Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021

Mazasnawiŋ Iron Woman Rosalie Freniere was born around 1817.

Mazasnawiŋ (also called Rosalie)’s father was Francòis Fernier, and her mother was Wyantoiciyewiŋ, called Mary Helen, a Sisseton woman. Francòis and Wyantoiciyewiŋ’s children were Pejiskaya (Xavier), born around 1809; Louis, born in 1812 and died in 1839; Norris, who was born in 1816; and Rosalie (Mazasnawiŋ or Iron Woman), who was born after 1817. Francòis was a long-time trader. He had lived and had a store near Lac Traverse and was visited by Father Ravoux in the fall of 1842.

Mazasnawiŋ’s grandfather was Cekpa, also known as Narcisse Freniere. Cekpa married Winona Crawford, who was born in 1808. He then married an Elm River Yanktonai woman. And finally, Cekpa married another Yantonai woman. Cekpa’s children include Susan Freniere (who married Joseph R. Brown at Lac Traverse in 1835); Sataka, also known as Daniel Antoine; Antoine, a daughter who married Francòis Chardon; Thomas; Narcisse (who was born around 1841 in Minnesota Territory); and Francòis, who was Mazasnawin’s father.

In 1816, Cekpa was at Prairie du Chien, and was employed by James Aird. In 1819 he was employed by Graham and Renville as an interpreter at Lac Traverse. From 1824 to 1827, Cekpa worked for the American Fur Company, but by 1836 Cekpa and his brothers, Francòis and Louis, were independent traders in a part of the American Fur Company Western outfit. They were trading at the mouth of the Cheyenne River. Cekpa, also known as Narcisse, died while on a journey to the Missouri River.

Mazasnawiŋ’s great-grandfather was Charles-Jacques Fernier (Lafreniere) and a Sisseton woman whose father was Tokokotipexni, or He Who Fears Nothing. Charles-Jacques was a trader on the Rivière Saint-Pierre in the 1780s. So Mazasnawiŋ’s kin were an important part of her life.

Mazasnawiŋ met and married Kahoton “Makes Noise by Striking” John Mooers on June 30, 1845. Rosalie and Kahoton lived with his parents in a house not far from the Samuel and Cordelia Eggleston Pond cabin in Tínṫa Otuŋwe (later Shakopee) starting in 1846. The cabin was north of the mission house, between there and the Rivière Saint-Pierre. When Hazen Mooers and Maḣpiya-ḣota Wiŋ moved out in the spring of 1849, Rosalie and Kahoton continued to live in Tínṫa Otuŋwe, and was an Indian farmer for the government until the spring of 1853.

Rosalie and Kahoton had four children: Moses, twins Mary Ann and Jane Ann, and James.

Not too long after the last child, James, was born, Rosalie separated from Kahoton. A transcript of Kahoton’s affidavit (No. 183) which was written in 1855:

I, John Moors, on oath say that I reside at Red Wood in Minn. Ter. I am 34 years of age. I am a half blood of the Mdewakanton band. My father being a white man & my mother a full blood of said band. Twelve years ago I married Rosalia Freniere who is three fourths Indian & one fourth white. Here mother being a full blood Mdewakanton & her father half white & Yankton. We have four children, now living, Moses, age 7 yrs., Mary Ann & Jane Ann, twins, age 5 years; James H., age one month. These children are five eights blood of said band & live with me.

By May of 1858 in Brown County, a guardian was appointed for Moses, Mary Ann, and James Mooers. Jane Ann had died recently. A guardian was needed, according to the Brown County Journal, to clear the title to property owned by the Mooers’ children, “half breeds residing at the lower agency.”

Rosalie married Pierre Felix sometime after 1855. They had one child, Harriet, who later married Louis Mable Robinette.

Mazasnawiŋ Iron Woman Rosalie Freniere Mooers Felix died sometime after 1876.