Marguerite Bonga Fahlström

Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom (c. 1797 – February 6, 1880) was a mixed-race woman of African and Ojibwe descent who came from a fur trading family in the Great Lakes region. In 1823, she married Jacob Fahlstrom, the first Swedish settler in Minnesota, and lived with him on a small farm at Coldwater Spring near Fort Snelling. Margaret was one of the few free Black women living in the area around the time that enslaved women such as Harriet Robinson Scott were struggling to find a path to freedom. In 1838, the Fahlstroms became the first converts to the Methodist faith in Minnesota, and moved to a farm in Washington County in 1840. Jacob became well known as the Methodist lay preacher "Father Jacob". His success as a traveling Christian missionary was often attributed to his fluency in the Ojibwe language, as well as his marriage. Margaret and her daughters were also known for their involvement in early church meetings in Minnesota, and their hospitality toward Methodist circuit riders. Her parents were Pierre Bonga, a Black fur trader, and his Ojibwe wife, Ojibwayquay.

Bonga family background Her paternal grandparents, Jean and Marie-Jeanne Bonga, were well known tavern keepers on Mackinac Island in present-day Michigan. together with their young children. From 1782 to 1787, they were slaves of Captain Daniel Robertson, a British Army officer who served as commandant of Fort Mackinac. In 1787, Robertson freed Jean, Marie-Jeanne and their four children before returning to Montreal. Others have speculated that Robertson brought them to the fort himself.

Marguerite was born at Fond du Lac (Duluth) in 1797. In 1802, Ojibwayquay accompanied Pierre to the North West company post near Pembina, where she gave birth to Marguerite's sister. It is unclear whether their other children traveled with them or were left with relatives in Fond du Lac during the expedition. Multiple sources also mention their youngest sibling Jack, born around 1815, who came of age in the fur trade as it was starting to decline.

Marriage to Jacob Fahlstrom Margaret Bonga married Jacob Fahlstrom in 1823 at Fond du Lac. After working in the fur trade for over a decade, he spoke English, French, Ojibwe, Iroquois and Dakota, in addition to his native Swedish. Jacob was said to have left Sweden on a ship with his uncle, and possibly shipwrecked off the British Isles. After completing his apprenticeship at York Factory in Manitoba in 1816, he briefly joined their rivals at North West Company, before leaving them in Sault Ste. Marie to work for the American Fur Company. Around this time, Jacob started traveling with his brigade through Minnesota country to trade with native people around Leech Lake and Red Lake.

Children Records suggest that their first child John was born around 1823 at Sandy Lake and that their second child Nancy was born soon after at Lake Superior.

Jacob had started working for the U.S. government around 1825, after the fort was built. One of the stipulations was that "mixed-blood" relatives of the Ojibwe, including those who had signed on behalf of the United States, would collectively receive $100,000.

Intertribal tensions On August 2, 1838, Benjamin Baker's stone trading house at Coldwater Spring was the site of a deadly skirmish between the Dakota and the Ojibwe. A party of Dakota attempted to kill Ojibwe Chief Hole-in-the-Day (the elder) in retaliation for an Ojibwe attack at Lac qui Parle a few months prior, in which seven Dakota had been killed while they were sleeping. Hole-in-the-Day and his men were given temporary protection within the walls of Fort Snelling, angering the Dakota.

In June 1839, Agent Taliaferro sent Stephen Bonga to convey a message to Ojibwe Chief Hole-in-the-Day, asking him to stop 500 members of his tribe from coming en masse to the St. Peter's Agency. Officers at Fort Snelling complained of problems with drunkenness, resulting from the illicit sale of whiskey to soldiers, and the rapid depletion of timber and pasture nearby. Before the Treaty with the Sioux was concluded in September, a group of long-time residents of Camp Coldwater including Jacob Fahlstrom signed a formal petition sent to President Martin Van Buren on August 16, 1837, expressing concern about pending changes to their land use rights.

In 1839, the United States Secretary of War Joel Roberts Poinsett ordered all settlers on the Fort Snelling military reservation to be removed. In the spring of 1840, all civilians on the military reservation including Camp Coldwater were asked to leave, or forcibly evicted, by a deputy marshal sent from Prairie du Chien. Jacob's fluency in the Ojibwe language and the family ties he had to the Ojibwe through his marriage to Margaret are often mentioned as key factors in his success. and mention her support of Methodist circuit riders by welcoming them into their home.

Conversion to Methodism

In 1837, Margaret's brother Stephen Bonga was hired by the Reverend Alfred Brunson as his interpreter among the Ojibwe.

In the spring of 1838, Brunson met Jacob Fahlstrom in the spring of 1838 at his small farm near Coldwater Spring, and soon converted him to Methodism. Their eldest daughter Nancy Fahlstrom was later remembered as "a woman of rare intellect and accomplishments" who served as an interpreter during services and meetings which the missionaries conducted with the Dakota at Red Rock prairie, where a new church and school had opened after the Kaposia mission had closed.

Later years in Afton Jacob Fahlstrom died in 1859.

"Half-breed" scrip On May 11, 1864, Margaret Folstrom and her daughter Nancy were issued with "half-breed scrip" for 80 acres each from the United States Department of the Interior, as "mixed-bloods belonging to the Chippewa of Lake Superior, as provided for by treaty of 1854." In 1863, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had ruled that "mixed-blood" applicants would be eligible for the land grants regardless of whether or not they had actually resided with the Chippewa of Lake Superior at the time the treaty had been signed.

Death Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom died on February 6, 1880.

Historiography In recent years, researchers have questioned why Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom has been largely ignored by historians, while there has been so much interest in the life of Jacob Fahlstrom. Mattie Harper DeCarlo writes, "Without Margaret, it is unlikely that he would have secured the work or achieved the social positions that have drawn the attention of historians, scholars, and the general public." including Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom.