History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 958

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THIE INDIAN TRIBES OF WISCONSIN.

changed their place of abode. Their number, all told, is less than twenty-five hundred.

When the territory, now constituting the northern portion of Wisconsin, became very generally known to the civilized inhabitants of the eastern part of the United States, it was found to be occupied by Indians called the CHIPPEWAS. Their hunting-grounds extended south from Lake Superior to the heads of the Menomonee, the Wisconsin and Chippewa rivers ; also farther eastward and westward. At an early day they were engaged in a war with the Sioux- a war indeed, which was long continued. The Chippewas, however, persistently maintained their position - still occupying the same region when the General Government extended its jurisdiction over the whole country south of the Great Lakes and west to the Mississippi.

By treaties with the Chippewas at different periods, down to the year 1827, the General Gov- ernment had recognized them as the owners of about one quarter of what is now the entire State. The same policy was pursued toward this tribe as with neighboring ones, in the purchase of their lands by the United States. Gradually they parted with their extensive possessions, until, in 1842, the last acre within what is now Wisconsin was disposed of. It was the intention of the General Government to remove the several bands of the Chippewas who had thus ceded their lands to a tract reserved for them beyond the Mississippi; but this determination was afterward changed so as to allow them to remain upon certain reservations within the limits of their old- time hunting grounds. These reservations they continue to occupy. They are located in Bay- field, Ashland, Chippewa and Lincoln counties. The clans are known, respectively, as the Red Cliff band, the Bad River band, the Lac Courte Oreille band, and the Lac de Flambeau band.

Of all the tribes inhabiting what is now Wisconsin when its territory was first visited by white men, the SACS (Sanks or Saukies) and FOXES (Outagamies) are, in history, the most noted. They are of the Algonquin family, and are first mentioned in 1665, by Father Allouez, but as separate tribes. Afterward, however, because of the identity of their language, and their asso- ciations, they were and still are considered as one nation. In December, 1669, Allouez found upon the shores of Green bay a village of Sacs, occupied also by members of other tribes; and early in 1670 he visited a village of the same Indians located upon the Fox river of Green bay, at a distance of four leagues from its mouth. Here a device of these Indians for catching fish arrested the attention of the missionary. "From one side of the river to the other," he writes, "they made a barricade, planting great stakes, two fathoms from the water, in such a manner that there is, as it were, a bridge above for the fishes, who by the aid of a little bow-net, easily take sturgeons and all other kinds of fish which this pier stops, although the water does not cease to flow between the stakes." When the Jesuit father first obtained, five years previous, a knowledge of this tribe, they were represented as savage above all others, great in numbers, and without any permanent dwelling place. The Foxes were of two stocks: one calling themselves Outagamies or Foxes, whence our English name; the other, Musquakink, or men of red clay, the name now used by the tribe. They lived in early times with their kindred the Sacs east of Detroit, and as some say near the St. Lawrence. They were driven west, and settled at Saginaw, a name derived from the Sacs. Thence they were forced by the Iroquois to Green bay; but were compelled to leave that place and settle on Fox river.

Allouez, on the twenty-fourth of April, 1670, arrived at a village of the Foxes, situated on Wolf river, a northern tributary of the Fox. "The nation." he declares, "is renowned for being numerous ; they have more than four hundred men bearing arms; the number of women and children is greater, on account of polygamy which exists among them-each man having commonly four wives, some of them six, and others as high as ten." The missionary found that the Foxes had retreated to those parts to escape the persecutions of the Iroquois. Allouez established among these Indians his mission of St. Mark, rejoicing in the fact that in less than

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

two years he had baptized "sixty children and some adults." The Foxes, at the summons of De la Barre, in 1684, sent warriors against the Five Nations. They also took part in Denonville's more serious campaign ; but soon after became hostile to the French. As early as 1693, they had plundered several on their way to trade with the Sioux, alleging that they were carrying arms and ammunition to their ancient enemies-frequently causing them to make portages to the southward in crossing from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. Afterward they became recon- ciled to the French ; but the reconciliation was of short duration. In 1712, Fort Detroit, then defended by only a handful of men, was attacked by them in conjunction with the Mascou- tens and Kickapoos. However, in the end, by calling in friendly Indians, the garrison not only protected themselves but were enabled to act on the offensive, destroying the greater part of the besieging force.

The nation continued their ill will to the French. The consequence was that their territory in 1716 had been invaded and they were reduced to sue for peace. But their friendship was not of long continuance. In 1718, the Foxes numbered five hundred men and "abounded in women and children." They are spoken of at that date as being very industrious, raising large quantities of Indian corn. In 1728, another expedition was sent against them by the French. Meanwhile the Menomonees had also become hostile; so, too, the Sacs, who were now the allies of the Foxes. The result of the enterprise was, an attack upon and the defeat of a number of Menomonees; the burning of the wigwams of the Winnebagos (after passing the deserted village of the Sacs upon the Fox river), that tribe, also, at this date being hostile ; and the destruction of the fields of the Foxes. They were again attacked in their own country by the French, in 1730, and defeated. In 1734, both the Sacs and Foxes came in conflict with the same foe; but this time the French were not as successful as on previous expeditions. In 1736, the Sacs and Foxes were " connected with the government of Canada; " but it is certain they were far from being friendly to the French.

The conflict between France and Great Britain commencing in 1754, found the Sacs and Foxes allied with the former power, against the English, although not long previous to this time they were the bitter enemies of the French. At the close of that contest so disastrous to the interests of France in North America, these tribes readily gave in their adhesion to the con- querors, asking that English traders might be sent them. The two nations, then about equally divided, numbered, in 1761, about seven hundred warriors. Neither of the tribes took part in Pontiac's war, but they befriended the English. The Sacs had migrated farther to the west- ward; but the Foxes-at least a portion of them-still remained upon the waters of the river of Green bay, which perpetuates their name. A few years later, however, and the former were occupants of the upper Wisconsin ; also, to a considerable distance below the portage, where their chief town was located. Further down the same stream was the upper village of the Foxes, while their lower one was situated near its mouth at the site of the present city of Prairie du Chien. At this date, 1766, the northern portion of what is now Wisconsin, including all that part watered by the streams flowing north into Lake Superior, was the home of the Chippewas. The country around nearly the whole of Green bay was the hunting ground of the Menomonees. The territory of Winnebago lake and Fox river was the seat of the Winnebagoes. The region of the Wisconsin river was the dwelling place of the Sacs and Foxes.

During the war of the Revolution, the Sacs and Foxes continued the firm friends of the English. At the commencement of the nineteenth century, only a small part of their territory was included in what is now Wisconsin, and that was in the extreme southwest. In 1804, they ceded this to the United States ; so that they no longer were owners of any lands within this State. From that date, therefore, these allied tribes can not be considered as belonging to the

PRE-TERRITORIAL ANNALS OF WISCONSIN.

Indian nations of Wisconsin. A striking episode in their subsequent history - the Black Hawk War- comes in, notwithstanding, as a part, incidentally, of the annals of the State.

Deserving a place in a notice of the Indian tribes of Wisconsin is the nation known as the POTTAWATTAMIES. As early as 1639, they were the neighbors of the Winnebagoes upon Green bay. They were still upon its southern shore, in two villages, in 1670; and ten years subsequent to that date they occupied, at least in one village the same region. At the expiration of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, a part only of the nation were in that vicinity - upon the islands at the mouth of the bay. These islands were then known as the Pottawattamie islands, and considered as the ancient abode of these Indians. Already had a large portion of this tribe emigrated southward, one band resting on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, the other near Detroit. One peculiarity of this tribe - at least of such as resided in what is now Wisconsin - was their intimate association with neighboring bands. When, in 1669, a village of the Pottawattamies, located upon the southeast shore of Green bay, was visited by Allouez, he found with them Sacs and Foxes and Winnebagoes. So, also, when, many years subsequent to that date, a band of these Indians were located at Milwaukee, with them were Ottawas and Chippewas. These " united tribes" claimed all the lands of their respective tribes and of other nations, giving the United States, when possession was taken of the western country by the General Government, no little trouble. Finally, by a treaty, held at Chicago in 1833, their claims, such as they were, to lands along the western shore of Lake Michigan, within the present State of Wisconsin, extending westward to Rock river, were purchased by the United States, with permission to retain possession three years longer of their ceded lands, after which time this " united nation of Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawattamies " began to disappear, and soon were no longer seen in southeastern Wisconsin or in other portions of the State.

Besides the five tribes - Menomonees, Winnebagoes, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, and Pottawattamies-many others, whole or in part, have, since the territory now constituting the State was first visited by white men, been occupants of its territory. Of these, some are only known as having once lived in what is now Wisconsin ; others- such as the Hurons, Illinois, Kickapoos, Mascoutens, Miamis, Noquets, Ottawas and Sioux, are recognized as Indians once dwelling in this region; yet so transitory has been their occupation, or so little is known of their history, that they scarcely can be claimed as belonging to the State.

Commencing in 1822, and continuing at intervals through some of the following years, was the migration to Wisconsin from the State of New York of the remains or portions of four tribes : the Oneidas, Stockbridges, Munsees and Brothertowns. The Oneidas finally located west of Green Bay, where they still reside. Their reservation contains over 60,000 acres, and lies wholly within the present counties of Brown and Outagamie. The Stockbridges and Munsees, who first located above Green Bay, on the east side of Fox river, afterward moved to the east side of Winnebago lake. They now occupy a reservation joining the southwest township of the Menomenee reservation, in Shawano county, and are fast becoming citizens. The Brothertowns first located on the east side of Fox river, but subsequently moved to the east side of Winnebago lake, where, in 1839, they broke up their tribal relations and became citizens of Wisconsin territory.

III .- PRE-TERRITORIAL ANNALS OF WISCONSIN.

When, in 1634, the first white man set foot upon any portion of the territory now consti- tuting the State of Wisconsin, the whole country was, of course, a wilderness. Its inhabitants, the aboriginal Red men, were thinly but widely scattered over all the country. JOHN NICOLET, a Frenchman, who had been in Canada since 1618, and had spent several years among the

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

Indians, was the first of civilized men to unlock the mystery of its situation and people. French authorities upon the St. Lawrence sent him as an ambassador to the Winnebagoes, of whom he had heard strange stories. On his outward voyage he visited the Hurons-allies of the French -a tribe seated upon the eastern side of the lake which bears their name, and Nicolet was empowered to negotiate a peace with them. "When he approached the Winnebago town, he sent some of his Indian attendants to announce his coming, put on a robe of damask, and advanced to meet the expectant crowd with a pistol in each hand. The squaws and children fled, scream- ing that it was a manito, or spirit, armed with thunder and lightning; but the chiefs and warriors regaled him with so bountiful a hospitality, that a hundred and twenty beavers were devoured at a single feast." Such was the advent of the daring Frenchman into what is now the State of Wisconsin.

" Upon the borders of Green bay," wrote the Jesuit, Paul le Jeune, in 1640, " are the Meno- monees; still farther on, the Winnebagoes, a sedentary people, and very numerous. Some Frenchmen," he continues, "call them the 'Nation of the Stinkards,' because the Algonquin word Winipeg signifies 'stinking water.' Now they thus call the water of the sea ; therefore, these people call themselves ' Winnebagoes,' because they came from the shores of a sea of which we have no knowledge; consequently we must not call them the 'Nation of Stinkards,' but the ' Nation of the Sea.'" From these Men of the Sea, Nicolet passed westward, ascended Fox river of Green Bay, until nigh the portage to the Wisconsin, down which stream he could have floated easily to the Mississippi, the "great water" of his guides, which he mistook for the sea. This adventurous Frenchman, when so near re-discovering the river which has given immortality to De Soto, turned his face to the eastward ; retraced his steps to Green bay, and finally returned in safety to Quebec. This was the first exploration of what is now Wisconsin- only fourteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims upon the wild shores. of New England.

Wisconsin, for twenty-four years after its discovery, was left to its savage inhabitants. At length, in 1658, two daring fur traders penetrated to Lake Superior, and wintered there. They probably set foot upon what is now Wisconsin soil, as they made several trips among the sur- rounding tribes. They saw, among other things, at six days' journey beyond the lake, toward the southwest, Indians that the Iroquois had driven from their homes upon the eastern shores of Lake Huron. These Frenchmen heard of the ferocious Sioux, and of a great river-not the sea, as Nicolet had supposed-on which they dwelt. This was the Mississippi; and to these traders is the world indebted for a knowledge of its existence ; as De Soto's discovery was never used, and soon became well-nigh, if not entirely, forgotten. From these upper countries, in the Sum- mer of 1660, the two returned to Quebec, with three hundred Indians in sixty canoes, laden with peltry. This was, indeed, the dawn-though exceedingly faint-of what is now the commerce of the great Northwest. Nineteen years after flashed a more brilliant light; for, in 1679, the "Griffin," laden with furs, left one of the islands at the mouth of Green bay, on its return- spreading her sails for Niagara, but never more to be heard of.

Following in the footsteps of the fur traders came the Jesuit missionaries to Lake Superior ; one of them, Father Menard, as early as 1660, reaching its southern shore as far to the westward, probably, as Kewenaw, in the present State of Michigan. There is no positive evidence, however, that he or his French companions, visited any portion of what is now Wisconsin; although the next year, 1661, some of his associates probably passed down the Menomonee river to Green bay. Following Menard came Father Claude Allouez, arriving on the first day of October, 1665, at "Chagowamigong," or "Chegoimegon," now Chequamegon, or Ashland Bay, "at the bottom of which," wrote the missionary, " is situated the great villages of the savages, who there plant their fields of Indian corn, and lead a stationary life." Near by he erected a small chapel of bark-the

PRE-TERRITORIAL ANNALS OF WISCONSIN.

first structure erected by civilized man in Wisconsin. At La Pointe, in the present Ashland county, he established the mission of the Holy Ghost.

The next Catholic mission in what is now Wisconsin was that of St. Francis Xavier, founded also by Allouez. Upon the second of December, 1669, he first attended to his priestly devotions upon the waters of Green bay. This mission, for the first two years of its existence, was a migratory one. The surrounding tribes were all visited, including the Pottawattamies, Menom- onees, Winnebagoes, and Sacs and Foxes. However, in 1671, one hundred and five years before the Declaration of Independence, there was erected, at what is now Depere, Brown county, a chapel for the mission of St. Francis Xavier. Thus early dil the Jesuit Fathers, in their plain garbs and unarmed, carry the cross to many of the benighted heathen occupying the country circumscribed by Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior, and the "great river "-the Mississippi.

French domination in Wisconsin dates from the year 1671, the very year in which it seems the indomitable LaSalle, upon his first expedition, passed the mouth of Green bay, but did not enter it. France then took formal possession of the whole of the country of the upper lakes. By this time, the commerce with the western tribes had so attached them to her interests that she determined to extend her power to the utmost limits-vague and indeterminate as they were-of Canada. An agent-Daumont de St. Lusson-was dispatched to the distant tribes, proposing a congress of Indian nations at the Falls of Ste. Mary, between Lake Huron and Lake- Superior. The invitation was extended far and near. The principal chiefs of Wisconsin tribes,, gathered by Nicolas Perrot in Green bay, were present at the meeting. Then and there, with due ceremony, it was announced that the great Northwest was placed under the protection of the French government. And why not? She had discovered it - had to a certain extent explored it-had to a limited extent established commerce with it-and her missionaries had. proclaimed the faith to the wondering savages. But none of her agents-none of the fur- traders-none of the missionaries-had yet reached the Mississippi, the " great river," concerning which so many marvels had been heard, although it is claimed that, in 1669, it had been seen by the intrepid La Salle. But the time for its discovery, or properly re-discovery, was at hand, if, indeed, it can be called, with propriety, a re-discovery, since its existence to the westward was. already known to every white man particularly interested in matters appertaining to the North- west. Now, however, for the first time, its upper half was to be, to a certain extent, explored. For the first time, a white man was to behold its vast tribute, above the Illinois river, rolling onward toward the Mexican gulf. Who was that man ? His name was Louis Joliet; with him was Father James Marquette.

Born at Quebec, in 1645, educated by the Jesuits, and first resolving to be a priest, then turning fur-trader, Joliet had, finally, been sent with an associate to explore the copper mines of Lake Superior. He was a man of close and intelligent observation, and possessed considerable mathematical acquirements. At this time, 1673, he was a merchant, courageous, hardy, enter -. prising. He was appointed by French authorities at Quebec to " discover " the Mississippi. He passed up the lakes to Mackinaw, and found at Point St. Ignace, on the north side of the strait, Father James Marquette, who readily agreed to accompany him. Their outfit was very simple: two birch-bark canoes and a supply of smoked meat and Indian corn. They had a company of five men with them, beginning their voyage on the seventeenth of May, 1673. Passing the straits, they coasted the northern shores of Lake Michigan, moved up Green bay and Fox river to the portage. They crossed to the Wisconsin, down which they paddled their frail canoes, until, on the seventeenth of June, they entered-"discovered "-the Mississippi. So the northern, the eastern and the western boundary of what is now Wisconsin had been reached at this date ; therefore, it may be said that its territory had been explored sufficiently for the forming of a.

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

pretty correct idea of its general features as well as of its savage inhabitants. After dropping down the Mississippi many miles, Joliet and Marquette returned to Green bay, where the latter remained to recruit his exhausted strength, while Joliet descended to Quebec, to report his " discoveries " to his superiors.

Then followed the expedition of LaSalle to the west, from the St. Lawrence, when, in 1679, he and Father Louis Hennepin coasted along the western shore of Lake Michigan, frequently landing ; then, the return of Henri de Tonty, one of LaSalle's party down the same coast to Green bay, in 1680, from the Illinois; the return, also, the same year, of Hennepin, from up the Mis- sissippi, whither he had made his way from the Illinois, across what is now Wisconsin, by the Wisconsin and Fox rivers to Green bay, in company with DuLhut, or DuLuth, who, on his way down the " great river " from Lake Superior, had met the friar ; and then, the voyage, in 1683, from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river, by the same route, of LeSueur, and his subsequent establishment at La Pointe, in what is now Ashland county, Wisconsin, followed several years after by a trip up the Mississippi. The act of Daumont de St. Lusson, at the Sault Sainte Mary, in 1671, in taking possession of the country beyond Lake Michigan, not being regarded as suffi- ciently definite, Nicolas Perrot, in 1689, at Green bay, again took possession of that territory, as well as of the valleys of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and extending the dominion of New France over the country on the Upper Mississippi, and "to other places more remote." The voyage of St. Cosme, in 1699, when he and his companions frequently landed on the west coast of Lake Michigan, upon what is now territory of Wisconsin, completed the explorations in the west for the seventeenth century.

Following in the footsteps of early explorations, of self sacrificing attempts of the Jesuits to carry the cross to the wild tribes of the West, of the first visits of the lawless coureurs de bois, was the military occupation-if such it can be called-of what is now Wisconsin by the French. The ninety years of domination by France in this region were years of only nominal possession. The record of this occupation is made up of facts concerning the Indian policy of the French rulers; their contests with the Sacs and Foxes; their treaties, at various times, with different tribes ; their interest in, and protection of, the fur trade, and kindred subjects. The Indian tribes were, at most, only the allies of France. Posts-mere stockades without cannon, more for protection to fur-traders than for any other purpose-were erected upon the Mississippi at two points at least, upon what is now territory of Wisconsin. On the west side of Fox river of Green bay, "half a league from its mouth," was a French post, as early as 1721, where resided, besides the commandant and an uncouth squad of soldiers, a Jesuit missionary ; and near by were collected Indians of different tribes. Of course, the omnipresent fur-trader helped to augment the sum-total of its occupants. This post was, not long after, destroyed, but another was established there. When, however, France yielded her inchoate rights in the West to Great Britain-when, in 1761, the latter took possession of the country-there was not a French post within what is now Wisconsin. The "fort " near the head of Green bay, had been vacated for some years; it was found " rotten, the stockade ready to fall, and the houses without cover; " emblematic of the decay-the fast-crumbling and perishing state-of French supremacy, at that date, in America. Wisconsin, when England's control began, was little better than a howling wilderness. There was not within the broad limits of what is now the State, a single bona fide settler, at the time the French Government yielded up its possession to the English ; that is to say, there were none according to the present acceptation of the term "settler."

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History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, Part 3

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company Number of Pages: 958

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Western Historical Company
Number of Pages: 958