 Pierre was born in a hunting camp on the buffalo trail near Grand Forks.His father Charles Bottineau was a French-Canadian, and his mother Marguerite Macheyquayzaince Ahdicksongab "(Clear Sky Woman)" was half Dakota and half Ojibwe of the Lake of the Woods band, and sister of the Pembina Ojibwe chief Misko-Makwa or Red Bear.Although technically born in United States territory, control of the Upper Mississippi Valley fell to the British during the War of 1812.