Chapter TWO: Wisconsin’s Indians Under French Rule

Few of us realize that the early history of Wisconsin is as romantic as any our eastern seaboard states can boast. The area that is now the State of Wisconsin became the gateway into the Middlewest and the meeting place for the French and the Indian tribes of what was then regarded as the West. This early period of French control was an era in which Jesuit missionaries carried the doctrine of Christianity from village to village, often visiting tribes that had never before seen white men. It was a time when the French traders, lured by the love of adventure and romance as well as the wealth to be obtained in the fur trade, pushed through the forests and followed strange rivers until they reached the villages of unknown Wisconsin Indians. It was in these villages that such traders, including the “noblest” youth of New France, lived with the Indians, sat in their councils, took part in their war dances, accompanied their war parties to battle, and often married their women.

It was in this early French Regime that Wisconsin’s Indian tribes underwent great changes in their manner of life due to contacts with the white man’s civilization, It was a time of warfare and a struggle for supremacy in North America between the British and the French, and their Indian allies, with Wisconsin’s tribes espoused to the cause of the French. It was the heyday of the fur trade with literally millions of beaver and other skins being taken from Wisconsin to enrich the trader and obtain white man’s goods for the Indians.

Despite the fact that Wisconsin’s Indians all lived in pretty much the same manner, most of us are aware that there were different tribes in our state at various times, and that they spoke different languages in some instances. If we use a comparison from European languages, we might better understand the character of these Indian languages. German, English, and Swedish all originated from the same parent tongue and belong to the same basic language division. English and Chinese are unrelated tongues belonging to different basic language stocks. Thus, while many words are very similar in English and German, in English and Chinese no apparent similarity exists.

Three basic language divisions, Algonkian, Siouan, and Iroquoian, were represented by Wisconsin’s Indians. Algonkian was represented by such tribes as the Menomini, Potawatomi, Chippewa, Mascouten, Sauk, Fox, Ottawa, and Kickapoo. Relatively late arrivals to Wisconsin (in the 1800’s), also speaking Algonkian tongues, were the Munsee, Brotherton, and Stockbridge tribes. The Siouan group included the Winnebago, and the Santee division of the Dakota Sioux. The Huron and the Oneida (the latter also arriving in the 1800’s) were Wisconsin representatives of the Iroquoian language stock. The differences become more apparent when we realize that languages in the Iroquoian division would be as different from those in the Algonkian stock as English is from Chinese.

The historic period in Wisconsin began when Jean Nicolet, the first known white man to visit Wisconsin, landed near what is now Green Bay, in 1634. Nicolet’s mission was to arrange a peace between the powerful Winnebago tribe, or Puans, as they were known to the French, and the Ottawa who were then acting as middlemen between the French and the Indians of the unknown Middlewest.

Nicolet’s journey into the Wisconsin wilderness, a mere fourteen years after the landing of our pilgrim forefathers at Plymouth Rock, was the beginning of the period of French exploration and rule in Wisconsin which is as romantic and fascinating a story as any in our country’s history. Imagine Nicolet’s emotion as he approached his destination, a lone white man with seven Indians for companions, in a country which, as far as was known, had never before been visited by a white man. He had no idea as to what sort of reception he would receive from these strange people he was to visit. Their friendliness or enmity would be determined upon arrival. Fortunately he was hailed as a great visitor, and feasted and entertained accordingly.

Only three Indian tribes are definitely known to have been residents of Wisconsin when Nicolet visited here in 1634. These were the Winnebago; the Menomini, who resided along the shores of the Menominee River above Green Bay; and the Santee Sioux, whose villages were scattered along the upper reaches of the Mississippi River in northwestern Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota.

Documentary evidence strongly suggests that some other tribes, often mentioned as early residents, as, for example, the Mascouten, did not arrive until a generation later. Archaeological findings conclusively show the prehistoric occupation of Wisconsin by the Santee Sioux and the Winnebago, and support the probability of prehistoric occupation by the Menomini. Thus Wisconsin was controlled primarily by Siouan speaking peoples in 1634. The peaceful Menomini were far outnumbered by their powerful neighbors, the Winnebago, but this situation was soon to change radically.

Events occurring far to the East, in what is now New York State and eastern Canada, were to profoundly affect and change the Indian population of Wisconsin. When the French began permanent settlement along the St. Lawrence they found the Huron and the Iroquois Confederacy engaged in a death struggle for supremacy in the area. The French espoused the cause of the Hurons who quickly became the middlemen in the fur trade between the French and the western Indians.

The Iroquois, who were farmers and hence controlled less land than hunting tribes who were their neighbors, soon depleted their land of fur bearing animals and began to plan acquisition of land held by nearby tribes. At about this time the Dutch considerately gave the Iroquois guns, and by this act unleashed what was probably the most potent Indian military confederacy in North America upon the Hurons, who were practically exterminated in an amazingly short time. The Erie, Tobacco Nation, and Neutrals soon suffered the same fate as the Hurons.

The Algonkian tribes, attacked first by the Neutrals and then by the victorious Iroquois, fled pell-mell into eastern Michigan and the Sault area. Eventually most of these tribes either went around the southern or the northern extremity of Lake Michigan to arrive in the relative security of wilderness Wisconsin.

The exact dates for the arrival of these various dispossessed eastern tribes are not certain. We do know that they probably came to Wisconsin sometime after Nicolet’s visit in 1634. The Mascouten, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Sauk, and Fox were coming into Wisconsin before 1654. Some Huron and Ottawa settled here temporarily at this time, but by 1678 were compelled by the Sioux to flee back to the Sault. The Chippewa stayed around and west of the Straits of Mackinac and actually did not settle in Wisconsin until about 1670.

The Winnebago at first defended themselves vigorously against the invading refugee tribes; however, this constant warfare greatly reduced their numerical strength. Further decimated by plagues, probably smallpox introduced by the whites, and by famine, the Winnebago were compelled to make peace with the invading Algonkians who eventually settled in great numbers along the Upper and Lower Fox rivers, the lower reaches of the Wolf River, and in the vicinity of Green Bay.

Fur trade with the western Indians was successfully blocked by the rampaging Iroquois for twenty odd years after Nicolet’s voyage of exploration into the Middlewest, but with the establishment of a brief peace, the Ottawa, who had assumed the position of middlemen in the fur trade, sent a large canoe fleet to the western Indians and soon returned with large quantities of furs which had been accumulated by the Indians during the Iroquois War.

On the return journey two young Frenchmen, Radisson and Groseilliers, went into Wisconsin with the Ottawa and became the first known white traders in the area. Other traders quickly followed their example, and by 1670, the fur trade in Wisconsin was proceeding at a good pace.

The Indians, even before actually being visited by the whites, had received European implements by trade with other Indians and soon learned the superiority of iron knives and axes over those of stone. The arrival of the white traders with their guns, kettles, cloth, brandy, and many other trade items was eagerly awaited by the Indians of what is now Wisconsin.

As early as 1668, Perrot and traders with him had brought furs to Green Bay (La Baye). Great activity in the fur trade was quick to follow with the French traders using guns and brandy particularly as an inducement to increase the tempo of fur trapping by the Indian. The Indian was as anxious to obtain the white man’s goods as the trader was to obtain the Indian’s furs. This formed the basis for an understanding mutually agreeable to Indian and trader alike.

The fur trade, during the French Regime, went through many changes due to changing circumstances, and the issuing of different regulations from time to time. The discovery of new western lands and tribes spurred literally hundreds of Canadian youths to seek these virgin territories and the riches in furs to be had there. At first traders persuaded the Indians to make the long trip to Montreal with their furs. The presence of so many traders in the forests, however, soon made these long trips unnecessary. By the time Perrot began trading in Wisconsin the traders were carrying their goods to the Indians in their own country.

Regulations required that all traders must be licensed, or buy _Conges_ as they were called. Twenty-five of these were issued each year and permitted the trader to take a designated load of goods into the interior to be traded for the Indian’s furs. The presence of great numbers of unlicensed traders in the woods was responsible for an edict from the king declaring such illegal traders to be outlaws. The punishment for such activities was death. These outlaw traders were known as _coureurs de bois_ and were actually never hampered too much by the stringent laws passed against them.

During the latter part of the 17th century outposts were built to help control the trade. Nicolas Perrot built posts at Mt. Trempealeau, at Lake Pepin, and at the mouth of the Wisconsin River. The Sieur DuLhut (Duluth) built posts in the Lake Superior region.

Since these terms are often misused, it might be best to briefly describe the following occupations: A _bourgeois_, was an owner of goods and a license; the hired men were called _engages_; those hired men who only carried the goods and paddled the canoe for a stipulated daily hire were called _voyageurs_. The _coureurs de bois_ and sometimes the _voyageurs_ were usually the ones who often remained in the forests and “went native.”

The impact of the white man’s civilization was bound to profoundly change the life and geography of the Indians, and, particularly in the early French period, this change was extremely rapid. Three groups were actively working to institute changes in the Indian pattern of life. These were the fur trader, whose goods revolutionized the material culture of the natives, the Jesuit missionaries who hoped to convert the tribes to Christianity, and the French government itself, which attempted at various times to relocate the tribes, form confederacies, and even to “civilize” them.

The fur trader was the only one of the three groups who really succeeded in materially changing the Indian’s way of life, although his success was unintentional. So completely did the materials of the white man replace those of the Indian that within a few short generations almost no one knew how to make stone tools and weapons, pottery vessels, bows and arrows, and many other aboriginal products which were abandoned as rapidly as superior goods of the whites were made available.

The change in tools and weapons naturally changed the Indians’ pattern of life in many ways, but the entire economy of the tribes was affected greatly by the fur trade. The Indian’s need for the white man’s goods was great and he became more and more dependent upon the trader. As the tempo of fur trading increased, the Indian began devoting almost all of his time to hunting and trapping until, in a sense, he became an employee in a great “fur-trade factory” with the goods he received from the trader representing his wages. Much of the Indian’s old life of freedom gradually disappeared, since failure to obtain guns or powder and bullets meant starvation for the Indian and his family.

Perhaps the worst effect of the contact between the Europeans and the Indians was the introduction of brandy, always an effective persuader in bargaining, and the introduction of European diseases, particularly venereal disease and smallpox, the latter in some instances wiping out entire tribes. The tendency for tribes to congregate around fur-trade areas at the behest of the traders also had a detrimental effect upon the Indians. In the Fox River valley and around Green Bay this overpopulation resulted in famine and the voluntary exodus of some tribes before 1700, among them the Miami and some of the Kickapoo and Mascouten.

It should be noted that the adoption of new materials and living habits was not entirely one-sided. The white man learned how to use the Indian’s birch-bark canoe, many of his foods, tobacco, moccasins, snow shoes, and often buckskin clothing.

Both the Jesuits and the French military deliberately aimed at changing the Indian’s way of life but their aims were in direct opposition to one another. The Jesuits were not interested in “civilizing” the Indians. They desired to see these simple people maintained in their original ignorance except for their belief in the “One True God,” and such simple improvements in agriculture and other techniques as would improve their lot as mission Indians. The Jesuits, not without some justification, regarded contact between their charges and the French traders and soldiers as having a demoralizing influence.

Despite great heroism and prodigious efforts on the part of the missionaries, permanent effects on the Indians by the Jesuits was to prove almost negligible. The Wisconsin Indian was highly war-like and found it difficult to appreciate the humility preached by the missionary. The Indian regarded such behavior as effeminate.

Nevertheless, the story of their efforts to Christianize the tribes, and the valor of these missionaries in exploring unknown territory, makes a fascinating story in our state’s history. Not the least among such heroic deeds was the great voyage of exploration by Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet. Traveling up the Fox River, crossing over on foot at what is now Portage, Wisconsin, and proceeding down the Wisconsin River, the two explorers entered the Mississippi River on the seventeenth of June, 1673. They explored the great river as far south as the Arkansas River and then returned, by way of the Illinois River. This great discovery made known a continuous water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and opened to the French the interior of a vast continent.

It was the desire to exploit and unify this vast wilderness empire that led the French leaders to attempt deliberate changes in the Wisconsin Indian geography and political structure. This was necessary in order to strengthen the Wisconsin tribes and keep them fighting the Iroquois who consistently raided the western Indians and the French settlements along the St. Lawrence.

LaSalle conceived the idea of a great Indian confederacy which, it was hoped, would be able to successfully oppose the mighty Iroquois, and so built forts in the Illinois country to help defend the area. The Wisconsin Mascouten and Kickapoo left this area, partly because of their desire to join the confederacy and partly because of population pressure in the Fox River valley.

The year before the Iroquois invasions of 1680, DuLhut helped to strengthen the French cause by negotiating peace between the Dakota Sioux and their enemy of long standing, the Chippewa, and also reconciling the Dakota Sioux and Assiniboine, who had been warring for thirty years.

Nicolas Perrot probably was the most influential French officer ever to have worked with the Wisconsin tribes. It was mainly through his constant efforts that they were kept from going over to the Iroquois when the tribes felt that the French had abandoned them. Perrot was probably the only Frenchman to remain consistently on friendly terms with the Foxes, who eventually were to engage the French in the bloodiest Indian war ever to be fought on Wisconsin soil. Perrot constantly travelled from village to village organizing raids against the Iroquois, raids which eventually assisted in forcing the Iroquois to sue for peace. The French, through the efforts of men like LaSalle, Perrot, and DuLhut, had once again secured a firm hold on the western tribes, but the Iroquois warfare of the 1680’s had caused a slump in the fur trade. The trade was, moreover, soon to receive a blow which was to almost completely kill all official commerce between the Indians and the French for a number of years. This was the issuance of a royal edict by the French King, May 21, 1696, revoking all fur trade licenses and prohibiting all colonials from carrying goods to the western country.

There were really two main causes for the issuance of this edict. One was a slump in the beaver market caused by the great flood of furs into France and a decline in beaver hat production, due partly to the emigration of the Huguenots who were the main hat felters; the other cause for the edict was the anger of the Jesuits, aroused by the sale of brandy to the Indians by the traders and soldiers.

It was hoped that the Indian tribes would make the journey to Montreal themselves to trade their furs, but it was soon discovered that most tribes either would not or could not make such a journey for purposes of trade. The result, of course, was severe hardship for the Indians of Wisconsin. Lack of gunpowder and lead restricted their hunting abilities and made it more difficult for them to defend themselves against the Iroquois and other hostile tribes. The Indians were becoming increasingly dependent upon the French to the extent that they had lost much of the freedom they had enjoyed as a self-sufficient people.

The rapid abandonment of the western posts followed the fur trade ban. The commanders of these outposts, for the most part, did not consider it worthwhile to stay on in that capacity if they could not enrich themselves by means of the Indian trade.

Peace was finally arranged between the Iroquois and the French and their Indian allies in 1700. The Iroquois had suffered heavily from the raids by the western Indians. They claimed to have lost more than half their warriors. With the fear of Iroquois raids ended, the confederacies of western tribes quickly fell apart, and the latter turned to fighting among themselves as they had always done in the past.

The French military now decided on a concentration policy. The western posts were to be restricted to three main centers. These were to be at Detroit, New Orleans, and near Tonty’s post in the Illinois country. Fairly large numbers of troops were stationed at these posts to provide adequate defense, and the western tribes were to be concentrated in these areas. This would facilitate the fur trade by permitting the Indians to trap their furs and bring them directly to the trading centers. The French government also hoped to “civilize” the Indians, teaching them to farm the land, learn the French language, and eventually even participate in the colonial economy.

The concentration policy was foredoomed to failure. The Wisconsin tribes, of whom many were hereditary enemies, only needed a spark to set them at one another’s throats. This led to trouble at Detroit which resulted in the bloody Fox Wars, long, costly fighting for the French which contributed much towards their final downfall in the New World.