Learn about how history is in the eye of the beholder and Americans traditionally see their economic successes as progress in this video from the Steamboat on the Red series. In the case of the steamboats, however, the Chippewa people saw the Americans as rude and in violation of international law. When the Native people attempted to enforce their land rights, they were seen as pirates in the eyes of Americans.

Looking at the shallow twists and turns of the Red River, it’s hard to imagine that steam-powered paddlewheel boats were once the most important transportation link between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. From the first in 1859 to the last that sank in 1909, Red River steamboats hauled thousands of settlers and millions of tons of freight across the border between the United States and Canada. Although it lasted barely 50 years, the age of the steamboat forged a commercial network between the two countries that exists to this day in the Interstate-29 corridor.