It Happens Here Ep. 15 – Homestead
Jim Giizhik and Charles A. A. Nelson
Alta McQuatters has lived in Lutsen, Minnesota for 80 years. Her great-grandfather is Jim Giizhik, an Anishinaabe man who lived at the mouth of the Poplar River along with his family, when the Treaty of 1854 first opened up the North Shore to white settlers. In 1885 the fisherman Charles A. A. Nelson filed a homestead patent for the land where Giizhik lived. Competing with at least two others, Nelson secured 160 acres for the sum of $12.00 and by 1893 Charles and his wife Anna had built “Lutzen House”–the first lodge on the North Shore.
Jim Giizhik was allowed to stay, and the two men “became good friends,” according to Alta. Giizhik and his son White Sky helped the Nelsons keep the kitchen larder full, sharing hunting and gathering duties during the early days of Lutsen Resort. The Giizhik family cabin remained at the mouth of the Poplar, until it was moved to the Mink Ranch, north of Highway 61 in Lutsen. Miigwech to Alta McQuatters and Prof. Anton Treuer for contributing to this episode. Photos courtesy of Alta McQuatters.
Read the full transcript here: It Happens Here_Homestead
It Happens Here: The Roots of Racial Inequality on the North Shore is supported in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
