USA > Minnesota > Dahkotah land and Dahkotah life [microform] : with the history of the fur traders of the extreme northwest during the French and British dominions > Part 5
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About the time that Champlain returned from his expedition to the Huron country, there arrived in Canada a youth from France of more than ordinary promise, who, by his aptness in the acquisition of the Indian dialects, became interpreter and commissary of the colony.
Determined to press beyond others, he, in 1639, arrived at the lake of the Winnebagoes, in the present ·state of Wisconsin, which had been described by Cham -. plain, though erroneously located on the map accom- panying his narrative .. .
While in this region he concluded a friendly alliance with the Indians'in the valley of the Fox river.
Paul le Jeune, in a letter to his superior, Vimont, written in the month of September, 1640, alludes to Nicolet, and is also the first writer who makes distinct mention of the Dahkotahs. Speaking of the tribes on. Lake Michigan, the father remarks :---
"Still further on, dwell the Ouinipegou (Winnebago), a,sedentary people and very numerous. Some French- men call them the 'Nation of Stinkers,' because the
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TRADERS PIONEERS FOR THE PRIESTS.
Algonquin word Ouinipeg signifies stinking water. They thus designate the water of the sea, and these people call themselves Ouinipegou, because they come from the shores of a sea, of which we have no knowledge, and therefore we must not call them the nation of 'Stinkers,' but the nation of the sea.
"In the neighbourhood of this nation are the Nadou- essi (Dahkotahs), and the Assinipouars (Assiniboines). * * * * I will say, by the way, that the Sieur * Nicolet, interpreter of the Algonquin and Huron lan- guages for ' Messieurs de la Nouvelle France,' has given me the names of these nations, whom he has visited, for the most part, in their own countries."
Two years elapse, and, in 1641, Jogues and Raym- bault, of the "Society of Jesus," after. a journey of seventeen days, in frail barks, over tempestuous waters, arrive at the barrier of rocks at the entrance of Lake Superior ; and then, at Sault St. Marie, met the Potto- wattomies flying from the Dahkotahs, and were told that the latter lived to the west of the Falls, about eighteen days' journey, the first nine across the lake, the other up a river which leads inland, referring, pro- bably, to the stream which. interlocks with the head waters of the river Saint Croix.
We would not detract from the zeal of the man of God, but it is a fact that those in the service of mam- mon have ever outrun those in the service of Christ." The ,"insacra fames, auri," the unholy thirst for gold, has always made the trader the pioneef of the mis- sionary in savage lands.
In a communication made as early as 1654, it was stated that it was only nine days' journey from the Lake of the. Winnebago (Green Bay) to the sea that
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
separates America from China; and, that, if a person could be found who would send thirty Frenchmen into. that country, they would obtain the finest peltries and amass wealth. :
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This year two adventurous Frenchmen went to seek their fortunes in the region west of Lake Michigan; and, in August, 1656, with a flotilla of canoes, laden with treasures, and two hundred and fifty Ojibways, they arrived at Quebec, and interested "voyageurs" .. with a recital of their hair-breadth escapes-merchants with their packs of valuable furs, and ecclesiastics with narrations of the miserable condition of immortal souls, and of the numerous villages of the "Nadouesiouack" (Dahkotahs) and other tribes.
Thirty young Frenchmen, excited by the reports, equipped themselves to trade with the lodges in the distant wilderness; and, two Fathers, Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Dreuilletes, were summoned by their Supe- rior to return with the brigade, and were rejoiced to find themselves chosen to be the first to carry the name of Jesus Christ into a country alike replete with, tribu- lation, darkness, and death.
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The latter missionary had been a visiter to the house of the Puritan minister, Eliot, in the vicinity of Boston, and they had frequently taken sweet counsel together in relation to the amelioration of the condition of the abo- rigines.
This expedition failed to reach its destination, owing to a murderous attack of the Iroquois, in which Gar- reau was killed, and the Ojibways so alarmed that they refused to receive the surviving " black robe."
In the year 1659"two traders travelled extensively among the distant tribes. Six days' journey south-west
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GROSELLIER'S JOURNEY TO HUDSON BAY, BY LAND.
of La Pointe, now Bayfield, Wisconsin, they found vil- lages of Hurons, who, retreating across rocky ridges, over deep streams, wide lakes, and dense thickets, had reached the shores of the Mississippi, and found a shelter among the Dahkotahs from the fierce onslaught of the Iroquois. In the vicinity of the Hurons they saw Dah- kotah settlements, "in five of which were counted all of five thousand men." They noticed women with the tips of their noses cut off, and heads partly scalped, and were informed that this was the penalty inflicted upon adulteresses. .
They also heard of " another warlike nation who, with . their bows and arrows, have rendered themselves as formidable to the upper Algonquins as the Iroquois have to the lower. They bear the name of Poualak (Assine- boine), that is to say, the warriors." Continues the rela- tion :- " As wood is scarce and very small with them, nature has taught them to burn stones in place of it, and to cover their wigwams with skins. Some of the most industrious among them have built mud cabins nearly in the same manner that swallows build their nests; nor would they sleep less sweetly beneath these skins, or under this clay, than the great ones of earth beneath their golden canopies, was it not for the fear of the Iroquois, who come here in search of them from a distance of five or six hundred leagues."
On the early French maps of Lake Superior, a tribu- tary from Minnesota is called the River. Grosellier.1. It
1 Grosellier was a native of Tou- Quebec. Returning by Lake Supe- raine, and married Helen, daughter rior, he offered to carry French ships of . Abraham Martin, King's Pilot, who has left his name to the cele- to Hudson's Bay. Rejected by the court, he crossed over to England, where his offers were accepted. With brated plains of Abraham, near
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
appears to have been named after a French pilot who, about this time, roamed into the Assiniboine country, in the region of Lake Winnepeg, and was conducted by them to the shores of Hudson's Bay.
During the summer of 1660 the traders of the far West returned to Quebec with sixty canoes, manned by Algonquins, and laden with fox, beaver, and buffalo skins. The narrative of these men increased the existing enthu- siasm of the Jesuits, and the Superior at Quebec had a zeal which "caused him to wish that he might be an angel of glad tidings to the far nations; and, at the expense of a thousand lives, to go and search in the depths of the forest the lost sheep for whose welfare he had crossed the sea.""
The murder of Garreau, four years before, did not intimidate, but his blood increased the courage of the church, and René Menard was the one selected to be the cross-bearer to the barbarians in the regions round about Lake Superior.
His hair whitened by age, his mind ripened by long experience, and acquainted with the peculiarities of Indian character, he seemed the man for the mission.
The night before he started, the eyes of the venerable priest were not closed. He thought much of his friends, and, knowing that he was about to go into a land of barbarians, two hours after midnight he penned a letter,
Raddisson, another Frenchmen, he 1 MY REVEREND FATHER-THE PEACE piloted an English vessel, command- OF CHRIST BE WITH YOU : ed by Captain Gillam, a Yankee, to I write to you probably the last word, which I hope will be the seal of our friendship until eternity. Love whom the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though the greatest of sinners, for he loves whom he the River Nemiscau, on the east side of James Bay, where Fort Rupert was built. See O'Callaghan's note, vol. ix. p. 797, Paris Doo. : Col. His- tory of New York.
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MENARD AT LAKE SUPERIOR.
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touching in its simplicity, and which will be embalmed in the literature of the future dwellers on the shores of Lake Superior.
Early on the morning of the 28th of August, 1660, he, in company with eight Frenchmen, departed with the Ottawa convoy from " Three Rivers." After much ridicule from the wild companions of his voyage, he arrived at a bay on Lake Superior, on -the 15th of October, St. Theresa's day, on which account he so designated the sheet of water.
During the following winter they remained at this point. Their supply of provisions being exhausted, they nearly starved. " At times they scraped up a mess of the ' tripe de roche,' which slightly thickened their water, foaming upon it a kind of foam or slime, similar to that of snails, and which served rather to nourish their imagination than their bodies :" at other times they
loads with his cross. Let your friendship, my good father, be use- ful to me by the desirable fruits of your daily sacrifice. In three or · four months, you may remember me at the memento for the dead, on ac- count of my old age, my weak 'con- stitution, and the hardships I lay under amongst these tribes. Never- theless, I am in peace, for I have not been led to this mission by any temporal motive, but I think it,was by the voice of God. I was afraid, by not coming here, to resist the grace of God. Eternal remorse would have tormented me, had I not come when I had the opportunity. We
" From the Three Rivers; this 27th August, 2 o'clock after midnight, 1660. C
have been a little surprised, not be- ing able to provide ourselves with vestments and other things ; but he who feeds the little birds and clothes the lilies of the fields, will take care of his servants ; and though it should happen we should die with want, we would esteem ourselves happy. I am loaded with affairs. What I can do is to recommend our journey to your daily sacrifices, and to embrace you with the same sentiments of heart, as. I hope to do in eternity.
My reverend father, your most humble and affectionate servant in Jesus Christ,
R. MENARD.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
subsisted on pounded fish-bones and acorns. When the vernal breezes began to blow, ducks; geese, and wild pigeons made their appearance, and their bodies strengthened.
The refugee Hurons, at La Pointe, hearing that a "black gown" was on the shores of the lake, invited. him to visit them.
Menard appointed three young Frenchmen to act as pioneers, and reconnoitre the country and make presents. On their journey their canoe was stolen, and after many difficulties they returned. Their report was discouraging, but did not deter the aged enthusiast. His last written sentences, penned in July, 1661, are :-
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"I hear every day four populous nations spoken of, that are distant from here about two or three hundred leagues. I expect to die on my way to them ; but as I am so far advanced, and in health, I shall do all that is possible to reach them. The route, most of the way, lies across swamps, through which it is necessary to feel your way in passing, and to be in danger every moment of sinking too deep to extricate yourself; provisions which can only be obtained by carrying them with you, and the mosquitoes, whose numbers are frightful, are the three great obstacles which render it difficult for me to obtain a companion."
Some Hurons having come to treat with the Ojibways, agreed to act as guides. Selecting John Guerin, a faith- ful man, as his companion, he started, with some dried fish and smoked meat for provisions. The Indians, full of caprice, soon moved off, and left the priest and his friend in an unknown country. Bruised in limb, and faint in body, on the 10th of August, Menard, while
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DISAPPEARANCE OF MENARD.
following his companion, lost himself by mistaking the trail.
The agony of Guerin is great when he looks behind and beholds not the aged traveller. He calls at the top of his voice, but he only hears, the echo. Hè fires his gun repeatedly, to lead him to the right path; at last he wanders to a Huron village, and, by gestures and tears, and the promise of reward, induced a youth to go . in search. He soon returned, weary; and from that day there have been no traces of his body.
A century ago, the report was current in Canada, that, some years after his disappearance, his robe and prayer book were found in a Dahkotah lodge, and were looked upon as "wawkawn" or supernatural.
In the summer of 1663 the mournful intelligence of the loss of Menard reached Quebec, and one was soon found to be his successor-Father Claude Allouëz, who anxiously awaited the means of conveyance to his scene of labour. In the year 1665 a hundred canoes, laden with Indians and peltries, arrived at Montreal from Lake Superior. A Frenchman, who accompanied them, reported that the Outaouaks (Ojibways) were attacked on one side by the Iroquois, and on the other by the Nadouessioux (Dahkotahs), a warlike people, who carry on cruel wars with nations still more distant. Allouez rejoiced at the sight of the frail barks, and greeted the besmeared savages as if they were visitants from a better land. In a letter written at the time, his full heart thus speaks : " At last it has pleased God to send us the angels of the Upper Algonquins to conduct us to their country."
On the 8th of August, 1665, with six Frenchmen
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 1
and four hundred savages, returning from their trading . expedition, he embarked.
Having made a portage at Sault St. Marie, on the 2d of September their birch canoes glided on the waters of Lake Superior. On the 1st of October they arrived at the Chegoimegon, a beautiful bay (Bayfield, Wisconsin), where were two large villages, one of which was occupied by the Hurons, who had been driven from the Dahkotah country under the following circumstances :-
Having claimed superiority, on account of the pos- session of fire-arms, they taunted the Dahkotahs, who had received them when they were outcasts and, flying from the Iroquois, on account of their simplicity. At last, provoked beyond endurance, they decoyed a num- ber of Hurons into a wild rice marsh, and killed many with their primitive, but not to be despised, stone-tipped arrows, and drove the remnant to Chegoimegon.
The second village war composed of several bands of Ojibways, whose ancestors had, a long time before, lived east of Lake Michigan, but had been driven westward by the Iroquois. .
This point was a centre of trade for many nations. Even the Illinois came here to fish and exchange com- - modities.
Allouëz, when he landed at La Pointe, as the French named the place, in consequence of a tongue-like pro- jection of land, found a scene of great confusion. In the language of Bancroft, " It was at a moment when the young warriors were bent on a strife with the war- like Sioux. A grand council of ten or twelve neigh- bouring nations was held to wrest the hatchet from the hands of the rash braves, and Allouez was admitted to an audience before the vast assembly. In the name of
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ALLOUEZ AT LA POINTE
Louis XIV. and his viceroy, he commanded peace, and. offered commerce and alliance against the Iroquois -.- the soldiers of France would smooth the path between the Chippewas and Quebec-would brush the pirate ganoes from the rivers-would leave to the Five Nations no choice, but between tranquillity and destruction. On Ne shore of the bay to which the abundant fisheries at- tracted crowds, a chapel soon rose, and the mission of the Holy Spirit was founded. There admiring throngs, who had never seen an European, came to gaze on the white man, and on the pictures which he displayed of the realms of hell, and of the last judgment. ' There a choir of Chippewas were taught to chant the pater and - the' ave. * The Sacs and Foxes travelled
on foot from their country, which abounded in deer, beaver, and buffalo. The . Illinois also, a hospitable race, unaccustomed to canoes, having no weapon but the bow and arrow, came to rehearse their sorrows. Curiosity was roused by their * tale of the noble river on which they dwelt, and which flowed toward the south. Then, too, at the very extre- mity of the lake, the missionary met the wild and impassioned Sioux, who dwelt to the west of Lake Superior, in a land of prairies, with wild rice for food, and skins of beasts instead of bark for roofs to their cabins, on the bank of the great river, of which Allouëz : reported the name to be Messipi."
While "on an excursion to Lake Alempigon (Saint Anne), he mag at Fond du Lac, in Minnesota, some Dahkotah warriors; and, in describing them, he is the first to give, the name of the great river of which the Indians had told so many wonderful stories.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
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In the relations of the mission of the Holy Spirit, the following remarks are made of the Dahkotahs :>^
"This is a tribe that dwells to the west of this (Fond du Lac), toward the great river called MESSIPI. They are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a country of prairies, abounding in all kinds of game. They have fields in which they do not sow Indian corn, but only tobacco. Providence has provided them with a species of marsh rice, which, toward the end of summer, they go to collect in certain small lakes that are covered with it. They know how to prepare it so well that it is quite agreeable to the taste and nutritive. They pre- sented me with some when I was at the extremity of Lake Tracy (Superior), where I saw them. They do not use the gun, but only the bow and arrow, which they use with great dexterity. Their cabins are not covered with bark, but with deerskins well dried, and stitched together so well that the cold does not enter. These people are, above all other, savage and warlike. In our presence they seemed abashed, and were motion- less as statues, They speak a language entirely unknown to us, and the savages about here do not understand them." ..
After two years passed among the Algonquins at La Pointe and vicinity, Allouez was convinced that his mission would not prosper, unless he had some assist- ance. He determined to. go in person to Quebec, and implore labourers for the field. Arriving there on the 3d day of August, 1667, he worked night and day ; and, after two days, the bow of his canoe was again turned towards the far West. His party consisted at first of Father Louis Nicholas, and another Jesuit, with four labourers; but, when they came to the canoes, the
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MARQUETTE'S DESCRIPTION OF DAHKOTAHS.
whimsical savages only allowed Allouëz, Nicholas, and one of their men, to enter. " But, notwithstanding the help obtained, the savage hearts could not be subdued ; and, "weary of their obstinate unbelief," he resolved to leave La Pointe. - On the 13th of September, 1669, the." renowned Marquette took his place; and, writing to his Superior, describes the Dahkotahs in these words .:-
" The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, be- yond La Pointe, but less faithless, and never attack till attacked.
"They lie south-west of the mission of the Holy Spirit, and- we have not yet visited them, having con- fined ourselves to the conversion of the Ottawas.
"Their language is entirely different from the Huron and Algonquin; they have many villages, but are widely scattered; they have very extraordinary cus- toms; they principally use the calumet; they do not speak at great feasts, and when a stranger arrivés give him to eat of a wooden fork, as we would a child.
" All the lake tribes make war on them, but with + · small success. They have false oats (wild rice), use little canoes, and keep their word strictly. I. sent them a present by an interpreter, to tell them to recog- nise the Frenchman everywhere, and not to kill him or the Indians in his company ; that the black gown wishes to pass to the country of the Assinipouars (Assineboines), and to that of the Kilistinaux (Cnistineaux) ; that he- was already with the Outagamis (Foxes), and that I was going this fall to the Illinois, to whom they should leave a free passage.
" They agreed ; but as for my present waited till alt. came from the chase, promising to come to La Pointe
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
in the fall, to hold a council with the Illinois and speak with me. Would that all these nations loved God as they feared the French."
. The relations of the Jesuits for 1670-71, allude to the Dahkotahs, and their attack on the Hurons and Ojibways of La Pointe :-
" There are certain people, called Nadouessi, dreaded by their neighbours, and although they only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so much skill and so much dexterity that, in a moment, they fill the air. In the Parthian mode, they turn their heads in flight, and discharge their arrows so rapidly, that they are no less . to be feared in their retreat than in their attack.
" They dwell on the shores of, and around the great river, Messipi, of which we shall speak. They number no less than fifteen populous towns, and yet they know not how to cultivate the earth by seeding it, contenting themselves with a species of marsh rye, which we call wild oats.
" For sixty leagues, from the extremity of the upper . lakes, towards sunset, and, as it were, in the centre of the western nations, they have all united their force, by a general league, which has been made against them, as against a common enemy.
"They speak a peculiar language, entirely distinct- from that of the Algonquins and Hurons, whom they . generally surpass in generosity, since they often content themselves with the glory of having obtained the vic- tory, and freely release. the prisoners they have taken in battle.
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$ . "Our Outaouacs and Hurons, of the Point of the Holy Ghost, had, to the present time, kept up a kind
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LA POINTE . MISSION ABANDONED .- OJIBWAYS DIVIDED. 113
of peace with them, but affairs having become embroiled during last winter, and some murders having been com- mitted on both sides, our savages had reason to appre- hend that the storm would soon burst upon them, and judged that it was safer for them to leave the place, which in fact they did in the spring."
La Pointe being abandoned, the nearest French set- tlement is Sault St. Marie, at the foot of the lake. In the year 1674 a party of Dahkotahs arrived there to make an alliance with the French, having been defeated in recent engagements with their foes. They visited the mission-house of Father Dreuilletes, where some of their nation were under religious instruction; and a council of the neighbouring tribes was called to delibe-, rate on the proposed peace. A Cree Indian insulted a Dahkotah chief by brandishing his knife in his face. Fired at the indignity, he drew his own stone knife from his belt, and shouted the war cry. A fierce con- flict now took place, in which the ten Dahkotah envoys were scalped and the mission-house burned.
The Saulteurs1 or Ojibways divided into two band not far from this period. One remained at the Falls of Saint Mary, and subsisted on the delicious white fish, the other retired towards the extremity of Lake Supe- rior, and settled at two places, making an alliance with the. Dahkotahs,- who were anxious for French goods, which they strengthened by intermarriages. " The Dah- kotahs, who had their villages near the Mississippi,
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called them Pauotig-oueieuhak, In- habitants of the Falls, or Pahoui- call them Ha-ha-twawns, Dweller at tingdachirini, Men of the Shallow the Falls. The Algonquin tribes Cataract.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
about the forty-sixth degree of latitude, shared their country with their-new allies. During the winter, the Ojibways hunted, and in the spring they returned to . the shores of Lake Superior. While in the land of the Dahkotahs, they took care not to assist them in their wars, lest they should be embroiled with surrounding nations.1
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