USA > Minnesota > Illustrated history of Minnesota, a hand-book for citizens and general readers > Part 2
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Religion .- " The Dakotas have, indeed, 'gods many' -their imaginations have peopled both the visible and invisible world with mysterious or spiritual beings, who are continually exerting themselves in reference to the human family, either for weal or woe. These spiritual existences inhabit every thing, and, consequently, almost every thing is an object of worship. On the same oc- casion, a Dakota dances in religious homage to the sun and moon, and spreads out his hands in prayer to a painted stone ; and he finds it necessary to offer sacrifices more frequently to the Bad-spirit than to the Great-spirit. He has his god of the north and god of the south, his god of the woods and god of the prairie, his god of the air and god of the waters."
First Explorers .- In the days of Champlain, a brilliant young Frenchman, Jean Nicolet, was interpreter for a Canadian fur company. The 4th of July, 1634, he departed from Three Rivers to explore the regions of the far west. He spent the next winter among the Indian tribes who then lived in the valley of the Fox River, Wis- consin. When summer came again, he retraced his steps to Canada, and was the first to give reliable information to the keen traders and devout missionaries concerning the tribes whose country lay to the westward of Lake Michi-
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
gan2. One would infer from a letter written in 1640 by Paul Le Jeune3 that Nicolet at that time, 1634, had heard of the Dakotas and described them among the rest.
In 1641, a century after the disastrous adventures of De Soto on the lower Mississippi, Jourgest and Raymbault,5 after a perilous lake voyage, reached Sault Ste. Marie,6 and learned of a great nation dwelling eighteen days' jour- ney to the westward near the head waters of a large river.
It was not long before fabulous stories were carried back to France of the great wealth to be acquired in the far northwest. Green Bay was said to be only nine days journey from the sea separating China from America. Fired by these tales, an expedition was fitted out at Quebec? in 1656 ; but, attacked by the Iroquois,8 it never reached its destination. The killed included Father Gar- reau9, who moved by compassion for the Nadouessioux10, or Dakotas, had volunteered to establish a mission among them.
Groselliers and Radisson .- Medard Chouart1, a native of Meaux2, and Pierre D'Esprit,3 a native of St. Marlo4, the former better known as the Sieur Groselliers,5 the latter as the Sieur Radisson6, visited the region of Green Bay in June, 1658. There were twenty-nine Frenchmen and six Indians in the party. They went to Sault Ste. Marie in October, 1659, and spent the winter trading with the Indians, but returned to Green Bay in the spring, and exploring the country southward, found a large river. This, doubtless, was the Wisconsin. The month of August saw them in Canada,7 and the reports they gave intensified the old desire to know something of the country near and beyond Lake Superior.
· Not many weeks elapsed before they again turned their
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faces toward the west, taking with them the pious Father Rene Menards. Leaving him at Keweenaw Bay, they passed beyond the point of that name by way of Portage River, and in about six days came to a long narrow point jutting into the lake. This is now called La Pointe. Here they entered Chegoimegon Bay9, at whose opposite ex- tremities the towns Ashland and Bayfield are to-day situated. At the lower end of the bay, they erected a rude trading post, the first dwelling of white men on the shores of Lake Superior. It was built of logs, in the form of a triangle with its base toward the lake. On that side the door was situated, enabling them in case of necessity to retreat to their boats. In the centre stood the fire-place, and in one of the angles were the inmates' couches. The building was entirely girt by branches of trees set in the ground, and to these were attached a con- tinuous string of bells which would always ring when an intruder pushed aside the branches, and so warn the in- mates of danger.
Soon they began to visit the neighboring tribes, and in the spring came to an encampment of Dakotas who be- longed to the Tetanga10 or Buffalo band. They went with these Indians seven days' journey to their summer lodges on the prairie, some distance southward from their winter homes in the northern woods. This was in Min- nesota. The Frenchmen remained six weeks. After re- turning to their post, they made explorations in other directions. As a result they found Isle Royalll and its copper mines, and learned of a chain of lakes far to the northward, which, however, they did not see. This, in brief, is the account given by early authorities of the first
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white men who explored the shores of Lake Superior and entered Minnesota.
It is worthy of mention that this same Groselliers after- ward deeply interested Prince Rupert12 and the English men of science in a project for finding a northwest pas- sage. The outcome of his voyage to Hudson Bay in the Nonesuch was the founding of the old Hudson Bay Com- pany in 1670.
Rene' Menard .- Not discouraged by Garreau's un- happy fate, the heroic Rene Menard, his hair already whitened by the frosts of age, still further courted the dangers of an unknown land. About 1650, the Iroquois expelled the Hurons' from New York, and at this time were pushing them farther into the remote west. In 1661, according to Nicholas Perrot2, Menard with only one companion, a faithful Frenchman, followed the trail of a band of these fleeing Hurons from Lake Michigan to a point on the Mississippi above the Black River3. He then crossed the former stream in the wake of the Indians, and thus floated his canoe upon its waters many years be- fore the authenticated explorations of Marquette, + to whom has hitherto been given the honor of discovering its upper course:
Menard, too, finally perished by the way, and the Dakotas and other tribes, all unconscious of the struggles put forth in their behalf, still continued in the supersti- tions of their fathers. His cassock and breviary, found in a camp of the natives, were the only relics of his mel- ancholy fate.
Menard's example, however, was not without effect ; in 1665, Father Claude Allouez5, burning with zeal, came to Lake Superior with a returning party of traders and
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Indians. He established the Mission of the Holy Spirit at La Pointe. There he met not only Hurons and Ojibwas but the Dakotas, whose country thenceforth was to become memorable in history.
The Fur Traders .- The advance guards of civiliza- tion in the Northwest were the fur traders. France granted twenty-five licenses annually to military officers and descendants of the nobility, allowing them the ex- clusive privilege of trading with the natives of her Amer- ican possessions. The holders of these licenses, when they did not 'sell them, entrusted the direct supervision of the fur trade to their agents, who, in turn, employed the Canadian boatmen to navigate the large streams and their tributaries in search of pelts. These boatmen constituted that daring class of men known as the coureurs des bois,1 or voyageurs.2 Undaunted by the power of the elements and the many additional perils of boundless prairies and primeval forests, they forced their birch canoes and bateaux3 up every stream to the remotest Indian villages, bearing with them, as mediums of exchange, the few things most prized by the natives. A few years of this wild life not only imbued them with something of the free and impetuous spirit of the Indian, but often led them to unite themselves to the latter by the ties of marriage. The offspring of such alliances, called the bois brulet, were numerous. The blood of two races flowing in their veins seemed to meet like contending streams of civilization and barbarism. In them the higher race found its degrada- tion, but the lower was not raised to a more exalted posi- tion. Thus, as a class, the bois brule became one of the most discordant elements in the history of the settlements.
Nicholas Perrot .- One of the first explorers of Minne-
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sota of whom we have definite record was Nicholas Perrot, who, while in the employ of the Jesuits,1 had become quite familiar with the languages of various tribes of Indians. The French authorities, recognizing his indomitable energy and courage, sent him to summon the tribes to meet at Sault Ste.Marie. This mission he performed with wonderful expedition. In the meantime, Talon,2 Intendant3 of Can- ada, had dispatched St. Lusson to search for copper and other mines in the country adjacent to Lake Superior, and to take possession, in the name of France, of all the regions through which he should pass. The assembling of the tribes occurred in May, 1671, and St. Lusson,+ Perrot, Father Allouez, the celebrated explorer Joliet,5 and many other noted personages were present. The French did all within their power to heighten the brilliancy and pomp of the attendant ceremonies. Deeply impressed by so much dignity and splendor, the Indians entered into a solemn com- pact relative to trade and other matters pertaining to the welfare of the two races. Perrot was free after this to prosecute his explorations at will, and visited the Nadou- essioux and other remote tribes. Thus he opened and made clear the way for those who were destined to follow.
Du Luth .- Daniel Greysolon DuLuth1 was born at St. Germain en Laye? near Paris, or, according to some authorities, at Lyons. He was at one time a soldier, and states in his writings that he made several voyages to New France.3 Determined to open communications+ between the settlements of Canada and the Nadonessioux, an under- taking which up to this time had been unsuccessful, we find him struggling bravely amid the dangers of a strange country. Having previously established a post at the Kamenistagoia,5 north of Lake Superior, he at length
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entered Minnesota, in all probability ascending the St. Louis6 river. Of his journey he speaks as follows :-
" On the 2d of July, 1679, I had the honor to plant His Majesty's arms? in the great village of the Nadouessioux, called Izatys,s where never had a Frenchman been, no more than at the Sangaskitons and Houetbatons9 distant six score leagues from the former, where I also planted His Majesty's arms in the same year, 1679.
On the 15th of September, having given the Assiniboines as well as all the other northern nations a rendezvous at the extremity of Lake Superior, to induce them to make peace with the Nadouessioux, their common enemy, they were all there, and I was happy enough to gain their esteem and friendship to unite them together."
At this time also, he visited Mille Lacs. 10 Not satisfied, however, with what he had thus far accomplished, Du Luth, accompanied by an Indian guide and four French- men, ascended the Bois Brulell river to its source, and made a portage to the head waters of the St. Croix,12 which he descended to its junction with the Mississippi. There he learned of Father Hennepin's imprisonment among the Dakotas, and succeeded in securing his release.
DuLuth was accused both by LaSalle and DuChesneau, 13 Intendant14 of Justice, of having engaged in the fur trade in connivance with Count Frontenac15 then governor of Canada; for to trade without a license was contrary to the orders of the French king. LaSalle also claimed that the honor of the first explorations in the land of the Dakotas belonged to Hennepin and Michæl AAccault; but it must be remembered that he was in some measure the rival of the man whose name he sought to tarnish. DuLuth died
t
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in the winter of 1709-10 at Ft. Frontenac, now Kingston, Ontario.
Hennepin .- Among the most noted of the early explo- rers was Louis Hennepin, a priest of the Recollect order of Franciscan1 friars. He was born at Ath2 in the Nether- lands, and seemed even in his earlier years to possess that romantic and adventurous spirit which afterwards ruled his life. At one time we find him at Artois,3 to which place he had been ordered by his superiors; again, at Dunkirk4 and Calais,s where he led the life of a mendi- cant, and spent his days in the company of rude sailors who recounted to him their strange adventures in other lands. Inflamed by their stories, he harbored ambitious desires hardly in accord with his priestly profession, and obeyed with alacrity an order commanding him to set sail for Canada.
Hennepin embarked on the vessel that carried the Sieur Robert Chevalier de La Salle,6 a native of Rouen,7 who under the patronage of Seignelay,3 the French minister of marine, was about to seek a discoverer's wealth and fame. A common impulse caused them for a time to unite their fortunes. We find Hennepin therefore spending the winter of 1678 at Niagara, where La Salle's workmen were constructing a sixty-ton bark called the Griffin, and embarking in company with him and his de- pendents August 7th, 1679. The expedition reached Green Bay on the 2d of September, after a stormy and dangerous voyage. Here leaving the vessel, they coasted in bark canoes along the shores of Lake Michigan, and in due time ascended the St. Joseph9 river. From this they made a portage to the Kankakee, 10 and floated down to the site of Peoriall on the Illinois.
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Disheartened by the fruitless toil he had undergone not less than by gloomy financial reports from Canada, La Salle named the fort which he built at this place, Creve- cœur,12 or Heart-break. This was in January 16So; and the following month he chose Michael Accault,13 Henne- pin, and Picard du GayHt to explore the upper Mississippi. Hennepin's ardor had not been cooled by the hardships already endured, and with his companions he bade the fated La Salle a hopeful farewell. So in March these three bold voyageurs began the first European ascent of that noble stream which, in the far future, was to become one of the world's great arteries of communication, throb- bing in response to the heart beats of the hurrying ships of commerce.
On the 11th of April, they were taken captive by a party of Mdewakantonwans,15 one of the four bands of the Santees. After speaking of the Black river, Henne- pin continues as follows :-
" Thirty leagues higher up you find the Lake of Tears, 16 which we so named because some of the Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us, wept the whole night, to induce the others to consent to our death. Forty leagues up is a river full of rapids17, by which striking northwest, you can proceed toward Lake Conde.18 Con- tinuing to ascend ten or twelve leagues more, the naviga- tion is interrupted by a cataract which I called the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua,19 in gratitude for the favor done me by the Almighty, through the intercession of that great saint whom we had chosen patron and protector of all our enterprises. Having arrived on the nineteenth day of navigation, five leagues below St. Anthony's Falls,
ST. ANTHONY FALLS OF OLD.
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the Indians landed us in a bay, broke our canoe to pieces, and secreted their own in the reeds. "
The place mentioned is supposed to be the one opposite Red Rock20 a few miles below St. Paul, where the Indian village of Kaposia21 afterwards stood. Thence they jour- neyed by trail to Mille Lacs. Hennepin and his com- panions were prostrated by fatigue caused by the hard- ships of this last journey made more unbearable by cruel treatment. Carried off to different villages, and thus compelled to endure a prolonged period of separation, their misery was complete. The following incident of Hennepin's captivity, taken from his journal, shows how vague a notion of American topography was possessed by the Europeans of that day :-
" During my stay among the Indians, there arrived four savages, who said they were come alone five hundred leagues from the west, and had been four months upon the way. They assured us there was no such place as the Straits of Anian,22 and that they had traveled without resting, except to sleep, and had not seen or passed over any great lake, by which phrase they always mean a sea. They further assured us there were very few forests in the countries through which they passed. All these things make it appear that there is no such place as the Straits Anian, as we usually see them set down on maps. And whatever efforts have been made for many years past by the English and Dutch to find a passage to the Frozen Sea, they have not yet been able to effect it; but by the help of my discovery, and the assistance of God, I doubt not but a passage may still be found, and that an easy one, too. For example, we may be transported into the Pacific Sea by rivers which are large and capable of
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carrying large vessels, and from thence it is very easy to go to China and Japan without crossing the equinoctial line, and, in all probability, Japan is on the same continent as America."
Thus did Hennepin in his vanity magnify the impor- tance of his discoveries, or, at all events, allow his judg- ment to drift away in the current of his desires.
The Indians were about to start on a hunting expedition at this time, and informed by Hennepin that he expected a relief party from La Salle to meet him at the Wisconsin they were persuaded by the hope of gain to journey there. They descended Rum river, called by Hennepin the St. Francis,23 and camped at its mouth. Here they nearly perished of famine, and yielding to his earnest solicitations they allowed him to depart. In July, 16So, he came to the Falls of St. Anthony, which he then saw probably for the first time, and named as already described in his account of the Mississippi. Continuing his journey to the vicinity of the Black river, he was suddenly overtaken by the Indians whom he had left far to the northward. There, too, he was found by Du Luth, who claims to have freed him from the restraints of captivity, although Hennepin himself does not acknowledge the fact. Be that as it may. in Du Luth's company he ascended once more to the Santee villages in the month of August, but in September returned again to the mouth of the Wisconsin, and proceeded to Green Bay by way of that river and the Fox. We next hear of him in Europe, where he wrote some books relating his discoveries in Minnesota, and where, after a few years, he closed his strange career.
Hennepin's experience, in conjunction with that of Gar- reau, Menard and others, showed conclusively that it was
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not the adherents of the church appealing to the spiritual side of the Indian's character who were to pave the way for civilization to enter the prairies and woods of Minne- sota, but that the traders, such as Perrot, appealing to their selfish desires were to be, as elsewhere stated, the potent forerunners of the new era.
Ft. St. Antoine .- In the spring of 1685, Nicholas Per- rot was commissioned Commandant1 of the West by De La Barre,2 governor of Canada. With a small party of Frenchmen, he spent the following winter above the Black River in the vicinity of Trempeleau,3 and traded with the Indians of the Minnesota region. When the warm spring months of 16S6 had come, he seems to have ascended the Mississippi and erected Ft. St. Antoinet on the Wisconsin side above the entrance of the Chippewa. Shortly after this he was called eastward by Denonville,5 the new gov- ernor of Canada, for the purpose of assembling at Niagara the Miamis6 and other tribes. From this expedition he returned just in time to save the fort from destruction at the hands of the Foxes? and their allies, who were bent on going to war with the Sioux. In 16S7, he was again ab- sent, fighting the Senecas8 of New York; and this time the Sioux endeavored to pillage the fort. However, he was warmly received by them on his return, and informed that the nation as a whole had not sanctioned the attack.
Now it was that the famous Proces-Verbal,9 the first official document relating to Minnesota, was drawn up and signed. It is couched in intricate legal terms; yet, withal, is somewhat unique. In the beginning it recites the origin and limits of Perrot's authority; then tells how he and his companions entered the country; enumerates the tribes encountered on the banks of the upper Mississippi and its
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branches, the Wisconsin, St. Croix, and St. Pierre;10 takes possession of the whole reigon in the name of the king; and finally, names many of its own wit- nesses, among whom are Le Sueurlland the Reverend Father Marest12 of the Society of Jesus.13
La Hontan's Long River .- In the winter of 16SS-S9, Baron La Hontan, a young Gas- con,1 made a voyage
NEAR LAKE CITY. LAKE PEPIN.
MAIDEN ROCK.
up a stream which he called Long River. By different authorities it has been likened to the Minnesota, the Cannon, and the Root, with some evidence strongly in favor of
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the latter stream. Yet it seems strange that he should have been able to ascend it by boat in January.
La Hontan's story of what he saw is a fabulous account of great chiefs and powerful tribes. He found, so he says, some strange captives at one of the villages. They wore clothing and had long hair and beards. At first he thought they were Spaniards. They told him their nation dwelt in a land one hundred and fifty leagues away; that its principal river emptied into a great salt lake; that the mouth of this river was two leagues broad; and that its banks were adorned by six noble cities surrounded by stone walls.
The historians and geographers of Europe for a long time credited La Hontan's story, and gave his Long River a place on their charts. It will be remembered that Hen- nepin conceived the idea of finding a large river by means of which Europeans would be able to enter the western ocean; whether on account of his views and La Hontan's story or not, it is certain that for generations after, the hope of discovering such a stream remained universal.
Ft. Le Sueur .- In 1693, Pierre Le Sueur, one of the witnesses of the Proces-Verbal, was sent to La Pointe charged with the important undertaking of keeping open the communication with the Sioux by way of the Bois Brulé and St. Croix rivers; for at this time the Foxes and Mascoutins of the Wisconsin valley were so hostile that it was found impossible to transport goods by that route to the upper Mississippi. For the better carrying out of his purpose, as well as to place a barrier between the con- stantly warring Sioux and Ojibwas, LeSueur established a post on one of the islands not far from the present town of Red Wing. Charlevoix,1 the Jesuit historian, describes it
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as a beautiful prarie island which one encounters above the head of Lake Pepin in ascending the stream, and which the French Canadians made the center of their trade in these western regions so well fitted for the pursuit of the chase. He says it is named Isle Pelée2 because of its tree- less condition-the word pelec being the French for bald. All the evidences yet brought to light indicate that this was the first3 French establishment on what is now the soil of Minnesota.
Ft. L' Huillier .- After some years of misfortune, dur- ing which he suffered a period of captivity in England and was subsequently hindered in carrying out his projects by Frontenac, we find LeSueur at the court of France meet- ing with favor on the part of the king and the minister of marine. At this juncture D'Iberville,1 his wife's cousin, was appointed the first governor of Louisiana, and in him he found a sympathetic patron. Acting also under the direct orders of the king, D' Iberville transported LeSueur with his boatmen, laborers, and munitions to the Bay of Biloxi.2 In the month of April of the year 1700, with a canoe, a felucca, and about thirty men, he began his mem- orable and eventful voyage. The frosty days of Septem- ber came ere he entered the St. Pierre. Penicaut,3 one of the party, thus speaks of their subsequnt movements :-
" We took our route up the St. Pierre, and ascended it twenty leagues, where we found another river falling into it, which we entered. We called this Green River+ because it was of that color by reason of an earth which loos- ening itself from the copper mine becomes dissolved in the water. A league up this river we found a point of land a quarter of a league distant from the woods, and it was upon this point5 M. LeSueur resolved to build
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his fort, because we could not go any higher on account of the ice, it being the last of September. Half of our peo- ple went hunting while the others worked on the fort. We killed four hundred buffaloes, which were our provis- ions for the winter, and which we placed upon scaffolds in our fort after having skinned, cleaned, and quartered them. We also made cabins in the fort, and a magazine to keep our goods. After having drawn up our shallop within the enclosure of the fort, we spent the winter in our cab- ins. When spring came we went to work in the copper mine. This mine is situated at the beginning of a long mountain, which is upon the bank of the river, so that boats can go right into the mouth of the mine itself. This was the beginning of April of the year 1701. We took with us twelve laborers and four hunters. The mine was situated three quarters of a league from our post. We took from it in twenty days more than twenty thousand pounds, of which we selected four thousand pounds of the finest, which M. Le Sueur, who was a very good judge of it, had carried to the fort, and which has since been sent to France, though I have not learned the result."
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