“Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A Grand Portage Ojibwe direct descendant, she lives in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her nonfiction books “Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and the children’s story “A Family Tree” in 2024. “Nibi” is a word for water in Ojibwemowin, and these features explore the intersection of Indigenous history and culture in the modern-day Great Lakes region.
Gakina nindinawemaaganidog, is “all my relatives” in Ojibwemowin. Our relatives include those in our human family, but also the animals, plant beings and sky relatives — those who lived before us and did interesting and important things to help future generations. Our relatives exist in a time and space that is free of borders, both physical and metaphysical. Before there was a border between what is now the United States and Canada, Ojibwe people traveled in every direction, and went as far as needed, to create a sustainable, good life—mino-bimaadiziwin. The people worked hard to ensure they had everything that they needed which included robust trade with Dakota, Cree and Potawatomi neighbors, and later French Canadians and Europeans.
The International border creates an imaginary line across Lake Superior and follows a water route for 280 miles west, from the Pigeon River to Rainy Lake. The Pigeon River at Grand Portage is a place of great significance for Great Lakes Ojibwe people. The navigable section of the river begins at the mouth of Lake Superior and ends at a geographical impasse called “High Falls.” The historic “Grand Portage” itself circumvents the falls. The river has always been one of my dad’s favorite places to fish. I once helped land the biggest walleye he ever caught, right on that imaginary borderline. The fish was so big that Dad was sure he had hooked a concrete piling used to hold up the Pigeon River bridge that routes traffic to and from Canada. We snapped a couple of pictures of him holding the fish and then he let her go, free to swim in whatever direction she pleased.
This section of the border was drawn soon after the American Revolutionary War. The Peace of Paris agreement, signed in Paris, France on September 3, 1783 by King George III, ended the war and deemed land east of the Mississippi to be U.S. territory, (except for “Spanish Florida” which wasn’t ceded until 1819). Negotiating for the U.S. were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay. Two provisions of the treaty were British recognition of U.S. independence and the delineation of the east-to-west border that would allow for American western expansion. The agreement did not include participation from Indigenous leaders, nor did it acknowledge Indigenous territorial or usufructuary rights.
The British-Canadians, according to Carolyn Gilman in her book The Grand Portage Story, “agreed to a boundary line across the Great lakes, leaving every major fur post—Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac and Grand Portage” on the American side. The border was somewhat randomly drawn along the north side of Minong — Isle Royale. The reasoning had less to do with knowledge of the island, and more to do with estimating an efficient trade route to the west. It was later that Minong was seen as valuable, due to the presence of copper and bountiful fishing.
The new border divided the Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes into “British Indians,” and “American Indians” based on proximity. The Ojibwe had long-standing alliances with the British-Canadians because of shared business interests, with the British recognizing that “the fur trade depended upon the native work force and an undisturbed forest habitat.” Some North West Company traders at Montreal spoke up for their Indigenous trading partners, saying “The Indians are free and independent people if ever any on earth were so. Our running a line of boundary by Treaty conveys no right of territory without obtaining one from the aboriginal proprietors. We cannot give what is not our own.”
The Spaniard
The same year the Paris Agreement was signed, a well-respected Ojibwe leader named L’Espagnol was born at Rainy Lake, and spent most of his life traveling across Anishinaabe Aki, including time at Grand Portage, a major hub of industry. The village was home to the North West Company, which maintained a presence at Grand Portage well after the 1783 Treaty.
Old sign at Pigeon River, Grand Portage Reservation. (Photo Credit: Staci Lola Drouillard/Great Lakes Now)
The North West Co. operations extended commerce from the Great Lakes to European capitals and even cities in China. L’Espagnol’s Ojibwe name was Ishpeyaang, which means “he or she is high up.” His father was Spanish and his mother Ojibwe. As a child, Espagnol’s family built birchbark canoes to sell and trekked the muddy portage from Grand Portage inland to Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River many times. Espagnol learned the art of negotiation by watching his relatives do business with the traders.
By 1798, the North West Co. decided to move their operations across the border to Ft. William, near Thunder Bay, Ontario. One of the reasons for the move was to avoid paying duties on U.S. goods. Translator Jean Baptiste Caddote was asked to facilitate the deal in exchange for the cancellation of his trading debt. Caddote tried to explain to the Ojibwe leaders why the fur company wanted to negotiate with them for land on the Kaministiquia River.
At that time, Ojibwe people did not have the same understanding of land “ownership,” which is not part of the cultural belief system. Interestingly, the leaders signed the document with their clan symbols, not their names. The North West Co. and others then built posts on the north bank of the Kaministiquia River, abandoning operations at Grand Portage.
Following the move, the Great Lakes Ojibwe people were forced to choose a side. Government “Indian” agents in both territories enforced the rule that an Ojibwe person could only receive treaty annuities from one government, not both. This alienated people on both sides of the border, and contradicted the seasonal lifestyle of Ojibwe families.
The break between “British” and “American” has had lasting repercussions for people with ancestry on both sides. For example, the blood quantum requirement for tribal citizenship in the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe requires one-fourth minimum ancestry, and can only be recognized in one place. So, even if a child’s mother is one-fourth Canadian First Nations Ojibwe and their father is one-fourth Grand Portage Ojibwe, the child can only claim one-eighth ancestry even if their blood quantum is higher, making them ineligible for citizenship at Grand Portage.
Among the Forest of the British
When the War of 1812 was fought between the British and Americans, Ojibwe people widely sided with the British. Having earned his place as a leader of the people, Espagnol joined the alliance, and even received a British Peace Medal, which he proudly wore at formal appearances.
Grand Portage, U.S. and Canadian flags. (Photo Credit: Staci Lola Drouillard/Great Lakes Now)
By 1824 American posts were established south of the border but struggled to gain a foothold. Espagnol was reluctant to trade with the Americans due to his long-standing alliance with the British. At that time, U.S. “Indian” agents considered them to be “British Indians,” and the rival, British and French owned companies considered them “American Indians” because they mostly trapped in American territory.
In truth, Espagnol’s hunting ground straddled both sides of the border. He used this gray area to his people’s advantage, negotiating trade deals on both sides of the border. In retaliation, the Hudson’s Bay Co. struck a deal with the American Fur Co. at Grand Portage, paying them 400 pounds sterling each year if they agreed not to trade furs with Ojibwe trappers. For this, Espagnol and his people suffered, and he was forced to choose a side.
Minnesota author and historian, Tim Cochrane, documented that in 1841 Hudson’s Bay Company and Governor George Simpson observed L’Espagnol’s leadership at a welcoming ceremony at Ft. William, Ontario:
“’The ceremony of shaking hands all round having been performed, the Indians were called upon to open the proceedings, when their chief, by the name of L’Espagnol, stood forward in the centre of the room. He was the remains of a fine, tall man, but somewhat advanced in years but still upright and strong.’ After shaking Simpson’s hand, Espagnol ‘commenced his oration in a loud, high tone of voice, and was exceedingly fluent; the purpose of it was, to tell me that he and his followers had wandered from the British territory and crossed the lines to the Americans, but that upon serious reflection they thought they had acted wrong as they had been always well treated by the Hudson Bay Company and were not returned penitent, and if permitted by the company they would settle near the Fort, and the smoke of their wigwams should thence forth rise only among the forest of the British.’”
According to Cochrane’s notes, Simpson “reminded them that they had broke one promise, made to me sometime before, that they would not wander again,” adding, “I now called upon them to choose their residence at one place or another.”
When Espagnol announced his intentions, he wore the “peace medal” given to him by the British after the War of 1812. He later passed it along to his son-in-law Memeshkawaush, who passed it along to his son. The medals are now part of the Minnesota Historical Society collection in St. Paul.
Despite his intentions to stay put, Espagnol and his people continued to cross the border for various reasons, including in 1838 when he and his wife Joesette Okakakian converted to Catholicism in a ceremony at Grand Portage. By 1843, Espagnol disappears from the historical record.
Long after Grand Portage was abandoned by the fur traders, Ojibwe people continued to hunt wild game deep inland, trek to Whitefish Lake in Canada to gather wild rice and fish the waters from Thunder Bay to Grand Marais. In Espagnol’s day, there were still caribou in the border country and impressive flocks of passenger pigeons who inspired the name Omimizibi — Pigeon River. A quiet and peaceful place that serves as a border between nations, provides sustenance to the people, and plays an important part in Ojibwe-Anishinaabe history, regardless of which side you are on.
Special thanks to Tim Cochrane, who researched Espagnol for his essay “L’Espagnol: Grand Portage Band Chief.”
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Nibi Chronicles: Protecting the protectors
Featured image: Pigeon River with border bridge in the distance. (Photo Credit: Staci Lola Drouillard/Great Lakes Now)
