes. The three-day event, sometimes called a treaty, was arranged by missionary priest Father Genin and attended by 900 people.
Though not a formal government treaty, the conference had lasting consequences. Chippewa families living in Clay County, Minnesota, following the 1863 Old Crossing Treaty, were eventually displaced. They had been farming near Father Genin’s Holy Cross Mission using plots provided by treaty scrip.
Father Genin organized the peace event to end hostilities between the tribes, which had discouraged settlers. With the arrival of the railroad, immigrants flooded in and filed land claims. The Chippewa families of Holy Cross moved north to Turtle Mountain or west to Montana, where they became known as the “Landless Natives.”
Linda Slaughter, wife of a U.S. Army officer in Bismarck, described Father Genin in glowing terms. Trusted by Native tribes, he often accompanied Chippewa hunting expeditions. After hearing about a Chippewa warrior who died defending twelve others from the Sioux near the Wild Rice River, Father Genin erected a 12-foot wooden cross at the site, a symbol of peace visible for miles. He later built his Holy Cross mission and log church there.
Mrs. Slaughter wrote that wherever he went, Father Genin was accompanied by a “little orphan Native boy” carrying a white peace flag with a red cross, inspired by the Geneva Convention. But the boy wasn’t an orphan.
A century later, Turtle Mountain elder Pat Gourneau visited the Fort Abercrombie Museum. He was stunned to see a photo from the peace conference: Chippewa on the right, Sioux on the left, and in the center, his grandfather, his father, and Father Genin. He recognized the boy in the white gown as his father, standing beside the priest in black. Pat’s grandfather held a long-stemmed peace pipe used at major treaties and passed down to Pat.
Pat used the pipe in many ceremonies, even for dignitaries like General Omar Bradley and Patricia Nixon. Before his death, he donated it to the Turtle Mountain Ordnance Plant. A relative later retrieved it and it was soon stolen. Its whereabouts remain unknown, perhaps now in the hands of a collector unaware of its true significance.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Oral History, Patrick "Au-nish-e-nau-bay" Gourneau. 1970 visit to relatives at Wahpeton, ND.
- Linda Slaughter, Leaves from Northwest History. NORTH DAKOTA VOL.I. BEING THE FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY TO THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH DAKOTA FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1906. BISMARCK, N.D. TRIBUNE, STATE PRINTERS AND BINDERS 1906.
- Fort Abercrombie State Historic Site. Facebook post, July 24, 2020.
- Idahgo Manipi: Clay County at 150. Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, MN. Exhibit text, Hjemkomst Heritage Center 2021-2024. Lise Erdrich, Advisory Group
- Fargo Underground: HCSCC Opens “Ihdago Manipi,” Clay County Sesquicentennial Exhibition. Editorial Staff August 31, 2021. The Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County opens their new major exhibition, “Ihdago Manipi: Clay County at 150,” at the Hjemkomst Center on Friday, September 10.
- https://fargounderground.com/2021/08/31/hcscc-opens-ihdago-manipi-clay-county-sesquicentennial-exhibition/
- 1870 Fort Abercrombie Peace Treaty. American-Tribes ProBoards. https://amertribes.proboards.com
