Pierre Chimakadewiiash Bonga (

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

: ''Makadewiiyas'', "Black-skinned"; recorded as "Mukdaweos") (c. 1770 – 1831, Minnesota) was a black trapper and interpreter for the

North West Company The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...

, based in Canada near

Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( , ; ; ; ) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and "Mitchimakinak" in Ojibwemowin, meaning "Great Turtle". It is located in ...

. He later worked for

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting History of opiu ...

American Fur Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was a prominent American company that sold furs, skins, and buffalo robes. It was founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor, a German Americans, German immigrant to the United States. During its heyday in the early 19th c ...

, primarily along the

Red River of the North The Red River (), also called the Red River of the North () to differentiate it from the Red River of the South, Red River in the south of the continent, is a river in the north-central United States and central Canada. Originating at the confl ...

and near

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

in present-day Wisconsin and Minnesota. Like many fur trappers, he married an

woman, as he was operating in the territory of her people. The

mixed-race The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...

children of Pierre and his wife Ogibwayquay were raised in the Ojibwe culture. Two of their sons followed their father into the fur trade, and established reputations as interpreters and guides.

Early life and family background

Born in the 1770s, Pierre was among the children of Jean and Marie-Jeanne Bonga, an enslaved couple. In 1781, they were captured as prisoners in the

Illinois Country The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, and sold to Indian traders at

. Jean and Marie-Jeanne Bonga were retained by Captain Daniel Robertson (c.1733–1810) when he took over command of Fort Michilimackinac (now known as

Fort Mackinac Fort Mackinac ( ) is a former British and American military outpost garrisoned from the late 18th century to the late 19th century in the city of Mackinac Island, Michigan, on Mackinac Island. The Kingdom of Great Britain, British built the f ...

), serving there from 1782 to 1787.David A. Armour, "Daniel Robertson" (c.1733-1810)
''Canadian Dictionary of Biography'' Online, accessed 2 January 2015 In 1787, Robertson returned to Montreal, freeing the Bongas before he left. Mackinac Island had long been a center of fur trade with the Ojibwe and Ottawa people, by French, British and American traders. The population were mostly descendants of French colonists and

Métis people The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They hav ...

, and French was still the dominant language. Freed by Robertson before his departure, the Bonga couple married on 25 June 1794, with Jean Nicolas Marchesseaux as a witness, in the Catholic church on Mackinac Island. They stayed on the island and opened its first hotel. Jean Bonga died on Mackinac Island in 1795."Black Fur Traders on Lake Superior"
Odd Wisconsin Archives, Wisconsin Historical Society, accessed 24 January 2014 Growing up on Mackinac Island, Pierre Bonga learned English and Ojibwe, as well as becoming highly skilled at trapping and scouting. He was called ''Makadewiiyas'' (black-skinned) in Ojibwe (his name was recorded as Mukadaweos)."Portrait of Stephen Bonga"
Wisconsin Historical Images, accessed 23 January 2014

Entry into fur trade

He entered the fur trade in the region, first working for the

, based in British Canada. Later he worked for the

, as well as others in the area. In 1802 Pierre was reported to be working with the North West Company under

Alexander Henry the younger Alexander Henry 'The Younger' (c. 1765 – 22 May 1814), was an early Canadian fur trader, explorer and diarist. From 1799 until his premature death in 1814 he kept an extensive diary which is the most complete record ever printed of the daily ...

at the

.William Sherman Savage, ''Blacks in the West,'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 1976, pp. 68-70 Bonga died in 1831, in what is now Minnesota. His estate passed to his children, after his sisters accepted £11 to waive their interest.

Marriage and children

Sources differ in accounts of Bonga's marriage and family. Historian W. Sherman Savage documented the Bonga children as Marguerite (b. 1797-98 in the Lake Superior area-d. 1880) (m.

Jacob Fahlstrom Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Patriarchs (Bible), Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older frate ...

in 1823 at Fond du Lac); Stephen (b. June 1799 near

Superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places * Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lak ...

, Wisconsin -d. 1889) (m. Susan); and

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

(b. abt. 1802 near

Duluth Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

, Minnesota-d. 1884) (m. to two

women). The

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

Henry R. Schoolcraft recorded meeting the unusual family in 1820 in his ''Narrative Journal of Travels;'' he remarked that the children looked more African than Indian. Stephen Bonga later liked to describe himself as the "first white child" born in Wisconsin, as the Ojibwe classified all non-Native Americans as "white".

Legacy

*Both Stephen and George Bonga established reputations as interpreters and guides in the fur trade. Stephen Bonga acted as a guide to

Eastman Johnson Jonathan Eastman Johnson (July 29, 1824 – April 5, 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance. He was best known for his genre paintings, paintings of ...

when the American artist traveled to the Wisconsin frontier on a trip to his sister. Bonga provided introductions to the

people, which enabled Johnson to paint intimate studies of the people.

In popular culture

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...

, in his novel ''

Kingsblood Royal ''Kingsblood Royal'' is a 1947 novel by American writer Sinclair Lewis. Synopsis The protagonist, Neil Kingsblood, a white middle-class man, discovers while researching his family background that he is directly descended from an African adventur ...

'' (1947), presents his protagonist Neil Kingsblood as descended from Xavier Pic, a freed slave from the French colony of

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

who had a life on the American frontier. As described by Lewis, Pic's life in the novel loosely parallels that of the historic Pierre Bonga. In addition, Lewis directly refers to the Bonga family in the novel.

References

External links

Link to Stories of Exploration: "Pierre Bonga"
National Park Service

a historical and genealogical view of the North American fur trade prior to the 1840s {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonga, Pierre People from pre-statehood Minnesota 1831 deaths 1770s births African-American history of Minnesota 19th-century African-American businesspeople 19th-century American businesspeople American fur traders North West Company people American Fur Company people People from Mackinac Island, Michigan