Pierre Bottineau

Who was Pierre Bottineau?

Pierre Bottineau was a Minnesota Frontiersman.

Known as the "Kit Carson of the Northwest", he was an integral part of the history and development of Minnesota and North Dakota. He was an accomplished surveyor and his many settlement parties founded cities all over Minnesota and North Dakota. Those settlements would become cities such as Osseo, MN and Maple Grove, MN northwest of the Twin Cities, as well as Breckenridge, MN and Wahpeton, ND on either side of the Red River of the North.

He also took part in the founding of Orono Village, Sherburne County, MN, Elk River, MN and the booming city of St. Anthony. He was also a renowned diplomat and translator, earning him the nickname "The Walking Peace Pipe". He played a part in forging many treaties with Native American tribes. According to his obituary he spoke French, English, Dakota, Ojibwe, Cree, Mandan, and Winnebago.

Pierre was born in a hunting camp on the buffalo trail near Grand Forks. His father Charles Bottineau was a French-Canadian Protestant, and his mother Marguerite Macheyquayzaince Ahdicksongab "" was half Dakota and half Ojibwe of the Lake of the Woods band, she was a sister of Pembina Ojibwe Chief Misko-Makwa or Red Bear.