George Bonga was a fur trader of African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 and Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 descent who was one of the first African American descent born in what is now Minnesota. He was the son of Pierre Bonga

Pierre Bonga

Pierre Bonga was reportedly the son of Jean and Jeanne Bonga, a freed slave couple who had belonged to the British officer commanding at Mackinac Island in the 1780s. Pierre worked for the North West Company, and later for the American Fur Company...

, and an Ojibwe mother.
Born after 1802, George was schooled in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, and later became a fur trader. He was famous in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 for being, as his brother Stephen claimed "One of the first two black children born in the state." He was also recognized for tracking down a suspected murderer in 1837, an Ojibwe named Che-Ga Wa Skung, then bringing the perpetrator back to justice at Fort Snelling. The ensuing criminal trial was reputedly the first in Minnesota.

Fur Trade

George Bonga was described as standing over six feet tall and weighing 200+ pounds. Reports said that he would carry 700 pounds of furs and supplies at once. He served as an interpreter, and was believed to have acted as a guide and translator for artist Eastman Johnson

Eastman Johnson

Eastman Johnson was an American painter, and Co-Founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance...

 and for governor Lewis Cass

Lewis Cass

Lewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...

 as well. Well respected in the region, the Bonga family remained in the fur trade until the 1860s. George Bonga died in 1880.

George had an older brother Steve, born 1799 and his older sister Marguerite born in 1797-98. Both were born in what is now Minnesota.

External references

• African American Stories in Minnesota, Nora Murphy and Mary Murphy Gnatz, Minnesota Historical Society, 2000
• Twin Cities Public Television link on George Bonga