Sherburne County Heritage Center Interpretive Plan Final Report 2005

Home Browse Search

Exhibit Station: 5 Topic: Cultural Buffer Zone Between Ojibwe and Dakota Indians Story Sherburne County was on the edge of Dakota and Ojibwe lands as European explorers began to filter into the area. American Indian peoples enjoyed the bounty of the area that became Sherburne County for centuries. Archaeologists have discovered remains of American Indian villages that date back at least to 1300 A.D. The first European explorers in the area found the Eastern Dakota living in the area. Father Louis Hennepin was captured by a group of Dakotas and taken to spend the winter at their camp near Lake Mille Lacs in 1679. The Ojibwe were pushed west into Minnesota woodlands from the eastern Great Lakes. Equipped with guns obtained from eastern traders, they confronted the Dakota who were still using the bow and arrow when the conflict began. During almost 200 years of intermittent warfare, the Ojibwe gradually pushed the Eastern Dakota out of the woodland and onto the prairies south and west of Sherburne County. Since Sherburne County was on an ecological edge where the southern and western prairies met the northern and eastern woodlands, it remained a contested area for several generations. The United States acquired the area that contained the portion of Minnesota now west of the Mississippi in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. When Zebulon Pike set out to explore the new territory and journeyed up the Mississippi River, searching for its source, he found the Ojibwe in control of nearly all of the Upper Mississippi. The Dakota still hunted in the area and occupied a few villages along the eastern shore of the Mississippi River in Sherburne County. Pike describes a Dakota village on the present site of the city of Elk River in his journal. (Anderson, The History of Sherburne County, proof, p. 10—This should be verified by checking Pike's journal.) While seeking a Northwest passage to the Pacific, Jonathan Carver and his party reached the mouth of the Elk River when paddling up the Mississippi River in 1766. They were struck by the area's beauty and plentiful game. Carver hunted plentiful elk and partridge in the area. "The country in some places is hilly, but without large mountains; and the land is tolerably good. I observed here many deer and caribou, some elk, with an abundance of beavers, otters and other furs. A little above this; to the northeast are a number of small lakes called the Thousand Lakes; the parts about which, though but little frequented, are the best within many miles for hunting, as the hunter never fails of returning loaded beyond his expectations." (quoted.by Anderson, History of Sherburne County, p. 19; probably referring to Mille Lacs, which means Thousand Lakes in French) With plentiful bison, elk, and deer inhabiting the boundary between the prairie and the woodland, the Ojibwe and Dakota frequently clashed over the right to hunt in Sherburne County. According to Ojibwe tradition, Ojibwe and Dakota fought two important battles in 1772 and 1773 at the juncture of the Elk and Mississippi Rivers. Because of these two important battles fought at the same place, the Ojibwe named the point of land between the Elk River and Mississippi River "Me-gaud-e-win-ing," or "Battle Ground." (See William Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 27