Chapter THREE: The Fox Wars and the Fall of New France

Events occurring in Wisconsin during the first half of the Eighteenth Century were to bode little good for the French, and were to contribute towards the final downfall of New France at the hands of the British. For a good share of the years between 1701 and 1738 the French were to be largely occupied with the attempt to subjugate the Fox Indians and their allies.

Not only were the expeditions against the Fox to prove costly to the French, but the enmity of the Fox required shiftings of trade routes. As an inevitable result, friction between the French and English traders developed, since the Fox at times blocked both the Fox River in Wisconsin and the Illinois River to the French traders. The determined resistance of the Fox also prevented the fruition of French hopes to dominate the western tribes and influence them to espouse the French cause. Furthermore, the difficulty experienced by the French military in conquering a relatively small group of Wisconsin Indians did little to further French prestige among other western tribes.

The First Fox War was actually the result of the French concentration policy. Within a few years after the founding of Detroit in 1701 by the Sieur de Cadillac there were almost 6000 Indians in the vicinity of the fort. The Fox, meanwhile, determined to prevent the carrying of guns to their enemy, the Dakota Sioux, were halting French traders attempting to proceed up the Fox River on their journey to the Sioux country on the Upper Mississippi. A French fort in the Sioux country was also abandoned after the loss of several men due to attacks by the Fox.

Cadillac, realizing the need for some measure to bring these warlike tribesmen under control, in 1710 invited the Fox, along with the other tribes resident around Green Bay, to come and reside near Detroit. At this crucial time, when so much depended on the leadership of a Frenchman experienced in handling the tribes, Cadillac, probably the most capable Colonial officer of the times, was sent to Louisiana as governor of that colony. The new commandant at Detroit had none of Cadillac’s ability with the Indians.

The arrival of the Fox and their allies, the Kickapoo, Sauk, and Mascouten, was the signal for trouble. These tribesmen were feared as well as hated by the other Indians about Detroit. After a band of Mascouten were attacked by the Ottawa near the St. Joseph River, during the winter of 1711-1712, the Fox, in revenge, immediately attacked the Ottawa and Huron at the Detroit post.

The Detroit commandant sided with the Ottawa and Huron and permitted them to seek refuge in the French fort. Shortly after, the Fox erected a stockade of their own and made preparations for a long fight. The French and their allies were reinforced by a large band of Illinois, Missouri, Osage, Potawatomi, and Menomini. This greatly superior force laid siege to the Fox fort and the latter soon offered to surrender. The French and their Indian supporters, however, were now determined to completely exterminate their enemies.

After a siege of nineteen days, the Fox attempted to escape by taking advantage of cover offered on a dark, rainy night. They were pursued, overtaken, and the great majority of them were slaughtered. This was a victory for the French, but a very costly one, for the Fox and their allies still had a great many warriors in the forests of Wisconsin. These, in retaliation, began a war of extermination against the allies of the French who had participated in the Detroit massacre and the hunted tribesmen soon complained that their people were starving because they dared not hunt in the forests lest their men be slain by the vengeful Fox.

The summer of 1716 saw the first white army ever to invade the forests of Wisconsin. The Sieur de Louvigny, in May of that year, left Montreal with an army of several hundred French and a force of mission Indians determined to compel the Fox to sue for peace. He arrived in Wisconsin with his army augmented by western tribesmen, and _coureurs de bois_ who had been granted pardons for joining the expedition at their own expense. With this total force amounting to about 800 men, Louvigny besieged the fortified Fox village, situated near Little Lake Butte des Morts. While the French kept up a fire with two small cannon and a grenade mortar, they sank a trench towards the Fox fort determined to mine the place and blow it up.

The Fox surrendered after three days of fighting and agreed to accept terms which Louvigny thought very severe, but which his Indian allies regarded as overmild. The terms included the requirement that the Fox pay for the costs of the expedition against them by means of furs yet to be gathered, to give up prisoners taken from the allies of the French, to furnish a number of hostages to guarantee their future good behavior, and to cede their territory to the French King.

The peace temporarily halted the bloody warfare of the four preceding years and permitted the fur trade to be resumed. The concentration policy had proven to be a failure, and shortly after the death of Louis XIV, in 1715, the posts were once more occupied and the licensing system for the fur trade was restored. A fort was built at La Baye (Green Bay) in 1717, and a post was occupied at Chequamegon Bay to keep the Chippewa from attacking the Fox and causing a resumption of war, and also to regulate the fur trade in that area.

The quite considerable friction between the colonies of Canada and Louisiana provided the background for the events which led directly to the Second Fox War. There was considerable argument as to the exact boundaries of Illinois which now was annexed to Louisiana, although originally settled by Canadians. The Fox took advantage of these feelings of hostility by attacking the Illinois in the vicinity of Kaskaskia, even killing Frenchmen in this area. The Fox claimed the Illinois would not return Fox prisoners as they had promised according to treaty. The Canadian governor, Vaudreuil, tended to side with the Fox in the argument.

After the death of Vaudreuil, his temporary successor, Baron de Longueuil ordered the Sieur de Lignery, commandant at Mackinac, to enforce a peace between the Fox, Kickapoo, and Mascouten, and their enemies, the Illinois. The Fox promised to obey this demand, and in order to ensure their obedience, a new post was built in the Sioux country. This was rendered necessary by the fact that the Dakota Sioux had now become allies of the Fox, and the French intended to make sure that no aid would be coming to the Fox from that warlike tribe. The three forts in the northwest, at Chequamegon Bay, La Baye, and on the upper Mississippi in the Sioux country were to be maintained rather steadily until near the end of the French regime.

Meanwhile the Fox chief Kiala had succeeded in forming an alliance against the French between the Fox and their long-time allies the Kickapoo and Mascouten, and a series of other tribes including, in addition to the nearby Winnebago, such far distant tribes as the Abnaki and Seneca in the East, and the Dakota Sioux, Missouri, Iowa, and Oto in the West. Kiala hoped by this means to form a hostile circle about the French which would end in their complete defeat, a plan similar to that later attempted by Pontiac, and Tecumseh.

The Marquis de Beauharnois, appointed governor of Canada to replace Vaudreuil, was determined that the raids on the Illinois and the French at Kaskaskia must be stopped. A French army once more was sent against the Fox. This time, headed by the Sieur de Lignery, the expedition numbered about four hundred French and approximately one thousand Indians. Warned by the Potawatomi, the Fox escaped from their villages and the army arrived at each to find it deserted. At Little Lake Butte des Morts the soldiers refused to go farther and Lignery had to be satisfied with the burning of the Fox and Winnebago villages and their stores of food.

Despite the poor showing of Lignery’s expedition against the Fox, Kiala’s confederacy began to fall apart. Even their old allies, the Mascouten and Kickapoo, were persuaded by the French to turn against them, and the Sioux, closely watched by the French, no longer could give the Fox refuge in their country. Discouraged by these losses and defeated by the French under the capable Paul Marin, the Fox decided to flee to the Iroquois country. The Fox had long been secretly treating with the English and the Seneca, a member tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy and hoped to find a friendly reception in their country.

Warned by the Mascouten and Kickapoo regarding the plans of the Fox, French officers from nearby posts hastily gathered together Indian allies and prepared to attack their fleeing enemies. The Fox, warned by their scouts of the force advancing against them, hastily erected a stockade and prepared to fight for their lives. They managed to fight off the besiegers for twenty-three days. Then on a stormy night they attempted flight but were quickly overtaken. Almost all of the band were either slaughtered or taken as slaves.

After the few survivors of this disaster, seeking refuge in their village near the mouth of the Wisconsin River, were attacked by Detroit Indians, Kiala and three other chiefs offered to give themselves up, asking mercy for themselves and the fifty surviving warriors, supposedly all that were left of the entire tribe. De Villiers accepted the surrender and hastened to Montreal with his prisoners. De Villiers was ordered to return and kill off the rest of the Fox, taking only the women and children as prisoners. These were to be sold into slavery, like Kiala, who was fated to end his days as a slave in the West Indies.

De Villiers returned to the Sauk village at Green Bay and demanded that the Sauk release the remnant of Fox survivors. The Sauk declined to release warriors with whom they had strong blood ties, and in an attempt to force an entrance, one of de Villiers’ sons was killed. The French quickly retaliated and in the exchange of fire de Villiers himself was killed by a twelve year old boy, who later became renowned as the Sauk Chief Blackbird. In the battle that followed, the Sieur Duplessis, the Sieur de Repentigny, and six other Frenchmen quickly met the same fate. The Sauk and Fox, too, lost heavily and fled to the vicinity of the present-day city of Menasha. The bloody battle that ensued there, it is said, accounts for the name Butte des Morts, or Hill of the Dead.

As a result of this battle, the remainder of the Fox and the Sauk amalgamated and for all practical purposes became one tribe. They fled into Iowa where they erected a new fort, and gradually their ranks were swelled by Fox released from captivity by tribes now secretly in sympathy with the Sauk and Fox. One more expedition was sent against them, led by the Sieur de Noyelles, but although he followed the Sauk and Fox to the vicinity of the Des Moines River, they were so well entrenched that it was impossible to dislodge them and the expedition returned home without success. Eventually the Fox Wars were brought to an end through a policy of conciliation inaugurated in 1740 by Paul Marin, the new commandant at La Baye. Force had, in the long run, proven a failure in the campaign to completely subjugate the Fox.

Throughout the first half of the Eighteenth Century the French, as we have seen, had been occupied with more or less constant warfare with the Fox. This warfare was the dominant note in the history of Wisconsin for this period, and in general, the role of other Wisconsin tribes during this era was that of serving as allies either of the French or of the Fox.

The failure of Noyelles’ expedition against the Fox had helped to lower French prestige among the western tribes, and in 1736 the Sioux, angered by French friendship for the Chippewa and Cree, murdered a French officer, a priest, and a party of nineteen _voyageurs_. From this time on the Sioux could no longer be numbered among the allies of the French. By 1739, the Sioux-Chippewa War flamed into action and the Sioux were driven westward from the areas in Wisconsin now held by the Chippewa.

Warfare between the English and the French in America again was to seriously affect the western tribes. This conflict, lasting from 1744 to 1748, saw the fur trade with the western tribes reach extremely low proportions. Goods were very scarce due to the loss of French ships at the hands of British fighting vessels, and this failure to produce sufficient goods for the Indians, in addition to the already declining prestige of the French, encouraged some of the western tribes to seek more favorable relations with the British. Most of the Huron, under Chief Nicolas, began trading with the British, and many other western tribes exhibited the same inclination.

The end of the current conflict with the English enabled the French to regain control of these tribes, but the Miami had moved into Ohio and established a large village called Pickawillany which became a fairly permanent camp for a number of English traders. Several expeditions against this village by the French failed. In 1752, however, Charles de Langlade, later famed as one of Wisconsin’s pioneer French settlers at Green Bay, who was part French and part Ottawa and who thus had tremendous influence among the Indians, led an expedition against Pickawillany which enjoyed remarkable success. The village was destroyed, the English traders captured, and the Miami returned to French allegiance.

For a while France again enjoyed supremacy in the West. In 1755, Langlade and his contingent of Wisconsin and Mackinac braves participated in the famous battle culminating in “Braddock’s Defeat”. Chippewa, Menomini, Potawatomi, and Winnebago were said to be present at this engagement, and for many years thereafter trophies of this battle were to be found in Wisconsin Indian lodges. Despite this severe defeat of the British and American Colonials, the fortunes of the French were destined to take a turn for the worse. By 1761, Wisconsin was under British control, and in 1763, France formally surrendered the rest of her American possessions to England. She had ceded Louisiana to Spain the year before.

Much had happened to Wisconsin’s Indians during this period, roughly from 1700 to 1760. The long and bloody Fox Wars had wrought hardship on the other tribes as well as on the Fox. The Sioux-Chippewa war had resulted in the Sioux being forced to relinquish most of their Wisconsin territory to the Chippewa. The Potawatomi Indians, who had fought under Langlade and participated in the killing of the unarmed English and Americans at Fort William Henry, were visited by a grim vengeance in the form of smallpox, contracted from the English soldiers and brought back by the tribes to their own country where it raged virtually unchecked. Great numbers of Indians lost their lives as a result.

Other tribes left Wisconsin, some never to return. The Kickapoo and Mascouten were now in Illinois and Indiana. The Potawatomi were below Lake Michigan at St. Joseph. Thus many of the tribes here when the French traders and missionaries first arrived, no longer were in the Wisconsin scene. The tribes remaining here were destined to know new masters, the British, who were to control the fur trade in Wisconsin until the end of the War of 1812.