On this date in 1798, Flat Mouth arrived at the North West Company Pembina post. Fur trader Charles Jean Baptiste Chaboillez mentioned Flat Mouth and his trading activity several times in his records. Chaboillez was at Pembina for only a year and was succeeded by Alexander Henry, whose journals were far more detailed. Henry enlisted a canoe brigade of Native hunters from Leech Lake, some of whom had previously traded with Chaboillez and the rival Hudson’s Bay Company. Henry listed 41 hunters by their French, English, and Native names.
Flat Mouth was a powerful chief and diplomat of the Leech Lake Pillager Band of the Ojibwe. He declined to support Tecumseh during the pan-Indian rebellion from 1809 to 1811 and maintained peaceful relations with American settlers. He also refused to join the British during the War of 1812, instead aiding the Americans. His leadership helped his people resist forced relocation and remain on their ancestral lands.
In 1855, Flat Mouth traveled to Washington, D.C. with a delegation of tribal leaders to negotiate the cession of more than 10 million acres in Minnesota, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Elements of that agreement remained part of government discussions for the next hundred years.
While in Washington, Flat Mouth and Chief Buffalo, who also appeared on Henry’s canoe roster as “Boeuf,” or “Beef”—sat for a portrait by sculptor Francis Vincenti, who was creating artwork for the U.S. Capitol addition. Seth Eastman, a U.S. Army artist assigned to the Indian Bureau, brought the two leaders to Washington. Flat Mouth was about 81 years old at the time.
In 1862, Flat Mouth met with Governor Alexander Ramsey and offered to fight against the Dakota alongside other chiefs during the Santee Dakota Uprising.
Flat Mouth and Chief Buffalo later worked closely with Native author William W. Warren on History of the Ojibwe People, a work still considered an invaluable resource today. Warren described them as “men of strong minds and unusual intelligence.” In 1911, Smithsonian Institution ethnologist James Mooney called Flat Mouth “probably the most prominent Ojibwe chief of the upper Mississippi region” from at least 1806 until his death. He has many descendants living in North Dakota today.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Journal of Charles Jean-Baptist Chaboillez 1797-1798. Indiana University Press: Harold Hickerson, Editor.
- New Light on the Early History of the Northwest: The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and of David Thompson, 1799-1814, Volume 1. Cambridge University Library Collection, Edited by Elliot Coues. The Red River Brigade of 1800. List of the Indians, page 53-54.
- William W. Warren, History of the Ojibwe People. Introduction by W. Roger Buffalohead. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984 (reprint, first edition published 1885), pages 324, 349, 369, 17, 19, 45, 50, 138, 178, 223, 275, 342, 352, 359-363.
- Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay, or Flat Mouth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay
- Flat Mouth (Ojibwe Chief) https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/flat-mouth-ojibwa-chief
- Fur Trade on the Red River. https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr4/frontier-era-north-dakota/part-2-fur-trade-red-river/section-2-red-river-fur-traders
- Summary of North Dakota: Fur Trade. https://www.history.nd.gov/ndhistory/furtrade.html
- Figure 13. French, British, and Euro‐American trappers and traders did business with American Indians all over the frontier. (Atlas of Canada, Natural Resources).
- Aysh-ke-bah-ke-ko-zhay, or Flat Mouth
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-107sdoc11/pdf/GPO-CDOC-107sdoc11-2-7.pdf
