There’s really little said about women’s political leadership in Anishinaabe territory, but Ruth Flat Mouth, daughter of Chief Aish-ke-ba-ke-ko-zhay (Flat Mouth), was known as the Queen of the Pillager Anishinaabe, the people of the Ottertail and western Rivers. Her people hunted and lived near the present town of Wadena, and later at Leech Lake, where she passed away on Oct. 18, 1895. For the week of American Presidents Day, I offer this story.
Ruth Flat Mouth had many prominent political roles in Anishinaabe society, and in negotiations with the American government was often the only woman at the table. While the treaty negotiators from the U.S. government and most businessmen were male, Ruth illustrated the role of women in leadership. Anishinaabe women, like the women of other nations served as both the owners and caretakers of the lands, wild rice and maple syrup territories, as medicine people and often as diplomats, peace negotiators and leaders in political discussions. These roles were not those afforded American women who could neither own land, their own bank accounts, or vote until the early 20th century. In comparison, Indigenous women had more stature, whether in owning their own homes, economic spheres or in the political realm.
Ojibway historian William Warren mentioned a wife of a Yankton Dakota Chief Shappa. According to oral traditions, Shappa, head chief of the Yankton Dakota, sent his Ojibway wife on a “fleet horse” and with his “peace pipe” to arrange a peace between his people and the Ojibway of the Pembina band. The image of women as peacemakers appears in the oral traditions of Ojibway people.
Chief Aishkekbakekozhay, or Flat Mouth, was the Ogima or the head chief of the Pillager Band of Ojibwe. He was highly regarded. His name means the “Bird with Green Beak.” He was a very significant leader who sought to protect people and land, and signed the 1837 and 1855 treaties, providing access to the land in northern Minnesota to the United States.
During these complex times, the chiefs did what they could to protect land, wild rice, waters and people. There had been historic conflicts with the Dakota to the west, some of which were addressed in the Sweet Corn Treaty, reaffirmed in 1858 and 1870. But to the east was the greatest challenge, the American businessmen and later immigrants into Anishinaabe territory, taking first the great copper and the great copper boulder (Ontonagon) in the 1837 and 1842 treaties with the Anishinaabe.
While the Anishinaabe made agreements in good faith, the new nation did not keep their treaty agreements.
Flatmouth, Bizhiki, Bug o Nay Geeshig, Mezhukegiizhig and others saw what was happening, witnessed the great starving of the Anishinaabe in 1850 at Sandy Lake, and the endless greed of the nation of immigrants. They were trying to protect their people, the waters and the land.
Flat Mouth had two known children: Niigaanibines Flat Mouth II and Odaanis Ruth. Flat Mouth II left for Canada around the early 1880s. Flat Mouth I named Ruth the leader of the Pillager upon his death. Ruth was active with her father in the negotiations on the 1847 and 1848 treaties. These treaties were regarding the Leaf and Ottertail River watershed – a million acres of land.
The treaty was intended to provide a place for the Menominee and Ho Chunk (Winnebago) people to be safe. These people were in what was Wisconsin Territory, and the U.S. government saw their good lands and trees, the pressure upon them by white immigrants, armed with alcohol, guns and disease.
The politicians suggested this reservation would be a “buffer zone” between the Anishinaabe and Dakota, and the land was leased from the Ottertail Anishinaabe for this reason.
“In 1847, when the Pillager Indians, by treaty, sold to the United States, the Leaf River Country, for a nominal consideration, it was understood that the country ceded had been selected for the future residence of the Menominee Indians, who were friendly to the Chippewas, and the country would remain Indian territory,” according to the Rice Commission on Oct. 4, 1880.
Indeed, Commissioner Henry Rice would say to Ruth Flat Mouth at that meeting, “In regard to the land that you loaned your great Father 42 years ago, all that you have said is true. It was understood between Flat Mouth and myself that that land was not going to be used by the whites but that it was to be used for the Menominee.” This land was “loaned” at a price of one cent an acre for a million acres, intended to be Indian territory forever.
Ruth Flat Mouth also played an active role with the three-member Board of the Chippewa Commission, created to explain the Nelson Act, which would ultimately transfer more land to the U.S. At the close of the first session Ruth Flat Mouth, who sat at the head of the group of Chiefs, stood up and introduced herself daughter of Flat Mouth and referred to as the Queen of the Pillager. In protocol she then introduced the other chiefs.
Indeed, Ruth Flat Mouth was one of the women diplomats and leaders of the Anishinaabe and this land. A remarkable woman, whose story we are just learning. From this land, she represented some of the facets of Anishinaabe women’s leadership.
Winona LaDuke is an Ojibwe writer and economist on Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation. She also is co-curator of the Giiwedinong Museum in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and a regular contributor to Forum News Service.