Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Rosalie Mazasnawin Rattling Iron Woman Frenier was born in 1824 in Red River, Minnesota Territory. Her father was François Šake Frenier (1792-1862). Her mother was Marie-Hélène Wiyaŋtoičewiŋ Blue Moon WomanFrenier (1792–1888).

Rosalie married Pierre Peter Noel Peloquin Felix on March 7, 1851, in Mendota, Minnesota. They had nine children in 15 years. Rosalie died as a young mother on March 14, 1853, in Mendota, Minnesota, at the age of 29.

On Aug. 25, 1844, a baby boy was born in Mendota, Minnesota Territory by Pierre and Rosalie. Pierre was a fur trader, and was employed by Henry Sibley, then a 33-year-old member of a fur company headquartered at Mendota. The baby boy was Dennis Dana Peloquin Felix. He married Elizabeth Nancy Coursolle in 1873. They had 12 children in twenty years. He died March 31, 1928, in Eagle Creek, Minnesota, at the age of 83, and was buried in Credit River, Minnesota.

Pierre remembered growing up in Mendota in the 1840s, according to an interview, “Recollections of a Pioneer Citizen”in a Shakopee Heritage Society book, Recollections of Early Pioneers 1925, edited by Betty A. Dols in 2000. “I can remember when father was working for Sibley and we lived in the little frame house. Mother (Rosalie) died when I was five years old and left six of us children; but father (Pierre) managed to take care of us and continued to work for the fur company for about a year after mother’s death.” Dana remembered the stone building erected by Sibley which was a store, and he recalled the settler-colonists and Indians “…opening their packs of furs with which they paid for their supplies.”

When Dana was six years old, his father settled on a claim of 160 acres one mile south of Mendota. It was given, maybe, by Ruyapa, or Eagle Head. The area was still the property of the Dakota. Dana worked on the farm for several years, cradling grain and performing other farm tasks. When he was 13 years old, Dana remembered that Minnesota became a state. And seven days before his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the Sixth Minnesota Infantry Regiment. It was an infantry regiment that fought in the Union army during the Civil War. The Sixth Minnesota Infantry spent much of the war in the Northwest fighting Dakota rather than participating in the battles with the Confederacy.

When Dana returned to Minnesota from the war, he married Elizabeth. Elizabeth was 16 years old. Her parents were Joseph Kabupi Coursolle, Sr. (1829-1887) and Jane Genevieve Killkool (1833-1915). Elizabeth was born Oct. 18, 1857, in Traverse des Sioux.

During the U.S.-Dakota War, Elizabeth, at age eight, was captured at the Lower Agency, along with Philomena Minnie Coursolle, age four. She was surrendered at Camp Release on Friday, Sept. 26, 1862.

In 1881, Pierre and Elizabeth moved to the Niobrara, Santee Reservation in Nebraska and were there for 12 years. Several children were born, including Clement Clem Felix, Sr., who was born Nov. 23, 1891. Twelve years later, Pierre, Elizabeth, and the family moved to Eagle Creek (now Shakopee), about one and a half miles west of Prior Lake. Clem, who was just a boy, remembered using a horse-drawn wagon to move to their new place.

Clem attended the Pipestone Indian School.

On Sept. 1, 1934, Clement married Florence Genevieve Spooner in Minneapolis. Florence was born June 6, 1912, in Minneapolis, and died Feb. 5, 2001, in Shakopee. Clem and Florence had 12 children. They were farmers in Eagle Creek and raised a large family. Clem loved to connect with the distant plains, the far mountains, and the imagined wild west.

Clem was a hiker and teller of tales. His ancestors were the Santee and the French-Canadian trappers, and he loved to tell people about the people from the past.

While he was a farmer, Clem became disabled, ironically, by a horse. He retired. He was an eminently friendly and modest man. Clem loved exploring the lower Minnesota River Valley and its tributaries.

Clement Clem Felix, Sr., died Dec. 3, 1973, in Shakopee. He was buried at the National Cemetery at Fort Snelling.