USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 11
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In the summer, soon after their retreat from before Sieur Ma- rin. the Foxes appeared in the Illinois country, where they at- tacked their ancient enemies near the old Illinois village of Le Rocher, or Starved Rock of La Salle, on the Illinois river. where in the vicinity they built a stockade fort in the forest. and exca- vated caves in which to live. The Mascoutins and Kickapoo '17 Ib., 92 to 99.
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soon came to the aid of the Illinois. Messengers were sent in all directions to arouse the French and the Indians. Sieur St. Ange, with 100 French and 400 Illinois and Missouris, came from Fort Chartress and joined in the siege; then De Villers arrived from the river St. Joseph with Potawatomi, and the Sauk settled there, and as the senior in rank took command. And soon the several Wea tribes and Miami, under Des Noyelles, from the Maumee and Wabash rivers, arrived. The savages thus gathered from all the surrounding territory for many miles numbered 1,400; besides there were over 100 Frenchmen, all surrounding the Foxes by August 19, 1730. The battle raged daily with vary- ing intensity. Several offers of the Foxes to surrender were re- jected. Water was cut off from the fort, and the tribe reduced to living upon boiled skins, which had served them as beds. There was distress in both camps for want of food. "But, on the 8th of September, a violent storm with dreadful thunder and continual rain interrupted our work. The day was followed by a night as rainy as it was dark and very cold. The Foxes seized the opportunity and issued in silence from their fort. This was at once perceived through the crying of the children. But what could be done and how was it possible to recognize anybody in such obscurity? There was as much fear of killing our own peo- ple as of letting the enemy escape. Nevertheless, all were under arms and the savages advanced on both flanks of the fugitives to be ready to attack them as soon as day broke. Daylight came at last and all set out in pursuit. Our savages, who were fresher and more vigorous, soon overtook them. The women, children and old men walked at the head, and the warriors posted them- selves in the rear to protect them. Their ranks were at once broken and defeated. The number of those killed and captured was about 300 warriors, besides the women and children. It is agreed on all sides that not more than fifty or sixty men escaped, without guns and without any of the implements for procuring their subsistence. The Illinois of Le Rocher, the Mascoutins and Kickapoo are now in pursuit of this small remnant of fugitives, and the first news we shall get will tell us of the total destruc- tion of that wretched nation."1
Another account says: "No other chief escaped except Licauais. The others were made prisoners and given to the Illi- nois. who will assuredly not spare their lives. Those who es- caped from us threw away all they had, even to their powder 1 For details of this battle, see documents, 17 Ib., pp. 108 to 120.
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horns, in order that they might escape; but few remain. The prisoners told us they had fought the Sioux in the spring."
In the report of the Governor to the French Minister, he says that 200 warriors were killed, as well as 200 women and chil- dren, while 500 men, women and children were captured, who were scattered among all the tribe.
The younger Sieur De Villiers was sent as a personal messenger to France to carry the dispatches containing the news of the de- feat of the Foxes, which was regarded as a very important event. He carried with him a captive Fox Indian as a slave, and in- tended as a gift to an official of France. It was reported that the Foxes sought an asylum among the Iroquois of New York.
The next summer two chiefs of the Foxes visited Montreal "on behalf of the remnant of that nation," "who are at last re- duced to begging for the lives of those who remain." "I have kept one and sent back the other to bring me next year four of the principal chiefs," says the Governor.
"Tranquillity for so many years disturbed in the upper coun- try will now reign.". The post in the Sioux country was re-estab- lished. It had formerly "to be abandoned owing to the Foxes, through whose territory it was necessary to pass to reach that" country. The post at La Baye was also reoccupied.
This quiet of the frontier was not to last for long. This same fall forty-seven Iroquois from the Christian settlement above Montreal, invited by La Forest, the head chief of the Hurons of Detroit, arrived in the Huron village to go to war with the Foxes. As they were unprovided with powder and ball, the commandant at Detroit supplied them. They started from there Oct. 17, 1731, to the number of 124 warriors, consisting of seventy- four Hurons, forty-six Iroquois and four Wea, and marched across Michigan to St. Joseph, and then to Chicago, where they built a fort and left their sick with some of their people to guard them. They then marched to the Kickapoo village, who pro- posed they wait until spring, when they would go with them. They could not listen to this, but marched to the Mascoutin vil- lages, whom they tried to induce to join the party. But they re- plied "that it would be too risky, and that even if they joined together they would not be able to destroy the Foxes, who were very numerous. They obtained guides from the Mascoutins and marched away to the boundary of the Foxes territory. And when they had marched so far into Wisconsin their guides told them "they were on the soil of the Foxes. That they had only
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to march straight before them and they would meet only Foxes." Then the guides returned home.
"The Hurons and Iroquois marched some days more, when. as many among them, and especially the old men, suffered from hunger and fatigue, caused by the deep snow, which compelled them to use snowshoes, they held a council and several of the old men thought that they should turn back. The young men were not of the same opinion, and stated that they had not come so far for the purpose of returning without striking a blow, and one of them added that he would perish rather than go back to his village without having killed some men. Two of the most notable among the Huron chiefs said that they were in good health, and that, although they were old men, they felt strong enough not to give up the undertaking. The little army broke up; the old men, both Hurons and Iroquois, went back toward Chicago, while the others, namely forty Hurons and thirty Iro- quois, followed the route that led to the Ouisconsin. After sev- eral days' march, about 11 o'clock in the morning, they perceived in a prairie three men who were coming to meet them. These were three Foxes, who took to flight as soon as they saw them. Our people pursued them, thinking that they came from four or five cabins, of which they had been told; but they were greatly surprised when they reached the top of a hill to see forty-six cabins in a valley on the bank of the Ouisconsin. (This was the principal village of the Foxes.) The chiefs encouraged the young men, telling them that they had nothing to fear; that they had to deal with dogs, who did not acknowledge the master of life. The Foxes, who had been warned by the three men and had had time to seize their weapons, came out to the number of ninety to attack our people, who received their volley, and re- plied to it by two volleys in succession. The chiefs told the young men not to amuse themselves by shooting; they made them lay down their guns, and with a tomahawk in one hand and a dagger in the other they forced the Foxes back into their village; they pursued them so closely and so great was the car- nage that seventy of the Foxes were killed on the spot and four- teen were made prisoners; eighty women and children were also killed, and 140 of them were captured, besides ten Foxes, who escaped, quite naked, and who died of cold. The Hurons had five men killed and several wounded. Finally, after this attack, they unbound a Fox chief who was wounded in the thigh, and after dressing his wound they sent him with six women to tell
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the remainder of his nation that the Hurons and Iroquois had just eaten up their chief village, where they would remain for two days; that if the Foxes wished to follow them they were free to do so, but that as soon as they would see them they would begin by breaking the heads of all their women and children; that they would make a rampart of their dead bodies, and after- . ward would endeavor to pile the remainder of the nation on top of them." This was the battle fought on snowshoes.
In explanation of the existence of so many Foxes after their reported defeats, it was stated that they recovered by some se- cret means the captives of former wars, and thus augmented their number. Out of 148 prisoners taken, the Huron killed fifty-six on the retreat, as they were embarrassed with so many to care for, and feared they might escape.
The Governor reports the next year, that as no Fox chiefs came down to Montreal, he sent back the chief he held to tell the nation that, as they had not kept their word to him, "he left them to the mercy of the savages, and resolved to exterminate their race."
The Foxes are next heard of as visiting the French post among the Sioux, also at La Baye, and a party of them were attacked in Fort Marameg, in Illinois, by their enemies, who were "unsuc- cessful in effecting much injury." In fact, this may be consid- ered a victory for the Foxes.
The Slaughter of De Villiers' Army.
By July, 1733, the "Foxes have at last abandoned their forts (at West Menasha), in which there remained only fifty of them in all, consisting of forty warriors and ten boys from twelve to thirteen years of age. They went to La Baye to beg Monsieur de Villiers to ask the Governor to have mercy on them." He led four of the principal chiefs to Montreal, among them "Kiala," "the instigator of all their misdeeds." The Sieur de Villiers was directed to return at once to La Baye "to bring all the Foxes to Montreal or destroy them," and "the Sieur de Villiers also has orders if that wretched remnant will not obey to kill them without thinking of making a single prisoner, so as not to leave one of the race alive in the upper country if possible." If he had been successful in taking the Foxes to Montreal it was planned to "disperse them among our settled savages." It was also suggested they be sent to France as slaves.
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Sieur de Villiers arrived at La Baye, September 16, of the same year, with a company composed of 250 Ottawas, Chippewa and Menominee, several officers and seventy Frenchmen. He left Lieutenant De Repentigny with most of the savages and French two miles down the bay, and went alone to visit the Sauk, leav- ing orders for their coming up at the firing of three gun shots. He had also sent his son with ten French and sixty savages up river to cut off the retreat of the Foxes by the tomahawk trail. The. Sauk chiefs came out of their village to meet De Villiers, who explained to them that the Governor had granted "the rem- nant of the Foxes who were with them their lives; but on condi- tion that they should submit to his orders and go to Montreal." After a long council without result, De Villiers sent the chiefs to tell the tribe that if within a certain time they did not give up the Foxes to him he would go and take them. As the Sauk did not return, he ordered Lieutenant De Repentigny to guard the approaches to the Sauk fort to prevent the escape of the Foxes. De Villiers took ten Frenchmen with him to the gate of the fort and demanded the Foxes. The Sauk ordered him to withdraw, but he tried to enter the fort, and a skirmish took place, in which he was shot and instantly killed. His son by his side was also shot and three other Frenchmen were wounded. A moment after Lieutenant de Repentigny and Sieur Duplesis and six Frenchmen who ran up were shot and killed.
After this the Sauk and Foxes evacuated their fort in the night and retreated up Fox river, pursued by Ensign de Villiers, whose father had just been killed, and all the French and savages. They came up with the Foxes and Sauk at what is said to have been near the Hill of the Dead in West Menasha, and fought a desperate battle, in which the French admit they were beaten, with a loss of nine Ottawa, including the head chief; six Menom- inee, two Chippewa, all killed, and four Chippewa wounded, be- side three Frenchmen, including another son of De Villiers, were wounded. Out of four of this family in the battle only one re- mained uninjured. The report states that twenty Sauk and six Foxes were killed and nine mortally wounded in this battle. Monsieur de Repentigny, who was killed, was commandant of Mackinac and de Villiers was commandant at La Bave.1
The Fox and Sauk tribes, after the victory over the French at the Hill of the Dead, moved up the Fox and down the Wisconsin rivers, into the present state of Iowa, onto the banks of the 17 Ib. 188 and 200.
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Wapsipinicon river. Here each for himself built a stockade fort. and the Sauk gave out so that it came to the ears of the French that they intended to separate from the Foxes, who were the cause of the trouble, and make peace with the French. The Gov- ernor and soldiers were eager to avenge the losses in the last victory of the Foxes, and Sieur de Noyelles was given command of the war party, consisting of eighty-four Frenchmen volun- teers. consisting of seven officers, and the remainder of cadets, sergeants, soldiers and habitants, besides 130 of the "settled savages," who asked to go with them. They left Montreal Au- gust 14, 1734, for Detroit. Here the Potawatomi and Hurons soon joined him and afterward the Illinois. The Chippewa and Ot- tawa had refused to join him, as they feared to see a tribe de- stroyed by the French, although they had sent envoys way to Montreal to ask the French to avenge the last victory. The Hurons left him on the march.
During the winter they marched across Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and far into Iowa, where they came up to the Foxes and Sauk on the Des Moines river, and after several skirmishes crossed the river on a float wood and ice dam, and gave battle, in which the Foxes were again victorious. At a council the French were constrained to agree to the proposals made by the Sauk, to withdraw from the Foxes as soon as they could and re- turn to their old village at La Baye. The French were reduced by famine to accept the terms and retreat. "For four days the French had nothing to eat but twelve dogs and a horse. Several soldiers were obliged to eat their moccasins." The slight sue- cess obtained by this expedition made across half the continent through seven months of the winter, when so much was antici- pated, was an acute disappointment to the King and the Gov- ernor. The King wished to know where so many Foxes came from when so many had been reported as slain. The Governor now reports in October, 1736, that the Foxes were constantly recruited from their captives held by the other savages, who also supplied them with guns and powder. The other savages do not wish the French to destroy one of their nations.
The Foxes at Peace.
The Fox chiefs who have been mentioned as visiting at Mon- treal as envoys of their tribe were sent to Quebec and held in captivity. One of them died; but Kiala, "an intrepid man," was
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banished to the island of Martinique in the West Indies. His wife was sent to the Hurons of Lorette at their request and adopted by them. While out in the forest with other squaws she wandered into the woods and escaped.
In 1736-7 there was a strong movement among all the tribes to aid the Foxes and Sauk to renew the friendship of the French. The Ottawa, Potawatomi, Menominee and Winnebago all sent en- voys to Montreal, who "begged for the lives of the Foxes" in 1735 and 1736. The following year the Ottawa and other clans of the tribe, with the Menominee, Potawatomi and Winnebago repaired to Montreal "to ask that the lives of the Sauk be spared." The Governor replied to them that "since you ask me for the lives of the Foxes and Sauk I am willing to grant this out of love for you." The Governor was pleased "to have re- stored peace among all the nations."
Sieur Marin was sent west over the Fox-Wisconsin route in the summer of 1739 to report the state of the country, and arrange to open up communications and restore the activity of the aban- doned posts. He found the Foxes and Sauk at Rock Island, and was informed by them that they had not returned to their old villages, as rumors had come to them of the coming of a "large body of soldiers to eat them up." They also said their ancient territory on the Fox river was not as fertile as formerly, "be- cause they regard the place with suspicion on account of the things that have happened there."" They again said in their speeches at the council that their old home was no longer fertile, "being stained with French blood and with our own."
Mekaga, a Fox chief, had been to Montreal to arrange a peace, and while away he was very sorry to learn that some of his war- riors had killed a Frenchman, though by accident. Marin did not care much about it, as he was a soldier who had deserted.
In July, 1742, at a council in Montreal with the western tribes, the Foxes announced their return to "a day's journey from La Baye" at some point along the river. They renewed assurances of the peace and expressed a desire to have Sieur Marin sta- tioned among them to help to keep the peace. They requested the freedom of the daughters of Ouachala, "who was a great chief." She seems to have been a captive of former wars, and was now set free. In this council sat Pemoussa. This was the third of that name. The two former were dead as recorded above. Governor Beauharnois in his address said: "Pemoussa, I give 1 17 Ib., 317.
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you a medal to show you that I am satisfied with you. Had I others I would have given one to Pemaho, and would have sent another to Mekaga. It will be done next year." This peace, now made secure by the mutual desire of both parties, lasted for many years.
They removed permanently from the Fox river about 1763, as Lieutenant Gorrell reports them on the river in 1762, and Cap- tain Carver found them on the Wisconsin in 1766. As they re- tired from this county long before the arrival of the pioneer, their subsequent history belongs to others to relate, and we bid adieu to the unconquered Fox. With the tribute due to them, that though their history has always been written by their ene- mies, it has not failed to show between the lines very much to be said in favor of the Foxes. It is certain no such slaughters ever occurred, as often reported by the French, for in 1832 there were 3,000 of them living in Iowa. They are at present assigned to a reservation in Oklahoma.
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VII.
THE MENOMINEE TRIBE AND CHIEF OSHKOSH.
As these savage tribes, who had so long occupied the beautiful flower-swept openings by river and lake since known as the region included in Winnebago county, slowly separated and formed new villages, always moving up the Fox and down the Wisconsin rivers toward the west, receding from the approach of the white man, the Menominee tribes followed in their wake and occupied the regions abandoned by these retreating tribes, the Winnebago and Foxes. Thus the Menominee came at last by the treaty of 1836, to the south shore of Lake Poygan, or by 1835, to the Mission at Neenah, and thus became occupants of Winnebago county for a period of twenty-two years or more. They were residents when the first settlers came and have left many traces of their occupancy in place names. The Menominee Indians have resided since first discovered by white men, and still reside, between the Wolf river and Green Bay or Fox river. Nicolet, Allouez, Andre and Marquette all met them on the west- ern shore of Green Bay. They advised Marquette not to visit the southern tribes, as they were ferocious, and would kill strangers, and there were demons that would devour him. Be- fore this they had promised to furnish him with a canoe for the voyage. They were reported to have four women to every man, to be good natured, not keen of intellect, were selfish and ava- ricious, but brave warriors, and they did not steal or lie. They were great canoe men and fished sturgeon with a spear. Their public language was Algonquian with Ojibwa dialect, but they had a secret language of their own.
Their war parties traveled far. They aided the French at the battle of Detroit against the Fox and Mascoutins; joined Charles de Langlade in his journey to Fort Du Quesne, where they as- sisted to ambush and destroy Braddock's army on the Monon- gahela, and were with Langlade fighting under the banner of France when Montcalm fell on the plains of Abraham; they fought under the "bravest of the brave," in Burgoyne's invasion and at Bennington; they refused to join Pontiac's conspiracy, and old Carron, the head chief, was one of the guard who con-
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ducted the English garrison safely away from the post at Green Bay, for which service he had a medal.
Two centuries ago they were said to number but eighty war- riors, or 400 people, and since have grown to upwards of 1,500 people. In 1820, when the New York Indians, under Eleazer Williams' guidance, made a visit to Green Bay to treat with the Menominee for a cession of lands, that tribe claimed to possess a good portion of northern Wisconsin, which they could not have made good as against the Winnebago and Chippewa. They pre- tended to sell the New York Indians a joint right to a five-mile strip of many miles in length, which, however, was never oc- cupied by them nor conceded by the government.
The Menominee, Fox and Sauk were friends on Green Bay and the lower Fox river, but about seventy-five years ago or earlier some Menominee joined the Sioux against the Fox, ambushed them fifteen miles below Prairie du Chien and killed their chief, Kettle. Soon after the Menominee, being all very drunk in their camp on an island in the river near Prairie du Chien, the Foxes fell on them and killed great numbers before being driven away.
After the War of 1812 Americans maintained an army post at Prairie du Chien, where the Menominee often visited and fre- quently wintered on the Mississippi river. In 1836 such a band was visiting there, when in a drunken fray a Menominee killed a Winnebago. By the savage law he must either be given up or his life must be taken by his own tribe. A council was held and instead of the Menominee the chief of the tribe offered them whiskey. The Winnebago could not resist the temptation and ten gallons of whiskey was produced, which was consumed by all the parties over the grave.
The first Menominee chief mentioned was Kioulouskoio, in 1695, since which time numerous celebrated names have sprung up in the tribe, eight or ten holding sway at the same time. Many incidents in the life of the tribe have been related in former pages and need not be repeated here.
The first missionary among the Menominee was Allouez, in 1669, since which date they have been at times under the teach- ing of some good priest, among whom have been Andre and Mar- quette, and later Mazzuchelli, who established a school for them, and Rev. Van Den Broeck had his mission for them at Little Chute. They now have their churches, schools and missions at Keshena, yet still the weird songs of the sighing winds through the shaded forest, with its carpet of trailing arbutus, and the
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sun and moon and all the savage superstition inherited from un- told ages by the children of the wild woods retains its spirit in- fluence over many of them, and while they chant their catechism they still propitiate the Manitou of the red man with offerings . of tobacco and presents and make provision for the journey of the dead to the happy hunting grounds. The pagan party is very large in the colony at Keshena.
Gov. Henry Dodge, the hero of the Black Hawk war, passed through the county over the Tomahawk trail in 1836 on his way to the treaty ground at the Cedars. The Governor and his escort were mounted on six horses and were fully armed. The Governor had two pistols and a bowie knife on his person and a brace of large horse pistols in the holsters. They were making the journey to Cedar Point at Cedar Rapids, on the Fox river, opposite the new village of Kimberly, to hold the annuity pay- ment for the Menominee. While there a council was held with the Menominee sachems and a treaty was made, September 3, 1836, with the Government, by which the tribe ceded a large por- tion of. their lands, including a large part of the region now the county of Winnebago. Oshkosh and all the influential men of the tribe were present. The tribe was then removed to the south shore of Lake Poygan. They numbered at this time about 700 or more Indians and mixed bloods, and their tepees were scat- tered along the lake shore in small groups for a distance of six, miles in the town of Poygan and extending into the town of Win- neconne. Traces of their corn hills and burial grounds can still be seen. The whole region is a rich field for aboriginal relic hunting, and great quantities of stone and copper arrow points, stone axes, bone implements and pottery sherds have been picked up on the plowed fields.
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