Colonialism to Climate Change: From Imagined U.S. Military Establishments to Centers of Capitalistic Trade
St. Anthony Falls lock and dam, aerial view of river
U.S. military posts in the early twentieth century in the Upper Mississippi River valley also served as trading centers, making them essential to the U.S. capitalistic vision. In his narrative, Pike documents a speech to local Dakota in which he seeks to obtain the land surrounding St. Anthony Falls for a military establishment. He explains to the Dakota, “it is the wish of our government to establish military posts on the Upper Mississippi, at such places as may be thought expedient” (227). After studying the suitability of the area, Pike bribes the Dakota to “grant to the United States nine miles square at St. Croix” (227). But Pike’s speech demonstrates that the military intended the establishment to serve as more than a fort; doubling as a trading post, the fort would be a crucial foundation for the growing nation’s nascent system of capitalism and industrialism, forces that would jointly lead to anthropogenic climate change, as well as attempts to acculturate and/or remove local Dakota.
As Pike reasons with local Dakota in order to gain the land around St. Anthony Falls, he emphasizes the economic advantages of allowing the U.S. to establish this military site, directly referencing the new nation’s goals of expanding capitalism and industrialization to the Upper Mississippi River valley. He outlines the potential for capitalistic gain from the subsequent industrialization and increased trade:
Brothers: Those posts are intended as a benefit to you. The old chiefs now present must see that their situation improves by communication with the whites. It is the intention of the United States to establish factories at those posts, in which the Indians may procure all their things at a cheaper and better rate then they do now, or than your traders can afford to sell them to you, as they are single men who come far in small boats. But your fathers are many and strong; they will come with a strong arm, in large boats.
(Pike 227-28)
In this speech to the Dakota, Pike indicates that U.S. military establishments are essential to the larger capitalistic goals of the burgeoning nation. The posts are instrumental in establishing the U.S. national trade system by allowing for the expansion of trade from “single men who come far in small boats” to traders who “come with a strong arm, in large boats.” Moreover, these posts are essential to the period of industrial expansion in the U.S.; the factories to be subsequently constructed at these military establishments will allow for “cheaper” products. Pike’s speech, then, demonstrates that posts such as Fort St. Anthony would serve as centers of trade and industrial expansion.
In underscoring the economic benefits of the construction of Fort St. Anthony to the Dakota, Pike indicates the immense social changes that such a center of capitalism and industrialization would bring to local Indigenous tribes. Pike guarantees that Indigenous peoples will prosper as they become increasingly entrenched in the capitalistic system through their “communication with the whites” (Pike 228). By expanding trade to a national level, the Dakota would be able to “procure all their things at a cheaper and better rate then they do now, or than your traders can afford to sell them to you” (228). He uses imagery to concretely depict the difference in scale between the limited trade that inter-tribal systems afford and the vast national-level trade possible through establishing U.S. forts along the Upper Mississippi River valley. He assures the Dakota that “your traders” are merely “single men who come far in small boats” but that “your fathers”—the individuals and companies associated with the U.S. system of trade—are by contrast “many and strong; they will come with a strong arm, in large boats” (228). As Pike points to the future potential system of trade, he acknowledges that such larger-scale networks of exchange will lend to cultural change for Indigenous peoples in an array of ways as they become increasingly dependent on U.S. trade, further altering traditional ways of life.
In less than eighty years, the area around St. Anthony Falls grew from Pike’s projected military establishment to a far-reaching center for U.S. trade. The changes that enabled this transformation, however, tangibly impacted the environment, initially through intensive construction to accommodate growing industries and later as this industrial expansion led to anthropogenic climate change. Both before and during the physical environmental alterations during the period of U.S. industrialism in the St. Anthony Falls region, local Indigenous inhabitants were subjected to immense environmental and cultural upheavals through removals from their homelands and acculturating to capitalistic lifeways.