Indians of the Midwest

Making Money

Above: Menominee basketmaker, 1914. (Newberry Library, Ayer Photographs box 22 AP 989). View in digital collection

With the arrival of the French, Native people began to produce furs and hides for the international and regional markets. While the creation of social ties rather than the profit motive was initially at the forefront of Indian transactions, they soon became good at trade negotiations, playing the French and English off against one another to get the best result. By the mid-18th century, both Indian women and men were key players in the regional economy. Traders and officials bought the surplus food that Indian villages produced for the market. Women sold corn and other garden produce, sugar, and wild rice. Men sold meat and fish (often preserved by women). Europeans bought canoes, traps, nets, and snowshoes from men. They bought moccasins, feathers (used for featherbeds by Europeans), and other items from women. Indian men also hired themselves out as boatmen, soldiers, guides, hunters, and laborers, and both men and women worked as interpreters. Métis traders had settlements where they traded with Indians for food and hired Indians, Métis, and Europeans for various kinds of work. They also had slaves (Indian captives who largely did the same work as the hired help).

In the late 18th century, Indian groups diversified their economies, relying less on selling furs. Women continued to sell food and feathers, and they increased their production of slabs of lead, which they dug from ancient mines. The French had taught Indians to make musket balls, and the sale of ammunition became a large part of the economy of several Indian groups. Indian communities hoped to continue to play an important role in the regional economy after the Americans gained ascendancy.

The influx of settlers and entrepreneurs into Indian country in the 19th century instead led to the economic marginalization of Native people. Their land base was reduced, first by the cession of most of the territory used by Native communities. Then, after the reserved land was allotted to individuals, subsequent legislation allowed allotments to be sold against the wishes of the Indian owners. Eventually, commercial farming became impossible and subsistence hunting and gathering more difficult. Americans gradually crowded Indians out of lead mining, commercial fishing, selling wild rice, and logging. Indians were hired only for the lowest-paying jobs. Craft production for the tourist market produced only small supplemental income for households. Indians survived by continuing their subsistence economy, by making money through a variety of largely seasonal occupations, and by cooperating and sharing with one another. The training that Indians received during and after World War II and the urban relocation program led to many Indians leaving their reservations for cities, where they obtained employment or started small businesses.

What are some of the ways Indians earned income?

Logging camp, 1900-1902

As shown here, the Swan River Logging Company hired Ojibwas (Chippewas) to cut timber in the Chippewa National Forest. Chippewa families camped during the logging season, while the men worked for wages and the women managed the camp. In Minnesota, Chippewa reservations originally contained huge forests of pine. Over time, non-Indian owned lumber companies, in collusion with federal officials, obtained most of the timber very cheaply by fraudulent means. Despite congressional investigations that documented the fraud, Indian leaders could not get the sales voided. Those Indians that were hired by the lumber companies worked for low wages. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (54699).

Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) picking cranberries, 1900

In Wisconsin, Ho-Chunks and other Indians worked cheaply for farmers, doing seasonal agricultural labor. Non-Indian farmers and businessmen depended on cheap Indian labor and the acquisition of Indian land and resources at below market value. Photo courtesy of National Anthropological Archives (BAEGN4423.

Ojibwa boys bringing wild rice to sell, ca. 1970

By 1900 there was only a fledgling market for wild rice. Indians sold rice to non-Indian vacationers, and they sold seed to hunters who planted it where they wanted to attract birds. Today many families still sell small amounts of wild rice in roadside stands and to local brokers or businesses in order to supplement their income, and ricing is important culturally as much as economically. Photo by Bill Burnson, courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (47151).

John Shimek ricing on South Chippewa Lake, White Earth Reservation, 2005

Twenty-two year-old Shimek uses wood sticks to knock wild rice into the bottom of his canoe. Interviewed, Shimek noted that hand-harvested wild rice, which is sold locally as well as on the Internet, is important to the local economy. Two experienced ricers can earn hundreds of dollars in a few hours. Ojibwas at White Earth and elsewhere are working to protect the wild rice beds, which they feel are threatened by non-Indian producers of rice. After non-Indian entrepreneurs became interested in selling rice, they began to grow it in paddies, and they developed mechanized ways of harvesting and processing it. By the 1960s, they were using fertilizers and insecticides and growing genetically engineered rice. Rice was harvested by motorized paddle boats that collected 90 percent of the rice. Many Indians oppose mechanized harvesting because not enough rice is left to replenish the beds. Overproduction also is viewed as sacrilege. Indians could not compete with the large, corporate producers, so by the 1980s they had only two percent of the market. The mechanized combines could harvest in one half hour what it took a harvester in a canoe one day to harvest, and Indians could not raise the capital to compete with the large processing plants owned by non-Indians. Photo by Tom Robertson, Minnesota Public Radio.

Chippewa Indians selling maple sugar, postcard, 1909-1912

Indian women traded surplus maple sugar at posts in the early 19th century. In 1820, 40 pounds of sugar bought 6 feet of woolen cloth or a blanket. Although harvesting maple sugar was criminalized at times by state regulations, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women continued to earn money selling or bartering sugar and syrup to lumber camps, traders, or citizens in general. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (19571).

Fishing Guide at Lac du Flambeau

Tourists came to the summer resorts beginning in the 1890s. Families came on the train until the 1940s, then by car. They stayed at the resorts for boating, swimming, and fishing, and for the cool temperature of the north woods. In the fall, hunters came to the area. Ojibwa men worked as guides to sportsmen, and Ojibwas also worked at the resorts as maids, kitchen help, and other jobs. Between World Wars I and II, nearly every Ojibwa man at Lac du Flambeau worked as a fishing guide. They gathered and prepared tackle and bait, rowed and/or motored boats, prepared the shore lunches, and cleaned the catch for $5 a day. Photo courtesy of George Brown Jr. Museum and Cultural Center, Lac du Flambeau.

Francis Godfroy, storekeeper, 1839

Godfroy (1788-1840) was the son of a French trader and a Miami woman. He became an accomplished war chief, then succeeded Deaf Man as the leader of a band of Miami near Peru, Indiana. Godfroy owned a trading company and was respected by his non-Indian neighbors for his business acumen. The trading company was a two-story frame building well stocked with goods. He had two wives and a son who trained for the law. Godfroy owned several farms and entertained officials and travelers at his post. Painting by George Winter, courtesy of Tippecanoe County Historical Association.

Indian Trading Post, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin

This store was owned by the Headflyer family. Note that beadwork could be purchased here as well as general merchandise. Sportsmen and other tourists would have patronized this store. Courtesy of George Brown Jr. Museum and Cultural Center, Lac du Flambeau.

Display of articles made by Chippewas during a Works Progress Administration project, 1939

These articles were displayed at the community building on the Grand Portage Reservation. In 1935, the federal government established the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to help preserve traditional crafts and to facilitate the marketing of these items. The WPA also employed craft workers and helped to establish all sorts of cooperatives, including those of craft workers, in order to perpetuate this kind of work and make it more economically viable. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (1000015).

Oneida women with lace work

In 1898 Sybil Carter, a missionary and deaconess of the Episcopal Church, taught some Oneida women the art of lacemaking. She sent a teacher of lace-making at Hampton Institute Normal School to continue the instruction, and a lace industry began to develop. Oneida women worked at home and, by selling their work, supplemented their household income. Oneida lace work won numerous awards over the years: at the Paris Exposition in 1900, Pan American Expo at Buffalo in 1901, the expo at Milan in 1906, and the grand prize at the Australian Exposition in 1904. By the 1920s, over 150 women were selling their work. Many were alumnae of boarding schools where girls were taught to make lace and embroider. The women made bed spreads, altar lace, cushions, and doilies. After lace-making was mechanized, they sold their hand work to wealthy private clients who bought table cloths and hand bags during the late 1920s and 1930s. Lace was made by women on other reservations (Dakota reservations, for example), so women earned money not only through traditional crafts but also by learning new skills. Photo courtesy of Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.

Menominee basketmaker, 1914

Hand-made items, including baskets and beaded items, were sold to tourists and to collectors. Indians, especially Indian women, earned money to supplement their family's income from other sources. Several kinds of baskets were made: wicker, from willow branches, basswood bark, and cedar root; plaited black ash splint; and coiled sweetgrass. The hand crafts of Ojibwa, Menominee, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk artists show great similarity. (Newberry Library, Ayer Photographs box 22 AP 989).

Waabozz, Chippewa Basketmaker, with Eugene Davis, ca. 1950

Tourism was promoted by all the Great Lakes states. Tourism received a boost when passenger ships began to dock at Great Lakes ports in the 1880s. Indians sold "souvenirs" to the tourists from Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere well into the 20th century. As non-Indians built summer homes along the shorelines, they also bought hand crafted items. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (92486).

Listen to Dakotas talk about making a living, including selling art work

Dakota Artisans. From Dakota Exile, “Coming Home”. Courtesy of Twin Cities Public Television – TPT and Minnesota Video Vault. View transcript

Read a personal account of an Ottawa family’s efforts to subsist by hunting in the 20th century

Flop and I made our way through the grass and other plants hugging the riverbank. Porcupine, fox, opossum, and raccoon had left their signature for those who knew where to look. Most people didn’t. They’d walk over them in their hurry to throw a fishing line in the water, or they’d erase them by laying down a blanket for a picnic. We knew better.

With practice, tracking had gotten much easier for us. Hunting had not. Game wardens had become unbending in their enforcement of hunting seasons and game limits. The increasing numbers of unskilled but well-armed hunters were threatening to destroy the wildlife and themselves. It was anyone’s guess as to which would go first. The government decided the sale of hunting licenses would help the enforcement side of the situation. If you were caught hunting without a license, you could count on going to jail. Every man in Hungry Hollow needed to hunt, but not one of them could afford the required license. Not one of them could afford to spend time in jail for trying to feed their families. Hard times bring hard choices.

That’s how old Bill Dunlop and his two boys became beloved. William Dunlop, Sr., was by far the best hunter and tracker in the woods of northern Michigan. Even he had many close calls with the game warden, but he didn’t let those get in his way. He was determined they never would. He even set about teaching his two sons all he knew. Before long, we were hunting for everyone in Hungry Hollow who couldn’t hunt for themselves. We kept a back room of our house filled with as much game meat as we could. Visitors seeking meat came to our back door under the cover of night. My father never asked for payment of any kind for the meat he passed out. Those who could brought a few things to share. It was not unusual to get up in the morning and find a few potatoes, some beans, carrots, or a head of cabbage sitting on our kitchen table, which had been empty the night before. From Bill Dunlop, Ottawa, and Marcia Fountain-Blacklidge, Chippewa, The Indians of Hungry Hollow, 2004.

The Snowshoe

European and American traders and officials depended on the snowshoes that they bought from Indians in order to travel inland. The snowshoes had a wooden frame, usually of ash, which was made pliable by heating or steaming and strengthened by crosspieces. Rawhide of moose or deer was used for the netting. When Indians made these snowshoes for themselves, women’s were oval shaped and men’s were long with pointed toe and heel. The top and bottom images are Ojibwa. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information, Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (Newberry Library, Ayer 250 .S3h 1851, v. 3, pl. 12).

Mining

Indians mined lead and copper deposits before the Europeans arrived. Although this illustration shows a man mining, actually women did the mining, especially Fox, Sauk, and Ho-Chunk women. They made ornaments out of lead, but after 1790 they began to expand surface mining so as to better participate in the regional economy by trading slabs of lead. Eventually, men made musket balls for themselves and the market. Americans appropriated the lead mines through violence, and the United States also pursued land cessions in part to get access to lead and copper mines. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information, Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (Newberry Library, Ayer 250 .S3h 1851, v. 5, pl. 16).

Treaty Payment, 1871

Receipt of annual payment from land cession, 1871. Chippewas (Ojibwas) at La Pointe, Wisconsin are receiving their individual shares of the payment due the tribe. When the Ojibwas and other tribes ceded land, the United States committed to annual payments for several years, as well as various kinds of assistance. Indian people needed the money and other forms of aid to survive after these cessions. Photo by Charles Alfred Zimmerman, courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society (49720).

Woman and Child in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, 1900

Indians, like these Ho-Chunks, shopped in non-Indian towns, so the income of reservation residents supported non-Indian businesses. Photo by Dr. Robert Charles Gebhardt, courtesy of National Anthropological Archives (neg. 04355).

Ojibwa Waitress

Rose Leck, working at Chase Hotel in Cass County, Minnesota, in 1925, was one of many Ojibwa women who worked in the resort industry in service jobs, such as hotel maid and waitress. Photo by Huron H. Smith, courtesy of Milwaukee Public Museum.

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