He %. « M O r .^sswi /■3 vfV *&alh ***£, '«» • » * * * v *< "a -■- The Fox Indians during the French Regime By Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph. D. Editorial Assistant on the Society's Staff" - Xm I UUH '-, ... [From Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1907] MADISON STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 1908 Wisconsin Historical Society The Fox Indians During the French Regime By Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph. D. In the keystone of the great arch of colonial empire that the French sought to rear in North America, with one end at Que- bec and the other at New Orleans, lay the territory now known as Wisconsin. Two of the chief routes connecting the upper waters of Canada with the Mississippi passed through this re- gion, and it was one of the earliest interior portions of the con- tinent to be explored. Fourteen years after English colonists first touched the coast of Massachusetts, the first French ex- plorer, Jean Nicolet, stood upon the shores of Green Bay. But in his first visit to Wisconsin, Nicolet encountered none of the Fox Indians. Not until twenty-five or more years had passed, did this brave and contumacious tribe make its appear- ance upon the river to which it gave a name and whose valley it has made historic. •**. • The origin of the Foxes is lost in* the obscurity of Indian legend and tradition. They called themselves Musquakkie (Mus-quak-kie-uck). 1 Because of their wily nature, their neighbors called them Outagami, a word translated by the French into Renards, which again the English rendered into Foxes. There seems to be some trace among them of a com- i Jedidiah Morse, Report to the Secretary of War on Indian Affairs (New Haven, 1822). Appendix, p. 122; Wis. Hist. Colls., iii, p. 127. [142] Q. ol Fox Indian Wars posite origin. 2 Perrot, than whom none knew the Northern aborigines more thoroughly, reports that the Outagami were composed of two divisions, one named Red Earth, the other Renards, each with its own chieftain. 4 Detect (1733) (AFPKOMMATi.) o Vlk.UltU'3 VltTany Seat of the Fox Wars in Wisconsin and Illinois The original habitat of the tribe is not certain. Of Algon- quian origin, closely allied in language and customs to the a/d., ii, p. 492; iii, p. 203. 4 Bacqueville de la Potherie, Histoire de VAmerique Septentrionotle (Paris, 1703), ii, p. 174. Note also the meaning in Wis. Hist. Colls., iii, p. 127. [143] Wisconsin Historical Society Sauk, Mascoutin, and Kickapoo, 5 a dim tradition of an early home in the St. Lawrence valley, near Montreal, seems to have clung to their memories. 6 Thence they appear to have drifted westward with the general Algonquian movement along the northern shores of lakes Ontario and Erie. The early seventeenth century found them occupying lower Michi- gan, 7 in near proximity to the Sauk, who have left their name in Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron. One interesting episode of their history which seems to have occurred while still in Michigan, is related by La Potherie.* The Winnebago tribe, then on the shores of Green Bay, were at war with the Outagami, "qui habitoient a Fautre bord du lac" (who dwell upon the other side of the lake). The former sent a body of five hundred warriors, who all perished in a tempest that arose while they were crossing the lake. The pre- sumption is, that so great a disaster as this, must have occurred on Lake Michigan itself. Moreover, Father Claude Allouez,* referring to this war, says that it occurred "about thirty years ago," which would place it between 1636 and 1639, at a time when it is apparently demonstrated that no Foxes lived in Wisconsin. 10 The first definite knowledge we have that the Outagami were in Wisconsin is from the information of Father Gabriel Druil lettes, who on his visit to Mackinac in 1656 met Pierre Esprit Radisson, with his confrere Grosseilliers. From Radisson the missionary learned that the Outitchkouk were among the tribes gathered at Green Bay, and that they were of a very gen- is Morse, Report, App., p. 122. « Ibid., p. 138. ilbid., p. 123; Wis. Hist. Colls., iii, p. 137; Draper MSS. 28J34. » La Potherie, Hist., ii, p. 72. • Thwaites, Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896-1902), li, p. 77. ioC. W. Butterfield, History of the Discovery of the Northivest by John Nicolet (Cincinnati, 1881), p. 64. [144] Fox Indian Wars tie disposition. 11 Father Allouez, who met them on Lake Su- perior in 1065, gives a more unfavorable account of their tem- perament, saying they are "less docile than the Potawatoini." 12 It was during this decade (1655-65) that the tribe was just finding its way into Wisconsin, and searching for a new site upon which to fix their village home. Driven with the other Algonquian people before the fleeing Huron, who on their part were pursued by the fierce blast of Iroquois wrath, the Foxes with rheir kin, the Sauk, Mascoutin, and Kickapoo, abandoned their Michigan habitat, and sought refuge upon the lakes and waterways of Wisconsin. It seems probable, since they did not at this period use lake-going canoes, that they came around the southern end of Lake Michigan, pushing back the Illinois confederacy, that lrad previously ranged from the Ohio to Lake Superior. 13 Once upon Wisconsin soil they found the Win* nebago who had already battled with them, but who now al- lowed them to settle and marry among them. 14 Farther east were the Potawatomi, whose language they could understand, who had come from Mackinac via the islands of Green Bay. To the west the Mascoutin, Kickapoo, and Miami, had built a great town upon a prairie near the upper Fox. 15 nJes. Rel., xliv, p. 247. Radisson makes no mention of this tribe in his journal, but gives it in his general enumeration; G. D. Scull, Radisson's Voyages (Boston, 1885), p. 246. ™Jes. Rel, li, p. 43. 13 Gen. William Clark, for many years superintendent of Western Indian affairs, related that he believed the Foxes and Sauk dispo&r sessed the Illinois of the country west of Lake Michigan, and that some desperate battles were fought a little below Chicago on the shore of the lake. See Draper MSS., 28J34. With regard to the use of canoes by the Foxes, it is repeatedly stated by the early teachers and missionaries that they did not know their use — Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, pp. 56, 70, 257, 374; N. Y. Colon. Docs., ix, p. 160. Later, however, they appear to have learned to em- ploy them from their Winnebago and Potawatomi neighbors; see Wis. Hist. HJolls., xvi, p. 311; xvii, p. 33. **Jes. Rel., li, p. 77. if* For this site see Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, liv, [145] Wisconsin Historical Society Some time during the winter of 1665-66, 16 the Foxes, seek- ing safety from the murderous Iroquois, and a fertile land to sow their corn, built for themselves a village on the waters of Wolf River, somewhere probably in the present county of Wau- paca, Wisconsin. 17 Here they were first visited in the summer of 1666 by that astute trader and explorer, Nicolas Perrot. Weil would it have been for the French empire in America had all their traders and negotiants exercised the diplomacy of Per- rot in dealing with the haughty Foxes. Years afterwards he reminded them that he was "their father since he had been the first Frenchman to open the door of their cabin." 18 The Foxes complained in 1701, at the great council at Montreal, that now they have no more spirit since Perrot has left them. Perrot, responding to the invitation of their chiefs to visit them, gives a somewhat disagreeable picture of this great vil- lage, which comprised six hundred cabins. 19 "They found a pp. 167-182. Butterfield (op. cit., note 10, ante) assumed that this village existed here at the time of Nicolet's visit. I find no proof thereof, but think these people doubtless came with the great migra- tion of 1650-65. is This date is fixed by Perrot, who first came to Wisconsin in the spring of 1666 (Jes. Rel., lv, p. 320), and says that the Outagami vil- lage was a new establishment built the preceding winter; Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 39. 17 Allouez gives the name of this village as Ouestatimong (Jes. Rel., liv, p. 12). Its exact location has not been determined; see Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi. p. 39, note. is La Potherie, Hist., ii, p. 173. is This would be a very large population for an Indian town, but no larger than that reported for the kindred Mascoutin village, which is represented as having at one time 20,000 souls. Allowing ten per- sons to a cabin, a low estimate, the total population would have reached 6,000. Allouez mentions six cabins as having contained one hundred women and children while the men were away hunting, an average of about eighteen to a cabin. On this estimate, the Wolf River village would have a population of about 10,000. Allouez says the tribe is renowned for being populous, and has more than 400 war- riors. He says later there were but 200 cabins; but with five, six, or ten families to each, the population would approach that indicated by [146 1 Fox Indian Wars large village, but destitute of everything. These people had only five or six hatchets, which had no edge, and they used these, by turns, for cutting their wood; they had hardly one knife or one bodkin to a cabin, and cut their meat with the stones which they used for arrows." These are, then, aborig- inal tribesmen, relying upon their own resources of stone knives and flint instruments, unaccustomed to the goods of the French trader, and using only the arts of primitive life. Their destitution, however, was probably only relative. Allouez mentions the excellence of the soil, and the advanced state of agriculture among them. Their cabins were well-made, and covered with thick bark, and they knew the art of fortifying their village. Perrot's visit was their first contact with the white man. They had heard of these marvelous visitors who brought iron knives and hatchets, guns to slay enemies, kettles to cook food, and beautiful glass beads for the adornment of their persons. They had even secured a few of their products through the Potawatomi, who had been down to Montreal, and brought back materials for trade. Xow one of these wonderful strangers had appeared in their midst. They followed his footsteps at every turn, importuning him for gifts "for those Savages imagined that whatever their visitors possessed ought to be given to them gratis; everything aroused their desires, and yet they had few Beavers to sell." The practical Perrot left some Sauk to do his trading for him, and returned to Green Bay. Other French traders with whom the Outagami came early in contact impressed them less favorably than Perrot. When a hundred and twenty of the tribe visited Chequamegon dur- ing the winter of 1666-67, Allouez reported that they and the Sauk would kill a Frenchman if they found him alone, be- cause they disliked beards. 20 Perrot. It is doubtful, however, whether their numbers ever ex- ceeded 5,000 all told. 20 Jes. Rel., li, p. 44. [147] Wisconsin Historical Society When the good Jesuit father first came to Green Bay, it was at the urgent request of the Potawatomi, "to curb some young Frenchmen, who being- among them for the purpose of trading, were threatening and maltreating them." 21 Allouez found similar conditions in the Fox village. Instead of the exalted idea they had first received of the Frenchman as a god — a manitou sent by the Great Spirit, the shocking conduct of two French traders had given them a low opinion of the whole nation, an idea the Jesuit labored hard to remove. 62 When Allouez prepared to return to them the following an tunm, he learned that some of the Foxes had that summer made the then momentous voyage to Montreal, and that there they had been maltreated by French soldiers, and were so bent upon revenge that not a trader dared venture into their vicin- ity. Even Allouez, in going among them, took his life in his hand.- 1 The specimens of humanity found on the frontier of white advance into barbarian territory are either the best or the worst of their race. With the exception of Perrot, the Foxes had found the French traders unjust, deceitful, arrogant, and brutal. Nor did the devoted services of the "black-gown" missionaries make much impression on these men of the for- ests. The devoted Allouez spent three days in their village (April 24-27, 1B70), and there founded the mission of St. Marc. Had the French traders who had been among them behaved better, "I would have had less trouble," he succinctly remarks. In his autumn visit of the same year he received a very frigid welcome for causes before noted. 24 In February of the fol- lowing year, the faithful missionary again sought his Fox neophytes. Going overland, in the depths of a Wisconsin winter, he Avas frost-bitten, and suffered much physical hard- 21 Id., liv, p. 197. ^ Ibid., p. 255. as id., lv, p. 185. z* Hid., p. 219. [148] Fox Indian Wars ship. All this he counted as nothing compared to his bitter- ness of spirit when he was received with mockery and ribald jests, by these souls for whose salvation he yearned. Gradu- ally their spirit, touched by his patience and fidelity, softened. In 1672 he erected a cross in the village, and a party of young warriors going against the Sioux inscribed the sacred symbol on their shields, and returned victorious. 25 But the following year, this new species of exorcism had proved a fail- ure. The Sioux had killed or taken prisoners thirty Fox sol- diers of the cross, and the good father found them "badly dis- posed towards Christianity." 26 Nor did the mission of St. Marc ever become flourishing; for eight years (1670-78) the black-robed apostles made them frequent visits but never more than an occasional baptism of an ailing infant or a dying old man rewarded their efforts. Upon the mass of the tribe Chris- tianity made no impression. They remained wedded to their primitive vices and their ancient superstitions, and were "self- Avilled beyond anything that can be imagined." 27 The first years' residence of the Foxes in Wisconsin were thus the momentous ones of their first contact with the French, when the seeds of distrust Avere sown, which were to blossom later into a harvest of hatred and war. It is not con- tended that the treatment of the Foxes was worse than that accorded by the French to the other Algonquian tribes around Green Bay ; but the former were a stronger race, of a more consistent self-regard, less easily subdued by a show of force, self-reliant, and revengeful, cherishing their vengeance long, and venting it when the moment seemed opportune. This ap- pears from the earliest reports, wherein they are noted as "less docile than the Potawatomi," and "a proud and arrogant peo- ple," held in low estimation by their neighbors 28 — no doubt be- 26 id., lvi, p. 143. 26 Id., lviii, p. 47. 27 Ibid., p. 49. 28 Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 153. [149] Wisconsin Historical Society cause of their superior qualities — and as displaying "more steadfast courage than did the other allies." 29 Their remote situation, also, hidden behind the lakes and swamps beyond the Fox-Wisconsin trade route, distant from Green Bay and removed from constant intercourse with traders, preserved their native spirit and promoted their inde- pendence. In their village on Wolf River they lived as had their forefathers, devoting their energies to war and hunting, with flourishing families growing up around them, their in- dustrious women cultivating the fields of corn and squash, dressing their skins, weaving their mats, and satisfied with native manufactures. One kind of implement, however, they learned to use and never failed to secure from the traders — the implements of war. Hunting still with bows and arrows, they reserved their new and deadly weapons for raids upon Sioux, Chippewa, or Iroquois, and every Fox warrior pos- sessed his gun and a well-stocked powder-horn. Thus strong in primitive virtues, and secure in their independence, the Foxes dwelt remote until the changing conditions in the Up- per Country drew them from their fastnesses and gave them a. prominent part in the drama of Western history. The era of pristine discovery was over, Xicolet and Radis- son, Marquette and Jolliet, La Salle and Hennepin, Duluth and Perrot, had threaded the streams that unite the Great Lakes with the Mississippi, and explored the latter to the Gulf. The age of exploitation had begun. To the remoter tribes the coureurs des bois had penetrated. It remained to organize the trade, to colonize the strategic points, to secure the savages' al- legiance. That master-merchant, Robert Cavelier de la Salle, supported by favor at Versailles and Quebec, secured a monop- oly of the Illinois country, built his fort on the river of that name, planned an establishment at the mouth of the Wiscon- sin, and sought a new adjustment of tribal geography. The Illinois were clustered around his central fortification, the 29 Ibid., p. 70. [ 150 ] Fox Indian Wars Miami were tempted southward, and settled in two great divi- sions, one on the St. Josephs River, Michigan, and one in northeastern Illinois, near a place called Marameg. 30 With them, went the allied tribes of the Mascoutin and Kickapoo, the latter giving its name to Rock River, on whose upper branches it settled. On their part, the Foxes, abandoning their village site upon the upper Wolf, removed to the river which now bears their name. This river had until then without exception been called "Riviere des Puants," from the Winnebago tribe inhabiting its banks, and from the name of the bay into which it dis- charges. The earliest mention of the river by its new name, is on Hennepin's map in his edition of La Louisiana, where he uses the term "R. et L. Outagamis." Perrot, in his minutes of taking possession of the country of the upper Mississippi (1689), annexes the "Baye des Puants, the lake and rivers of the Outagamis and Maskoutins." 31 Lahontan, who journeyed by the Fox- Wisconsin waterway in 1G88, speaks of two vil- lages of the Outagami on the upper Fox. 32 La Salle, who calls the river Kakaling, locates the Fox village near Lake Petit Butte des Morts, where it is likewise found on Fran- quelin's map of 1684. 33 Allouez's last mention of the mission so This place has usually been identified with the Marameg River in Michigan. Franquelin's map of 1684 places it upon the upper Fox River of Illinois. Perrot was stationed there in 1692, and later a Fox village was built in this neighborhood, and left its name to the river; see Wis. Hist. Colls., xvii, pp. 129, 173; J. F. Steward, Lost Maramech and Earliest Chicago (Chicago, 1903). On Franquelin's map the Miami are scattered through the northern Illinois region. He places one vil- lage of 1300 population upon a branch of the Kankakee; the Pianke- shaw, Ouiatanon, and other Miami tribes are located on branches of the Illinois. Later (1692) the tribe seems to have been collected at Mara- meg, Chicago, and St. Joseph — this before the migration towards Detroit. si Wis. Hist. Colls., xi, p. 35. 32 Thwaites, Lahontan: s Voyages (New York, 1903), i, p. 175. S3 Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 106. [151] Wisconsin Historical Society of St. Marc, on Wolf River, is in 1678. La Salle's letter locating the Fox village, is dated 1682, therefore their migra- tion must have occurred between these two dates, probably about 1680. The Foxes were thus brought prominently into the arena of action during a troubled period for the colony of New France. For twenty years the war with the Iroquois raged. In the West, confusion reigned. The attempt of La Salle to concentrate the tribes at his Illinois establishment had been but partially successful, and during his ill-fated Louisiana expedition and after his death, Tonty commanded at Fort St. Louis. He built a secondary establishment at Chicago, and shipped peltry through Lake Michigan and Mackinac. 34 Du- luth founded (1686) a post on the Detroit River, which was abandoned two years later by the profligate Baron Lahon- tan. 85 At Green Bay matters were in great disorder. The Indians were mutinous and insolent ; even the docile Potawatomi, thor- oughly wedded to French interest, in which they saw their own as middlemen for intertribal trade, required to be hum- bled. 36 The Menominee murdered some of the Jesuits' serv- ants, 37 and pillage and rapine spread abroad. The one man capable of coping with these fierce spirits waa Daniel Graysolon Duluth. In Lake Superior he even ven- tured to put to death a powerful Chippewa chief for the mur- der of some Frenchmen. 38 To Green Bay he sent his ablest lieutenant, in the person of Nicolas Perrot. In 1682 a Sau- teur-Outagami war had broken out, in the course of which captives had been taken, among whom w r as the daughter of a powerful Ottawa chief at Mackinac. The affair threatened to embroil all the Wisconsin tribes ; vain attempts had been mad© si Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, xxxiii, p. 75. 35 Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 125; Lahontan's Voyages, i, p. 163. 36 Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, pp. 110, 111. 37 ibid., pp. 99-102. 38 Ibid., pp. 114-125. [152] Fox Indian Wars to secure this captive maiden. The Foxes, haughty in their success, refused to listen to any envoys, and threatened with death all who approached their village. Duluth persuaded Perrot to put his head within this lion's jaws. With a bravado which charmed the savage spirit, Perrot suddenly ap- peared in their midst, and baring his chest exclaimed: "Listen, Outagamis, to what I am going to say. I have learned that you are very anxious to eat the flesh of the French; I have come with these young men whom you see, in order to satisfy you. Put us into your kettles, and satiate yourselves with the flesh you have wanted." Then with a dramatic gesture of his sword, he continued, "My flesh is white and savory, but it is quite salt; if you eat it, I do not think that you can swallow it with- out vomiting." Having by much diplomacy secured the Ottawa maiden, lie hastened to Green Bay, where the chiefs were aston- ished at his success. His empire over their spirits increased, he secured satisfaction for the murdered Jesuit servants, and reached Mackinac in time to arrest an Ottawa war-party just setting forth. 39 Perrot was next commissioned (1684) to take a reinforce- ment of Western tribes to La Barre's aid in the latter' s foray into Iroquois territory. A few Outagami accompanied this war-party, whose failure alienated the Western tribesmen. 40 In consequence of this abortive expedition, the Outagami, when enlisted for Denonville's enterprise three years later, were easily turned back by a party of Loup (Mahican) In- dians, whom they met on their way to Detroit. 41 Returning to Green Bay, during Perrot's absence on this expedition, their mischievous tendencies soon appeared. At the point of the sword they forced the Jesuits' blacksmith to sharpen their 39 La Potherie relates this episode twice — Hist, ii, pp. 148-157, 167-177. The former account is translated in Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, pp. 99-103. I have combined the two narratives, each having its dramatic features, and setting forth the astuteness of Perrot. 40 Lahontan's Voyages, i, p. 73. *' La Potherie, Hist., ii, pp. 193-199. [ 153 1 Wisconsin Historical Society knives and axes, 1 - which they proceeded to employ in a raid upon the Chippewa. At this time the church and mission house were burned, and the inference is that the fire, by which Perrot lost a large amount of peltry, was of incendiary origin. Upon his return Perrot once more subdued the Renards to his will, but secured no satisfaction for his vanished furs. Indeed, he but narrowly escaped personal violence at the hands of the Poxes. 43 During all the years of Frontenac's second administration (1689-98), the Renards were in secret or open rebellion. After the Laehine massacre (1689), in common with the other Western tribesmen, 44 they openly sent envoys to the Iroquois ; ts afterwards the Poxes planned to migrate with the Mascoutin and Kickapoo to the Wabash, and there ally themselves with this great confederacy. 46 Thwarted in that scheme by the exer- tions of Louis de la Porte, Sieur de Louvigny, whom Fronte- nac sent to command at Mackinac, 47 they once more turned their arms against the Sioux. 48 The Pox-Wisconsin waterway now became unsafe for French traders, 49 and in 1693 Pierre Charles le Sueur was sent to keep open the route to the Mississippi via Lake Superior and the rivers Bois Brule and St. Croix. 50 Perrot by his personal as- ^Ibid., p. 209; Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 143. *3 This episode, like that of the rescue of the prisoner, is twice re- lated by La Potherie — Hist., ii, pp. 211-214, 244-256. The latter is translated in Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, pp. 143-151. "Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 134; Jes. Rel, Ixiv, pp. 23-39. "5 Wis Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 141. «« La Potherie, Hist., ii, p. 314. <7 Wis. Hist. Colls., v, pp. 108-110. ♦s Ibid., p. 303; Mich. Pion. it- Hist. Colls., xxxiii, p. 90. 4» Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 149. so Ibid., p. 173. In a memorial regarding Le Sueur, written in 1702, he is stated to have carried on trade in the West "for the last 14 years, at first under pretence of stopping the war between the Foxes and other nations — a mission repeated several times that has had no other result than to bring him many beavers." — Canadian Archives, 1905, i, p. 524. [154] Fox Indian Wars cendency maintained a hold upon the haughty Foxes, who res- cued him from the resentment of the Miami, 51 and sent in 1007 chiefs with him to visit the great Onontio. Frontenac, unable to punish their insolence, threatened them with a punitive ex- pedition if they did not keep the peace. 52 The following- year the great governor diet!, but in one respect his works lived after him. He had finally cowed the fierce Iroquois, and in 1700 they sought the new governor, Louis Hector de Callieres, in the interests of peace. After prolonged negotiations they promised to restore the prisoners taken from the Indian allies of the French, provided that on their part the allies would return the Iroquois held as slaves. Messengers were sent to all the far nations, who came in 1701 to Montreal bringing their Iroquois prisoners. The Outagami chief had protested, however, that he had no prisoners to return."" Park- man, following the account of La Potherie, who was an eye- witness of this great council, has given us a graphic picture of its setting, and several incidents. 54 It was an Outagami who created much merriment by the dignified way in which he ad- vanced, crowned with an old French peruke, which he treated as a hat. His speech, however, was eloquent and significant. Parkman omits his final words, "I now regard the Iroquois as my brother; but I am yet at war with the Sioux." To this declaration is annexed the pithy comment, "They did not wish to touch upon this last remark," which was allowed to pass un- noticed. Was it strange that the Outagami conceived themselves authorized by the authority of the governor himself, to plunder traders carving munitions of war to the tribesmen whose en- mity they had so openly proclaimed? si Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 166; Tailhan, Perrot's Memoire (Leipzig and Paris, 1864), p. 331; Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, pp. 173, 174. zzWis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 172. ?>8 N. Y. Colon. Docs., ix, p. 724. 54 Francis Parkman, Frontenac and New France (Boston, 1877), pp. 447-431; La Potherie, Hist., ii, pp. 240-266. 11 [ 155 ] Wisconsin Historical Society For the moment all seemed auspicious in the Canadian colony. The tree of peace, in the figurative language of the eloquent tribesmen, had been planted on a mountain high enough for all the world to see. The Upper Country was paci- fied, all sat quiel upon their mats, and smoked the calumet. But it was an unstable equilibrium, based upon the alliance of tribes scattered over two thousand miles of wilderness, resembl- ing a "vast menagerie of wild animals, where the lynx bristled at the wolf, and the panther grinned fury at the bear, in spite of all efforts to form them into a happy family under paternal rule." 55 Frontenac, the great war-governor, being dead, a new parly had come into control of Xew France. In contrast to the ex- pansionist policy of Frontenac and his able lieutenants. La Salle, Tonty, Duluth, Perrot, and La Mothe-Cadillac, this may in modern parlance be called the "anti-imperialistic" party. Their policy was to leave the tribesmen to themselves, to ignore their quarrels, to withdraw the officers from the posts, and to force the fur-trade into its former channels, when fleets of savages came each year to Montreal to traffic for their peltry. Yielding to their solicitations, the court at Versailles gave •orders in conformity thereto, and from all the Upper Country traders were summoned, conges revoked, and officers ordered home. Mackinac, St. Joseph, and Marameg were abandoned, and all forces of control, save the Jesuit priests, withdrawn. 56 The Illinois post was exempted from this order. The found- ing <>f Louisiana opened a new route into the upper Mississippi region and partially nullified the prohibition to carry goods. Eighty-four coureurs des hois, refusing to return to Canada, escaped to the Mississippi country, and there laid the founda- tion of the Illinois settlement. 57 Juchereau de St. Denis was permitted to begin ;i posl at the mouth of the Ohio, and Pierre Charles le Sueur ascended the Mississippi a- far as the St. 55 Parkman, Fronienac. p. 403. 56 Tailhan, Perrot's Memoire. p. 332. 57 N. Y. Colon. Docs., ix. p. 721. [156 Fox Indian Wars Peter's, and built a fort within the present limits of Minne- sota. 58 Left to themselves the Foxes carried on the Sioux war with vigor, and closed the Fox-Wisconsin waterway to all travellers. In 1699 Father St. Cosine found it necessary to go to the Il- linois via the Chicago portage, because "the Foxes who are on this little river that you ascend on leaving the Bay to reach the Weskonsin will not suffer any person to pass for fear they will go to places at war with them, and hence have already plundered several Frenchmen who wished to go by that road." *' In 1702 a Montreal merchant who had been allowed to go and reinforce Le Sueur at Fort FHuillier was plundered by the Foxes of goods to the value of 25,000 to 30,000 livres. Juchereau de St. Denis bribed the brigands of Fox River with a thousand crowns' worth of goods to let his canoes proceed."' .Not long after this a force of Foxes and Mascoutin appeared in the Sioux country, killed three members of the garrison of the fort, and compelled the rest to evacuate the place. 61 No won- der that Cadillac complained of the fruits of the policy of non interference, that Frenchmen were '"exposed to the humiliations and insults which they have so often endured without being able to help it, such as being plundered and cruelly beaten, which has disgraced the name of France among these tribes." 62 Urging these considerations, and the danger that the Upper Country, left to itself, would place its fur-trade in the hands of the Iroquois and English, an order was obtained (1699) from the French court to found a colony at Detroit under the fostering care of Antoine la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac. Of Gascon birth, La Mothe came to New France about 1683, and after some years' service as hydrographer, received a large ss Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, pp. 177-200. sa John Gilmary Shea, Early Voyages on the Mississippi (Albany, 1861)1 p. 49. go Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, p. 175. 6i Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 200. QZMich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, p. 144. [ 157 ] Wisconsin Historical Society grant of land on the coast of Maine, including the island of Mount Desert. In 1687 he was married at Quebec, and his home was burned at Port Royal during the English invasion of 1600. At first a lieutenant, then a captain, in the colonial troops, he succeeded Louvigny as commandant at Michilimack- inac, and during his command (1694-97) made a study of the Western situation. His plan, like those of La Salle and Perrot, included the removal of the Indian tribes to the neighborhood of the post, and their instruction in the French language and in some measure of civilization. His invitations to settle near Detroit were first accepted by the Huron and Ottawa, whom he had known while commandant at Mackinac. A considerable village of Lonps (Mahican), who had long been allies of the Iroquois, settled north of the fort, but removed after the trouble of 1700. 63 The Miami had before the founding of Detroit concentrated at St. Joseph by the express command of Fron- tenac. The Jesuit missionaries at this station opposed their removal to Detroit, but in 1707 they were induced to place their villages on the river Maumee. 61 In 1703 a village of Chippewa and Mississagua settled near Fort Pontchartrain. The Pota- watomi, always arch-traders and submissive to French influ- ence, took the Mi amis' place at St. Joseph, and sometime be- tween 1706 and 1712 formed a village at Detroit. 65 In 1701 there were two thousand Indians at this site; bnt after the troubles of 1706, when, during Cadillac's absence, his inef- ficient lieutenant Bourgmont was drawn into a quarrel between Miami and Ottawa, and lost two soldiers and a missionary, there were bnt twelve hundred. 66 The Foxes, frequently solicited by La Mothe's agents to re- move their village within range of the protection of his fort, for a long time refused. Nearly all their neighbors had, however. «s Ibid., pp. 138, 163, 270. «*Ibid., p. 338. «:>IM(l., pp. 385, 552. «« JhUh. pp. 205, 340. 158 ] Fox Indian Wars left their vicinity, traders came but rarely among them, 67 and their isolation became distasteful to a large party of the tribe. Even the Jesuits had abandoned the Green Bav region, follow- ing their Sauk and Potawatomi neophytes to St. Josephs River. 68 Finally, in 1710, moved by some impulse not at this distance of time fully clear to us, a large party of Outagami decided for migration, and gathered their effects for the long overland journey. Lodge poles and provisions were packed on the backs of their faithful squaws, and with numerous troops of children and dogs the long journey began. Somewhere on the march a band of Maseoutin was encountered, who joined forces with them, and proceeded onward, a disorderly but peaceful rabble of more than a thousand souls. 69 Cadillac, however, was no longer at his village on the strait. Summoned to the governorship of Louisiana, his place at De- troit had been taken by Charles Regnault, Sieur Dubuisson, who did not sympathize with Cadillac's policy of concentra- tion, and was annoyed by this large, uncouth, plundering body of strange Indians, that had made its way to his vicinity. In 1711 the new governor, Marquis de Yaudreuil, sent for a number of Fox chiefs to visit him at Montreal. 70 The officer who was deputed with the summons found the Renards already embroiled with their neighbors at Detroit, 71 and rescued from their hands a condemned prisoner. 72 The governor upbraided «" Ibid., pp. 449, 459. An illegal trader named Boisseau did a thriv- ing business at Green Bay in 1707. «s Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, pp. 501, 532. wibid.. pp. 500, 505; Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 293. It was claimed that the Foxes were on their way to the Iroquois; but if such were their purpose they would have avoided Detroit, rather than have foraged in its vicinity for two years. "o Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, pp. 497-500. « Ibid., pp. 504, 505. « Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, p. 273. [ 159 1 Wisconsin Historical Society the visiting chiefs, 73 and advised them to return to their form- er village in Wisconsin. 74 Well would it have been for the Foxes had they heeded the warning of the great Onontio ; well would it have been for the fortunes of New France, had Vaudreuil succeeded in reversing the policy of Cadillac, and persuaded this unruly tribe to re- tire once more to their Wisconsin fastnesses. It required more than human wisdom to keep the ''happy family 1 ' clus- tered around Detroit from flying at each other's throats. 73 The instigator of the difficulty of 1712 was the great Ottawa war-chief, Saguina. 76 During the winter of 1711-12, he planned an attack upon a Mascoutin village wintering upon the St. Joseph River, and killed or captured fifty of this tribe. The news flew to Detroit, and set the great Fox village there on fire. Three Ottawa squaws were immediately secured, one the wife of Sagnina himself. The French commandant, in mistaken zeal, made common cause with one party against the other. The Outagami had made themselves obnoxious by their haughty bearing. 77 Du- buisson, therefore, received the Ottawa and Huron into his fort, and by exciting speeches urged them against the common enemy. The allied tribes, thus stimulated, attacked the stockade in which the Foxes had entrenched themselves. The siege abounded with thrilling incidents, bold harangues, hurtling defiances, and despairing attempts at peace. We ?3 Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, p. 505. "* Ibid., p. 506. is Ibid., p. 440. '« The evidence presented, founded largely on documents published since the writing of his book, is sufficient to overthrow S. S. Hebberd's argument in his History of Wisconsin under French Dominion (Madi- son, 1890), pp. 81-84. that the French lured the Foxes to Detroit in order to destroy them. They came, certainly, on the invitation of French officers, but they were warned to go back, and had long been obnoxious to a large portion of the Western tribesmen. See N. Y. Colon. Docs., ix, 863, on Saguina's participation. « Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiii, p. 505. [160 1 Fox Indian Wars possess several contemporary narratives: the official report of Dubuisson ; 7S that of Vaudreuil to the minister in France; 7 ' an account attributed to the celebrated engineer, Chaussegros de Lery; 80 and letters of Father Marest, missionary at Mack- inac. 81 Had we only the report of some Outagami chronicler, what marvels of obstinate defense, of mighty despair, of heroic deaths, might we not record ! Even in the chronicles of their enemies, the Foxes appear as heroic figures. Listen to the speech of their great chief when the French and their allies first fired upon the Fox fort: "What does this mean, my Father? Thou didst invite us to come to dwell near thee; thy word is even now fresh in our pouches. And yet thou deelarest war against us. What cause have we given for it? My Father, thou seeine her loved Wisconsin land. 4 " The conditions the governor granted the defeated Foxes were hard. The entire remnant of the tribe was to be trans- ported to slavery at Montreal, and if resistance was made, all were to be killed. Complete extermination was decreed. While these negotiations were taking place, the Foxes with a flash of their old spirit, fortified themselves on Lake Mar- ameg, and routed a Huron party coming from Detroit to work their destruction. 41 The war with the Foxes seemed ended. The allies were ordered to turn their arms against s- Ibid., pp. 148-154. **Ibid., pp. 167-169. 39 Canadian Archives, 1905, vol. 1, pp. xli, lxix. «° Wis. Hist. Colls., xvii, p. 210. ** Ibid., p. 173; Midi. Pion. and Hist. Colls., xxxiv, p. 104. [176] Fox Indian Wars the Chickasaw, who were harassing the colony of Louisiana. De Villiers set forth in full security for the Upper Country, to annihilate the last remnant of the Fox tribe, and crown his victory with the entire destruction of these savages who had so long disturbed the peace. But the French had presumed too far on the complaisance of the savages. Hated as the Foxes were, the other tribes saw in their destruction a presage of doom. Especially their kins- men the Sauk, although until now among the French al- lies, hesitated to deliver them to slavery and death. De Villiers, with overweening confidence in his authority, pro- ceeded to Green Bay and demanded of the Sauk, the Renards secreted in their village. Upon their delay to deliver them up, he sent word lie would come for them himself. Sur- rounded by his family, with an insufficient guard, he presented himself at the door of the S'auk fort, and attempting to force a passage was fired upon, his young son killed at his side, and he himself fell victim to the sure aim of a Sauk boy of twelve. 42 A battle ensued at the gates of the fort, and the elder son of De Villiers, who afterwards met Major George Washington upon the Ohio in 1754, pursued the murderers as they fled and battled all day near the Butte des Morts. The French lost heavily in this action, and report the number of wounded enemies considerable, but unknown. This affair had several important consequences; it marks the abandon- ment of Green Bay by the Sauk and Foxes; from this time also dates the union of these two tribes, so close that it be- came a practical amalgamation ; and the Fox wars were re- opened. The Western allies once more espoused their cause, and in the land of the Iowa the courageous enemy built a new fort, and awaited results. 43 *a Wis. Hist. Colls., xvii, pp. 188, 189, 200-204. The local tradition is to be found in Id., iii, p. 200, and viii, pp. 207, 208. As related b.r Ausustin Grignon the French fired first and killed an Indian, there- upon the fire was returned and Black bird shot the commandant. 4S In eastern Iowa, on the Wapsipinicon River. [177] Wisconsin Historical Society This took the form of a land expedition that was entrust- ed to the care of De Xoyelles, who had been second in com- mand at the defeat of the Foxes in 1730. Eighty-four French volunteers were enlisted with two hundred mission Indians, and reinforcements were collected en route from the southern posts. Leaving Canada in August, 1734, the ex- pedition was seven months on the march, and only reached the neighborhood of the enemy the following spring. Led astray by false guides of the Kickapoo tribe, they finally arrived at Wapsipinicon River only to discover the enemy fled to the Des Moines, where a slight skirmish took place April 10, 1735, with little result but to discourage the attacking party and cause their retreat. The commandant De Xoyelles was discredited at court, for his failure, which the governor-gen- eral did his best to mininize." De Xoyelles consoled himself with the Sauk's promise to separate from the Foxes and re- turn to the Bay, but this proved but a specious pledge, calcu- lated to deceive none but the credulous commander. Father le Boullenger, Jesuit missionary in the Illinois, wrote in 1736, "The court was deceived when it was informed the Renards were destroyed." 45 After the affair at Green Bay, and the killing of De Villiers, the other tribes, far from per- secuting the Foxes, sent back all their prisoners thai they held, furnished them with arms and ammunition, and secretly en- couraged their revolt. As Beauharnois expressed it to the minister, *'Y<>u may imagine, 'Men seigneur, that the Savages have their policy as we have Ours, and they are not greatly pleased ai seeing a nation destroyed, for Fear that their turn may eouie. They manifest Much ardor toward the French and act quite differently. * * '"' The Savages as a rule greatly fear the French, but they do not love them. All that they manifest towards them is Xever Sineere." 4 Too weak to attempt concerted action, the remnant of the **Wis. Hist. Colls., xvii, pp. 208-210, 215-233. *'•> Ibid., p. 255, note. **lbid., p. 256. [178] Fox Indian Wars Renards determined to divide into small bands and strike blindly in their despair. The Sauk, meanwhile, interceded for them and themselves, but could obtain for the Foxes a promise of pardon only on condition that they should dis- perse among the other tribes, and that no mention should be made of the name of Renards, who had so disturbed the earth. 47 This was too hard a condition to be accepted. The Sioux once more made overtures to the discouraged Foxes, and became so turbulent that Sieur de St. Pierre was obliged to abandon the post in their country early in 1737, and all the faithful French Indians united in pleading for their ancient enemies at the Montreal council of the same year. 48 As the governor was unable to refuse this petition, he grand- iloquently made a virtue of his necessity, and granted a gen- eral pardon, which lie considered a stroke of policy, tending to peace in the Upper Country. But this proved but a barren peace. Only the Menominee yet remained at the Bay; neither Winnebago, Fox, nor Sauk could be induced to return to their ancient seats, which were stained with their own and French blood, and no longer in the eyes of the superstitious savages would produce crops. 4!> Therefore the allied tribes gathered at Rock River, and took up their abode near the lead mines, that were afterwards to prove to them a source of wealth. The governor-general, wishing to watch their movements, to detach them from the Sioux, and restrain them from injuring the Illinois, sent Sieur Marin to their territory with orders to build a fort, and watch the suspected tribes. In 1738, this officer pro- ceeded to the Western country, 50 and by adroit skill and ad- dress for five years kept the turbulent tribesmen in some *~ IMd., p. 258; Canadian Archives, 1904, p. 239. <« Wis. Hist. Colls., xvii, pp. 264, 267-276. **Ibid., p. 319. so Marin's post was on the Iowa side of the Mississippi, a few miles below Prairie du Chien; see Wis. Hist. Colls., ix, p. 289. The post on Lake Pepin therein noted, was built in 1750. F 179 1 Wisconsin Historical Society sort of subjection. Marin was an arrant trader, and his oper- ations were viewed with much distrust by the court of Ver- sailles, and the governor was frequently admonished to recall him. 51 Warned, however, by past experience, Beauharnois assured the minister that this officer was the only one who could keep peace in the Upper Country, and left him at his post. He persuaded a Fox chief to visit Montreal in 17-j8, to thank the governor for his clemency on behalf of his tribe. This was the first Renard to seek the French, since the ill- fated Iviala had met his doom. Beauharnois received him graciously, and the minds of the suspicious savages were for the moment re-assured. The gathering for the Chickasaw expedition the next year struck terror to their hearts. Seek- ing Marin at his fort they exclaimed: ''We had resolved to do what Our Father Onontio demanded of Us, to go and re- kindle our fire on our Former land at La Baye, hut to-day we see clearly that we are dead. We await the thunder which hangs over our heads ready too crush us." 63 Flaving reassured them on this score, Marin renewed his application to the tribes to return to the Bay. The Winnebago finally consented, and by 1741 a large portion of them occupied their old village site. 53 The Sauk and Foxes still remained distrustful ; secretly encouraged by vagabond traders at Chicago and Milwaukee, they remained in their new villages, near Bock Biver, and in 1741 killed several Frenchmen in the Illinois, and drew out the threat of another punitive expedition. 54 The following year, however, they yielded to Marin's solicitations, and sent a number of their chiefs to Montreal, where the governor made conciliatory speeches, gave them Icicle four prisoners of their tribe, and received them among the number of his faithful allies. 55 The Fox wars were sa Canadian Archives, 1904, pp. 289. 304. 52 Wis. Hist. Colls., xvii. p. 320. 53 Ibid., 367, 400. 6* Ibid., pp. 338, 339. 5= Ibid., pp. 404, 416. [180] Fox Indian Wars practically at an end. Marin, relieved at his own request, was succeeded by Paul Louis Dazenard, Sieur de Lusignan, who reaping the fruit of Marin's policy, succeeded in collect- ing the scattered Foxes and Sauk in one village tributary to the Bay. 56 But the harvest of rebellion was yet to be reaped. The French having by their treatment of this one tribe sown the wind in the Upper Country, were yet to reap the whirlwind. King George's War, begun in the Old World after a long season of peace, reawakened animosity between the French and English colonies in the New. With the pres- sure of war, and the growing peculation among the highest officers of the province, goods became exorbitant in price, and the most docile of the allied Indians rebelled against the extortion. In 1747 the great and honest Governor Beauhar- nois was recalled, and the way was opened for that gigantic system of plunder and graft that brought Xew France to its swift end. The same year a rebellion flamed up in the Upper Country. The two central posts of Detroit and Miehilimack- inac were both destined for surprise and plunder by their domiciled Indians. The Miami already disaffected, and long intriguing with English traders, boldly entered the conspiracy. Even the Illinois, sunk in sloth and subjection, were aroused against their masters. The Mississagua and Saulteur caught the contagion, and murdered French traders at Sault Ste. Marie and the Huron Islands. The Sioux, Foxes, and Sauk "struck wherever an opportunity presented. 07 The Iowa killed some Frenchmen. 58 Only the Potawatomi at St. Josephs, un- der the immediate control of their commandant Marin, re- mained faithful. Prompt and vigorous methods at all the posts, to which the 5« Ibid., p. 437. There is no certain indication of the location of this village. I am inclined to think it that of Sauk Prairie on the Wiscon- sin, but it may have been nearer the old site at Green Bay. &iN. Y. Colon. Docs., x, p. 87. ™Wis. Hist. Colls., xviii (still in MS.). [181] Wisconsin Historical Society ablest officers were sent, resulted in re-establishing French, ascendency for the remaining years of the colony's existence. St. Pierre at Mackinac arrested some of the murderers, and sent them to Montreal. But while going down in a boat to Quebec, these manacled and unarmed savages overpowered seven soldiers, drowned them in the river, and made their escape. Nevertheless the work of pacification proceeded. In 1T.">0 the Foxes, Sank, Winnebago, Menominee, Sanlteur. and Sioux met the uew governor, Marquis tie la Jonquiere, at Quebec, and "assured me of their fidelity and complete sub- mission." 30 The same year the commandant at La Baye, Sieur Milon, was drowned while hunting on the waters of the bay. An opportunity, therefore, presented itself to the new gov- ernor and his confederate- to share the spoils of this profitable post in Wisconsin. La Jonquiere, Bigot, Breard, St. Pierre, and Marin formed a partnership to exploit this country. Marin, whose skill in managing the Tribesmen was well known, was to be the resident partner. Part of the plan was to re- establish the Sioux post, and draw furs from their rich prov- ince. In 1750 Marin returned to the site of his former ex- ploits, and after tranqnilizing the tribes at Green Bay, ad- vanced to the .Mississippi and bnilt his fort on Lake Pepin. 60 The profits were reported at 150,000 livres a year. Although Marin found the tribes at La Baye very uneasy, and although a war broke out between Sioux, Renards, and Sank, and the Illinois, yet on the whole the trade remained satisfactory and in the words of Bougainville, the exploiting firm found that "peace was more profitable than war." 1 '' To this period has been assigned the vengeance of Marin npon the Fox village, so noted in traditional lore, according to which companies of soldiers in canoes, loaded apparently so ibid. so ma., also Margry, Decouv, et Mabl.. vi, p. 636; Memoires inedites (Paris, 1867), p. 59. « Ibid., p. 59. [182] Fox Indian Wars with simple merchandise, were concealed beneath tarpaulin and advanced up the Fox River. Upon the demand of the Renards for their tribute, the disguise was thrown off, the de- ceived Foxes shot down without mercy, and their village destroyed by fire. Thus runs the story, related with many variations in recollections and legendary memories. 62 Whether even with the countenance of the governor, Marin would have dared thus to embroil the Upper Country, and break the peace he had so carefully fostered, is a question for discus- sion. Suffice it to say that contemporary documents, so far as known, are completely silent in reference to any such act of treachery; and it is incompatible with his commercial prin- ciple that u La Paix vaut niieux que la guerre" (peace is more profitable than war). In 1753 Marin was withdrawn to build a chain of new forts being erected upon the Ohio. The profits of this most profitable post of La Baye were granted, at first for a term of years, finally in 1750 for life, to Armand de Pigaud, brother of the new governor,'"' Marquis de Vaudreuil. The younger Marin retained command of the Sioux post, where he made peace for the Illinois, with the allied Sioux, Winnebago, Fox, and Sauk. 04 After the outbreak of the French and Indian War, we catch but few glimpses of affairs in the Upper Country. In 1755 it was reported that this region was greatly neglected and the tribes at war with one another. The same year Ottawa, Fox, Sauk, and Menominee chiefs visited Vaudreuil at Mon- treal. 65 Large contingents of Wisconsin Indians par- ticipated in the chief battles. Probably there were Renards and Sauk in the army of Langlade that in 1752 attacked the Miami chief at Pickawillany, and destroyed that nest of British renegades on the Great Miami. The same «2Fis. Hist. Colls., iii, pp. 206-209; v, 93-103. 63 Id., xviii. <~>ilbid. es Ibid. [ 183 ] Wisconsin Historical Society tribesmen no doubt accompanied this officer to the Monon- gahela and took part in the defeat of Braddock, and the rav- age of the surrounding country. Certain it is that under the command of Marin junior and their interpreter Pierre Reaunie 68 they were at the siege of Fort William Henry in 1757. During the death struggle of New France, in the bat- tles around Quebec in 1759, Sauk and Foxes again made part of Langlade's army, and joined in the attack on Wolfe's ad- vance at Montmorency Falls, July 9, 1759. ° 7 But if in her declining years tbe Foxes were loyal to the colony of New France, the blow they had inflicted on her prosperity and prestige in the Upper Country by the long series of intermittent wars extending over nearly sixty years of her history, had aided in bringing about her downfall. The French colonial system had proven itself inadequate, its boasted control of the Indian had been defeated by one tribe, the persistent defiance of the Renards had wrought confusion and dismay. In the words of Father Charlevoix, ''The Iro- quois bad raised up against us a new enemy as brave as them- selves, less politic, much fiercer, whom we have never been able to subdue or tame, and who like those insects that seem to have as many lives as parts of their body, sprang to life again, so to say, after their defeat, and reduced almost to a handful of brigands, appear everywhere, have aroused the hatred of all the nations on this continent, and for the last twenty-five years and more interrupt commerce and render the roads impracticable for five hundred leagues around. These are the Outagamie commonly called Foxes." 68 Upon the surrender of the Upper Country to the English, the fort at La Baye was occupied on October 12, 1761, by Lieut. .James Gorrell with a garrison of seventeen soldiers of the 60th infantry. Traders had preceded the soldiers into Wisconsin territory, and found the Sauk and Foxes inclined eetf. y. Colon. Docs., x, 608, 630. « Wis. Hist. Colls., vii, p. 140. es Charlevoix, History, v, p. 2'56. [ 184 Fox Indian Wars to the English interest/' 9 During Pontiaes conspiracy it was the Sauk, Foxes, and Menominee who protected the Brit- ish garrison at Green Bay, and rescued from the hands of the hostile Ottawa the prisoners taken at Mackinac. 70 There can be no doubt that French influence was less potent in Wiscon- sin than elsewhere in the Upper Country, and that by this means the garrison at Fort Edward Augustus was saved from ruthless massacre The history of the Fox Indians during the hundred years of the French regime, a.s outlined in the previous survey, may be summarized as follows: 1. The entry of the Foxes into Wisconsin and their life upon the Wolf River, covering approximately the years 1665- 80. This is the period of their first contact with the French, and of the Jesuit mission of Saint Marc. 2. The period of partial French control, and of Fox River brigandage, approximately 1680-1710. During this period the great village of the tribe was located near Lake Petit Butte des Morts, and the influence of La Salle, Perrot, and Duluth was sufficient to keep the Foxes in a measure of subjection. They aspired to control the Fox-AYisconsin water- way and the trade with the Sioux. 3. Period of open warfare, 1712-33 — from the siege of De- troit to the final expulsion of the Foxes from the Fox River valley. During this period the Foxes built up their great confederacy, but were overpowered by the combined attacks of the French allies and French officers. 4. Sauk and Fox union and gradual submission, 1733-60. During this period the allied tribes found their homes on the Wisconsin River, and beyond the Mississippi. They gradu- ally gave over their fierce opposition, were treated with leniency by the French authorities, regained the friendship of the surrounding tribes, and became submissive to French wWis. Hist. Colls., i, p. 26; viii, p. 234, 235. •o Id., i, pp. 40-47. [ 185 ] Wisconsin Historical Society authority; never, however, becoming entirely docile or yielding their hard-won autonomy. The Fox wars, which were closed by leniency and diplomacy on the part of French officials, were induced and prolonged by serious mistakes of administration. Their causes are to be sought not only in the character of the tribe itself — hardy, sus- picious, jealous of its rights and of great personal powers — but in faulty methods of the French colonial system. The policy of removing and congregating tribes around a French post induced friction that produced war. La Salle's colonial system in Illinois brought the Renards to their strategic position on Fox River, where they quickly learned the advantages of their position. La Clothe Cadillac's con- centration about Detroit brought into play animosities that re- sulted in the outbreak of 1712. The jealousies of rival posts, and particularly that between the officers of Canada and Louisiana, gave opportunity to the wily savage to play off one party against the other. The French in the Illinois com- plained that the Canadian traders gave the savages to under- stand that they were a different sort of white men, and not en- titled to the Indian-' regard. But chiefly it was the fur-trade, with all its ramifications of self-interest, that provoked and prolonged the wars. While for the interest of the colony at large, peace among the In- dians of the Upper Country best promoted economic pros- perity, nevertheless adventurous and illegal traders found large personal profits in a state of war. i^ever did the Foxes lack for weapons or ammunition, obtained at exorbitant prices from illicit traders. French officers viewed with some com- placency attacks upon the hunters of another post, which in- creased the prices and profits of their own. Even a punitive expedition could be turned to profit, if both government and savages were skillfully exploited. That the Fox wars dragged their slow length over so many decades of the history of New France was largely due to the opposition of private interests in the fur-trade, rather than to considerations of the public wel- fare. [186] Fox Indian Wars The history of the Fox Indians during the French regime is told m the annals of their enemies and conquerors. Only occasional glimpses are preserved to us from the translation of their speeches, to indicate their own point of view, to por- tray their wrongs, to glorify their heroes. The annalist with some knowledge of Indian psychology must read between the nies, and interpret events in the light of their barbaric, hence hunted, comprehension. Viewed from this standpoint the Fox wars become a national rebellion, the revolt of a brave and independent race from the exactions of French traders, and the debasing submission to French officers. Throughout their course, the French authorities claim to have discerned the machinations of the English, and the insidious influence of the Iroquois. Sin<]y of the conditions leads to the belief that this influence is largely exaggerated, that instead of their wars being instigated by the Iroquois, it was the Foxes who sought the aid of the latter in the struggle for independence. The Foxev reliance therein was upon barbaric strength, and not upon a rival civilization. ^ w and again one catches glimpses of heroic figures among the rebellious tribesmen. Pemoussa, hurtling the defiant cry at Dubuisson for his treachery, '"'Know that the Renard is immortal!" dying later a hostage at Mon- treal of the dreaded disease of small-pox; Kiala, "the instigator of aH their misdeeds," offering himself a sacrifice for the life of his people, and dying in the tropical heats of the island oi Martinique. Shadowy figures these, but worthy to stand in the hall of fame beside the heroic Pontiac or the wily Tecum- seh, witnesses of the heroic impulse which stirs the heart of mankind whether in a white or a red man's spirit. Striking and picturesque as are the various incidents of the Fox wars, it. is by their influence upon history that their importance must be judged. They led in the first place to a change in the trade routes in the Upper Country. The Fox- Wisconsin waterway being controlled by this hostile tribe, and the Illinois-Chicago route often rendered unsafe, the routes by Lake Superior were developed, the Grand Portage to the 13 [ 1ST ] Wisconsin Historical Society j Northwest discovered, and the far regions of Winnipeg and Saskatchewan opened by daring French explorers. On the other hand, communication by the usual routes between Louisiana and Canada being interrupted, the portages from Erie and Ontario to the Ohio were opened — an effect which brought about the dash of interests that resulted in, or rather precipitated, the French and Indian War. The Fox wars likewise proved a training school for officers in the later colonial wars. St. Pierre and Coulon de Villiers, whom Washington encountered on the Allegheny, had com- manded in Wisconsin for many years. The elder and younger Marin, Celeron de Blainville, Dazenard de Lusignan, Boucher de la Perriere, members of the Le Moyne, Repcntigny, and Ramezay families, all useful officers in the final struggle of Xew France, had learned the trade of war and the command of sav- age auxiliaries in the contests of the Upper Country. Charles de Langlade bred at Mackinac, aided in the defeat of Brad- dock, and fought upon the Plains of Abraham. Finally, the Fox wars proved to be "the entering wedge of ruin for the French Dominion in America." 11 Whether the treat interior valleys were to remain under French, or pass to English control, was the problem of the eighteenth century in America. The obstinate resistance of this one barbarous tribe in the forests of Wisconsin changed French policy in the West* rn country, weakened French dominion over her sava 6 *e allies, and set in motion forces that gave the rivers and prairies "f the Great West to the English-speaking race. Hebberd, French Dominion in Wisconsin, p. 15' U'.jlu8 [1881 V feM .cr M4 '«• ^ W **"* SK aP V*. * ^H ,V Sw ? n « a "8 V c°""* .^ £ .."J Wo 5> » w J> > . l ' * * ^ o* . • • • « *o a* • . * • • * ^ o* t • ■ • . ' * ^ V • * * °» v^ ^\ * ' ^>2 , <^b W t?^ ^ ^ o. •TT^* ^0' ^.