USA > Mississippi > History of the upper Mississippi Valley, pt 1 > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
"This difficulty caused me to form a resolution to go among them, a projeet which I could not then carry ont, my affairs having compelled me to return to this country. ( France, ) where, having made the campaign of Franche Comte, and the battle of Senef, where I had the honor of being a gendarme in his Majesty's guard, and Squire of the Marquis de Lassay, our ensign, I set out to return to Quebec where I had no sooner arrived, than the desire which I had to carry out this de- sign increased, and I began to make myself known to the Indians. Having assured me of friendship, and in proof thereof given me three slaves, which I had asked from them only to ac- company me, I set ont from Montreal with them and seven Frenehmen, on the first of September, in the year 1678, to endeavor to make the dis- covery of the Nadouccionx and Asseuiponataks who were unknown to us, and to have them make peace with all the nations around Lake Superior, who live under the sway of our invisible Monarchi.
I do not think that such a departure could give occassion to anyone whatever, to charge me with having infringed the orders of the King in the year 1676, since fre merely forbade all his subjects to go into the remote forests, there to trade with the Indians. This I have never done, nor have I over wished to take any presents from them, al- though they have repeatedly thrown them to ine, which I have alway refused or left, in order that no one migfit tax me with having carried on any indirect trado.
"Ou the 2J of duty, 1679, I had the honor to plant his Majesty's arms in the great village of the Nadonccionx called Izatys | Isanti ] where never had a Frenchman been, no more than at the Songaskitons and Houctbatous 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 Asseniponlaks notice, as well as the other nations,
163
EARLY MANUSCRIPT MAPS.
al the extremity of Lake Superior, to induce Them to make peace with the Nadonccionx their common enemy.
" They were all there, and I was happy enough to gain their esteem and friendship, to unite them together, and in order that the peace might be lasting among them, I thought I could not coment it better than by indneing the nations to make reciprocal marriages with each other. This 1 could not effect without great expense. The l'ol- lowing winter | 1679 80 | I made them hold meet- ings in the woods, which I attended, in order that they might hunt together, give banquets and by this means form a close friendship. * * * "My design was to push on to the sea in a west, northwest direction, which is that which is be- lieved to be the Red Sea ( Gulf of California ) which, the Indians who had gone warring on that side, gave salt to three Frenchmen who I had sent exploring, and who brought me said salt, having reported to me that the Indians had told them that it was only twenty days' journey from where they were, to find the great Lake, the waters of which were unfit to drink."
It has been mentioned that Randin, an officer of Count Frontenac was sent before Du Luth, with presents to the Sioux, beyond Lake Superior, and negotiated a peace between them and the Ojibways.
Ile made a map of the country, which was never published, and is still preserved among the archives of the French government in Paris. Parkman, who examined the map says he calls the Mississippi " Riviere de Buade," after the Family name of Frontenac, the governor of Canada, and named the Mille Lae region " Frontenacie " or "Frontenacia." In the library of the " Depot de Cart s de la Marine" in Paris there is a mamseript map supposed to have been drawn A. D. 1679, which represents the "Messipi" from the forty-ninth to the forty-second degree of latitude, the river " Mis- cousing" being the lower limit. In the same library there is another unpublished chart sup- posed to have been prepared at the same time, which represents the river Colbert ( Mississippi) as commencing at the Falls, at the forty-fifth degree.
After Du Inth's explorations maps began to be drawn showing Mille Lacs. A missionary of thut period, wrote: " In the last years of M. de Fron- fenac's first administration Sieur Du Luth, a man of talent and experience opened a way to the
missionaries, and the gospel in many different. uations, turning towards the north of lake | Supe- rior where he even built a fort. He advanced as l'ar as the Lake of the Issati | Mille Lacs | called Luke Buade, from the family name of Frontenac,"
In the archives of Paris there is a mmp of 1682 with the discoveries of Du Imth. The Missin -; sippi is represented as rising in the country of the Tintonha, not far from which is marked a tree with this legend: "Arms of the King graven on this tree in the year 1679." Harrisse mentions, that there is a beautiful, oval drawing in a corner of this map, with the Virgin hovering above, bearing a cross, with the motto, "In hoe signo vinces."
The next year, A. D. 1683, Hennepin's map was published, which appears to be based on this. The Mississippi rises in the region of the " Tint- honha " or "Gens des Prairies," not far from which appears a tree, on which is ent the King's Arms. Far north of Lae Buade, and below "Lac des Assinipoils," Hennepin shows his fondness for falsifying, by marking "Missions des Recollects," a country which no priest had then visited.
East of, but near Mille Lacs are marked the Onade Battons or Gens de Riviere ( River People, ) Wakpatonwan would be the Sionx name. North of these are the Hanetons, and beyond these the Chongaskabeon or Nations des forts. At the sonrees of what is the Ri River of the modern maps appears the Issati.
The cartonche on the banner is an oval with the inscription :
CARTE, DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE
ET DE LA LOUISIANE NOUVELLEMENT DECOUVERTE
DEDIEE AU ROY L'AN 1683
PAR LE REVEREND PERE LOUIS HENNEPIN MISSIONAIRE RECOLLECT ET NOTAIRE APOSTOLIQUE.
This is surrounded by an embellished design, upon the top, in the place of a virgin carrying the cross, with the motto "In hoe Signo vincos," as in the map of A. D., 1682, is seen a cross, with the
164
HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
motto above it, "Le triomphe de la Louisiane" and at a right angle with feet planted on the middle of the cross is a flying angel.
Hennepin allndes to tribes in these words: "In the neighborhood of Lake Buade are many other lakes whence issne several streams on the banks of which live the Issati, Nadonessans; Tintonha, which means Prairie Men; Onadebathons, River People; Chongaskethon, Dog or Wolf tribe, for chonga means dog or wolf; and other tribes, all which, we compose under the name Nadonessiou." In another place he writes: "They merely told us that twenty or thirty leagues above [ Falls of St. Anthony ] is a second Fall, at the foot of which are some villages of the Prairie people, called Thintonha, who live there a part of the year."
The Assenipoulaks visited by Du Luth were the people now known as Assineboines an alienat- ed band of Sionx. In A. D. 1689 the Mantan- tans a Sioux band lived on the banks of the Min- nesota, and farther up writes Perrot in the interi- or, to the north-east of the Mississippi were the "Menchokatonx, [ Meddaywalkahntwahns ] with whom dwell the majority of the Songeskitons." Upon De L'Isle's map of Canada corrected by Bnache one branch of Rum River is called Men- deoncanton, the other is marked Medesinon.
Among the Sioux the sacred man or conjurer is also a doctor. That which pertained to a spirit the French therefore called Medicine, and the In- dian priest, was named, Medecin.
The river which flowed from Spirit Lake the traders called Spirit (Medecin ) River, which has been improperly translated Rum River, by igno- rant English traders.
Upon a map prepared by the Jesuit Raffeix which was never finished, but exists in one of the
Freneli Government offices, the route of Du Luth west of Lake Superior is marked by the letter C, . and the point on the Mississippi below the Saint Croix River where he met the Franciscan Lonis Hennepin is marked by the letter P'.
Upon Franquelin's unpublished map, in the French archives, drawn A. D. 1688, Rum River is called "Rivieres des Francois" it being the route of the French traders, also "River of the Sioux."
On the 9th of November, 1700, Le Sueur was visited at Fort L'Huillier, on Bhie Earth river, by "eight Mantanton Sioux, who had been sent by their chiefs, to say that the Mendeoncantons were still at their lake, on the east of the Mississippi, and they could not come for a long time."
On the 12th of December, "three Mende- oncanton chiefs, and a large number of Indians arrived at the Fort and the next day gave satis- faction for robbing the Frenchman. They brought four hundred pounds of bear skins, and prom- ised that the summer following, after their eanoes were built and they had gathered their wild rice, that they would come and establish themselves near the French. The same day they returned to their village, east of the Mississippi."
The last French explorer, who ascended the Mississippi above the Falls of Saint Anthony, of whom we have any notice, was Charleville, a rela- tive of D'Iberville, the first Governor of Louisi- ana. He reached the Falls of Saint Anthony with two canoes and two men. Du Pratz writes: " He found the Fall called Saint Anthony. This fall is a flat rock which traverses the river, and gives it only between eight or ten feet fall."
Making a portage, he ascended for one hun- dred leagues, and found the Sioux on each side of the river.
CHAPTER XXXL.
OCCUPATION OF MILLE LACS REGION BY OJIBWAYS.
SIOUX MOVE TOWARDS FRENCH TRADING POSTS- CHIPPEWAY NAME FOR MILLE LACS -- CHIPPEWAYS DEFEAT FOXES AND SIOUX AT ST. CROIX FALLS- SITUATION OF SIOUX WHEN VISITED BY CARVER- CHIPPEWAYS OCCUPY SANDY LAKE REGION.
As the Sions, and Ojibways or Chippewas, were hereditary enemies, it was the policy of the French to trade with them at different points.
The Sioux, if they came to the shores of Lake Superior with their peltries, were always liable to be attacked. To draw them to the Mississippi, Le Sueur, who had been at La Pointe, in Lake Superior, in 1691, established a post or an island in the Mississippi about nine mikes below the site of Hastings. This was abandonded before A. D. 1700, but in A. D. 1727 another post on the shores
165
BATTLE AT FALLS OF ST. CROIX.
of Lake Pepin was established as a depot for traders.
As the Sioux visited the French trading posts their leading men were recognized as chiefs, and medals were hung from their necks. Gradually the Sioux of Mille Laes abandoned their old wild rice fields. There is a tradition that they first migrated to O-ton-way-kpa-dan, or Riee creek, on the cast side of the Mississippi, just above the city of Minneapolis, and here they began to plant corn. The Ojibways now found it comparatively easy to push beyond lake Superior, and as early as A. D. 1745 Mille Laes was marked on French maps by the Chippewa word Mississaeaigan. The term missi, Schoolcraft writes, is a compound word, does not signify " great, but a collected mass, or all kinds, and sometimes everywhere, the allusion being to water. Sa-gi-e-gon is a lake, and when the prefixed term missi is put to it nothing could more graphically describe the large body of water interspersed with islands."
The Ojibways have a tradition that under the leadership of two chiefs, Nokay and Bainswah, they entered the Mille Laes region, and soon oeen- pied the shores of Sandy and Leech Lake, and then spread over the region between the Red River and Lake Superior.
Occasional hunting parties of the Sauks and Foxes roamed on the shores of the Upper Missis- sippi after the Sioux retired, and are remembered by the names left, the Sank Rapids of the Missis- sippi and the Sauk River.
After the defeat of the French, in Canada, among the Chippeway Chiefs who received a sil- ver gorget at Niagara, about A. D. 1759, from Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian affairs was Waubojeeg, or White-Fisher, who in 1793 died at La Pointe. This chief, a lit- tle more than a hundred years ago, according to Indian tradition, drove the Foxes, and their allies, the Sauks, from the Upper Mississippi country. With three hundred warriors, he left La Pointe. He had sent his war club to the Ojibway vil- lage at Sandy Lake, and the band had sent to- baceo in return, with a message, that on a certain day, sixty men would join him, at the month of the Snake River.
Waubojeeg reached this point on the day desig- nated, but the Sandy Lake allies not having ar- rived, he descended the river Saint Croix, and early one morning, arrived at the Falls of St.
Croix, with his braves. Seouts were now sont ont ahead, who soon returned with the information that there was a war party of Foxes and Sioux near the lower end of the portage.
The Ojibways instantly prepared for battle, and they met their foes near the middle of the portage. The Foxes seeing that the Ojibways were not numerous, requested the Sioux to be still and wit- ness the defeat of the common foe. The fight then began, and was a fieree one. About noon the Foxes wavered and soon retreated, and would have been destroyed altogether, had not the Sionx, who had been quietly smoking their pipes, yelled the war-whoop and rushed to the resene.
The Ojibways now fought bravely, but at length began to retire, when the party that was to have joined them at the mouth of Snake river arrived, attacked the Foxes and Sioux, and defeated them, with great slaughter. Many were driven over the precipitous rocks into the angry waters, and others fell, and died in the erevices of the eliffs. After this, the Sanks and Foxes ecased to hunt above the Falls of Saint Anthony, and those of the Saint Croix River.
When, in the fall of 1766, Jonathan Carver as- eended the Mississippi, he found the Sionx had left the Mille Laes region. He writes " Near the river St. Croix reside bands of the Naudowessie Indians, ealled River Bands. This nation is eom- posed at present of eleven bands. They were originally twelve, but the Assinnipoils, some years ago, revolting and separating themselves from the others, there remain only at this time eleven. Those I met here are termed River Bands, because they chiefly dwell near the banks of this river. The other eight are generally distinguished by the title of Naudowessies of the Plains, and inhabit the country more to the westward. The name of the former are Nehogatawonahs, the Mawtawbau- towahs, and Shashweentowahs."
When Lientenant Pike visited Leech Lake in February, 1806, a venerable Chippewey chief named "The Sweet" told him the Sioux lived there when he was young, and that the Chippe- ways oceupied it the year that the French mis- sionaries were killed at the river Pacagama." The allusion may have been to the massacre of Father Oneau and others, who were killed by the Sioux in 1736, on an isle in the Lake of the Woods, as there is no record of the killing of any other French missionary.
166
HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
CHAPTER XXXIL.
INDIAN TRADERS TOWARDS THE CLOSE OF THE LAST CENTURY.
NORTHWEST COMPANY ORGANIZED-KAY, HARRIS, PERRAULT, EARLY TRADERS- KAY WOUNDED IN A DRUNKEN BRAWE-PAQUETTE AND REAUME WIN- TER NEAR RED LAKE-NOTICE OF JAMES PORLIER AND JOSEPH RENVILLE-DAVID THOMPSON, GEOG- RAPIER OF NORTHWEST COMPANY.
During the war of the English colonies for independence, individuals upon their own respon- sibility traded with the Indians West of Lake Su- perior. After peace was declared, during the winter of 1783-84, the North-West Company was organized, and controlled by MeTavish and the brothers Frobisher, of Montreal.
On the first day of November, in the year 1784, Alexander Kay arrived La Ponite with an outfit for trading in the Mille Lacs region. His clerk was J. B. Perrault, a native of Three Rivers, Can- ada. Entering the Saint Louis river of Minnesota, at a little lake not far from its' month, they found the trading post of Default, who had come down from the Grand Portage of Lake Superior. Kay, while here, became intoxicated, and while his party consisted of his squaw mistress, a clerk and fourteen voyageurs, he determined to aseend the river with only a bag of flour and a keg of butter, with some sugar. At the portage of the Saint Louis ho mel a partner in the trade, a native of Albany, N. Y., named Harris, and found that he had no food but some salt meat.
The voyageurs remonstrated abont proceeding farther with no proper provision for the winter, but Kay drew a pistol and threatened to shoot any who turned back. With his partner, Harris, sevon men and an Indian named Big Marten, he pushed on to Pine River, and desired Perrault, his clerk, to winter at the Savanna portage if possible. Perrault and his men reached the point designated after eleven days of hard toil, amid ice and suow, subsisting on the pods of the wild rose and the sap of trees. About Christmas, having lived on fish and a few roots, Perrault and his mon determined
to join Kay. Weak in body, they crossed Sandy Lake, and at length arrived at Kay's post, ou Pine River. After obtaining some provisions, Perrault went back to the Savanna portage, where he built a log hut, and toward the close of February he was visited by the Chippeway chief Brochet, who brought in meat and furs. In April, 1785, Kay and Perrault were both at Sandy Lake, where Bras Casse, or Broken Arm, was the chief. On the second of May, Katawabado, or Parted Teeth, who did not die until 1828, Mongozid, and other Indians, came and asked for rum. Perrault re- luctantly gave them, and no tlong after the traders Kay, Harris and Perault arrived, all intoxicated. An Indian, called by the French Le Cousin, came to Kay's tent and wanted rum. He was refused, and pushed out, but in departing he drew a con- cealed knite and cut Kay in the neck. Kay, seiz- ing a carving knife, chased him, but before he could reach him the Indians had interfered. The assailants mother now approaching Kay, said: "Englishman! do you come to kill me?" and then stabbed him in the side.
Le Petit Mort, a Chippeway friend of Kay, took up his quarrel, and seizing Cnl Blane, another Chippeway, by the sealp lock, drew back his hand, and plunging a knife into his breast, exclaimed, "Die! thon dog." The Indian women, now thoroughly alarmed at the result of this baccha- nal, went through the lodges and emptied all the rum bottles.
On the fifth of May Kay's wound was better, and sending for Harris and Perrault, he said: " Yon see my situation; I have determined to leave you at all hazards and go to Mackinaw, ac- companied by the chief, Bras Casse and wife, and seven voyagers. Assort the remainder of the goods, ascend to becch Lake, and wait there for the return of the Pillagers, who are ont on the prairies, and complete the iuland trade."
Taking hold of Perrault's hand, he confined:
.
167
NOTICE OF PORLIER AND RENVILLE.
" My dear friend! you understood the language of the Oibways. Mr. Harris will accompany you. He is a good trader, but he has, like my- self and others, a strong passion for drinking which takes away his judgment."
On the same day Kay began the long journey to Mackinaw, and Harris and Perrault went to Leech Lake and traded with the Piflagers.
On their return they meet at the Savannah a trader named Piquet, or perhaps Paquette, who had been trading at Turtle River Portage, and J. Reame who had wintered at the post of Red Lake at its entrance into the Red River.
Piquet may have been the father of the half- breed Pierre Paquette, who, in 1812, acted as an interpreter at the Treaty of Prairie du Chien.
The whole party proceeded by way of Fond du Lac to Mackinaw, where they arrived on the 24th of May, 1785, and found Kay suffering from his wound. Kay afterward lett for Montreal. but he died on the journey, on the 28th of August, at the Lake of the Mountains. Perrault. as late as 1829 was living at Sault St. Marie, and Harris was in 1830 residing at Albany, New York.
After the North West Company was formed, an opposition was organized, a member of which was the well known explorer and author Alexan- der Mackenzie. In 1787 this Company was merged into the North West, and from that period the fur trade west of Lake Superior was system- ized. The agents at Montreal received the goods from England, and two of them went every year to the Grand Portage, at the extremity of Lake Superior, to receive and ship furs.
In 1794 the Company had stockades on the Saint Louis River, and at. Sandy Lake, and beoch lakes, besides several out posts. In 1797 two traders, who afterwards gained some notoriety, James Porlier, sometimes written Perlice, and Joseph Renville, wintered near Sank Rapids.
Porlier was born 1765 at Montreal, and in 1783 first came to Mackinaw. In 1791 he appeared at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and afterwards passed sov- eral years in trading with the Chippeways of the
Upper Mississippi. On July 12th, 1839, at the age of seventy-four years he died at Green Bay. A. G. Ellis, formerly Surveyor General of Wis- consin and Towa, in his recollections writes: "Of all men of French origin at the Bay when I ar- rived there, judge James Porlier stoood foremost. HIe was known as Judge of Probate, to which office he had been appointed by Governor Cass. * * * *
* Mr. Porlier was a man of education in the enlarged sense, and the only one of all the Canadians, I believe, who could lay claim to that distinction, having been edu- cated at Montreal. He was looked to up by his neighbors for counsel, and for assistance, not only in the common business of the settlement, but more especially in every case of difficulty, trouble or disagreement among men. For the thousand and over instances of perfecting bargains, and drawing instruments of writing, resort was always had to Judge Porlier, and the records of business papers of that day are mostly in his hand writ- ing."
Joseph Renville the half-breed who was at the same point, was the son of a Frenchman and a Sioux woman of the Kaposia band, born about 1770 at Kaposia. The father noting the activ- ity of his son's mind, sent him to Canada to be ed- ucated. but before he reached manhood, his father died, and he returned to his mother's band. Lt. Pike in a letter io General Wilkinson, dated Sep- tember 9, 1805, written at the month of the Min- nesota River nses this language in recommending him as an interpreter: "I beg leave to recommend for that appointment, a Mr. Joseph Renville, who has served as interpreter for the Sioux last spring at the Illinois, and who has gratuitously and will- ingly served as my interpretor in all my confer- ences with the Sionx. le is n man respected by the Indians and I believe an honest one."
In 1798 David Thompson, Geographer of the North-west company took the latitude of Red Ce- dar, now Cass Lake, and estimated it to be 47 de- grees, 42 minutes, and 40 seconds north, and he supposed that the source of the Mississippi was 17 degrees, and 38 minutes north.
168
HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
LIEUTENANT PIKE RAISES UNITED STATES FLAG AT SANDY LAKE AND LEECH LAKE.
PIKE'S JOURNEY FROM LITTLE FALLS TO RED CEDAR LAKE-M'GILLIS, TRADER AT LEECH LAKE-FIRST AMERICAN FLAG HOISTED BY PIKE AT LEECH LAKE -- ROY, AN INDIAN TRADER- PIKES' RETURN JOURNEY-DICKSON, A BRITISH TRADER, VISITS PIKE-CHIEF OFFERS PIKE AN INDIAN WOMAN-ARRIVAL AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY.
In the eleventh chapter, mention has already been made of the visit of Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, the first United States Army offieer, to the Upper Mississippi, and we now simply give some details of his visit to the Chippeway or Mille Laes region which were there omtted.
Alter building a stockade near Swau River, he passed a month in hunting and exploring the vi- cinity, but toward the close of November, he be- gan to make arrangements to visit the trading posts of British traders.
On the 10th of December Pike left his stoekade near Little Falls. Ilis party took with them prai- rie sleds, and a peroque, towed by three men. On the fourteenth, just after leaving the eneampment the foremost sled carrying his baggage and pow- der fell into the river. Sufficient was saved to al- low the continuance of the party. On the last day of the year 1805 he passed the month of the Pine River. On the 2d of January 1806, just as he was encamping, four Chippeways, Grant, an Englishman, and a Frenehunan of the North-west company arrived. The next day Pike returned with Grant to one of his posts on the Red Cedar Lake, and found the British flag flying. That night he came back to his men. On the 8th'oľ January he reached Sandy Lake, Grant's rosi- dence, and was received with hospitality. Aller a visit of twelve days, he left on the 20th, and ou the 1st of February he crossed Leech Lake twelve miles, to the establishment of the North West Com- pany, where he arrived about three o'clock in the afternoon. The gates were locked, but upon
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.