African-Ojibwe-Swedish family, the Bonga Fahlstroms

See PBS episode “Minnesota Experience” series, North Star: Making Change.

Dr. Mattie Harper DeCarlo, a citizen of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, gave a presentation at the museum in October 2023 on Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom – a local Afton woman of mixed African and Ojibwe ancestry who was part of the exceptional Bonga family of fur traders in the Old Northwest. Dr. DeCarlo is a direct descendant of George Bonga, Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom’s brother.

Dr. DeCarlo’s research illustrated Margaret’s life in Ojibwe country in the early 1800s, her marriage to Swede Jacob Fahlstrom in 1823 in Fond du Lac, their life at Mni Owe Sni (formerly Coldwater Spring) just outside Fort Snelling in the 1830s until they were evicted (Marcus Hansen, Old Fort Snelling, 1819–1858, Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1918, pp. 192–195), and their subsequent move to Lakeland around 1844 and Afton around 1850.

They raised nine children on an Afton Township farmstead in the area that now contains the Fahlstrom Cemetery off a street named “Indian Trail.” Jacob passed in 1859 and Margaret in 1880. Their son George Fahlstrom continued to live in the home for some time. Unfortunately, the commemorative headstone in the cemetery misidentifies and misspells Margaret’s name.

• Hear more at the Mississippi Park Connection site.
• Read more about the Bonga family at MNopedia