USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of the state of Wisconsin : being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875 > Part 6
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"The Pottawattomies were one of the largest and most powerful of the Indian tribes. They were represented, in 1821, as thinly scattered in tents over a very great extent of country, stretching, on the south, along both sides of the Illinois River, on the western shore of Lake Michigan, 'to the Menomonees of Millewacky, and to the Winnebagoes of Green Bay ; ' on the east, beyond the St. Joseph to the headwaters of the Maumee and the Wabash; and towards the west their territories extended to Rock River, and to the lands of the Sauks and Foxes on the Mississippi. At the treaty held in Chicago in 1833, they relinquished to the government all their lands in this State south and west of the Milwaukee River, which then became public land, and was open for settlement and improvement by white people. " In 1853 the remnant still remaining of this once powerful tribe were removed to their ' permanent homes ' west of the Upper Mississippi.
" The Ottawas appear to have been intimately associated with the Potta- wattomies: they joined in relinquishing the lands south and west of Milwau-
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kee. Their proper home seems to have been upon the east of Lake Michigan. On Charlevoix' map, the Chippewas are set down as Ottawas.
" The Brothertowns were removed to the east bank of Lake Winnebago from the State of New York. They have relinquished their tribal organiza- tion, and have been adopted with full privileges, as citizens of the United States.
" The Stockbridges were also removed to the east banks of Lake Win- nebago, from the State of New York. They were but few in number, had made some considerable advance in civilization, the arts, &c .; and in 1856, after some difficulties with the government, they were induced to remove to a tract of land adjoining the Menomonee reservation on Wolf River.
" The Oneidas, a mere remnant of a once important tribe, were removed to a reservation near Green Bay, from the State of New York. They still retain their Indian organization and government distinct from that of the State; have made considerable advances in the right direction. Their patches of cultivated land have become farms; their log-huts have been replaced by good substantial buildings ; and they have blacksmiths, carpenters, &c., from among their own people.
" It seems proper here, to say a few words of the action of our National and State Government with reference to the Indian. Before the law, an Indian is regarded as an alien, and treated as such. Indians not taxed are not enumerated, and included as a part of the population, as a basis of representation in the Congress of the United States.
" The celebrated ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio River, adopted in Congress in July, 1787, provided, that ' the utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians: their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars, authorized by Congress. But laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship among them.'
" This eminently just and humane policy has ever been held in view by our government; and, had the Indian department been a little more fortu- nate in preventing individuals from committing some of the most flagrant wrongs to these ' nations,' all would have been well, and the Indians of to- day would not have been the degraded beings we now, unhappily, see about us.
" By the statute law of the Territory of Wisconsin of 1839, it was made a punishable offence to furnish spirituous liquors to the Indians. As a sample of local legislation so common in this State, we may cite the law of January, 1840, in which it was gravely enacted that it should be unlawful to keep within five miles of the mouth of Wolf River, in Brown County, any intoxicating liquors for the purpose of supplying the Indians. To show that our law-makers were entirely in earnest in the matter, it was further enacted, five years afterwards, that the offender might be indicted ; and it was made the
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HON. JEROME I. CASE.
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imperative duty of the courts to give the matter specially in charge of the grand jury. Still, Indians would get drunk ; the temptation of white men to sell whiskey to them being too strong to be thus easily overcome.
"The constitution of the State of Wisconsin, adopted in 1848, recognized the rights of Indians who had once been declared by law of Congress to be citizens of the United States, and of civilized Indians not members of any tribe or 'nation,' to vote at all clections. The property of Indians was exempted from taxation ; and they were allowed the privilege of suing and being sued, with the same judicial rights as other inhabitants."
We are not prepared to follow the gentlemen named in our quotation, through their criticism of the United States Govern- ment in its relations with the Indian tribes. It is certain, that if the government could have had any valuable precedents, either in history or in contemporary governments, from which a wiser policy than that pursued might have been drawn, the results would have been more salutary to the interests of the natives, as well as a lighter burden upon national blood and treasure. That the Indians as nations have been shamefully treated is an unwelcome truth. The solemn engagements into which they have entered with their Great Father have, for the most part, received greater respect and compliance from the Indians, who were generally forced to make them, than from the government, which, in nearly every case, dictated its own terms. And yet, after all, it seems to have been within the scope of a divine providence that the aborigines of North America should vanish before civilization. Nor does the writer believe that any policy of the United States Government, no matter how deeply fraught with forces calculated to foster and perpetuate this dying race, could have saved them from the extermination which they have already suffered. It is, however, a stigma upon our national honor, that the decline and rapid disappearance of the natives is so heavily freighted with unnecessary cruelty.
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We may properly close this chapter with the following list 1 of Indian treaties, all of which have to do, either directly or indirectly, with the relinquishment of the territory now in- cluded within the boundaries of the State of Wisconsin.
" We are indebted to the Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society for this list.
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1804, Nov. 3, at St. Louis, between Gov. William H. Harri- son, and the Sauks and Foxes, at which Southern Wisconsin was purchased.
1816, May 18, at St. Louis, confirming that of Nov. 3, 1804, with a portion of the Winnebago tribe, residing on the Wis- consin River.
1816, Aug. 24, at St. Louis, with Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawattomies residing on the Illinois and Milwaukee Rivers, &c. Lands relinquished to the Indians, except nine miles square, at Prairie du Chien.
1817, March 30, at St. Louis, with the Menomonees. A treaty of peace, friendship, &c.
1821, the Oneida and Stockbridge Indians settled near Green Bay
1822, Sept. 3, at Fort Armstrong, with the Sauk and Fox tribes.
1825, Aug. 1 and 19, at Prairie du Chien, with Sioux and Chippewas, Sauks and Foxes, Winnebagoes, Ottawas, Pottawat- tomies, &c. Boundary between Sioux and Chippewas agreed upon; also between the Chippewas, and between the Winne- bagoes and other tribes.
1826, Aug. 5, at Fond du Lac, with the Chippewas, who. assent to the boundaries agreed upon at Prairie du Chien.
1827, Aug. 11, at Butte des Morts, with the Menomonees,. in which they relinquish their right to a tract of land near Green Bay.
1828, at Green Bay. Purchase of the lead-mine region.
1829, July 29, at Prairie, with the Winnebagoes. Purchase of the lead-mine region confirmed.
1831, Feb. 8, at Washington, with the Menomonees, who. ceded to the United States all their lands east of the Milwaukee. River, Lake Winnebago, and Green Bay.
1832, Oct. 27, with the Menomonees. Lands purchased for the New York Indians.
1833, Sept. 26, at Chicago. Lands south and west of the Milwaukee River purchased of the Chippewas, Pottawattomies, and Ottawas.
1836, Sept. 3, at Green Bay, with the Menomonees. Lands purchased west of Green Bay, and a strip on the Upper Wis- consin River.
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1837, July 29, at Fort Snelling, by Gov. Dodge, with the Chippewas. Lands south of the divide between the waters of Lake Superior and those of the Mississippi ceded to the government.
1837, Sept. 29, with the Sioux. Lands east of the Missis- sippi ceded to the government.
1837, Nov. 1, with the Winnebagoes, who ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi River to the government.
1842, Oct. 4, at La Pointe, with the Chippewas. Lands ceded, &c.
1848, Oct. 18, with the Menomonees, who ceded all their lands in Wisconsin.
1848, Nov. 24, with the Stockbridges ; purchase of their reservation on the east shore of Lake Winnebago.
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CHAPTER IV.
EARLY HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
The French in America - The Fur Trade - Jesuit Missionaries - Jean Nicollet -Green Bay - Its Early History -Labors of Father Allouez, Dablon, André, Marquette, and Others -La Salle, &c.
THE territory now embraced within the limits of the State of Wisconsin was, according to the best authority, first visited by Europeans in 1639, nineteen years after the Puritans arrived in " The Mayflower " on the shores of Massachusetts. Charles I. was then king of England, and was engaged in his war against Scotland ; and at the same time Louis XIII. was king of France, having nearly closed his reign. Europe was in great commotion. The French Government had already manifested a disposition to extend her territory in America by conquests, and, as early as 1604, had colonized Acadia. In 1608 Quebec was founded; and in 1663 Canada, or New France, was made a royal colony.
The reports circulated in France concerning the advantages of the fur-trade with the Indians were such as to induce many of the nobility and gentry of that nation to invest their for- tunes in the New World. With this patronage, and the con- stantly increasing number of colonists, New France grew rap- idly in commerce, extending its nominal dominion far towards the Great Lakes.
Hand in hand with the traders came the Jesuit fathers, ever anxious to carry the news of the gospel to the native tribes of the North-west. As early as 1660 they established a mission on the south side of the western extremity of Lake Superior, at a place called, in the Indian tongue, Che-go-ime-gon ; and in 1669 Father Allouez, whose name is deservedly identified with
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the early history of the lake country, organized a mission at Green Bay.
A Frenchman named Jean Nicollet is supposed or believed to have been the first white person who visited the territory now called Wisconsin. In 1639 this enterprising explorer visited Green Bay, and concluded a peace with the Indians then residing there, in the interests of the government 1639. of New France. In the same year he ascended the Fox River to the portage. Crossing this, he embarked on the Wisconsin River, and explored that stream within a few days' sail of the Mississippi. In 1642 this faithful French explorer lost his life while on a benevolent mission to rescue a poor Abenaqui from the Algonquins. He served a valuable part on the early stage of action in this region, not only in reporting the favorable condition of the country to his countrymen, but in furnishing information in regard to the names and situations of the native tribes, which formed the basis of subsequent explorations.
From this time, 1639 to 1673, we have but little to record that transpired in Wisconsin. Now and then a zealous mis- sionary endangered or lost his life by penetrating the country ; and, perchance, an occasional fur-trader was seen among the natives at Green Bay. But aside from this, and the constantly recurring conflicts between the Indian nations, there is nothing authentic that can be presented in these pages ; and even accounts of these come to us on the winds of uncertain tradi- tion. However, there is now and then a ray of light from this ,early chaotic period. In 1654 Father Mercier visited the Indians at Green Bay, and remarks concerning them, to his superior at Quebec, that, " at the islands of the lake of the people of the sea known as ' Stinkards,' there are many tribes, whose language closely resembles the Algonquins, and that they are only nine days' journey from the Great Lake; and that, if the government would send thirty Frenchmen into that country, not only would they gain many souls to God, but would receive a profit above the expenses incurred."
A little later, in 1655, Jean de Quens, a missionary, writes concerning the same place (Green Bay), saying that the nations located there were very large and powerful. One of them, according to this authority, numbered sixty villages,
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another forty, and another thirty. These Indians were then living in a state of complete barbarity, making war on the nations, or tribes, west of them; conducting their councils with all the curious ceremonies and formalities peculiar to their ancient traditions. In the same year, fifty canoes of these Indians visited Quebec for the purpose of establishing a trade with the French. They were successful in this mission, as might have been expected, and returned with thirty French traders and two priests.
In 1669 an effort was put forth to found a mission at Green Bay ; and, on the 3d of November, Father Claudius Allouez left Sault Ste. Marie to execute this purpose, accompanied by two Frenchmen and two canoes of Pottawattomie Indians. After a journey fraught with much of hardship and danger, the venerable Jesuit reached the end of his journey, and spent the winter preaching to the Pottawattomies, Menomonees, Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes, whom he found mingled there. He established a mission on the Fox River, at the Rapids des Peres. He said his first mass Dec. 3, the festival of St. Francis Xavier, and called the mission by his name. Allouez found quite a respectable number of Indians at the rapids. They comprised four nations, numbering, in all, six hundred souls. These Indians were living in a state of progress, prac- tising agricultural industry, raising large fields of corn, beans, tobacco, &c. The surrounding forests were alive with excel- lent game, and we may infer that these Indians were, in many respects, peculiarly blessed.
In September, 1669, Allopez was joined by Father Marquette, whose name will ever justly live in the names of streams, counties, towns, and cities in the North-west, as a tribute to his" heroic services as an explorer, and missionary among the Indians. This pious father, in company with Claude Dablon, had, in 1667, visited the Chippewas at the Sault, and established the mission of Ste. Mary's, the oldest settlement begun by Europeans within the bounds of the State of Michigan. And now, two years later, filled with a spirit of enterprise and duty, wrought up to impatience by the highly-colored repre- sentations of the savages, he determined to reach the Father of Waters. But he was frustrated in his designs until 1673,
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owing partly to the want of patronage from the French colo- nial government, which was withheld only because of its own feeble condition, and partly to the many unfavorable circum- stances arising from the ever-recurring difficulties with the Indians. But in this year the venerable father, accompanied by Joliet and five other Frenchmen, embarked in 167.3
two frail bark canoes, arriving at Green Bay in
June. This party, with two Indian guides, passed up the Fox River to the portage, and crossed over to the Wisconsin, and slowly sailed down its current, amid its vine-covered isles, encountering, of course, its countless sandbars. No sound, save the songs of the wild birds, broke the wearisome stillness ; no human form, civilized or savage, appeared : but at length, after a voyage of seven days, and on the 17th of June, they floated out into the majestic current of the great river. After an absence of four months, Marquette returned to Green Bay, by way of Lake Michigan, having travelled about 2,549 miles.
From this date until the war between the Sacs and Foxes, which extended over the first quarter of the eighteenth centu- ry, we have but little of importance in the history of Wiscon- sin. Yet there are a few incidents in the chain of events worthy of mention here, if for nothing else than to complete the record. These things are, for the most part, of no very great importance. The missionary work among the native tribes went steadily on. In this year the Indians of Green Bay were under the excellent ministration of Fathers
Allouez and Andre. They had many souls for their 1671.
hire ; and the enthusiasm and zeal which characterized their labors come up to us from those early days like the deeds of divinely-inspired prophets. Allouez, leaving André to conduct the routine of worship at the regular mission at the Bay, pushed out to the neighboring tribes in the surrounding forests. In its immediate results, their work was successful. Two years later, when Marquette passed through the country on his mem- orable voyage of discovery, of which we have already spoken, they had baptized over two thousand souls; nor did their work cease here. No obstacle, no discouragement, turned them aside. The missions went steadily on; and in this year, notwithstanding that Father Andre's house at 1674.
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Green Bay had been destroyed by fire, he continued his Chris- tian work with undiminished zeal. His little church of five hundred native converts was quite prosperous in good words and works. Living, for the most part, in his canoe, and travel- ling in sunshine and storm, from point to point in his wild par- ish, he continued to care for the spiritual needs of his six tribes, the number included in his charge. Allouez continued his work, reaching out farther and farther, planting mis-
1675. sions in new quarters, and rearing the cross among the wigwams of new tribes, disregarding danger, and disobeying the voice of obstacle. This year is memorable on account of the death of Father Marquette, who went to his reward from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, near the river that now bears his name. He lived a true hero, a humble but aggres- sive Christian worker, and died in the midst of his good deeds, in a rude camp in the wild forest.
In the same year, or that following, the venerable Father 1676. Charles Albanel became Superior of the western missions, and took up his post at Green Bay, where a second church was raised near the ruins of that occupied by Father Andre. It stood near the Rapids des Pères. This church comes up in the memory of this, as it will to that of all succeeding generations, as a monument to the enterprise and benevolence of Nicholas Perrot, well known as an early Western explorer, and one of the Western traders of that day, as well as of the praiseworthy zeal of Father Albanel. We should observe, in this connection, that Father Allouez was assigned to the post made vacant by the death of Marquette. This was among the Illinois Indians. The good and pious Father Allouez left Green Bay for this centre of savage tribes in October, 1676.
We can only glance at the great work of La Salle in this short chapter. This celebrated explorer, accompanied by Henry
De Tonty, Father Louis Hennepin, and others, made 1679. a voyage up the lakes in 1679, in "The Griffin," the first vessel built above the Falls of Niagara, and arrived at Green Bay on the 2d of September. While at this point, La Salle collected a load of furs, and sent the vessel back ; but it was unfortunately lost in a storm on the lakes. La Salle,
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with his company of seventeen men and priests, continued their route by canoes to the St. Joseph River, of Lake Michi- gan, when they entered the country of the Miamis, and con- tinued their explorations southward, an account of which is foreign to the subject of this volume.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Green Bay and Prairie du Chien - Early Jesuit Missionaries -The Fox, Sauk, and French Wars- Growth of the French Settlements- Green Bay in 1745 - End of French Dominion - British Supremacy.
IN the previous chapter, the incidents considered, in so far as they related to Wisconsin, centred round Green Bay ; but from this point, and for a considerable period, our attention will be directed, on the one hand, to that point, and, on the 1680. other, to Prairie du Chien. From this date to the formation of the Territorial Government, in 1836, both civilized and savage commerce in Wisconsin was con- fined, for the most part, to these points.
Father Louis Hennepin, who accompanied La Salle on the expedition mentioned at the close of the previous chapter, parted with him on the twenty-ninth day of February in this year, and made a journey up the Mississippi, and was the first to discover the falls, which he named the "Falls of St. An- thony of Padua." After a series of remarkable adventures among the Indian tribes, he returned to Green Bay by way of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. At the latter point he found Frenchmen trading without a license. "The published narra- tive of his journeys is full of contradictions and misrepresenta- tions ; and, while his account of Wisconsin and the upper country may be regarded as truthful, a large part of his work cannot be depended upon."1 During this year the mission at Green Bay was ably sustained by Father Enjalrau; and a remarkable incident in the history of the place during the
1 From a paper by Daniel S. Durrie, A.M., librarian of the Wisconsin State Historical Society.
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John Fagre.
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same period was the establishment of a military post and garrison by De Tonty.
The exact time at which a military post was established at 1681-89. much speculation ; some putting it as late as 1775, Prairie du Chien has been, and still is, the subject of while it is stated in a report of a committee of Congress to have occurred in 1755, which was the year following the reconciliation of the French, and Sauks and Foxes. The latter date may be the correct one, as the French surrendered Canada to the English in 1760 ; but it is very evident that there must have been a post, at a much earlier date, upon or near the prairie. The evidence of this early occupation is found in the official document of the taking possession of the Mississippi Valley, in the name of the French king, by Nicholas Perrot, " command- ing at the post of the Nadoussioux," at the post of St. An- thony, May 8, 1689, "to which documents among the names of witnesses was Mons. De Boric-Guillot, commanding the French in the neighborhood of Ouiskonche, on the Mississippi. No more suitable place could have been selected for a military post than Prairie du Chien ; and, from all the information thus far obtained, its location must be conceded as an established fact. Judge George Gale, in his work on the Upper Mississippi, says, ' We may safely infer that the country about Prairie du Chien was occupied as a French post at least as early as April 20, 1689, and possibly the previous fall.'"
In the year 1683 Perrot visited the tribes west of the Missis- sippi, and established friendly relations between them and the French ; and it is believed that the information which he fur- nished touching the geology of the Des Moines and Fevre Rivers led to the discovery of the lead-mines in that vicinity. In 1689 Le Hontan visited the site of Prairie du Chien, while on an exploring-expedition up the Mississippi.
In 1683-84 Le Sucuer went, for the first time, up the Fox River from Green Bay, and down the Wisconsin, to visit the Sioux tribes ; and about the same time Nicholas Perrot took command at the post at Green Bay ; and in the year following, or in 1684, Lieut. Duluth arrived, and assumed military occu- pancy of the post, under the superintendency of the command- ant at Mackinaw. Duluth began his preparations for war
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against the Iroquois, and was assisted by Perrot, who was then engaged in active and profitable trade with the Foxes near Green Bay.
From this point, and for a considerable time, we have no further accounts of the missionaries in this section, which is, in some measure, due to the opposition which they received from La Salle, and to the violent dissensions among the Indians which followed. The French began to lose their hold on the affections of the Indians. England had begun to contest with France for the supremacy of the North-west; and, as the con- test merged into action, the missionaries retired.
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