We finally figured it out.  Aiken Bleau was the same person as Stephen Rossignal, who was the same person as Etienne Blue, Ekan Blow, Ecan Blue, and Ekin Blue.  Later in life known throughout his community in White Earth, Minnesota as Captain Blue, or simply Cap Blue.  Born in 1846, died in 1903.  Civil War veteran.  Elder brother of Felix Blue.  Younger brother of Margaret Baldwin.  Not the same person as Louis Bleau.  Louis, Aiken, and Felix Bleau were brothers.  Louis, not Aiken, was Nellie's second husband -- disproving a hypothesis we held for many months (we thought Louis and Aiken were the same person.  At least Mike did.  Tom still couldn't get over what a silly name Ekan Blow is). 

     Here are the names this fellow Aiken went by, compiled from various & sundry records:

     We're probably missing some.  As he described himself in an 1899 affidavit submitted to the US Pension Bureau,

     Or as the assistant postmaster of Richwood, Minnesota B. E. Hazelton put it the next day, "I know the man that receives mail from the Pension Office in the name of Ecan Ressenblue.  We call him 'Cap Blue,' and he is known chiefly as that in this vicinity.  I suppose 'Cap' is a nickname.  His name, as I know it, is Blue." 

     Or as the postmaster of Richwood W. G. Hazelton declared, "We know him best as 'Cap Blue'."

     Or as Edward Blair deposed, "I am well acquainted with Ecan Blue, here present, called 'Cap. BLUE'.  He is my son-in-law" (deposition witnessed by Annie and Sarah Blue). 

     Cap Blue:  French Canadian Ojibwe-Métis.  Born in 1846 near Pembina, Manitoba, British America, son of Antoine and Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal, second or third youngest of 8-10 siblings.  Died on September 18, 1903 at his home near Richwood on White Earth Reservation in Becker County, Minnesota, where he was buried.  Enlisted as Ecan Ressenblue in Company H of the 8th Regiment of the Minnesota Volunteer Infantry on August 2, 1862, and honorably discharged, with a record of distinguished service, on July 11, 1865.  From mid-1864 served with his younger brother Felix. 

     Around 1870, Etienne Blue formed a partnership with Angeline Blaire and over the next 30 years raised a houseful of children with her in at least three different places:  on a farm near Centerville in Anoka County; in the city of Minneapolis (where he went by Stephen Blue); and from around 1888 until his death at age 57, near Richwood on White Earth Reservation, in the same neighborhood as his brother Felix, his nephew Charles Bottineau, and their extended kin.  Naturalized as a US citizen in Benton County MN on 8 March 1888.  A year later listed as belonging to "Way ke che ge shig's Band" of the White Earth Pembina (Minnesota Chippewa Commission Enrollment papersNational Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 75, Series M-595, Films #243-245, 418-424 and 649-654, 1889).

     Here's how he described his family in 1898, in everyone's favorite Pension Bureau form, Circular 3-173:

Married to Angeline, nee Angeline Blaire, in January 1870, in Anoka, Minnesota by a Catholic priest (deceased).  Record of marriage in Anoka County.   Not previously married.   Living children: Maggie, b. Feb 11, 1873 Jennie, b. Aug 11, 1876 Annie, b. May 13, 1881 Sarah, b. Sept 22, 1883 Frank Louis, b. Dec 20, 1885 Ida Louisa, b. March 17, 1896   issued by the Pension Bureau on Dec 18, 1897 filled out and witnessed Jan 6, 1898

 

     For comparison here's the 1870 census, which we've known about for months, which shows him living with his 66 year old mother, his 16 year old wife, and their 2 month old baby boy Antoine:

     Little Antoine must have died.

     The records of St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Minneapolis show the following baptism, which may refer to Jennie, above:

     There's lots more in his pension file, the most interesting having to do with a criminal investigation in 1898-99 that determined that Richwood storeowner and money-broker S. N. Hornick was basically stealing Ecan Ressenblue's quarterly pension checks.  The episode illustrates the corrupt and usurious nature of the local political economy, with white storeowners and moneylenders conniving with white bank employees and white postal officers to fleece illiterate "half-breed" Civil War vets like Captain Blue out of their meager pension checks. 

     It all began with a letter that Ecan Ressen Blue dictated to a literate friend in Richwood, Becker Co, MN and mailed to the Pension Bureau on December 4, 1898:

     The Milwaukee office declined to address the complaint, informing Washington that "the matter in which he complains of course is not one which we feel justified in attempting to deal with."  At the Bureau, however, an official in the Special Examination Division did feel justified dealing with it, ordering a criminal investigation.  Special Examiner E. W. Young (the same fellow who investigated Frank Lang's widow's petitions nearly 20 years later!) produced nearly a dozen depositions and a six page final report that detailed the fraud perpetrated against Ecan Blue by S. W. Hornick and his pals in Richwood. 

     As Special Examiner Young summarized his view of the claimant,

     The episode also reveals something important about the survival of Ojibwe-Métis culture in the late 1890s.  As Ecan and his family members explained to Special Examiner Young, he couldn't have endorsed his cashed pension check on the date in question because he was on a faraway journey at the time.  He, wife Angeline, daughter Sarah, father-in-law Edward, all testified to the same effect:  that for some 2-3 weeks in the summer of 1898 the entire family took a 100-mile journey to the Sioux Reservation at Sisseton, South Dakota, where they danced, feasted, and celebrated in several different places for 7-10 days, with five days getting there and five days getting back.  It's a fascinating mental image:  a 200-mile 20-day journey across the plains to partake in festivities with their historic enemies, the Sioux!

     Remember, this was only eight years after the Massacre at Wounded Knee.  Eight years after the Ghost Dance.  Eight years!  That is a very short time. 

     There's a deeper story here . . . one we hope to tell in due course.

     In the meantime, let's conclude by circling back deftly to the main point:  Aiken Blue was not Nellie's second husband.  His brother Louis was.  If only there were some mention of Louis Bleau somewhere in these stacks of papers that comprise the Civil War pension files of Ecan Blue, Felix Blue, and Charles Bottineau.  But there isn't.  Not a one.  By the time most of these documents were generated, Louis had been dead for at least a quarter century. 

     It can be hard chasing ghosts.  Though sometimes you're lucky and catch a glimpse or two.  May your spirit rest in peace, Cap Blue.

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