USA > Wisconsin > Winnebago County > History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People > Part 9
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In the relations of Sieur de Lamothe Cadillac, describing the Indian tribes of about the period of 1718, he has this to say of the Foxes: "The Outagamis (that is, the nation of the Foxes) are so called because they are a wily and mischievous nation. They dwell on a very fine river, and in a country that is excel- lent for all purposes. This nation is growing powerful, and for that reason is daily becoming insolent. I think that if we had not had the war with the Iroquois on our hands, steps would have been taken to humble the Outagamis; for they have on sev- eral occasions insulted and pillaged the French, and otherwise treated them shamefully. They do not war against the Iro- quois. On the contrary, there is some sort of alliance between them; and it is the policy of that common enemy of all the nations of the New World to keep as a neutral. in the midst of 15 Ib., 83; 16 Ib., 343.
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all the other tribes, one that would have caused them much trouble had it declared war against them. This is of great use to the Iroquois, because by means of the Fox (Renard) he often cats the hen. The Foxes are very dirty, and great thieves; one even has to watch their feet more than their hands, for they use them very cleverly in stealing. They carry on war against the Sioux and Saulteux, and inflict severe blows upon their enemies. They are so little jealous of their daughters that they do not refuse them to any who ask for them and give them trifling presents.''1
An unknown writer of the period furnishes the following sketch of the Foxes:
"All these nations are very industrious and have four women to one man. The Foxes are eighteen leagues from the Saquis. They number 500 men, and have a great number of women and children. They are as industrious as they can be, and raise extraordinary crops of Indian corn. They have a different lan- guage from that of the Outaouacs; an interpreter of the latter could not serve the Foxes. They are well fortified. They have the same customs as the Poutouatamis, as regards dancing and games, but not as regards dress; for the men wear scarcely any garments made of cloth, and the majority wear no waist-cloths. As for the women, also the girls, they all wear these. They are made of deer skin, black or brown, and are adorned around the edge, in some cases with little bells, and in others with orna- ments of iron or copper or tin; over these are also worn blankets. Their women are quite pretty, and not at all black. They hunt a great deal in this region, and live in great comfort. as they have abundance of meat and fish, for that river of the Foxes abound in fish.2
Five of the principal chiefs with others of the tribe of the Foxes voyaged to Montreal, arriving there July 20, 1718, with French interpreters, to hold a council with the Governor and other northwest tribes. The Fox chiefs said they had been "sent in behalf of Ouachala of Kiuetonan, and all the other chiefs of their village," and asked to have their tribesmen returned to them, who were slaves among the French. They were permitted to return with the one remaining hostage, one having died early in the year, and three reported as dead the year before by small- pox, and one had been returned at the former council. They
' 16 Ib., 360.
: 16 Ib., 371.
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THE FOX TRIBE.
were also permitted to take back twelve of the seventeen cap- tives held as slaves. There was a general exchange of captives at the Council, among the savage nations. Ouachala, their prin- cipal chief, feared to go to the Council in person, as he was not certain of the good will of the French.
The following season, 1719, three chiefs, headed by Ouachala, held council with the Governor at Montreal, accompanied with a Kickapoo chief sent by his own nation, and the Mascoutins. They assured the Governor of their disposition to maintain the peace with all the nations, and had returned all captives held by them.1
The Long War Between the Foxes and Illinois.
The Fox tribes, being very numerous and belligerent, were diplomatic and crafty. They had attached to their interest by a very strong alliance, the Sioux of the plains, the Iroquois con- federacy of New York, the Abenakis of Maine and Vermont, and the neighbor tribes of Winnebago, Sauk, Menominee, Kicka- poo and Mascoutins, while the Potawatomi played fast and loose with all, though always favoring the Foxes. This powerful alli- ance made them formidable. Their enemies were the Chippewa of Sault Ste. Marie, the Ottawa and Hurons of lower Michi- gan, and the Miamis, Wea and Illinois tribes of the country south of Lake Michigan; but all these tribes were at enmity with each other, and each in turn felt the tomahawk of the Foxes.
The Foxes seemed to have a most bitter hatred for the Illi- nois, and their war parties were constantly out, lurking in all conceivable places watching an opportunity to take their scalps. They roamed with a free lance the whole of the prairie lands of the Illinois region. No member of the tribes of the Illinois ever dared to wander into the lands or on the river of the Foxes. Hundreds of this enemy tribe were slain, scalped, burned at the stake and often cooked in the kettles and eaten by the Foxes.
This fierce enmity of the Foxes, as told by themselves, was occasioned when the Illinois neglected to return the Fox cap- tives held by them at the treaty made at the battle of the Fort of the Triple Oak Stakes in 1716 by De Louvigny. Then Min- chilay, captured by the Illinois at one of their forays, was burned alive at the stake. He was a nephew of Ouachala, the head chief of the Foxes. It was admitted in the council of Marine at Paris that the Illinois still held Fox captives after they had agreed to
' 16 Ib., 380.
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
restore them; and that the French commandants at the Illinois posts had caused Fox captives to be burned at the stake.
In the spring of 1720 one of three Frenchmen who had win- tered with the Kickapoo on the upper Fox river, was stabbed by a Fox. The chief visited the French officer at the old French fort at La Baye and offered presents to cover the dead their usual peace offering; but the officer demanded the murderer. This was refused, as he was related to so many of the tribe that it would not be permitted. Charlevoix, the historian of Can- ada, visited them in 1721, and says of them: "The tribe which, for the last twenty years, has been more talked about than any other in these western lands, is that of the Outagamis. The natural ferocity of these savages, increased by the bad treat- ment often inflicted on them (sometimes very unreasonably), and their alliance with the Iroquois, who are always disposed to ex- cite fresh enemies against us, have rendered them formidable. Moreover, they have since become closely united with the Sioux, a populous tribe, which has also become gradually inured to war ; and that union now renders the navigation of all the upper Mississippi almost impracticable for us. There is not entire safety even in voyaging upon the Illinois river, unless one is sufficiently equipped not to fear a surprise; this inflicts great damage upon the mutual commerce between the two colonies."1
At a council held at the house of Montigny, commandant at La Baye, Ouachala assured the French in a long speech, "that the wars are all ended today," and promised in name of the whole nation they would not go to war unless first attacked. Governor Vaudreuil wrote the French Minister October 2, 1727, the first kind words of the Foxes, that had crossed the ocean. He said: "That nation had not made any attack on the French since the peace" in 1716; "and engaged in the war of the Kicka- poo and Mascoutin against the Illinois only after having been attacked" by the Illinois, "who in various encounters had killed or taken prisoners many Fox savages from 1718 to 1719, while the Foxes were laboring to persuade the Kickapoo and Mascou- tin to cease making attacks on the Illinois; and notwithstanding the fact that on eight different occasions the Foxes had sent back to them slaves or captives of their nation whom the Kicka- poo had presented to them, and they had charged these slaves to tell the Illinois chiefs that if they desired to make peace they had only to come to the village of the Foxes, where they ' 16 Ib., 417.
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THE FOX TRIBE.
could negotiate it in all safety." IIe then states that if these advances had been favorably received, or the commandants of the French posts in Illinois "had urged the Illinois to respond by some concession on their side, I am convinced that the war between these nations would long since have been ended." "The Foxes last year besieged the Illinois of La Rocher, and reduced them to such extremity that they were obliged to sue for their lives, which the Foxes granted, and raising the siege returned to their own village." The Foxes, after their declara- tion that they would not engage in war unless attacked, men- tioned above, "were attacked by the Chippewa four times before the 12th of last July, and having on each occasion told Montigny that they were going to avenge the attacks, this officer deterred them." "But after that made by the Ottawa of Saginaw, July 15 last, resulting in the killing of twenty-two men, women and children, who were fishing on the shore" of Little Butte des Morts, "among whom were five Sauk and two Winnebago, it was impossible for Ouachala to restrain his warriors. Four de- tachments went against the Chippewa" of the north and one to the tribes in Michigan by way of St. Joseph. Ouachala informed Montigny of this, and that he was going with the last party. "As these facts are certain they may serve to show the Foxes less in the wrong than the Illinois for the war they have had to- gether." "It is not surprising that, after having been attacked four successive times, without making any reprisal, they should have been aroused the fifth time they were attacked."'
All the dispatches from Canada were burdened with the doings of the Foxes. At last the Minister impatiently wrote across the back of the Governor's report for 1724, "that he must take measures to end the affair of the Foxes. That ITis Majesty will recompense the officer who shall reduce the Foxes to submis- sion, or rather who will destroy them, as His Majesty expressly desires this,"2 thus placing a high price on their heads.
At a council held by De Lignery at the old fort at La Baye, August 23, 1724, between the Foxes, Winnebago and Sauk, "he addressed them in forcible terms to make them lay down the war club against the Chippewa, and at the same time he re- turned two of the Fox captives held by the Ottawa, and the Foxes returned three Chippewa captives held by them. All agreed to keep the peace." De Lignery then asked them to stay
' 16 Ib., 429.
'16 Ib., 440.
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the war club against the Illinois; but th was not so favorable: "My father, the Il too often to allow of our staying our war our word." They said they were indign: peace of 1716, they sent the Illinois prison were not returned to them, as agreed by t commandant at Fort de Chartres, in the letter January 14, 1725, wrote the Govern no slaves belonging to the Foxes and ha erously toward them."" But it was adm aries, there were Fox captives among the
The Foxes killed a soldier at the gates a canoe containing four Frenchmen and Frenchmen; they destroyed the Indian and Pimithony.3 A frightful list of the is made up in the charge of the Illinois a
In the spring of 1727 there was a cou Green Bay, where the Foxes promised D dant, "to go no longer on the war path," King. ">
The Army Burns the Fox Village i
' On October 25, 1727, Governor Beauharı ant in a joint letter to the Minister at P have sent secretly to the Foxes, collars ( been accepted, saying : "They would French to go among them." This infor us to wage war in earnest against the ) evil designs, and they ask for the funds, to defray the expenses of that war." T the expenditure." The King, by memoi May 14, 1728, approved of the war aga "His Majesty is persuaded of the neces nation.""
' 16 Ib., 444.
2 16 Tb., 45.
3 16 Ib., 454.
' 16 Ib., 453-463, covering ten pages.
$ 16 Ib., 468.
· 16 Ib., 477.
' 17 Ib., 22.
* 17 1b., 21.
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
the war club against the Illinois; but the reply of the Foxes was not so favorable: "My father, the Illinois has attacked us too often to allow of our staying our war club and of breaking our word." They said they were indignant because, after the peace of 1716, they sent the Illinois prisoners back, while theirs were not returned to them, as agreed by the treaty.1 Du Tisne, commandant at Fort de Chartres, in the Illinois country, in a letter January 14, 1725, wrote the Governor: "Our Illinois have no slaves belonging to the Foxes and have never acted treach- erously toward them."2 But it was admitted by the mission- aries, there were Fox captives among the Illinois.
The Foxes killed a soldier at the gates of Kaskaska; attacked a canoe containing four Frenchmen and slaves and killed the Frenchmen; they destroyed the Indian villages of Le Rocher and Pimithony.3 A frightful list of the cruelties of the Foxes is made up in the charge of the Illinois against the Foxes.‘
In the spring of 1727 there was a council at the old fort at Green Bay, where the Foxes promised Du Plessis, the comman- dant, "to go no longer on the war path," and to obey the French King. '"
The Army Burns the Fox Village in West Menasha.
' On October 25, 1727, Governor Beauharnois and Dupuy Intend- ant in a joint letter to the Minister at Paris, assert the English have sent secretly to the Foxes, collars of wampum which have been accepted, saying: "They would no longer suffer any French to go among them." This information has determined us to wage war in earnest against the Foxes to forestall their evil designs, and they ask for the funds, 60,000 livres ($12,000) to defray the expenses of that war." The Council approved of the expenditure." The King. by memoir dated at Versailles, May 14, 1728, approved of the war against the Foxes, saying, "His Majesty is persuaded of the necessity of destroying that nation.""
' 16 Ib., 444.
2 16 Ib., 45.
3 16 Ib., 454.
. 16 1b., 453-463. covering ten pages.
$ 16 1b., 468.
6 16 Ib., 477.
' 17 Ib., 22.
$ 17 Ib., 21.
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THE FOX TRIBE.
We have a close view of the tribe at this period in the report of the convoy sent to the Sioux in the spring of 1727, who ar- rived at the Winnebago village on Doty Island, and early in the morning of the 15th of August paddled out on the lake to go to the village of the Foxes, twenty miles away. A storm of rain came up in the afternoon, and they arrived at the Fox village quite wet. The location of this village from the description was at that time a few miles above Oshkosh. "Upon a little eminence on the banks of a small river which bears their name" -"they have only simple cabins of bark without any sort of palisade or other fortification. When the French canoes touched their shore they ran down with their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain and everybody smoked." "A general council was called together in one of their cabins; we spoke to them civilly and amicably. On their part they gave us some rather fine sides of dried meat." This "nation so dreaded, and really very little to be dreaded, to judge from all appearances, is com- posed of 200 men at the most; but there is a nursery of chil- dren, especially of boys between 10 and 14 years old, well made and sturdy." The French "were greatly rejoiced at having passed with so much ease"; this nation of "cutthroats and assassins."1
In a report by the Governor to the French Minister August 4, 1728, he mentions receipt of letters with information that the Foxes knew of the expedition going against them; but were determined not to abandon their village. He also had news that the Foxes were divided into two parties, one of which claim they had not killed any French, and the other admit they have. Their forts being two and a half miles apart.
As late as 1727, the year before the French army burned their villages, the French Council at Paris had advised the comman- dants in the Illinois country to "make the Illinois restore to the Foxes such captives of that nation as they may have in their hands; and that he shall not follow the example of the com- mandants who have preceded him, who thought they would intimidate the Foxes by burning the prisoners of their nation, which served only to irritate them, and to make war rage more bitterly.'?
The war waged for upwards of a dozen years by the Foxes against the Illinois, and frequently attacks on the French trad-
1 17 Ib., 24.
: 17 Ib., 5.
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
ers while voyaging over the rivers, had terrorized the frontier so long that finally, when news came to Quebec that the Iroquois had renewed their alliance with the Foxes, the Government of Canada concluded they could no longer put off stern measures with this troublesome nation. The necessary arrangements being made, and not waiting for the approval of the King, the army was sent west. Letters were sent to Sieur Desliettes, of the Illinois country, and "to all the commandants of the forts in the upper country to advise them to make all necessary prep- aration for the war against the Foxes, and to co-operate at the Old Fort at La Baye." Word was not received in time in the Illinois country, and no aid was had from there. A few months before the arrival of the French army, a priest, a French officer and their party, passed the village of the Foxes, who invited them to stop, but they said they "would not sleep on a mat, dyed with French blood." They report three Fox villages, and that they "had sowed a great extent of land this year."
The army set out from Montreal on June 5, 1728, to go to the destruction of the Foxes, expecting to find them still in their forts on Little Lake Butte des Morts. It was made up of regular soldiers and Canadians to the number of 450, under command of Captain de Lignery. With him were Major de Cavagnal, as commissary, and three priests. There was also a large party of savages, gathered along the St. Lawrence, the "settled Iro- quois." They voyaged over the Ottawa river route to Lake Nipissing, where the Nipissing tribes joined them. Over the rapids of French river, the canoes becoming separated, it was agreed that the first to pass would wait at the shore of Georgian Bay until all had arrived. By July 26 all had arrived. Under favorable weather they made the voyage over Lake Huron to Mackinaw, where they arrived August 4. They remained until August 10, to repair damages, and being delayed two days by unfavorable winds. IIere they were joined by the Hurons of Detroit; the Ottawa of Mackinac; 100 Menominee; the Chip- pewa of Sault Ste. Marie and other savages of Lake Huron to the number of 300, making up the army to 1,200 savages and 450 French, some of whom had been enlisted at Mackinac. Passing Death Door, they encountered a gust of wind which drove several canoes on the shore, which were broken by the shock, when the occupants were accommodated in the other boats. The next day the canoes crossed over the bay to the Menominee village, where a part of the tribe, out of friendship
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THE FOX TRIBE.
to the Foxes, were lined up in battle array. They were defeated and compelled to flee. The following day they camped at the mouth of a river they named La Gazparde. where the savages ranged in the forest for game and brought in several roebucks. At midday on August 17 they waited near the mouth of the Fox river, that they might reach the French fort at night to surprise the enemy he thought were in the Sauk village on the east shore. They arrived at the fort at midnight, and sent the savages across to the east side, who surrounded the Sauk vil- lage, the French troops entering the village; but "notwithstand- ing the precaution that had been taken to conceal our arrival, the savages had received information of it (from some Sauk slaves who escaped by swimming ashore), and all had escaped, with the exception of four; these were presented to our savages, who after having diverted themselves with them, shot them to death with their arrows." Three of these captives were Winne- bago, and one was a Fox Indian, who were made "to undergo the horrors of thirty deaths, before depriving them of life,"- says Father Crespel.
After two days the great army of savages and French pushed their 300 canoes up the fierce rapids of the Fox river. "On the second day a Potawatomi, settled among the Winnebago, came to meet us with a flag of truce, followed by four men of the Fox village, in order to ask if their lives might be spared. I sent him back to tell (says De Lignery) that I come to listen to all the nations, even the Foxes (in order to keep them there) ; but the Potawatomi did not return. We continued up river toward the Winnebago village, but they had left two or three days in advance of us, owing to our having been delayed by the rapids of the river in which most of our canoes were broken." "I had the Winnebago village burned," says Captain de Lignery.
Father Crespel describes the burning of the Winnebago vil- lage on Doty Island. "August 24 we arrived at the village of the Winnebago [on Doty Island] much disposed to destroy any inhabitants who might be found there; but their flight had pre- ceded our arrival, and we had nothing to do but to burn their wigwams, and ravage their fields of Indian corn, which is their principal article of food." The French army then "crossed over the Little Fox Lake [ Lake Little Butte des Morts]. at the end of which we camped" [North end.] The next day (day of St. Louis) after mass, we entered a small river [Sills or Duck Creek in town Menasha] which conducted us into a wet land,
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HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
on the border of which is situated the grand habitation" of the Foxes. "Their allies the Sauk, doubtless, had informed them of our approach, and they did not deem it advisable to await our arrival, for we found in their village only a few women, whom our savages made their slaves; and one old man, whom they burned to death, at a slow fire." The Priest Crespel pro- tested at this "striking act of cruelty"; but was answered by the Iroquois that if they fell into the hands of the Foxes or Sauk, "they were treated with still greater cruelty." De Lig- nery in his official report says: "We camped between two vil- lages of the Foxes, too late to go there. On the following morn- ing we reached the first village, where we captured an old woman and a young girl. They told us their people had left in great haste three days before. From there we went to the second village, where we captured an old Fox, who told us the same thing. We continued on our way and slept at a third village, where we found no one." This was probably at the present village of Butte des Morts. A council was called of the savages, and a wide trail being discovered by the scouts, De Lignery ordered a large party of savages to follow it two days; but several hundred savages had loitered at the middle village, which caused delay, and the savages demanded 200 French to go with them, but they were deemed unfit to travel, as their shoes were worn out, and their only food was corn, and as he did not wish to "expose all the French of our party to perish." the pursuit was abandoned. An old Ottawa slave wo- man was found at the middle village, who told the French that the Foxes had "departed four nights before, and that they had 100 canoes, into which they put the old men, women and chil- dren, while all the warriors followed on foot on the banks to protect them." The certain prospect of meeting the Foxes on the trail seemed to cool the ardor of the savages, as "they no longer spoke of going after them," and De Lignery at that time thought "of nothing but bringing back the army," and "caused fire to be set to the four villages, and all the scattered cabins to · be burned, and all the corn to be cut, of which there was so great quantity that one could not believe it without seeing. I also had the village of the Winnebago burned. The expedi- tion will be no less advantageous to the glory of the King, inas- much as one-half those people will die of hunger," says De Lignery.
De Lignery sent a dispatch by some Menominee across coun-
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THE FOX TRIBE.
try to the French at Lake Pepin, of the failure of his war on the Foxes, and advised them to abandon the country, which they did. The failure of this war, begun with such splendid preparation and equipped at such great expense, and after such a long journey, was very humiliating to the Governor, obliged to report to Paris. As for De Lignery. the Governor says: "The murmur was very general against him in the army. The savages in their speeches have not spared him."
In this army there were several who became leading men high in Canadian councils. This Captain De Lignery was the one who gave up Fort Duquesne to the flames in the French and Indian war, when Washington came in sight of it. The Major de Cavagnal was afterward under another title, the ill-starred Governor, Marquis de Vaudreuil (son of former Governor of that name), the Governor during the French and Indian war, who fled from Wolfe's victorious army at Quebec, and surren- dered Canada to the English in 1760. The Sieur Captain De . Beaujeu, who was second in command under De Lignery in this campaign against the Foxes, was the leader of the French and Indians with De Langlade at the massacre of the Monongahela or Braddock's defeat, where he fell mortally wounded. Sieur Captain du Buisson was commandant of different frontier posts, and finally wounded at the last stand at Quebec.1
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