10 Facts About Agatha Biddle

Agatha Biddle resided on Mackinac Island during the fur trade era and after.

Agatha Biddle acted as a partner with her husband in running their fur trade business, and Biddle was known as a shrewd businesswoman and her kinship connections were an integral part of the Biddle business.

Agatha Biddle was pivotal in the negotiations of the 1855 Treaty of Detroit where she used her relationships with local Indigenous peoples and settlers to negotiate on behalf of the Ojibwe and Odawa peoples.

The home she shared with her husband, independent fur trader Edward Agatha Biddle, known as Agatha Biddle House, still stands on Mackinac Island and was the site of many local gatherings.

Agatha Biddle was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame on October 18,2018.

Agatha Biddle's mother was Marie Lefevre de La Vigne and her father was Kougowma, called La Vigne of the Odawa people.

However, while it was typical for Metis women to marry outside their home community, Edward Agatha Biddle was an English-speaking, Protestant American in a community that was primarily Indigenous and French Canadian.

Agatha Biddle took on a number of community roles, including taking in sick or orphaned Anishnaabe children and offering food and other charity.

Agatha Biddle is recorded as serving as undertaker on the island.

Agatha Biddle is cited as an example of the way Metis women used their connections between local First Nations communities as well as settler communities to advantage in the fur trade society of the Great Lakes.