MN History: Unflappable fur trader was at heart of state's first murder case

George Bonga was unflappable — even when folks Up North threatened to burn his trading post and wreck his canoes.

A 19th‑century North Woods fur trader, translator, canoe guide, storyteller and Leech Lake lodge owner, Bonga found himself in the middle of Minnesota’s first murder case in 1837.

Alfred Aitkin, 21, who ran a trading post on what is now Cass Lake, had been fatally shot by an Ojibwe man involved in a love triangle that Aitkin tried to squelch.

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