On this date in 1797, fur trader J. B. Chaboillez of the Northwest Company noted the arrival of Net-no-kwa and her sons at the Pembina post. Chaboillez called her La Courte Oreille, or Long Earrings, meaning Ottawa. Neither Chaboillez nor his successor, Alexander Henry, noted that one of her sons was a white man, so completely had he adapted to Native life. Abducted in Kentucky as a child, Tanner had forgotten the English language by adulthood.
His Shawnee captors might have killed him, but they encountered Net-no-kwa in Michigan. She was considered the principal chief of the Ottawa and customarily received gun salutes from soldiers at Fort Mackinac. A shrewd trader and leader, Net-no-kwa saw Tanner’s potential and bought him from the Shawnee. Her husband, 17 years younger than she, taught Tanner to hunt, trap, and sustain the household. Tanner received a name meaning “The Falcon.”
Net-no-kwa sought new opportunity in the Red River fur trade. During the long, dangerous journey, her husband and older son died. Tanner revered them, but his remaining brother disappointed her in character and hunting ability. Net-no-kwa’s tent welcomed relatives who were skilled hunters and mentors, as well as women and children.
Net-no-kwa and her male associates guided Tanner in spiritual matters, rites of passage, hunting methods, marriage, and the practical realities of survival and trade. Tanner became the leading hunter of his bandlet and a firsthand witness to important events in tribal and fur trade history.
Net-no-kwa enjoyed practical jokes and once placed a live rabbit in a kettle of frozen fat, expecting it to jump out when Tanner returned hungry from winter exertions. Instead, the rabbit drowned as the fat melted. Another time, she told Tanner of a vision of a bear sleeping in its hole in a slough. Tanner followed her instructions and found the bear, saving his household from starvation. He later believed Net-no-kwa had tracked the bear herself and revealed its location to him.
In 1820, Tanner met Edwin James, a physician and botanist on the Red River expedition led by Major Stephen Long. James later worked with Tanner to write his memoir, published in 1830. Tanner expressed great regard for Net-no-kwa throughout her life. The book was a popular success and remains an important historical and cultural record.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Minneapolis: Ross and Haines, 1952. Edwin James, Editor. A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, (U.S. interpreter at the Saut de Ste. Marie) ) During Thirty Years Residence among the Indians in the Interior of North America.
- Alexandria: Lantern Books, 1963. Erling Nicolai Rolfsrud, The Story of North Dakota, pages 45, 86.
- John Tanner Between Two Worlds by mikulpepper, wordpress.com
- https://shrineodreams.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/john-tanner-between-two-worlds/
- Manitoba Historical Society: John Tanner Life Sketch. George Bryce, Sketch of the life of John Tanner, a famous Manitoba scout: A border type: A paper read before the Society, April 26, 1888. Winnipeg: Manitoba Free Press Print, 1888.
- George Woodcock, “TANNER, JOHN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed December 10, 2025, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/tanner_john_7E.html.
