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diff --git a/20643.txt b/20643.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ebd0c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/20643.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3256 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Character and Influence of the Indian +Trade in Wisconsin, by Frederick Jackson Turner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin + +Author: Frederick Jackson Turner + +Release Date: February 21, 2007 [EBook #20643] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN TRADE IN WISCONSIN *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Taavi Kalju and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES +IN +HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE + +HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor + + History is past Politics and Politics present History.--Freeman + +NINTH SERIES +XI-XII + + +The Character and Influence of the +Indian Trade in Wisconsin + +_A Study of the Trading Post as an Institution_ + +BY FREDERICK J. TURNER, PH.D. + +_Professor of History, University of Wisconsin_ + + +BALTIMORE +THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS +PUBLISHED MONTHLY +November and December, 1891 + + +COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY N. MURRAY. + +ISAAC FRIEDENWALD CO., PRINTERS, +BALTIMORE. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + I. INTRODUCTION 7 + II. PRIMITIVE INTER-TRIBAL TRADE 10 + III. PLACE OF THE INDIAN TRADE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA 11 + 1. Early Trade along the Atlantic Coast 11 + 2. In New England 12 + 3. In the Middle Region 18 + 4. In the South 16 + 5. In the Far West 18 + IV. THE RIVER AND LAKE SYSTEMS OF THE NORTHWEST 19 + V. WISCONSIN INDIANS 22 + VI. PERIODS OF THE WISCONSIN INDIAN TRADE 25 + VII. FRENCH EXPLORATION IN WISCONSIN 26 +VIII. FRENCH POSTS IN WISCONSIN 33 + IX. THE FOX WARS 34 + X. FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN WISCONSIN 38 + XI. THE TRADERS' STRUGGLE TO RETAIN THEIR TRADE 40 + XII. THE ENGLISH AND THE NORTHWEST. INFLUENCE OF THE + INDIAN TRADE ON DIPLOMACY 42 +XIII. THE NORTHWEST COMPANY 51 + XIV. AMERICAN INFLUENCES 51 + XV. GOVERNMENT TRADING HOUSES 58 + XVI. WISCONSIN TRADE IN 1820 61 +XVII. EFFECTS OF THE TRADING POST 67 + + + + +THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF THE INDIAN TRADE IN WISCONSIN. + + + + +INTRODUCTION.[1] + + +The trading post is an old and influential institution. Established in +the midst of an undeveloped society by a more advanced people, it is a +center not only of new economic influences, but also of all the +transforming forces that accompany the intercourse of a higher with a +lower civilization. The Phoenicians developed the institution into a +great historic agency. Closely associated with piracy at first, their +commerce gradually freed itself from this and spread throughout the +Mediterranean lands. A passage in the Odyssey (Book XV.) enables us to +trace the genesis of the Phoenician trading post: + +"Thither came the Phoenicians, mariners renowned, greedy merchant-men +with countless trinkets in a black ship.... They abode among us a whole +year, and got together much wealth in their hollow ship. And when their +hollow ship was now laden to depart, they sent a messenger.... There +came a man versed in craft to my father's house with a golden chain +strung here and there with amber beads. Now, the maidens in the hall and +my lady mother were handling the chain and gazing on it and offering him +their price." + +It would appear that the traders at first sailed from port to port, +bartering as they went. After a time they stayed at certain profitable +places a twelvemonth, still trading from their ships. Then came the +fixed factory, and about it grew the trading colony.[2] The Phoenician +trading post wove together the fabric of oriental civilization, brought +arts and the alphabet to Greece, brought the elements of civilization to +northern Africa, and disseminated eastern culture through the +Mediterranean system of lands. It blended races and customs, developed +commercial confidence, fostered the custom of depending on outside +nations for certain supplies, and afforded a means of peaceful +intercourse between societies naturally hostile. + +Carthaginian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman trading posts continued the +process. By traffic in amber, tin, furs, etc., with the tribes of the +north of Europe, a continental commerce was developed. The routes of +this trade have been ascertained.[3] For over a thousand years before +the migration of the peoples Mediterranean commerce had flowed along the +interlacing river valleys of Europe, and trading posts had been +established. Museums show how important an effect was produced upon the +economic life of northern Europe by this intercourse. It is a +significant fact that the routes of the migration of the peoples were to +a considerable extent the routes of Roman trade, and it is well worth +inquiry whether this commerce did not leave more traces upon Teutonic +society than we have heretofore considered, and whether one cause of the +migrations of the peoples has not been neglected.[4] + +That stage in the development of society when a primitive people comes +into contact with a more advanced people deserves more study than has +been given to it. As a factor in breaking the "cake of custom" the +meeting of two such societies is of great importance; and if, with +Starcke,[5] we trace the origin of the family to economic +considerations, and, with Schrader,[6] the institution of guest +friendship to the same source, we may certainly expect to find important +influences upon primitive society arising from commerce with a higher +people. The extent to which such commerce has affected all peoples is +remarkable. One may study the process from the days of Phoenicia to +the days of England in Africa,[7] but nowhere is the material more +abundant than in the history of the relations of the Europeans and the +American Indians. The Phoenician factory, it is true, fostered the +development of the Mediterranean civilization, while in America the +trading post exploited the natives. The explanation of this difference +is to be sought partly in race differences, partly in the greater gulf +that separated the civilization of the European from the civilization of +the American Indian as compared with that which parted the early Greeks +and the Phoenicians. But the study of the destructive effect of the +trading post is valuable as well as the study of its elevating +influences; in both cases the effects are important and worth +investigation and comparison. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: In this paper I have rewritten and enlarged an address +before the State Historical Society of Wisconsin on the Character and +Influence of the Fur Trade in Wisconsin, published in the Proceedings of +the Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting, 1889. I am under obligations to Mr. +Reuben G. Thwaites, Secretary of this society, for his generous +assistance in procuring material for my work, and to Professor Charles +H. Haskins, my colleague, who kindly read both manuscript and proof and +made helpful suggestions. The reader will notice that throughout the +paper I have used the word _Northwest_ in a limited sense as referring +to the region included between the Great Lakes and the Ohio and +Mississippi rivers.] + +[Footnote 2: On the trading colony, see Roscher und Jannasch, Colonien, +p. 12.] + +[Footnote 3: Consult: Muellenhoff, Altertumskunde I., 212; Schrader, +Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples, New York, 1890, pp. 348 +ff.; Pliny, Naturalis Historia, xxvii., 11; Montelius, Civilization of +Sweden in Heathen Times, 98-99; Du Chaillu, Viking Age; and the +citations in Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, 466-7; Keary, Vikings in +Western Christendom, 23.] + +[Footnote 4: In illustration it may be noted that the early Scandinavian +power in Russia seized upon the trade route by the Dnieper and the Duna. +Keary, Vikings, 173. See also _post_, pp. 36, 38.] + +[Footnote 5: Starcke, Primitive Family.] + +[Footnote 6: Schrader, l.c.; see also Ihring, in _Deutsche Rundschau_, +III., 357, 420; Kulischer, Der Handel auf primitiven Kulturstufen, in +_Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft_, X., 378. +_Vide post_, p. 10.] + +[Footnote 7: W. Bosworth Smith, in a suggestive article in the +_Nineteenth Century_, December, 1887, shows the influence of the +Mohammedan trade in Africa.] + + + + +PRIMITIVE INTER-TRIBAL TRADE. + + +Long before the advent of the white trader, inter-tribal commercial +intercourse existed. Mr. Charles Rau[8] and Sir Daniel Wilson[9] have +shown that inter-tribal trade and division of labor were common among +the mound-builders and in the stone age generally. In historic times +there is ample evidence of inter-tribal trade. Were positive evidence +lacking, Indian institutions would disclose the fact. Differences in +language were obviated by the sign language,[10] a fixed system of +communication, intelligible to all the western tribes at least. The +peace pipe,[11] or calumet, was used for settling disputes, +strengthening alliances, and speaking to strangers--a sanctity attached +to it. Wampum belts served in New England and the middle region as money +and as symbols in the ratification of treaties.[12] The Chippeways had +an institution called by a term signifying "to enter one another's +lodges,"[13] whereby a truce was made between them and the Sioux at the +winter hunting season. During these seasons of peace it was not uncommon +for a member of one tribe to adopt a member of another as his brother, a +tie which was respected even after the expiration of the truce. The +analogy of this custom to the classical "guest-friendship" needs no +comment; and the economic cause of the institution is worth remark, as +one of the means by which the rigor of primitive inter-tribal hostility +was mitigated. + +But it is not necessary to depend upon indirect evidence. The earliest +travellers testify to the existence of a wide inter-tribal commerce. The +historians of De Soto's expedition mention Indian merchants who sold +salt to the inland tribes. "In 1565 and for some years previous bison +skins were brought by the Indians down the Potomac, and thence carried +along-shore in canoes to the French about the Gulf of St. Lawrence. +During two years six thousand skins were thus obtained."[14] An +Algonquin brought to Champlain at Quebec a piece of copper a foot long, +which he said came from a tributary of the Great Lakes.[15] Champlain +also reports that among the Canadian Indians village councils were held +to determine what number of men might go to trade with other tribes in +the summer.[16] Morton in 1632 describes similar inter-tribal trade in +New England, and adds that certain utensils are "but in certain parts of +the country made, where the severall trades are appropriated to the +inhabitants of those parts onely."[17] Marquette relates that the +Illinois bought firearms of the Indians who traded directly with the +French, and that they went to the south and west to carry off slaves, +which they sold at a high price to other nations.[18] It was on the +foundation, therefore, of an extensive inter-tribal trade that the white +man built up the forest commerce.[19] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 8: Smithsonian Report, 1872.] + +[Footnote 9: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1889, VII., +59. See also Thruston, Antiquities of Tennessee, 79 ff.] + +[Footnote 10: Mallery, in Bureau of Ethnology, I., 324; Clark, Indian +Sign Language.] + +[Footnote 11: Shea, Discovery of the Mississippi, 34. Catilinite pipes +were widely used, even along the Atlantic slope, Thruston, 80-81.] + +[Footnote 12: Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, I., +ch. ii.] + +[Footnote 13: Minnesota Historical Collections, V., 267.] + +[Footnote 14: Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, 230, citing +Menendez.] + +[Footnote 15: Neill, in Narrative and Critical History of America, IV., +164.] + +[Footnote 16: Champlain's Voyages (Prince Society), III., 183.] + +[Footnote 17: Morton, New English Canaan (Prince Society), 159.] + +[Footnote 18: Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, +32.] + +[Footnote 19: For additional evidence see Radisson, Voyages (Prince +Society), 91, 173; Massachusetts Historical Collections, I., 151; +Smithsonian Contributions, XVI., 30; Jesuit Relations, 1671, 41; +Thruston, Antiquities, etc., 79-82; Carr, Mounds of the Mississippi +Valley, 25, 27; and _post_ pp. 26-7, 36.] + + + + +EARLY TRADE ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. + + +The chroniclers of the earliest voyages to the Atlantic coast abound in +references to this traffic. First of Europeans to purchase native furs +in America appear to have been the Norsemen who settled Vinland. In the +saga of Eric the Red[20] we find this interesting account: "Thereupon +Karlsefni and his people displayed their shields, and when they came +together they began to barter with each other. Especially did the +strangers wish to buy red cloth, for which they offered in exchange +peltries and quite grey skins. They also desired to buy swords and +spears, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbade this. In exchange for perfect +unsullied skins the Skrellings would take red stuff a span in length, +which they would bind around their heads. So their trade went on for a +time, until Karlsefni and his people began to grow short of cloth, when +they divided it into such narrow pieces that it was not more than a +finger's breadth wide, but the Skrellings still continued to give just +as much for this as before, or more."[21] + +The account of Verrazano's voyage mentions his Indian trade. Captain +John Smith, exploring New England in 1614, brought back a cargo of fish +and 11,000 beaver skins.[22] These examples could be multiplied; in +short, a way was prepared for colonization by the creation of a demand +for European goods, and thus the opportunity for a lodgement was +afforded. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 20: Reeves, Finding of Wineland the Good, 47.] + +[Footnote 21: N.Y. Hist. Colls., I., 54-55, 59.] + +[Footnote 22: Smith, Generall Historie (Richmond, 1819), I., 87-8, 182, +199; Strachey's Travaile into Virginia, 157 (Hakluyt Soc. VI.); Parkman, +Pioneers, 230.] + + + + +NEW ENGLAND INDIAN TRADE. + + +The Indian trade has a place in the early history of the New England +colonies. The Plymouth settlers "found divers corn fields and little +running brooks, a place ... fit for situation,"[23] and settled down +cuckoo-like in Indian clearings. Mr. Weeden has shown that the Indian +trade furnished a currency (wampum) to New England, and that it afforded +the beginnings of her commerce. In September of their first year the +Plymouth men sent out a shallop to trade with the Indians, and when a +ship arrived from England in 1621 they speedily loaded her with a +return cargo of beaver and lumber.[24] By frequent legislation the +colonies regulated and fostered the trade.[25] Bradford reports that in +a single year twenty hhd. of furs were shipped from Plymouth, and that +between 1631 and 1636 their shipments amounted to 12,150 _li_. beaver +and 1156 _li_. otter.[26] Morton in his 'New English Canaan' alleges +that a servant of his was "thought to have a thousand pounds in ready +gold gotten by the beaver when he died."[27] In the pursuit of this +trade men passed continually farther into the wilderness, and their +trading posts "generally became the pioneers of new settlements."[28] +For example, the posts of Oldham, a Puritan trader, led the way for the +settlements on the Connecticut river,[29] and in their early days these +towns were partly sustained by the Indian trade.[30] + +Not only did the New England traders expel the Dutch from this valley; +they contended with them on the Hudson.[31] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 23: Bradford, Plymouth Plantation.] + +[Footnote 24: Bradford, 104.] + +[Footnote 25: _E.g._, Plymouth Records, I., 50, 54, 62, 119; II., 10; +Massachusetts Colonial Records, I., 55, 81, 96, 100, 322; II., 86, 138; +III., 424; V., 180; Hazard, Historical Collections, II., 19 (the +Commissioners of the United Colonies propose giving the monopoly of the +fur trade to a corporation). On public truck-houses, _vide post_, p. +58.] + +[Footnote 26: Bradford, 108, gives the proceeds of the sale of these +furs.] + +[Footnote 27: Force, Collections, Vol. I., No. 5, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 28: Weeden, I., 132, 160-1.] + +[Footnote 29: Winthrop, History of New England, I., 111, 131.] + +[Footnote 30: Connecticut Colonial Records, 1637, pp. 11, 18.] + +[Footnote 31: Weeden, I., 126.] + + + + +INDIAN TRADE IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES. + + +Morton, in the work already referred to, protested against allowing "the +Great Lake of the Erocoise" (Champlain) to the Dutch, saying that it is +excellent for the fur trade, and that the Dutch have gained by beaver +20,000 pounds a year. Exaggerated though the statement is, it is true +that the energies of the Dutch were devoted to this trade, rather than +to agricultural settlement. As in the case of New France the settlers +dispersed themselves in the Indian trade; so general did this become +that laws had to be passed to compel the raising of crops.[32] New York +City (New Amsterdam) was founded and for a time sustained by the fur +trade. In their search for peltries the Dutch were drawn up the Hudson, +up the Connecticut, and down the Delaware, where they had Swedes for +their rivals. By way of the Hudson the Dutch traders had access to Lake +Champlain, and to the Mohawk, the headwaters of which connected through +the lakes of western New York with Lake Ontario. This region, which was +supplied by the trading post of Orange (Albany), was the seat of the +Iroquois confederacy. The results of the trade upon Indian society +became apparent in a short time in the most decisive way. Furnished with +arms by the Dutch, the Iroquois turned upon the neighboring Indians, +whom the French had at first refrained from supplying with guns.[33] In +1649 they completely ruined the Hurons,[34] a part of whom fled to the +woods of northern Wisconsin. In the years immediately following, the +Neutral Nation and the Eries fell under their power; they overawed the +New England Indians and the Southern tribes, and their hunting and war +parties visited Illinois and drove Indians of those plains into +Wisconsin. Thus by priority in securing firearms, as well as by their +remarkable civil organization,[35] the Iroquois secured possession of +the St. Lawrence and Lakes Ontario and Erie. The French had accepted the +alliance of the Algonquins and the Hurons, as the Dutch, and afterward +the English, had that of the Iroquois; so these victories of the +Iroquois cut the French off from the entrance to the Great Lakes by way +of the upper St. Lawrence. As early as 1629 the Dutch trade was +estimated at 50,000 guilders per annum, and the Delaware trade alone +produced 10,000 skins yearly in 1663.[36] The English succeeded to this +trade, and under Governor Dongan they made particular efforts to extend +their operations to the Northwest, using the Iroquois as middlemen. +Although the French were in possession of the trade with the Algonquins +of the Northwest, the English had an economic advantage in competing for +this trade in the fact that Albany traders, whose situation enabled them +to import their goods more easily than Montreal traders could, and who +were burdened with fewer governmental restrictions, were able to pay +fifty per cent more for beaver and give better goods. French traders +frequently received their supplies from Albany, a practice against which +the English authorities legislated in 1720; and the _coureurs de bois_ +smuggled their furs to the same place.[37] As early as 1666 Talon +proposed that the king of France should purchase New York, "whereby he +would have two entrances to Canada and by which he would give to the +French all the peltries of the north, of which the English share the +profit by the communication which they have with the Iroquois by +Manhattan and Orange."[38] It is a characteristic of the fur trade that +it continually recedes from the original center, and so it happened that +the English traders before long attempted to work their way into the +Illinois country.[39] The wars between the French and English and +Iroquois must be read in the light of this fact. At the outbreak of the +last French and Indian war, however, it was rather Pennsylvania and +Virginia traders who visited the Ohio Valley. It is said that some three +hundred of them came over the mountains yearly, following the +Susquehanna and the Juniata and the headwaters of the Potomac to the +tributaries of the Ohio, and visiting with their pack-horses the Indian +villages along the valley. The center of the English trade was +Pickawillani on the Great Miami. In 1749 Celoron de Bienville, who had +been sent out to vindicate French authority in the valley, reported that +each village along the Ohio and its branches "has one or more English +traders, and each of these has hired men to carry his furs."[40] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 32: New York Colonial Documents, I., 181, 389, Sec.7.] + +[Footnote 33: _Ibid._ 182; Collection de manuscrits relatifs a la +Nouvelle-France, I., 254; Radisson, 93.] + +[Footnote 34: Parkman, Jesuits in North America; Radisson; Margry, +Decouvertes et Etablissemens, etc., IV., 586-598; Tailhan, Nicholas +Perrot.] + +[Footnote 35: Morgan, League of the Iroquois.] + +[Footnote 36: N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 408-9; V., 687, 726; Histoire et +Commerce des Colonies Angloises, 154.] + +[Footnote 37: N.Y. Col. Docs., III., 471, 474; IX., 298, 319.] + +[Footnote 38: _Ibid._ IX., 57. The same proposal was made in 1681 by Du +Chesneau, _ibid._ IX., 165.] + +[Footnote 39: Parkman's works; N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 165; Shea's +Charlevoix, IV., 16: "The English, indeed, as already remarked, from +that time shared with the French in the fur trade; and this was the +chief motive of their fomenting war between us and the Iroquois, +inasmuch as they could get no good furs, which come from the northern +districts, except by means of these Indians, who could scarcely effect a +reconciliation with us without precluding them from this precious +mine."] + +[Footnote 40: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 50.] + + + + +INDIAN TRADE IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES. + + +The Indian trade of the Virginians was not limited to the Ohio country. +As in the case of Massachusetts Bay, the trade had been provided for +before the colony left England,[41] and in times of need it had +preserved the infant settlement. Bacon's rebellion was in part due to +the opposition to the governor's trading relations with the savages. +After a time the nearer Indians were exploited, and as early as the +close of the seventeenth century Virginia traders sought the Indians +west of the Alleghanies.[42] The Cherokees lived among the mountains, +"where the present states of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and the +Carolinas join one another."[43] To the west, on the Mississippi, were +the Chickasaws, south of whom lived the Choctaws, while to the south of +the Cherokees were the Creeks. The Catawbas had their villages on the +border of North and South Carolina, about the headwaters of the Santee +river. Shawnese Indians had formerly lived on the Cumberland river, and +French traders had been among them, as well as along the +Mississippi;[44] but by the time of the English traders, Tennessee and +Kentucky were for the most part uninhabited. The Virginia traders +reached the Catawbas, and for a time the Cherokees, by a trading route +through the southwest of the colony to the Santee. By 1712 this trade +was a well-established one,[45] and caravans of one hundred pack-horses +passed along the trail.[46] + +The Carolinas had early been interested in the fur trade. In 1663 the +Lords Proprietors proposed to pay the governor's salary from the +proceeds of the traffic. Charleston traders were the rivals of the +Virginians in the southwest. They passed even to the Choctaws and +Chickasaws, crossing the rivers by portable boats of skin, and sometimes +taking up a permanent abode among the Indians. Virginia and Carolina +traders were not on good terms with each other, and Governor Spottswood +frequently made complaints of the actions of the Carolinians. His +expedition across the mountains in 1716, if his statement is to be +trusted, opened a new way to the transmontane Indians, and soon +afterwards a trading company was formed under his patronage to avail +themselves of this new route.[47] It passed across the Blue Ridge into +the Shenandoah valley, and down the old Indian trail to the Cherokees, +who lived along the upper Tennessee. Below the bend at the Muscle Shoals +the Virginians met the competition of the French traders from New +Orleans and Mobile.[48] + +The settlement of Augusta, Georgia, was another important trading post. +Here in 1740 was an English garrison of fifteen or twenty soldiers, and +a little band of traders, who annually took about five hundred +pack-horses into the Indian country. In the spring the furs were floated +down the river in large boats.[49] The Spaniards and the French also +visited the Indians, and the rivalry over this trade was an important +factor in causing diplomatic embroilment.[50] + +The occupation of the back-lands of the South affords a prototype of the +process by which the plains of the far West were settled, and also +furnishes an exemplification of all the stages of economic development +existing contemporaneously. After a time the traders were accompanied to +the Indian grounds by _hunters_, and sometimes the two callings were +combined.[51] When Boone entered Kentucky he went with an Indian trader +whose posts were on the Red river in Kentucky.[52] After the game +decreased the hunter's clearing was occupied by the _cattle-raiser_, and +his home, as settlement grew, became the property of the _cultivator of +the soil_;[53] the _manufacturing era_ belongs to our own time. + +In the South, the Middle Colonies and New England the trade opened the +water-courses, the trading post grew into the palisaded town, and rival +nations sought to possess the trade for themselves. Throughout the +colonial frontier the effects, as well as the methods, of Indian traffic +were strikingly alike. The trader was the pathfinder for civilization. +Nor was the process limited to the east of the Mississippi. The +expeditions of Verenderye led to the discovery of the Rocky +Mountains.[54] French traders passed up the Missouri; and when the Lewis +and Clarke expedition ascended that river and crossed the continent, it +went with traders and voyageurs as guides and interpreters. Indeed, +Jefferson first conceived the idea of such an expedition[55] from +contact with Ledyard, who was organizing a fur trading company in +France, and it was proposed to Congress as a means of fostering our +western Indian trade.[56] The first immigrant train to California was +incited by the representations of an Indian trader who had visited the +region, and it was guided by trappers.[57] + +St. Louis was the center of the fur trade of the far West, and Senator +Benton was intimate with leading traders like Chouteau.[58] He urged the +occupation of the Oregon country, where in 1810 an establishment had for +a time been made by the celebrated John Jacob Astor; and he fostered +legislation opening the road to the southwestern Mexican settlements +long in use by the traders. The expedition of his son-in-law Fremont was +made with French voyageurs, and guided to the passes by traders who had +used them before.[59] Benton was also one of the stoutest of the early +advocates of a Pacific railway. + +But the Northwest[60] was particularly the home of the fur trade, and +having seen that this traffic was not an isolated or unimportant matter, +we may now proceed to study it in detail with Wisconsin as the field of +investigation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 41: Charter of 1606.] + +[Footnote 42: Ramsay, Tennessee, 63.] + +[Footnote 43: On the Southwestern Indians see Adair, American Indians.] + +[Footnote 44: Ramsay, 75.] + +[Footnote 45: Spottswood's Letters, Virginia Hist. Colls., N.S., I., +67.] + +[Footnote 46: Byrd Manuscripts, I., 180. The reader will find a +convenient map for the southern region in Roosevelt, Winning of the +West, I.] + +[Footnote 47: Spottswood's Letters, I., 40; II., 149, 150.] + +[Footnote 48: Ramsay, 64. Note the bearing of this route on the Holston +settlement.] + +[Footnote 49: Georgia Historical Collections, I., 180; II., 123-7.] + +[Footnote 50: Spottswood. II., 331, for example.] + +[Footnote 51: Ramsay, 65.] + +[Footnote 52: Boone, Life and Adventures.] + +[Footnote 53: Observations on the North American Land Co., pp. xv., 144, +London, 1796.] + +[Footnote 54: Margry, VI.] + +[Footnote 55: Allen, Lewis and Clarke Expedition, I., ix.; _vide post_, +pp. 70-71.] + +[Footnote 56: _Vide post_, p. 71.] + +[Footnote 57: _Century Magazine_, XLI., 759.] + +[Footnote 58: Jessie Benton Fremont in _Century Magazine_, XLI., 766-7.] + +[Footnote 59: _Century Magazine_, XLI., p. 759; _vide post_, p. 74.] + +[Footnote 60: Parkman's works, particularly Old Regime, make any +discussion of the importance of the fur trade to Canada proper +unnecessary. La Hontan says: "For you must know that Canada subsists +only upon the trade of skins or furs, three-fourths of which come from +the people that live around the Great Lakes." La Hontan, I., 53, London, +1703.] + + + + +NORTHWESTERN RIVER SYSTEMS IN THEIR RELATION TO THE FUR TRADE. + + +The importance of physical conditions is nowhere more manifest than in +the exploration of the Northwest, and we cannot properly appreciate +Wisconsin's relation to the history of the time without first +considering her situation as regards the lake and river systems of North +America. + +When the Breton sailors, steering their fishing smacks almost in the +wake of Cabot, began to fish in the St. Lawrence gulf, and to traffic +with the natives of the mainland for peltries, the problem of how the +interior of North America was to be explored was solved. The +water-system composed of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes is the key +to the continent. The early explorations in a wilderness must be by +water-courses--they are nature's highways. The St. Lawrence leads to the +Great Lakes; the headwaters of the tributaries of these lakes lie so +near the headwaters of the rivers that join the Mississippi that canoes +can be portaged from the one to the other. The Mississippi affords +passage to the Gulf of Mexico; or by the Missouri to the passes of the +Rocky Mountains, where rise the headwaters of the Columbia, which brings +the voyageur to the Pacific. But if the explorer follows Lake Superior +to the present boundary line between Minnesota and Canada, and takes the +chain of lakes and rivers extending from Pigeon river to Rainy lake and +Lake of the Woods, he will be led to the Winnipeg river and to the lake +of the same name. From this, by streams and portages, he may reach +Hudson bay; or he may go by way of Elk river and Lake Athabasca to Slave +river and Slave lake, which will take him to Mackenzie river and to the +Arctic sea. But Lake Winnipeg also receives the waters of the +Saskatchewan river, from which one may pass to the highlands near the +Pacific where rise the northern branches of the Columbia. And from the +lakes of Canada there are still other routes to the Oregon country.[61] +At a later day these two routes to the Columbia became an important +factor in bringing British and Americans into conflict over that +territory. + +In these water-systems Wisconsin was the link that joined the Great +Lakes and the Mississippi; and along her northern shore the first +explorers passed to the Pigeon river, or, as it was called later, the +Grand Portage route, along the boundary line between Minnesota and +Canada into the heart of Canada. + +It was possible to reach the Mississippi from the Great Lakes by the +following principal routes:[62] + +1. By the Miami (Maumee) river from the west end of Lake Erie to the +Wabash, thence to the Ohio and the Mississippi. + +2. By the St. Joseph's river to the Wabash, thence to the Ohio. + +3. By the St. Joseph's river to the Kankakee, and thence to the Illinois +and the Mississippi. + +4. By the Chicago river to the Illinois. + +5. By Green bay, Fox river, and the Wisconsin river. + +6. By the Bois Brule river to the St. Croix river. + +Of these routes, the first two were not at first available, owing to the +hostility of the Iroquois. + +Of all the colonies that fell to the English, as we have seen, New York +alone had a water-system that favored communication with the interior, +tapping the St. Lawrence and opening a way to Lake Ontario. Prevented by +the Iroquois friends of the Dutch and English from reaching the +Northwest by way of the lower lakes, the French ascended the Ottawa, +reached Lake Nipissing, and passed by way of Georgian Bay to the islands +of Lake Huron. As late as the nineteenth century this was the common +route of the fur trade, for it was more certain for the birch canoes +than the tempestuous route of the lakes. At the Huron islands two ways +opened before their canoes. The straits of Michillimackinac[63] +permitted them to enter Lake Michigan, and from this led the two routes +to the Mississippi: one by way of Green bay and the Fox and Wisconsin, +and the other by way of the lake to the Chicago river. But if the trader +chose to go from the Huron islands through Sault Ste. Marie into Lake +Superior, the necessities of his frail craft required him to hug the +shore, and the rumors of copper mines induced the first traders to take +the south shore, and here the lakes of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota +afford connecting links between the streams that seek Lake Superior and +those that seek the Mississippi,[64] a fact which made northern +Wisconsin more important in this epoch than the southern portion of the +state. + +We are now able to see how the river-courses of the Northwest permitted +a complete exploration of the country, and that in these courses +Wisconsin held a commanding situation,[65] But these rivers not only +permitted exploration; they also furnished a motive to exploration by +the fact that their valleys teemed with fur-bearing animals. This is the +main fact in connection with Northwestern exploration. The hope of a +route to China was always influential, as was also the search for mines, +but the practical inducements were the profitable trade with the Indians +for beaver and buffaloes and the wild life that accompanied it. So +powerful was the combined influence of these far-stretching rivers, and +the "hardy, adventurous, lawless, fascinating fur trade," that the +scanty population of Canada was irresistibly drawn from agricultural +settlements into the interminable recesses of the continent; and herein +is a leading explanation of the lack of permanent French influence in +America. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 61: Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., VIII., 10-11.] + +[Footnote 62: Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., IV., 224, n. 1; Margry, V. +See also Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., map and pp. 38-9, 128.] + +[Footnote 63: Mackinaw.] + +[Footnote 64: See Doty's enumeration, Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 202.] + +[Footnote 65: Jes. Rels., 1672, p. 37; La Hontan, I., 105 (1703).] + + + + +WISCONSIN INDIANS.[66] + + +"All that relates to the Indian tribes of Wisconsin," says Dr. Shea, +"their antiquities, their ethnology, their history, is deeply +interesting from the fact that it is the area of the first meeting of +the Algic and Dakota tribes. Here clans of both these wide-spread +families met and mingled at a very early period; here they first met in +battle and mutually checked each other's advance." The Winnebagoes +attracted the attention of the French even before they were visited. +They were located about Green bay. Their later location at the entrance +of Lake Winnebago was unoccupied, at least in the time of Allouez, +because of the hostility of the Sioux. Early authorities represented +them as numbering about one hundred warriors.[67] The Pottawattomies we +find in 1641 at Sault Ste. Marie,[68] whither they had just fled from +their enemies. Their proper home was probably about the southeastern +shore and islands of Green bay, where as early as 1670 they were again +located. Of their numbers in Wisconsin at this time we can say but +little. Allouez, at Chequamegon bay, was visited by 300 of their +warriors, and he mentions some of their Green bay villages, one of which +had 300 souls.[69] The Menomonees were found chiefly on the river that +bears their name, and the western tributaries of Green bay seem to have +been their territory. On the estimates of early authorities we may say +that they had about 100 warriors.[70] The Sauks and Foxes were closely +allied tribes. The Sauks were found by Allouez[71] four leagues[72] up +the Fox from its mouth, and the Foxes at a place reached by a four days' +ascent of the Wolf river from its mouth. Later we find them at the +confluence of the Wolf and the Fox. According to their early visitors +these two tribes must have had something over 1000 warriors.[73] The +Miamis and Mascoutins were located about a league from the Fox river, +probably within the limits of what is now Green Lake county,[74] and +four leagues away were their friends the Kickapoos. In 1670 the Miamis +and Mascoutins were estimated at 800 warriors, and this may have +included the Kickapoos. The Sioux held possession of the Upper +Mississippi, and in Wisconsin hunted on its northeastern tributaries. +Their villages were in later times all on the west of the Mississippi, +and of their early numbers no estimate can be given. The Chippeways were +along the southern shore of Lake Superior. Their numbers also are in +doubt, but were very considerable.[75] In northwestern Wisconsin, with +Chequamegon bay as their rendezvous, were the Ottawas and Hurons,[76] +who had fled here to escape the Iroquois. In 1670 they were back again +to their homes at Mackinaw and the Huron islands. But in 1666, as +Allouez tells us, they were situated at the bottom of this beautiful +bay, planting their Indian corn and leading a stationary life. "They are +there," he says, "to the number of eight hundred men bearing arms, but +collected from seven different nations who dwell in peace with each +other thus mingled together."[77] And the Jesuit Relations of 1670 add +that the Illinois "come here from time to time in great numbers as +merchants to procure hatchets, cooking utensils, guns, and other things +of which they stand in need." Here, too, came Pottawattomies, as we have +seen, and Sauks. + +At the mouth of Fox river[78] we find another mixed village of +Pottawattomies, Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebagoes, and at a later period +Milwaukee was the site of a similar heterogeneous community. Leaving out +the Hurons, the tribes of Wisconsin were, with two exceptions, of the +Algic stock. The exceptions are the Winnebagoes and the Sioux, who +belong to the Dakota family. Of these Wisconsin tribes it is probable +that the Sauks and Foxes, the Pottawattomies, the Hurons and Ottawas and +the Mascoutins, and Miamis and Kickapoos, were driven into Wisconsin by +the attacks of eastern enemies. The Iroquois even made incursions as far +as the home of the Mascoutins on Fox river. On the other side of the +state were the Sioux, "the Iroquois of the West," as the missionaries +call them, who had once claimed all the region, and whose invasions, +Allouez says, rendered Lake Winnebago uninhabited. There was therefore a +pressure on both sides of Wisconsin which tended to mass together the +divergent tribes. And the Green bay and Fox and Wisconsin route was the +line of least resistance, as well as a region abounding in wild rice, +fish and game, for these early fugitives. In this movement we have two +facts that are not devoid of significance in institutional history: +first, the welding together of separate tribes, as the Sauks and Foxes, +and the Miamis, Mascoutins and Kickapoos; and second, a commingling of +detached families from various tribes at peculiarly favorable +localities. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 66: On these early locations, consult the authorities cited by +Shea in Wis. Hist. Colls., III., 125 _et seq._, and by Branson in his +criticism on Shea, _ibid._ IV., 223. See also Butterfield's Discovery of +the Northwest in 1634, and _Mag. West. Hist._, V., 468, 630; and Minn. +Hist. Colls., V.] + +[Footnote 67: Some early estimates were as follows: 1640, "Great +numbers" (Margry, I., 48); 1718, 80 to 100 warriors (N.Y. Col. Docs., +IX., 889); 1728, 60 or 80 warriors (Margry, VI., 553); 1736, 90 warriors +(Chaurignerie, cited in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, III., 282); 1761, +150 warriors (Gorrell, Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 32).] + +[Footnote 68: Margry, I., 46.] + +[Footnote 69: Jes. Rels., 1667, 1670.] + +[Footnote 70: 1718, estimated at 80 to 100 warriors (N.Y. Col. Docs., +IX.,889); 1762, estimated at 150 warriors (Gorrell, Wis. Hist. Colls., +I., 32).] + +[Footnote 71: Jes. Rels., 1670.] + +[Footnote 72: French leagues.] + +[Footnote 73: 1670, Foxes estimated at 400 warriors (Jes. Rels., 1670); +1667, Foxes, 1000 warriors (Jes. Rels., 1667); 1695, Foxes and +Mascoutins, 1200 warriors (N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 633); 1718, Sauks 100 +or 120, Foxes 500 warriors (2 Penn. Archives, VI., 54); 1728, Foxes, 200 +warriors (Margry, V.); 1762, Sauks and Foxes, 700 warriors (Gorrell, +Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 32). This, it must be observed, was after the Fox +wars.] + +[Footnote 74: Jes. Rels., 1670; Butterfield's Discovery of the +Northwest.] + +[Footnote 75: In 1820 those in Wisconsin numbered about 600 hunters.] + +[Footnote 76: On these Indians consult, besides authorities already +cited, Shea's Discovery, etc. lx.; Jes. Rels.; Narr. and Crit. Hist. of +Amer., IV., 168-170, 175; Radisson's Voyages; Margry, IV., 586-598.] + +[Footnote 77: Jes. Rels., 1666-7.] + +[Footnote 78: Jes. Rels., 1670.] + + + + +PERIODS OF THE WISCONSIN INDIAN TRADE. + + +The Indian trade was almost the sole interest in Wisconsin during the +two centuries that elapsed from the visit of Nicolet in 1634 to about +1834, when lead-mining had superseded it in the southwest and land +offices were opened at Green Bay and Mineral Point; when the port of +Milwaukee received an influx of settlers to the lands made known by the +so-called Black Hawk war; and when Astor retired from the American Fur +Company. These two centuries may be divided into three periods of the +trade: 1. French, from 1634 to 1763; 2. English, from 1763 to 1816; 3. +American, from 1816 to 1834. + + + + +FRENCH EXPLORATION IN WISCONSIN. + + +Sagard,[79] whose work was published in 1636, tells us that the Hurons, +who traded with the French, visited the Winnebagoes and the Fire Nation +(Mascoutins),[80] bartering goods for peltries. Champlain, the famous +fur-trader, who represented the Company of the Hundred Associates,[81] +formed by Richelieu to monopolize the fur trade of New France and govern +the country, sent an agent named Jean Nicolet, in 1634,[82] to Green bay +and Fox river to make a peace between the Hurons and the Winnebagoes in +the interests of inter-tribal commerce. The importance of this phase of +the trade as late as 1681 may be inferred from these words of Du +Chesneau, speaking of the Ottawas, and including under the term the +Petun Hurons and the Chippeways also: "Through them we obtain beaver, +and although they, for the most part, do not hunt, and have but a small +portion of peltry in their country, they go in search of it to the most +distant places, and exchange for it our merchandise which they procure +at Montreal." Among the tribes enumerated as dealing with the Ottawas +are the Sioux, Satiks, Pottawattomies, Winnebagoes, Menomonees and +Mascoutins--all Wisconsin Indians at this time. He adds: "Some of these +tribes occasionally come down to Montreal, but usually they do not do so +in very great numbers because they are too far distant, are not expert +at managing canoes, and because the other Indians intimidate them, in +order to be the carriers of their merchandise and to profit +thereby."[83] + +It was the aim of the authorities to attract the Indians to Montreal, or +to develop the inter-tribal communication, and thus to centralize the +trade and prevent the dissipation of the energies of the colony; but the +temptations of the free forest traffic were too strong. In a memoir of +1697, Aubert de la Chesnaye says: + +"At first, the French went only among the Hurons, and since then to +Missilimakinak, where they sold their goods to the savages of the +places, who in turn went to exchange them with other savages in the +depths of the woods, lands and rivers. But at present the French, having +licenses, in order to secure greater profit surreptitiously, pass all +the 'Ottawas and savages of Missilimakinak in order to go themselves to +seek the most distant tribes, which is very displeasing to the former. +_It is they, also, who have made excellent discoveries;_ and four or +five hundred young men, the best men of Canada, are engaged in this +business.... They have given us knowledge of many names of savages that +we did not know; and four or five hundred leagues more remote are others +who are unknown to us."[84] + +Two of the most noteworthy of these _coureurs de bois_, or wood-rangers, +were Radisson and Groseilliers.[85] In 1660 they returned to Montreal +with 300 Algonquins and sixty canoes laden with furs, after a voyage in +which they visited, among other tribes, the Pottawattomies, Mascoutins, +Sioux, and Hurons, in Wisconsin. From the Hurons they learned of the +Mississippi, and probably visited the river. They soon returned from +Montreal to the northern Wisconsin region. In the course of their +wanderings they had a post at Chequamegon bay, and they ascended the +Pigeon river, thus opening the Grand Portage route to the heart of +Canada. Among their exploits they induced England to enter the Hudson +Bay trade, and gave the impetus that led to the organization of the +Hudson Bay Company. The reports which these traders brought back had a +most important effect in fostering exploration in the Northwest, and led +to the visit of Menard, who was succeeded by Allouez, the pioneers of +the Jesuits in Wisconsin.[86] Radisson gives us a good account of the +early Wisconsin trade. Of his visit to the Ottawas he says: + +"We weare wellcomed & made of saying that we weare the Gods and devils +of the earth; that we should fournish them, & that they would bring us +to their enemy to destroy them. We tould them [we] were very well +content. We persuaded them first to come peaceably, not to distroy them +presently, and if they would not condescend then would wee throw away +the hatchett and make use of our thunders. We sent ambassadors to them +wth guifts. That nation called Pontonatemick[87] without more adoe +comes and meets us with the rest, and peace was concluded." "The +savages," he writes, "love knives better than we serve God, which should +make us blush for shame." In another place, "We went away free from any +burden whilst those poore miserable thought themselves happy to carry +our Equipage for the hope that they had that we should give them a +brasse ring, or an awle, or an needle."[88] We find them using this +influence in various places to make peace between hostile tribes, whom +they threatened with punishment. This early commerce was carried on +under the fiction of an exchange of presents. For example, Radisson +says: "We gave them severall gifts and received many. They bestowed upon +us above 300 robs of castors out of wch we brought not five to the +ffrench being far in the country."[89] Among the articles used by +Radisson in this trade were kettles, hatchets, knives, graters, awls, +needles, tin looking-glasses, little bells, ivory combs, vermilion, +sword blades, necklaces and bracelets. The sale of guns and blankets was +at this time exceptional, nor does it appear that Radisson carried +brandy in this voyage.[90] + +More and more the young men of Canada continued to visit the savages at +their villages. By 1660 the _coureurs de bois_ formed a distinct +class,[91] who, despite the laws against it, pushed from +Michillimackinac into the wilderness. Wisconsin was a favorite resort of +these adventurers. By the time of the arrival of the Jesuits they had +made themselves entirely at home upon our lakes. They had preceded +Allouez at Chequamegon bay, and when he established his mission at Green +bay he came at the invitation of the Pottawattomies, who wished him to +"mollify some young Frenchmen who were among them for the purpose of +trading and who threatened and ill-treated them."[92] He found fur +traders before him on the Fox and the Wolf. Bancroft's assertion[93] +that "religious enthusiasm took possession of the wilderness on the +upper lakes and explored the Mississippi," is misleading. It is not true +that "not a cape was turned, nor a mission founded, nor a river entered, +nor a settlement begun, but a Jesuit led the way." In fact the Jesuits +followed the traders;[94] their missions were on the sites of trading +posts, and they themselves often traded.[95] + +When St. Lusson, with the _coureur de bois_, Nicholas Perrot, took +official possession of the Northwest for France at the Sault Ste. Marie +in 1671, the cost of the expedition was defrayed by trade in beaver.[96] +Joliet, who, accompanied by Marquette, descended the Mississippi by the +Fox and Wisconsin route in 1673, was an experienced fur trader. While Du +Lhut, chief of the _coureurs de bois_, was trading on Lake Superior, La +Salle,[97] the greatest of these merchants, was preparing his +far-reaching scheme for colonizing the Indians in the Illinois region +under the direction of the French, so that they might act as a check on +the inroads of the Iroquois, and aid in his plan of securing an exit for +the furs of the Northwest, particularly buffalo hides, by way of the +Mississippi and the Gulf. La Salle's "Griffen," the earliest ship to +sail the Great Lakes, was built for this trade, and received her only +cargo at Green Bay. Accault, one of La Salle's traders, with Hennepin, +met Du Lhut on the upper Mississippi, which he had reached by way of the +Bois Brule and St. Croix, in 1680. Du Lhut's trade awakened the jealousy +of La Salle, who writes in 1682: "If they go by way of the Ouisconsing, +where for the present the chase of the buffalo is carried on and where I +have commenced an establishment, they will ruin the trade on which alone +I rely, on account of the great number of buffalo which are taken there +every year, almost beyond belief."[98] Speaking of the Jesuits at Green +Bay, he declares that they "have in truth the key to the beaver country, +where a brother blacksmith that they have and two companions convert +more iron into beaver than the fathers convert savages into +Christians."[99] Perrot says that the beaver north of the mouth of the +Wisconsin were better than those of the Illinois country, and the chase +was carried on in this region for a longer period;[100] and we know from +Dablon that the Wisconsin savages were not compelled to separate by +families during the hunting season, as was common among other tribes, +because the game here was so abundant.[101] Aside from its importance as +a key to the Northwestern trade, Wisconsin seems to have been a rich +field of traffic itself. + +With such extensive operations as the foregoing in the region reached by +Wisconsin rivers, it is obvious that the government could not keep the +_coureurs de bois_ from the woods. Even governors like Frontenac +connived at the traffic and shared its profits. In 1681 the government +decided to issue annual licenses,[102] and messengers were dispatched to +announce amnesty to the _coureurs de bois_ about Green Bay and the south +shore of Lake Superior.[103] + +We may now offer some conclusions upon the connection of the fur trade +with French explorations: + +1. The explorations were generally induced and almost always rendered +profitable by the fur trade. In addition to what has been presented on +this point, note the following: + +In 1669, Patoulet writes to Colbert concerning La Salle's voyage to +explore a passage to Japan: "The enterprise is difficult and dangerous, +but the good thing about it is that the King will be at no expense for +this pretended discovery."[104] + +The king's instructions to Governor De la Barre in 1682 say that, +"Several inhabitants of Canada, excited by the hope of the profit to be +realized from the trade with the Indians for furs, have undertaken at +various periods discoveries in the countries of the Nadoussioux, the +river Mississipy, and other parts of America."[105] + +2. The early traders were regarded as quasi-supernatural beings by the +Indians.[106] They alone could supply the coveted iron implements, the +trinkets that tickled the savage's fancy, the "fire-water," and the guns +that gave such increased power over game and the enemy. In the course of +a few years the Wisconsin savages passed from the use of the implements +of the stone age to the use of such an important product of the iron age +as firearms. They passed also from the economic stage in which their +hunting was for food and clothing simply, to that stage in which their +hunting was made systematic and stimulated by the European demand for +furs. The trade tended to perpetuate the hunter stage by making it +profitable, and it tended to reduce the Indian to economic +dependence[107] upon the Europeans, for while he learned to use the +white man's gun he did not learn to make it or even to mend it. In this +transition stage from their primitive condition the influence of the +trader over the Indians was all-powerful. The pre-eminence of the +individual Indian who owned a gun made all the warriors of the tribe +eager to possess like power. The tribe thus armed placed their enemies +at such a disadvantage that they too must have like weapons or lose +their homes.[108] No wonder that La Salle was able to say: "The savages +take better care of us French than of their own children. From us only +can they get guns and goods."[109] This was the power that France used +to support her in the struggle with England for the Northwest. + +3. The trader used his influence to promote peace between the +Northwestern Indians.[110] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 79: Histoire du Canada, 193-4 (edition of 1866).] + +[Footnote 80: Dablon, Jesuit Relations, 1671.] + +[Footnote 81: See Parkman, Pioneers, 429 ff. (1890).] + +[Footnote 82: Margry, I., 50. The date rests on inference; see +Bibliography of Nicolet in Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., and cf. Hebberd, +Wisconsin under French Dominion, 14.] + +[Footnote 83: N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 160.] + +[Footnote 84: Margry, VI., 3; Coll. de Mamiscrits, I., 255, where the +date is wrongly given as 1676. The italics are ours.] + +[Footnote 85: Radisson, Voyages (Prince Soc. Pubs.); Margry, I., 53-55, +83; Jes. Rels., 1660; Wis. Hist. Colls., X., XI; Narrative and Critical +Hist. Amer., IV., 168-173.] + +[Footnote 86: Cf. Radisson, 173-5, and Jes. Rels., 1660, pp. 12, 30; +1663, pp. 17 ff.] + +[Footnote 87: Pottawattomies in the region of Green Bay.] + +[Footnote 88: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 67-8.] + +[Footnote 89: _Ibid._ XI., 90.] + +[Footnote 90: Radisson, 200, 217, 219.] + +[Footnote 91: Suite, in Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of +Science, Arts and Letters, V., 141; N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 153, 140,152; +Margry, VI., 3; Parkman, Old Regime, 310-315.] + +[Footnote 92: Cf. Jes. Rels., 1670, p. 92.] + +[Footnote 93: History of United States, II., 138 (1884).] + +[Footnote 94: Harrisse, Notes sur la Nouvelle France, 174-181.] + +[Footnote 95: Parkman, Old Regime, 328 ff., and La Salle, 98; Margry, +II., 251; Radisson, 173.] + +[Footnote 96: See Talon's report quoted in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., +IV., 175.] + +[Footnote 97: Margry abounds in evidences of La Salle's commercial +activity, as does Parkman's La Salle. See also Dunn, Indiana, 20-1.] + +[Footnote 98: Margry, II., 254.] + +[Footnote 99: Margry, II., 251.] + +[Footnote 100: Tailhan's Perrot, 57.] + +[Footnote 101: Jes. Rels., 1670.] + +[Footnote 102: La Hontan, I., 53; N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 159; Parkman, +Old Regime, 305.] + +[Footnote 103: Margry, VI., 45.] + +[Footnote 104: Margry, I., 81.] + +[Footnote 105: N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 187. On the cost of such +expeditions, see documents in Margry, I., 293-296; VI., 503-507. On the +profits of the trade, see La Salle in 2 Penna. Archives, VI., 18-19.] + +[Footnote 106: See Radisson, _ante_, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 107: _Vide post_, p. 62.] + +[Footnote 108: _Vide ante_, p. 14; Radisson, 154; Minn. Hist. Colls., +V., 427. Compare the effects of the introduction of bronze weapons into +Europe.] + +[Footnote 109: Margry, II., 234. On the power possessed by the French +through this trade consult also D'Iberville's plan for locating +Wisconsin Indians on the Illinois by changing their trading posts; see +Margry, IV., 586-598.] + +[Footnote 110: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 67-8, 90; Narr. and Crit. Hist. +Amer., IV., 182; Perrot, 327; Margry, VI., 507-509, 653-4.] + + + + +FRENCH POSTS IN WISCONSIN. + + +In the governorship of Dongan of New York, as has been noted, the +English were endeavoring to secure the trade of the Northwest. As early +as 1685, English traders had reached Michillimackinac, the depot of +supplies for the _coureur de bois_, where they were cordially received +by the Indians, owing to their cheaper goods[111]. At the same time the +English on Hudson Bay were drawing trade to their posts in that region. +The French were thoroughly alarmed. They saw the necessity of holding +the Indians by trading posts in their midst, lest they should go to the +English, for as Begon declared, the savages "always take the part of +those with whom they trade."[112] It is at this time that the French +occupation of the Northwest begins to assume a new phase. Stockaded +trading posts were established at such key-points as a strait, a +portage, a river-mouth, or an important lake, where also were Indian +villages. In 1685 the celebrated Nicholas Perrot was given command of +Green Bay and its dependencies[113]. He had trading posts near +Trempealeau and at Fort St. Antoine on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin +where he traded with the Sioux, and for a time he had a post and worked +the lead-mines above the Des Moines river. Both these and Fort St. +Nicholas at the mouth of the Wisconsin[114] were dependencies of Green +Bay. Du Lhut probably established Fort St. Croix at the portage between +the Bois Brule river and the St. Croix.[115] In 1695 Le Sueur built a +fort on the largest island above Lake Pepin, and he also asked the +command of the post of Chequamegon.[116] + +These official posts were supported by the profits of Indian +commerce,[117] and were designed to keep the northwestern tribes at +peace, and to prevent the English and Iroquois influence from getting +the fur trade. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 111: N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 296, 308; IV., 735.] + +[Footnote 112: Quoted in Sheldon, Early History of Michigan, 310.] + +[Footnote 113: Tailhan's Perrot, 156.] + +[Footnote 114: Wis. Hist. Colls., X., 54, 300-302, 307, 321.] + +[Footnote 115: Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., IV., 186.] + +[Footnote 116: Margry, VI., 60. Near Ashland, Wis.] + +[Footnote 117: Consult French MSS., 3d series, VI., Parl. Library, +Ottawa, cited in Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 422; Id., V., 425. In 1731 M. +La Ronde, having constructed at his own expense a bark of forty tons on +Lake Superior, received the post of La Pointe de Chagouamigon as a +gratuity to defray his expenses. See also the story of Verenderye's +posts, in Parkman's article in _Atlantic Monthly_, June, 1887, and +Margry, VI. See also 2 Penna. Archives, VI., 18; La Hontan, I., 53; N.Y. +Col. Docs., IX., 159; Tailhan, Perrot, 302.] + + + + +THE FOX WARS. + + +In 1683 Perrot had collected Wisconsin Indians for an attack on the +Iroquois, and again in 1686 he led them against the same enemy. But the +efforts of the Iroquois and the English to enter the region with their +cheaper and better goods, and the natural tendency of savages to plunder +when assured of supplies from other sources, now overcame the control +which the French had exercised. The Sauks and Foxes, the Mascoutins, +Kickapoos and Miamis, as has been described, held the Fox and Wisconsin +route to the West, the natural and easy highway to the Mississippi, as +La Hontan calls it.[118] Green Bay commanded this route, as La Pointe de +Chagouamigon[119] commanded the Lake Superior route to the Bois Brule +and the St. Croix. One of Perrot's main objects was to supply the Sioux +on the other side of the Mississippi, and these were the routes to them. +To the Illinois region, also, the Fox route was the natural one. The +Indians of this waterway therefore held the key to the French position, +and might attempt to prevent the passage of French goods and support +English influence and trade, or they might try to monopolize the +intermediate trade themselves, or they might try to combine both +policies. + +As early as 1687 the Foxes, Mascoutins and Kickapoos, animated +apparently by hostility to the trade carried on by Perrot with the +Sioux, their enemy at that time, threatened to pillage the post at Green +Bay.[120] The closing of the Ottawa to the northern fur trade by the +Iroquois for three years, a blow which nearly ruined Canada in the days +of Frontenac, as Parkman has described,[121] not only kept vast stores +of furs from coming down from Michillimackinac; it must, also, have kept +goods from reaching the northwestern Indians. In 1692 the Mascoutins, +who attributed the death of some of their men to Perrot, plundered his +goods, and the Foxes soon entered into negotiation with the +Iroquois.[122] Frontenac expressed great apprehension lest with their +allies on the Fox and Wisconsin route they should remove eastward and +come into connection with the Iroquois and the English, a grave danger +to New France.[123] Nor was this apprehension without reason.[124] Even +such docile allies as the Ottawas and Pottawattomies threatened to leave +the French if goods were not sent to them wherewith to oppose their +enemies. "They have powder and iron," complained an Ottawa deputy; "how +can we sustain ourselves? Have compassion, then, on us, and consider +that it is no easy matter to kill men with clubs."[125] By the end of +the seventeenth century the disaffected Indians closed the Fox and +Wisconsin route against French trade.[126] In 1699 an order was issued +recalling the French from the Northwest, it being the design to +concentrate French power at the nearer posts.[127] Detroit was founded +in 1701 as a place to which to attract the northwestern trade and +intercept the English. In 1702 the priest at St. Joseph reported that +the English were sending presents to the Miamis about that post and +desiring to form an establishment in their country.[128] At the same +date we find D'Iberville, of Louisiana, proposing a scheme for drawing +the Miamis, Mascoutins and Kickapoos from the Wisconsin streams to the +Illinois, by changing their trading posts from Green Bay to the latter +region, and drawing the Illinois by trading posts to the lower +Ohio.[129] It was shortly after this that the Miamis and Kickapoos +passed south under either the French or English influence,[130] and the +hostility of the Foxes became more pronounced. A part of the scheme of +La Motte Cadillac at Detroit was to colonize Indians about that +post,[131] and in 1712 Foxes, Sauks, Mascoutins, Kickapoos, +Pottawattomies, Hurons, Ottawas, Illinois, Menomonees and others were +gathered there under the influence of trade. But soon, whether by design +of the French and their allies or otherwise, hostilities broke out +against the Foxes and their allies. The animus of the combat appears in +the cries of the Foxes as they raised red blankets for flags and shouted +"We have no father but the English!" while the allies of the French +replied, "The English are cowards; they destroy the Indians with brandy +and are enemies of the true God!" The Foxes were defeated with great +slaughter and driven back to Wisconsin.[132] From this time until 1734 +the French waged war against the Foxes with but short intermissions. The +Foxes allied themselves with the Iroquois and the Sioux, and acted as +middlemen between the latter and the traders, refusing passage to goods +on the ground that it would damage their own trade to allow this.[133] +They fostered hostilities between their old foes the Chippeways and +their new allies the Sioux, and thus they cut off English intercourse +with the latter by way of the north. This trade between the Chippeways +and the Sioux was important to the French, and commandants were +repeatedly sent to La Pointe de Chagouamigon and the upper Mississippi +to make peace between the two tribes.[134] While the wars were in +progress the English took pains to enforce their laws against furnishing +Indian goods to French traders. The English had for a time permitted +this, and their own Indian trade had suffered because the French were +able to make use of the cheap English goods. By their change in policy +the English now brought home to the savages the fact that French goods +were dearer.[135] Moreover, English traders were sent to Niagara to deal +directly with "the far Indians," and the Foxes visited the English and +Iroquois, and secured a promise that they might take up their abode with +the latter and form an additional member of the confederacy in case of +need.[136] As a counter policy the French attempted to exterminate the +Foxes, and detached the Sioux from their alliance with the Foxes by +establishing Fort Beauharnois, a trading post on the Minnesota side of +Lake Pepin.[137] + +The results of these wars were as follows: + +1. They spread the feeling of defection among the Northwestern Indians, +who could no longer be restrained, as at first, by the threat of cutting +off their trade, there being now rivals in the shape of the English, and +the French traders from Louisiana.[138] + +2. They caused a readjustment of the Indian map of Wisconsin. The +Mascoutins and the Pottawattomies had already moved southward to the +Illinois country. Now the Foxes, driven from their river, passed first +to Prairie du Chien and then down the Mississippi. The Sauks went at +first to the Wisconsin, near Sauk Prairie, and then joined the Foxes. +The Winnebagoes gradually extended themselves along the Fox and +Wisconsin. The Chippeways,[139] freed from their fear of the Foxes, to +whom the Wolf and the Wisconsin had given access to the northern portion +of the state, now passed south to Lac du Flambeau,[140] to the +headwaters of the Wisconsin, and to Lac Court Oreilles.[141] + +3. The closing of the Fox and Wisconsin route fostered that movement of +trade and exploration which at this time began to turn to the far +Northwest along the Pigeon river route into central British America, in +search of the Sea of the West,[142] whereby the Rocky Mountains were +discovered; and it may have aided in turning settlement into the +Illinois country. + +4. These wars were a part of a connected series, including the Iroquois +wars, the Fox wars, the attack of the Wisconsin trader, Charles de +Langlade, upon the center of English trade at Pickawillany,[143] Ohio, +and the French and Indian war that followed. All were successive stages +of the struggle against English trade in the French possessions. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 118: La Hontan, I., 105.] + +[Footnote 119: Near Ashland, Wis.] + +[Footnote 120: Tailhan, Perrot, 139, 302.] + +[Footnote 121: Frontenac, 315-316. Cf. Perrot, 302.] + +[Footnote 122: Perrot, 331; N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 633.] + +[Footnote 123: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 124: N.Y. Col. Docs., IV., 732-7.] + +[Footnote 125: N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 673.] + +[Footnote 126: Shea, Early Voyages, 49.] + +[Footnote 127: Kingsford, Canada, II., 394; N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 635.] + +[Footnote 128: Margry, V.,219.] + +[Footnote 129: _Ibid._ IV., 597.] + +[Footnote 130: Wis. Hist. Colls., III., 149; Smith, Wisconsin, II., +315.] + +[Footnote 131: Coll. de Manus., III., 622.] + +[Footnote 132: See Hebberd's account, Wisconsin under French Dominion; +Coll. de Manus., I., 623; Smith, Wisconsin, II., 315.] + +[Footnote 133: Margry, VI., 543.] + +[Footnote 134: Tailhan, Perrot, _passim_; N.Y. Col. Docs., IX., 570, +619, 621; Margry, VI., 507-509, 553, 653-4; Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 422, +425; Wis. Hist. Colls., III., 154.] + +[Footnote 135: N.Y. Col. Docs., V., 726 ff.] + +[Footnote 136: _Ibid._ IV., 732, 735, 796-7; V., 687, 911.] + +[Footnote 137: Margry, VI., 553, 563, 575-580; Neill in _Mag. Western +History_, November, 1887.] + +[Footnote 138: Perrot, 148; Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 42; +Hebberd, Wisconsin under French Dominion, chapters on the Fox wars.] + +[Footnote 139: Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 190-1.] + +[Footnote 140: Oneida county.] + +[Footnote 141: Sawyer county.] + +[Footnote 142: Margry, VI.] + +[Footnote 143: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 84, and citations; _vide +post_, p. 41.] + + + + +FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN WISCONSIN. + + +Settlement was not the object of the French in the Northwest. The +authorities saw as clearly as do we that the field was too vast for the +resources of the colony, and they desired to hold the region as a source +of peltries, and contract their settlements. The only towns worthy of +the name in the Northwest were Detroit and the settlements in Indiana +and Illinois, all of which depended largely on the fur trade.[144] But +in spite of the government the traffic also produced the beginnings of +settlement in Wisconsin. About the middle of the century, Augustin de +Langlade had made Green Bay his trading post. After Pontiac's war,[145] +Charles de Langlade[146] made the place his permanent residence, and a +little settlement grew up. At Prairie du Chien French traders annually +met the Indians, and at this time there may have been a stockaded +trading post there, but it was not a permanent settlement until the +close of the Revolutionary war. Chequamegon bay was deserted[147] at the +outbreak of the French war. There may have been a regular trading post +at Milwaukee in this period, but the first trader recorded is not until +1762.[148] Doubtless wintering posts existed at other points in +Wisconsin. + +The characteristic feature of French occupancy of the Northwest was the +trading post, and in illustration of it, and of the centralized +administration of the French, the following account of De Repentigny's +fort at Sault Ste. Marie (Michigan) is given in the words of Governor La +Jonquiere to the minister for the colonies in 1751:[149] + +"He arrived too late last year at the Sault Ste. Marie to fortify +himself well; however, he secured himself in a sort of fort large enough +to receive the traders of Missilimakinac.... He employed his hired men +during the whole winter in cutting 1100 pickets of fifteen feet for his +fort, with the doublings, and the timber necessary for the construction +of three houses, one of them thirty feet long by twenty wide, and two +others twenty-five feet long and the same width as the first. His fort +is entirely furnished with the exception of a redoubt of oak, which he +is to have made twelve feet square, and which shall reach the same +distance above the gate of the fort. His fort is 110 feet square. + +"As for the cultivation of the lands, the Sieur de Repentigny has a +bull, two bullocks, three cows, two heifers, one horse and a mare from +Missilimakinac.... He has engaged a Frenchman who married at Sault Ste. +Marie an Indian woman to take a farm; they have cleared it and sowed it, +and without a frost they will gather 30 to 35 sacks of corn. The said +Sieur de Repentigny so much feels it his duty to devote himself to the +cultivation of these lands that he has already entered into a bargain +for two slaves[150] whom he will employ to take care of the corn[151] +that he will gather upon these lands." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 144: Fergus, Historical Series, No. 12; Breese, Early History +of Illinois; Dunn, Indiana; Hubbard, Memorials of a Half Century; +Monette, History of the Valley of the Mississippi, I., ch. iv.] + +[Footnote 145: Henry, Travels, ch. x.] + +[Footnote 146: See Memoir in Wis. Hist. Colls., VII.; III., 224; VII., +127, 152, 166.] + +[Footnote 147: Henry, Travels.] + +[Footnote 148: Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 35.] + +[Footnote 149: Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 435-6.] + +[Footnote 150: Indians. Compare Wis. Hist. Colls., III., 256; VII., 158, +117, 179.] + +[Footnote 151: The French minister for the colonies expressing approval +of this post writes in 1752: "As it can hardly be expected that any +other grain than corn will grow there, it is necessary at least for a +while to stick to it, and not to persevere stubbornly in trying to raise +wheat." On this Dr. E.D. Neill comments: "Millions of bushels of wheat +from the region west and north of Lake Superior pass every year ... +through the ship canal at Sault Ste. Marie." The corn was for supplying +the voyageurs.] + + + + +THE TRADERS' STRUGGLE TO RETAIN THEIR TRADE. + + +While they had been securing the trade of the far Northwest and the +Illinois country, the French had allowed the English to gain the trade +of the upper Ohio,[152] and were now brought face to face with the +danger of losing the entire Northwest, and thus the connection of Canada +and Louisiana. The commandants of the western posts were financially as +well as patriotically interested. In 1754, Green Bay, then garrisoned by +an officer, a sergeant and four soldiers, required for the Indian trade +of its department thirteen canoes of goods annually, costing about 7000 +livres each, making a total of nearly $18,000.[153] Bougainville +asserts that Marin, the commandant of the department of the Bay, was +associated in trade with the governor and intendant, and that his part +netted him annually 15,000 francs. + +When it became necessary for the French to open hostilities with the +English traders in the Ohio country, it was the Wisconsin trader, +Charles de Langlade, with his Chippeway Indians, who in 1752 fell upon +the English trading post at Pickawillany and destroyed the center of +English trade in the Ohio region.[154] The leaders in the opening of the +war that ensued were Northwestern traders. St. Pierre, who commanded at +Fort Le Boeuf when Washington appeared with his demands from the +Governor of Virginia that the French should evacuate the Ohio country, +had formerly been the trader in command at Lake Pepin on the upper +Mississippi.[155] Coulon de Villiers, who captured Washington at Fort +Necessity, was the son of the former commandant at Green Bay.[156] +Beaujeau, who led the French troops to the defeat of Braddock, had been +an officer in the Fox wars.[157] It was Charles de Langlade who +commanded the Indians and was chiefly responsible for the success of the +ambuscade.[158] Wisconsin Indians, representing almost all the tribes, +took part with the French in the war.[159] Traders passed to and from +their business to the battlefields of the East. For example, De +Repentigny, whose post at Sault Ste. Marie has been described, was at +Michillimackinac in January, 1755, took part in the battle of Lake +George in the fall of that year, formed a partnership to continue the +trade with a trader of Michillimackinac in 1756, was at that place in +1758, and in 1759 fought with Montcalm on the heights of Abraham.[160] +It was not without a struggle that the traders yielded their beaver +country. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 152: Margry, VI., 758.] + +[Footnote 153: Canadian Archives, 1886, clxxii.] + +[Footnote 154: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 84.] + +[Footnote 155: Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 433. Washington was guided to the +fort along an old trading route by traders; the trail was improved by +the Ohio Company, and was used by Braddock in his march (Sparks, +Washington's Works, II., 302).] + +[Footnote 156: Wis. Hist. Colls., V., 117.] + +[Footnote 157: _Ibid._, 115.] + +[Footnote 158: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, II., 425-6. He was +prominently engaged in other battles; see Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., +123-187.] + +[Footnote 159: Wis. Hist. Colls., V., 117.] + +[Footnote 160: Neill, in _Mag. West. Hist._, VII., 17, and Minn. Hist. +Colls., V., 434-436. For other examples see Wis. Hist. Colls., V., +113-118; Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 430-1.] + + + + +THE ENGLISH AND THE NORTHWEST. INFLUENCE OF THE INDIAN TRADE ON +DIPLOMACY. + + +In the meantime what was the attitude of the English toward the +Northwest? In 1720 Governor Spotswood of Virginia wrote:[161] "The +danger which threatens these, his Maj'ty's Plantations, from this new +Settlement is also very considerable, for by the communication which the +French may maintain between Canada and Mississippi by the conveniency of +the Lakes, they do in a manner surround all the British Plantations. +They have it in their power by these Lakes and the many Rivers running +into them and into the Mississippi to engross all the Trade of the +Indian Nations w'ch are now supplied from hence." + +Cadwallader Colden, Surveyor-General of New York, says in 1724: "New +France (as the French now claim) extends from the mouth of the +Mississippi to the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, by which the French +plainly shew their intention of enclosing the British Settlements and +cutting us off from all Commerce with the numerous Nations of Indians +that are everywhere settled over the vast continent of North +America."[162] As time passed, as population increased, and as the +reports of the traders extolled the fertility of the country, both the +English and the French, but particularly the Americans, began to +consider it from the standpoint of colonization as well as from that of +the fur trade.[163] The Ohio Company had both settlement and the fur +trade in mind,[164] and the French Governor, Galissoniere, at the same +period urged that France ought to plant a colony in the Ohio +region.[165] After the conquest of New France by England there was still +the question whether she should keep Canada and the Northwest.[166] +Franklin, urging her to do so, offered as one argument the value of the +fur trade, intrinsically and as a means of holding the Indians in check. +Discussing the question whether the interior regions of America would +ever be accessible to English settlement and so to English manufactures, +he pointed out the vastness of our river and lake system, and the fact +that Indian trade already permeated the interior. In interesting +comparison he called their attention to the fact that English commerce +reached along river systems into the remote parts of Europe, and that in +ancient times the Levant had carried on a trade with the distant +interior.[167] + +That the value of the fur trade was an important element in inducing the +English to retain Canada is shown by the fact that Great Britain no +sooner came into the possession of the country than she availed herself +of the fields for which she had so long intrigued. Among the western +posts she occupied Green Bay, and with the garrison came traders;[168] +but the fort was abandoned on the outbreak of Pontiac's war.[169] This +war was due to the revolt of the Indians of the Northwest against the +transfer of authority, and was fostered by the French traders.[170] It +concerned Wisconsin but slightly, and at its close we find Green Bay a +little trading community along the Fox, where a few families lived +comfortably[171] under the quasi-patriarchal rule of Langlade.[172] In +1765 trade was re-established at Chequamegon Bay by an English trader +named Henry, and here he found the Chippeways dressed in deerskins, the +wars having deprived them of a trader.[173] + +As early as 1766 some Scotch merchants more extensively reopened the fur +trade, using Michillimackinac as the basis of their operations and +employing French voyageurs.[174] By the proclamation of the King in 1763 +the Northwest was left without political organization, it being reserved +as crown lands and exempt from purchase or settlement, the design being +to give up to the Indian trade all the lands "westward of the sources of +the rivers which fall into the sea from the West and Northwest as +aforesaid." In a report of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and +Plantations in 1772 we find the attitude of the English government +clearly set forth in these words:[175] + +"The great object of colonization upon the continent of North America +has been to improve and extend the commerce and manufactures of this +kingdom.... It does appear to us that the extension of the fur trade +depends entirely upon the Indians being undisturbed in the possession of +their hunting grounds, and that all colonization does in its nature and +must in its consequence operate to the prejudice of that branch of +commerce.... Let the savages enjoy their deserts in quiet. Were they +driven from their forests the peltry trade would decrease." + +In a word, the English government attempted to adopt the western policy +of the French. From one point of view it was a successful policy. The +French traders took service under the English, and in the Revolutionary +war Charles de Langlade led the Wisconsin Indians to the aid of Hamilton +against George Rogers Clark,[176] as he had before against the British, +and in the War of 1812 the British trader Robert Dickson repeated this +movement.[177] As in the days of Begon, "the savages took the part of +those with whom they traded." The secret proposition of Vergennes, in +the negotiations preceding the treaty of 1783, to limit the United +States by the Alleghanies and to give the Northwest to England, while +reserving the rest of the region between the mountains and the +Mississippi as Indian territory under Spanish protection,[178] would +have given the fur trade to these nations.[179] In the extensive +discussions over the diplomacy whereby the Northwest was included within +the limits of the United States, it has been asserted that we won our +case by the chartered claims of the colonies and by George Rogers +Clark's conquest of the Illinois country. It appears, however, that in +fact Franklin, who had been a prominent member and champion of the Ohio +Company, and who knew the West from personal acquaintance, had persuaded +Shelburne to cede it to us as a part of a liberal peace that should +effect a reconciliation between the two countries. Shelburne himself +looked upon the region from the point of view of the fur trade simply, +and was more willing to make this concession than he was some others. In +the discussion over the treaty in Parliament in 1783, the Northwestern +boundary was treated almost solely from the point of view of the fur +trade and of the desertion of the Indians. The question was one of +profit and loss in this traffic. One member attacked Shelburne on the +ground that, "not thinking the naked independence a sufficient proof of +his liberality to the United States, he had clothed it with the warm +covering of our fur trade." Shelburne defended his cession "on the fair +rule of the value of the district ceded,"[180] and comparing exports and +imports and the cost of administration, he concluded that the fur trade +of the Northwest was not of sufficient value to warrant continuing the +war. The most valuable trade, he argued, was north of the line, and the +treaty merely applied sound economic principles and gave America "a +share in the trade." The retention of her Northwestern posts by Great +Britain at the close of the war, in contravention of the treaty, has an +obvious relation to the fur trade. In his negotiations with Hammond, the +British ambassador in 1791, Secretary of State Jefferson said: "By these +proceedings we have been intercepted entirely from the commerce of furs +with the Indian nations to the northward--a commerce which had ever been +of great importance to the United States, not only for its intrinsic +value, but as it was the means of cherishing peace with these Indians, +and of superseding the necessity of that expensive warfare which we have +been obliged to carry on with them during the time that these posts have +been in other hands."[181] + +In discussing the evacuation of the posts in 1794 Jay was met by a +demand that complete freedom of the Northwestern Indian trade should be +granted to British subjects. It was furthermore proposed by Lord +Grenville[182] that, "Whereas it is now understood that the river +Mississippi would at no point thereof be intersected by such westward +line as is described in the said treaty [1783]; and whereas it was +stipulated in the said treaty that the navigation of the Mississippi +should be free to both parties"--one of two new propositions should be +accepted regarding the northwestern boundary. The maps in American State +Papers, Foreign Relations, I., 492, show that both these proposals +extended Great Britain's territory so as to embrace the Grand Portage +and the lake region of northern Minnesota, one of the best of the +Northwest Company's fur-trading regions south of the line, and in +connection by the Red river with the Canadian river systems.[183] They +were rejected by Jay. Secretary Randolph urged him to hasten the removal +of the British, stating that the delay asked for, to allow the traders +to collect their Indian debts, etc., would have a bad effect upon the +Indians, and protesting that free communication for the British would +strike deep into our Indian trade.[184] The definitive treaty included +the following provisions:[185] The posts were to be evacuated before +June 1, 1796. "All settlers and traders, within the precincts or +jurisdiction of the said posts, shall continue to enjoy, unmolested, all +their property of every kind, and shall be protected therein. They shall +be at full liberty to remain there, or to remove with all or any part of +their effects; and it shall also be free to them to sell their lands, +houses, or effects, or to retain the property thereof, at their +discretion; such of them as shall continue to reside within the said +boundary lines shall not be compelled to become citizens of the United +States, or to take any oath of allegiance to the government thereof; but +they shall be at full liberty to do so if they think proper, and they +shall make and declare their election within one year after the +evacuation aforesaid. And all persons who shall continue there after the +expiration of the said year without having declared their intention of +remaining subjects of his British Majesty shall be considered as having +elected to become citizens of the United States." "It is agreed that it +shall at all times be free to His Majesty's subjects, and to the Indians +dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and +repass by land or inland navigation into the respective territories and +countries of the two parties on the continent of America (the country +within the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company only excepted), and to +navigate all the lakes, rivers and waters thereof, and freely to carry +on trade and commerce with each other." + +In his elaborate defence of Jay's treaty, Alexander Hamilton paid much +attention to the question of the fur trade. Defending Jay for permitting +so long a delay in evacuation and for granting right of entry into our +fields, he minimized the value of the trade. So far from being worth +$800,000 annually, he asserted the trade within our limits would not be +worth $100,000, seven-eighths of the traffic being north of the line. +This estimate of the value of the northwestern trade was too low. In the +course of his paper he made this observation:[186] + +"In proportion as the article is viewed on an enlarged plan and +permanent scale, its importance to us magnifies. Who can say how far +British colonization may spread southward and down the west side of the +Mississippi, northward and westward into the vast interior regions +towards the Pacific ocean?... In this large view of the subject, the fur +trade, which has made a very prominent figure in the discussion, becomes +a point scarcely visible. Objects of great variety and magnitude start +up in perspective, eclipsing the little atoms of the day, and promising +to grow and mature with time." + +Such was not the attitude of Great Britain. To her the Northwest was +desirable on account of its Indian commerce. By a statement of the +Province of Upper Canada, sent with the approbation of +Lieutenant-General Hunter to the Duke of Kent, Commander-in-Chief of +British North America, in the year 1800, we are enabled to see the +situation through Canadian eyes:[187] + +"The Indians, who had loudly and Justly complained of a treaty [1783] in +which they were sacrificed by a cession of their country contrary to +repeated promises, were with difficulty appeased, however finding the +Posts retained and some Assurances given they ceased to murmur and +resolved to defend their country extending from the Ohio Northward to +the Great Lakes and westward to the Mississippi, an immense tract, in +which they found the deer, the bear, the wild wolf, game of all sorts in +profusion. They employed the Tomahawk and Scalping Knife against such +deluded settlers who on the faith of the treaty to which they did not +consent, ventured to cross the Ohio, secretly encouraged by the Agents +of Government, supplied with Arms, Ammunition, and provisions they +maintained an obstinate & destructive war against the States, cut off +two Corps sent against them.... The American Government, discouraged by +these disasters were desirous of peace on any terms, their deputies were +sent to Detroit, they offered to confine their Pretensions within +certain limits far South of the Lakes. if this offer had been accepted +the Indian Country would have been for ages an impassible Barrier +between us. twas unfortunately perhaps wantonly rejected, and the war +continued." + +Acting under the privileges accorded to them by Jay's treaty, the +British traders were in almost as complete possession of Wisconsin until +after the war of 1812 as if Great Britain still owned it. When the war +broke out the keys of the region, Detroit and Michillimackinac, fell +into the British hands. Green Bay and Prairie du Chien were settlements +of French-British traders and voyageurs. Their leader was Robert +Dickson, who had traded at the latter settlement. Writing in 1814 from +his camp at Winnebago Lake, he says: "I think that Bony [Bonaparte] +must be knocked up as all Europe are now in Arms. The crisis is not far +off when I trust in God that the Tyrant will be humbled, & the Scoundrel +American Democrats be obliged to go down on their knees to +Britain."[188] Under him most of the Wisconsin traders of importance +received British commissions. In the spring of 1814 the Americans took +Prairie du Chien, at the mouth of the Wisconsin river, whereupon Col. +M'Douall, the British commandant at Michillimackinac, wrote to General +Drummond:[189] ... "I saw at once the imperious necessity which existed +of endeavoring by every means to dislodge the American Genl from his new +conquest, and make him relinquish the immense tract of country he had +seized upon in consequence & which brought him into the very heart of +that occupied by our friendly Indians, There was no alternative it must +either be done or there was an end to our connection with the Indians +for if allowed to settle themselves by dint of threats bribes & sowing +divisions among them, tribe after tribe would be gained over or subdued, +& thus would be destroyed the only barrier which protects the great +trading establishments of the North West and the Hudson's Bay Companys. +Nothing could then prevent the enemy from gaining the source of the +Mississippi, gradually extending themselves by the Red river to Lake +Winnipic, from whense the descent of Nelsons river to York Fort would in +time be easy." + +The British traders, voyageurs and Indians[190] dislodged the Americans, +and at the close of the war England was practically in possession of the +Indian country of the Northwest. + +In the negotiations at Ghent the British commissioners asserted the +sovereignty of the Indians over their lands, and their independence in +relation to the United States, and demanded that a barrier of Indian +territory should be established between the two countries, free to the +traffic of both nations but not open to purchase by either.[191] The +line of the Grenville treaty was suggested as a basis for determining +this Indian region. The proposition would have removed from the +sovereignty of the United States the territory of the Northwest with the +exception of about two-thirds of Ohio,[192] and given it over to the +British fur traders. The Americans declined to grant the terms, and the +United States was finally left in possession of the Northwest. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 161: Va. Hist. Colls., N.S., II, 329.] + +[Footnote 162: N.Y. Col. Docs., V., 726.] + +[Footnote 163: Indian relations had a noteworthy influence upon colonial +union; see Lucas, Appendiculae Historicae, 161, and Frothingham, Rise of +the Republic, ch. iv.] + +[Footnote 164: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 59; Sparks, Washington's +Works, II., 302.] + +[Footnote 165: Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I., 21.] + +[Footnote 166: _Ibid._ II., 403.] + +[Footnote 167: Bigelow, Franklin's Works, III., 43, 83, 98-100.] + +[Footnote 168: Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 26-38.] + +[Footnote 169: Parkman, Pontiac, I., 185. Consult N.Y. Col. Docs., VI., +635, 690, 788, 872, 974.] + +[Footnote 170: Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 26.] + +[Footnote 171: Carver, Travels.] + +[Footnote 172: Porlier Papers, Wis. Pur Trade MSS., in possession of +Wis. Hist. Soc.; also Wis. Hist. Colls., III., 200-201.] + +[Footnote 173: Henry, Travels.] + +[Footnote 174: Canadian Archives, 1888, p. 61 ff.] + +[Footnote 175: Sparks, Franklin's Works, IV., 303-323.] + +[Footnote 176: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI.] + +[Footnote 177: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 178: Jay, Address before the N.Y. Hist. Soc. on the Treaty +Negotiations of 1782-3, appendix; map in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., +VII., 148.] + +[Footnote 179: But Vergennes had a just appreciation of the value of the +region for settlement as well. He recognized and feared the American +capacity for expansion.] + +[Footnote 180: Hansard, XXIII., 377-8, 381-3, 389, 398-9, 405, 409-10, +423, 450, 457, 465.] + +[Footnote 181: American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I., 190.] + +[Footnote 182: _Ibid._ 487.] + +[Footnote 183: As early as 1794 the company had established a stockaded +fort at Sandy lake. After Jay's treaty conceding freedom of entry, the +company dotted this region with posts and raised the British flag over +them. In 1805 the center of trade was changed from Grand Portage to Fort +William Henry, on the Canada side. Neill, Minnesota, 239 (4th edn.). +Bancroft, Northwest Coast, I., 560. _Vide ante_, p. 20, and _post_, p. +55.] + +[Footnote 184: Amer. State Papers, For. Rels., I., p. 509.] + +[Footnote 185: Treaties and Conventions, etc., 1776-1887, p. 380.] + +[Footnote 186: Lodge, Hamilton's Works, IV., 514.] + +[Footnote 187: Michigan Pioneer Colls., XV., 8; cf. 10, 12, 23 and XVI., +67.] + +[Footnote 188: Wis. Fur Trade MSS., 1814 (State Hist. Soc.).] + +[Footnote 189: Wis. Hist. Colls., XL, 260. Mich. Pioneer Colls., XVI., +103-104.] + +[Footnote 190: Wis. Hist. Colls., XL, 255. Cf. Mich. Pioneer Colls., +XVI., 67. Rolette, one of the Prairie du Chien traders, was tried by the +British for treason to Great Britain.] + +[Footnote 191: Amer. State Papers, For. Rels., III., 705.] + +[Footnote 192: Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., L, 562. See map in +Collet's Travels, atlas.] + + + + +THE NORTHWEST COMPANY. + + +The most striking feature of the English period was the Northwest +Company.[193] From a study of it one may learn the character of the +English occupation of the Northwest.[194] It was formed in 1783 and +fully organized in 1787, with the design of contesting the field with +the Hudson Bay Company. Goods were brought from England to Montreal, the +headquarters of the company, and thence from the four emporiums, +Detroit, Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie, and Grand Portage, they were +scattered through the great Northwest, even to the Pacific ocean. + +Toward the end of the eighteenth century ships[195] began to take part +in this commerce; a portion of the goods was sent from Montreal in +boats to Kingston, thence in vessels to Niagara, thence overland to Lake +Erie, to be reshipped in vessels to Mackinaw and to Sault Ste. Marie, +where another transfer was made to a Lake Superior vessel. These ships +were of about ninety-five tons burden and made four or five trips a +season. But in the year 1800 the primitive mode of trade was not +materially changed. From the traffic along the main artery of commerce +between Grand Portage and Montreal may be learned the kind of trade that +flowed along such branches as that between the island of Mackinaw and +the Wisconsin posts. The visitor at La Chine rapids, near Montreal, +might have seen a squadron of Northwestern trading canoes leaving for +the Grand Portage, at the west of Lake Superior.[196] + +The boatmen, or "engages," having spent their season's gains in +carousal, packed their blanket capotes and were ready for the wilderness +again. They made a picturesque crew in their gaudy turbans, or hats +adorned with plumes and tinsel, their brilliant handkerchiefs tied +sailor-fashion about swarthy necks, their calico shirts, and their +flaming worsted belts, which served to hold the knife and the tobacco +pouch. Rough trousers, leggings, and cowhide shoes or gaily-worked +moccasins completed the costume. The trading birch canoe measured forty +feet in length, with a depth of three and a width of five. It floated +four tons of freight, and yet could be carried by four men over +difficult portages. Its crew of eight men was engaged at a salary[197] +of from five to eight hundred livres, about $100 to $160 per annum, +each, with a yearly outfit of coarse clothing and a daily food allowance +of a quart of hulled corn, or peas, seasoned with two ounces of tallow. + +The experienced voyageurs who spent the winters in the woods were called +_hivernans_, or winterers, or sometimes _hommes du nord_; while the +inexperienced, those who simply made the trip from Montreal to the +outlying depots and return, were contemptuously dubbed _mangeurs de +lard_,[198] "pork-eaters," because their pampered appetites demanded +peas and pork rather than hulled corn and tallow. Two of the crew, one +at the bow and the other at the stern, being especially skilled in the +craft of handling the paddle in the rapids, received higher wages than +the rest. Into the canoe was first placed the heavy freight, shot, axes, +powder; next the dry goods, and, crowning all, filling the canoe to +overflowing, came the provisions--pork, peas or corn, and sea biscuits, +sewed in canvas sacks. + +The lading completed, the voyageur hung his votive offerings in the +chapel of Saint Anne, patron saint of voyageurs, the paddles struck the +waters of the St. Lawrence, and the fleet of canoes glided away on its +six weeks' journey to Grand Portage. There was the Ottawa to be +ascended, the rapids to be run, the portages where the canoe must be +emptied and where each voyageur must bear his two packs of ninety pounds +apiece, and there were the _decharges_, where the canoe was merely +lightened and where the voyageurs, now on the land, now into the rushing +waters, dragged it forward till the rapids were passed. There was no +stopping to dry, but on, until the time for the hasty meal, or the +evening camp-fire underneath the pines. Every two miles there was a stop +for a three minutes' smoke, or "pipe," and when a portage was made it +was reckoned in "pauses," by which is meant the number of times the men +must stop to rest. Whenever a burial cross appeared, or a stream was +left or entered, the voyageurs removed their hats, and made the sign of +the cross while one of their number said a short prayer; and again the +paddles beat time to some rollicking song.[199] + + Dans mon chemin, j'ai rencontre + Trois cavalieres, bien montees; + L'on, lon, laridon daine, + Lon, ton, laridon dai. + + Trois cavalieres, bien montees, + L'un a cheval, et l'autre a pied; + L'on, lon, laridon daine, + Lon, ton, laridon dai. + +Arrived at Sault Ste. Marie, the fleet was often doubled by newcomers, +so that sometimes sixty canoes swept their way along the north shore, +the paddles marking sixty strokes a minute, while the rocks gave back +the echoes of Canadian songs rolling out from five hundred lusty +throats. And so they drew up at Grand Portage, near the present +northeast boundary of Minnesota, now a sleepy, squalid little village, +but then the general rendezvous where sometimes over a thousand men met; +for, at this time, the company had fifty clerks, seventy interpreters, +eighteen hundred and twenty canoe-men, and thirty-five guides. It sent +annually to Montreal 106,000 beaver-skins, to say nothing of other +peltries. When the proprietors from Montreal met the proprietors from +the northern posts, and with their clerks gathered at the banquet in +their large log hall to the number of a hundred, the walls hung with +spoils of the chase, the rough tables furnished with abundance of +venison, fish, bread, salt pork, butter, peas, corn, potatoes, tea, +milk, wine and _eau de vie_, while, outside, the motley crowd of engages +feasted on hulled corn and melted fat--was it not a truly baronial +scene? Clerks and engages of this company, or its rival, the Hudson Bay +Company, might winter one season in Wisconsin and the next in the remote +north. For example, Amable Grignon, a Green Bay trader, wintered in 1818 +at Lac qui Parle in Minnesota, the next year at Lake Athabasca, and the +third in the hyperborean regions of Great Slave Lake. In his engagement +he figures as Amable Grignon, _of the Parish of Green Bay, Upper +Canada_, and he receives $400 "and found in tobacco and shoes and two +doges," besides "the usual equipment given to clerks." He afterwards +returned to a post on the Wisconsin river. The attitude of Wisconsin +traders toward the Canadian authorities and the Northwestern wilds is +clearly shown in this document, which brings into a line Upper Canada, +"the parish of Green Bay," and the Hudson Bay Company's territories +about Great Slave Lake![200] + +How widespread and how strong was the influence of these traders upon +the savages may be easily imagined, and this commercial control was +strengthened by the annual presents made to the Indians by the British +at their posts. At a time when our relations with Great Britain were +growing strained, such a power in the Northwest was a serious +menace.[201] In 1809 John Jacob Astor secured a charter from the State +of New York, incorporating the American Fur Company. He proposed to +consolidate the fur trade of the United States, plant an establishment +in the contested Oregon territory, and link it with Michillimackinac +(Mackinaw island) by way of the Missouri through a series of trading +posts. In 1810 two expeditions of his Pacific Fur Company set out for +the Columbia, the one around Cape Horn and the other by way of Green +bay and the Missouri. In 1811 he bought a half interest in the Mackinaw +Company, a rival of the Northwest Company and the one that had especial +power in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and this new organization he called +the Southwest Company. But the war of 1812 came; Astoria, the Pacific +post, fell into the hands of the Northwest Company, while the Southwest +Company's trade was ruined. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 193: On this company see Mackenzie, Voyages; Bancroft, +Northwest Coast, I., 378-616, and citations; _Hunt's Merch. Mag._, III., +185; Irving, Astoria; Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far West; Harmon, +Journal; Report on the Canadian Archives, 1881, p. 61 et seq. This +fur-trading life still goes on in the more remote regions of British +America. See Robinson, Great Fur Land, ch. xv.] + +[Footnote 194: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 123-5.] + +[Footnote 195: Mackenzie, Voyages, xxxix. Harmon, Journal, 36. In the +fall of 1784, Haldimand granted permission to the Northwest Company to +build a small vessel at Detroit, to be employed next year on Lake +Superior. Calendar of Canadian Archives, 1888, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 196: Besides the authorities cited above, see "Anderson's +Narrative," in Wis. Hist. Colls., IX., 137-206.] + +[Footnote 197: An estimate of the cost of an expedition in 1717 is given +in Margry, VI., 506. At that time the wages of a good voyageur for a +year amounted to about $50. Provisions for the two months' trip from +Montreal to Mackinaw cost about $1.00 per month per man. Indian corn for +a year cost $16; lard, $10; _eau de vie_, $1.30; tobacco, 25 cents. It +cost, therefore, less than $80 to support a voyageur for one year's trip +into the woods. Gov. Ninian Edwards, writing at the time of the American +Fur Company (_post_, p. 57), says: "The whole expense of transporting +eight thousand weight of goods from Montreal to the Mississippi, +wintering with the Indians, and returning with a load of furs and +peltries in the succeeding season, including the cost of provisions and +portages and the hire of five engages for the whole time does not exceed +five hundred and twenty-five dollars, much of which is usually paid to +those engages when in the Indian country, in goods at an exorbitant +price." American State Papers, VI., 65.] + +[Footnote 198: This distinction goes back at least to 1681 (N.Y. Col. +Docs., IX., 152). Often the engagement was for five years, and the +voyageur might be transferred from one master to another, at the +master's will. + +The following is a translation of a typical printed engagement, one of +scores in the possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society, the +written portions in brackets: + +"Before a Notary residing at the post of Michilimakinac, Undersigned; +Was Present [Joseph Lamarqueritte] who has voluntarily engaged and doth +bind himself by these Presents to M[onsieur Louis Grignion] here present +and accepting, at [his] first requisition to set off from this Post [in +the capacity of Winterer] in one of [his] Canoes or Bateaux to make the +Voyage [going as well as returning] and to winter for [two years at the +Bay]. + +"And to have due and fitting care on the route and while at the said +[place] of the Merchandise, Provisions, Peltries, Utensils and of +everything necessary for the Voyage; to serve, obey and execute +faithfully all that the said Sieur [Bourgeois] or any other person +representing him to whom he may transport the present Engagement, +commands him lawfully and honestly; to do [his] profit, to avoid +anything to his damage, and to inform him of it if it come to his +knowledge, and generally to do all that a good [Winterer] ought and is +obliged to do; without power to make any particular trade, to absent +himself, or to quit the said service, under pain of these Ordinances, +and of loss of wages. This engagement is therefore made, for the sum of +[Eight Hundred] livres or shillings, ancient currency of Quebec, that he +promises [and] binds himself to deliver and pay to the said [Winterer +one month] after his return to this Post, and at his departure [an +Equipment each year of 2 Shirts, 1 Blanket of 3 point, 1 Carot of +Tobacco, 1 Cloth Blanket, 1 Leather Shirt, 1 Pair of Leather Breeches, 5 +Pairs of Leather Shoes, and Six Pounds of Soap.] + +"For thus, etc., promising, etc., binding, etc., renouncing, etc. + +"Done and passed at the said [Michilimackinac] in the year eighteen +hundred [Seven] the [twenty-fourth] of [July before] twelve o'clock; & +have signed with the exception of the said [Winterer] who, having +declared himself unable to do so, has made his ordinary mark after the +engagement was read to him. + + his + "JOSEPH X LAMARQUERITTE. [SEAL] + mark. + Louis GEIGNON. [SEAL] +"SAML. ABBOTT, + Not. Pub." + +Endorsed--"Engagement of Joseph Lamarqueritte to Louis Grignon."] + +[Footnote 199: For Canadian boat-songs see _Hunt's Merch. Mag._, III., +189; Mrs. Kinzie, Wau Bun; Bela Hubbard, Memorials of a Half-Century; +Robinson, Great Fur Land.] + +[Footnote 200: Wis. Fur Trade MSS. (Wis. Hist. Soc.). Published in +Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the State Hist. Soc. +of Wis. 1889, pp. 81-82.] + +[Footnote 201: See Mich. Pioneer Colls., XV., XVI., 67, 74. The +government consulted the Northwest Company, who made particular efforts +to "prevent the Americans from ever alienating the minds of the +Indians." To this end they drew up memoirs regarding the proper +frontiers.] + + + + +AMERICAN INFLUENCES. + + +Although the Green Bay court of justice, such as it was, had been +administered under American commissions since 1803, when Reaume +dispensed a rude equity under a commission of Justice of the Peace from +Governor Harrison,[202] neither Green Bay nor the rest of Wisconsin had +any proper appreciation of its American connections until the close of +this war. But now occurred these significant events: + +1. Astor's company was reorganized as the American Fur Company, with +headquarters at Mackinaw island.[203] + +2. The United States enacted in 1816 that neither foreign fur traders, +nor capital for that trade, should be admitted to this country.[204] +This was designed to terminate English influence among the tribes, and +it fostered Astor's company. The law was so interpreted as not to +exclude British (that is generally, French) interpreters and boatmen, +who were essential to the company; but this interpretation enabled +British subjects to evade the law and trade on their own account by +having their invoices made out to some Yankee clerk, while they +accompanied the clerk in the guise of interpreters.[205] In this way a +number of Yankees came to the State. + +3. In the year 1816 United States garrisons were sent to Green Bay and +Prairie du Chien.[206] + +4. In 1814 the United States provided for locating government trading +posts at these two places. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 202: Reaume's petition in Wis. Fur Trade MSS. in possession of +Wisconsin Historical Society.] + +[Footnote 203: On this company consult Irving, Astoria; Bancroft, +Northwest Coast, I., ch. xvi.; II., chs. vii-x; _Mag. Amer. Hist._ +XIII., 269; Franchere, Narrative; Ross, Adventures of the First Settlers +on the Oregon, or Columbia River (1849); Wis. Fur Trade MSS. (State +Hist. Sec.).] + +[Footnote 204: U.S. Statutes at Large, III., 332. Cf. laws in 1802 and +1822.] + +[Footnote 205: Wis. Hist. Colls., I., 103; Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 9. +The Warren brothers, who came to Wisconsin in 1818, were descendants of +the Pilgrims and related to Joseph Warren who fell at Bunker Hill; they +came from Berkshire, Mass., and marrying the half-breed daughters of +Michael Cadotte, of La Pointe, succeeded to his trade.] + +[Footnote 206: See the objections of British traders, Mich. Pioneer +Colls., XVI., 76 ff. The Northwest Company tried to induce the British +government to construe the treaty so as to prevent the United States +from erecting the forts, urging that a fort at Prairie du Chien would +"deprive the Indians of their 'rights and privileges'", guaranteed by +the treaty.] + + + + +GOVERNMENT TRADING HOUSES. + + +The system of public trading houses goes back to colonial days. At first +in Plymouth and Jamestown all industry was controlled by the +commonwealth, and in Massachusetts Bay the stock company had reserved +the trade in furs for themselves before leaving England.[207] The trade +was frequently farmed out, but public "truck houses" were established by +the latter colony as early as 1694-5.[208] Franklin, in his public +dealings with the Ohio Indians, saw the importance of regulation of the +trade, and in 1753 he wrote asking James Bowdoin of Massachusetts to +procure him a copy of the truckhouse law of that colony, saying that if +it had proved to work well he thought of proposing it for +Pennsylvania.[209] The reply of Bowdoin showed that Massachusetts +furnished goods to the Indians at wholesale prices and so drove out the +French and the private traders. In 1757 Virginia adopted the system for +a time,[210] and in 1776 the Continental Congress accepted a plan +presented by a committee of which Franklin was a member,[211] whereby +L140,000 sterling was expended at the charge of the United Colonies for +Indian goods to be sold at moderate prices by factors of the +congressional commissioners.[212] The bearing of this act upon the +governmental powers of the Congress is worth noting. + +In his messages of 1791 and 1792 President Washington urged the need of +promoting and regulating commerce with the Indians, and in 1793 he +advocated government trading houses. Pickering, of Massachusetts, who +was his Secretary of War with the management of Indian affairs, may have +strengthened Washington in this design, for he was much interested in +Indian improvement, but Washington's own experience had shown him the +desirability of some such plan, and he had written to this effect as +early as 1783.[213] The objects of Congressional policy in dealing with +the Indians were stated by speakers in 1794 as follows:[214] 1. +Protection of the frontiersmen from the Indians, by means of the army. +2. Protection of the Indians from the frontiersmen, by laws regulating +settlement. 3. Detachment of the Indians from foreign influence, by +trading houses where goods could be got cheaply. In 1795 a small +appropriation was made for trying the experiment of public trading +houses,[215] and in 1796, the same year that the British evacuated the +posts, the law which established the system was passed.[216] It was to +be temporary, but by re-enactments with alterations it was prolonged +until 1822, new posts being added from time to time. In substance the +laws provided a certain capital for the Indian trade, the goods to be +sold by salaried United States factors, at posts in the Indian country, +at such rates as would protect the savage from the extortions of the +individual trader, whose actions sometimes provoked hostilities, and +would supplant British influence over the Indian. At the same time it +was required that the capital stock should not be diminished. In the +course of the debate over the law in 1796 considerable _laissez faire_ +sentiment was called out against the government's becoming a trader, +notwithstanding that the purpose of the bill was benevolence and +political advantage rather than financial gain.[217] President Jefferson +and Secretary Calhoun were friends of the system.[218] It was a failure, +however, and under the attacks of Senator Benton, the Indian agents and +the American Fur Company, it was brought to an end in 1822. The causes +of its failure were chiefly these:[219] The private trader went to the +hunting grounds of the savages, while the government's posts were fixed. +The private traders gave credit to the Indians, which the government did +not.[220] The private trader understood the Indians, was related to them +by marriage, and was energetic and not over-scrupulous. The government +trader was a salaried agent not trained to the work. The private trader +sold whiskey and the government did not. The British trader's goods were +better than those of the government. The best business principles were +not always followed by the superintendent. The system was far from +effecting its object, for the Northwestern Indians had been accustomed +to receive presents from the British authorities, and had small respect +for a government that traded. Upon Wisconsin trade from 1814 to 1822 its +influence was slight. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 207: Mass. Coll. Recs., I., 55: III., 424.] + +[Footnote 208: Acts and Resolves of the Prov. of Mass. Bay, I., 172.] + +[Footnote 209: Bigelow, Franklin's Works, II., 316, 221. A plan for +public trading houses came before the British ministry while Franklin +was in England, and was commented upon by him for their benefit.] + +[Footnote 210: Hening, Statutes, VII., 116.] + +[Footnote 211: Journals of Congress, 1775, pp. 162, 168, 247.] + +[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, 1776, p. 41.] + +[Footnote 213: Ford's Washington's Writings, X., 309.] + +[Footnote 214: Annals of Cong., IV., 1273; cf. _ibid._, V., 231.] + +[Footnote 215: Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., I., 583.] + +[Footnote 216: Annals of Cong., VI., 2889.] + +[Footnote 217: Annals of Congress, V., 230 ff., 283; Abridgment of +Debates, VII., 187-8.] + +[Footnote 218: Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., I., 684; II., 181.] + +[Footnote 219: Amer. State Papers, VI., Ind. Affs., II., 203; Ind. +Treaties, 399 _et seq._; Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 269; _Washington +Gazette_, 1821, 1822, articles by Ramsay Crooks under signature +"Backwoodsman," and speech of Tracy in House of Representatives, +February 23, 1821; Benton, Thirty Years View; _id._, Abr. Deb., VII., +1780.] + +[Footnote 220: To understand the importance of these two points see +_post_, pp. 62-5.] + + + + +WISCONSIN TRADE IN 1820.[221] + + +The goods used in the Indian trade remained much the same from the +first, in all sections of the country.[222] They were chiefly blankets, +coarse cloths, cheap jewelry and trinkets (including strings of wampum), +fancy goods (like ribbons, shawls, etc.), kettles, knives, hatchets, +guns, powder, tobacco, and intoxicating liquor.[223] These goods, +shipped from Mackinaw, at first came by canoes or bateaux,[224] and in +the later period by vessel, to a leading post, were there redivided[225] +and sent to the various trading posts. The Indians, returning from the +hunting grounds to their villages in the spring,[226] set the squaws to +making maple sugar,[227] planting corn, watermelons, potatoes, squashes, +etc., and a little hunting was carried on. The summer was given over to +enjoyment, and in the early period to wars. In the autumn they collected +their wild rice, or their corn, and again were ready to start for the +hunting grounds, sometimes 300 miles distant. At this juncture the +trader, licensed by an Indian agent, arrived upon the scene with his +goods, without which no family could subsist, much less collect any +quantity of furs.[228] These were bought on credit by the hunter, since +he could not go on the hunt for the furs, whereby he paid for his +supplies, without having goods and ammunition advanced for the purpose. +This system of credits,[229] dating back to the French period, had +become systematized so that books were kept, with each Indian's account. +The amount to which the hunter was trusted was between $40 and $50, at +cost prices, upon which the trader expected a gain of about 100 per +cent, so that the average annual value of furs brought in by each hunter +to pay his credits should have been between $80 and $100.[230] The +amount of the credit varied with the reputation of the hunter for +honesty and ability in the chase.[231] Sometimes he was trusted to the +amount of three hundred dollars. If one-half the credits were paid in +the spring the trader thought that he had done a fair business. The +importance of this credit system can hardly be overestimated in +considering the influence of the fur trade upon the Indians of +Wisconsin, and especially in rendering them dependent upon the earlier +settlements of the State. + +The system left the Indians at the mercy of the trader when one nation +monopolized the field, and it compelled them to espouse the cause of one +or other when two nations contended for supremacy over their territory. +At the same time it rendered the trade peculiarly adapted to monopoly, +for when rivals competed, the trade was demoralized, and the Indian +frequently sold to a new trader the furs which he had pledged in advance +for the goods of another. When the American Fur Company gained control, +they systematized matters so that there was no competition between their +own agents, and private dealers cut into their trade but little for some +years. The unit of trade was at first the beaver skin, or, as the pound +of beaver skin came to be called, the "plus."[232] The beaver skin was +estimated at a pound and a half, though it sometimes weighed two, in +which case an allowance was made. Wampum was used for ornament and in +treaty-making, but not as currency. Other furs or Indian commodities, +like maple sugar and wild rice, were bought in terms of beaver. As this +animal grew scarcer the unit changed to money. By 1820, when few beaver +were marketed in Wisconsin, the term plus stood for one dollar.[233] The +muskrat skin was also used as the unit in the later days of the +trade.[234] In the southern colonies the pound of deer skin had answered +the purpose of a unit.[235] + +The goods being trusted to the Indians, the bands separated for the +hunting grounds. Among the Chippeways, at least, each family or group +had a particular stream or region where it exclusively hunted and +trapped.[236] Not only were the hunting grounds thus parcelled out; +certain Indians were apportioned to certain traders,[237] so that the +industrial activities of Wisconsin at this date were remarkably +systematic and uniform. Sometimes the trader followed the Indians to +their hunting grounds. From time to time he sent his engages (hired +men), commonly five or six in number, to the various places where the +hunting bands were to be found, to collect furs on the debts and to sell +goods to those who had not received too large credits, and to the +customers of rival traders; this was called "running a deouine."[238] +The main wintering post had lesser ones, called "jack-knife posts,"[239] +depending on it, where goods were left and the furs gathered in going to +and from the main post. By these methods Wisconsin was thoroughly +visited by the traders before the "pioneers" arrived.[240] + +The kind and amount of furs brought in may be judged by the fact that in +1836, long after the best days of the trade, a single Green Bay firm, +Porlier and Grignon, shipped to the American Fur Company about 3600 deer +skins, 6000 muskrats, 150 bears, 850 raccoons, besides beavers, otters, +fishers, martens, lynxes, foxes, wolves, badgers, skunks, etc., +amounting to over $6000. + +None of these traders became wealthy; Astor's company absorbed the +profits. It required its clerks, or factors, to pay an advance of 81-1/2 +per cent on the sterling cost of the blankets, strouds, and other +English goods, in order to cover the cost of importation and the expense +of transportation from New York to Mackinaw. Articles purchased in New +York were charged with 15-1/3 per cent advance for transportation, and +each class of purchasers was charged with 33-1/3 per cent advance as +profit on the aggregate amount.[241] + +I estimate, from the data given in the sources cited on page 63, note, +that in 1820 between $60,000 and $75,000 worth of goods was brought +annually to Wisconsin for the Indian trade. An average outfit for a +single clerk at a main post was between $1500 and $2000, and for the +dependent posts between $100 and $500. There were probably not over 2000 +Indian hunters in the State, and the total Indian population did not +much exceed 10,000. Comparing this number with the early estimates for +the same tribes, we find that, if the former are trustworthy, by 1820 +the Indian tribes that remained in Wisconsin had increased their +numbers. But the material is too unsatisfactory to afford any valuable +conclusion. + +After the sale of their lands and the receipt of money annuities, a +change came over the Indian trade. The monopoly held by Astor was broken +into, and as competition increased, the sales of whiskey were larger, +and for money, which the savage could now pay. When the Indians went to +Montreal in the days of the French, they confessed that they could not +return with supplies because they wasted their furs upon brandy. The +same process now went on at their doors. The traders were not dependent +upon the Indian's success in hunting alone; they had his annuities to +count on, and so did not exert their previous influence in favor of +steady hunting. Moreover, the game was now exploited to a considerable +degree, so that Wisconsin was no longer the hunter's paradise that it +had been in the days of Dablon and La Salle. The long-settled economic +life of the Indian being revolutionized, his business honesty declined, +and credits were more frequently lost. The annuities fell into the +traders' hands for debts and whiskey. "There is no less than near +$420,000 of claims against the Winnebagoes," writes a Green Bay trader +at Prairie du Chien, in 1838, "so that if they are all just, the +dividend will be but very small for each claimant, as there is only +$150,000 to pay that."[242] + +By this time the influence of the fur trader had so developed mining in +the region of Dubuque, Iowa, Galena, Ill., and southwestern Wisconsin, +as to cause an influx of American miners, and here began a new element +of progress for Wisconsin. The knowledge of these mines was possessed by +the early French explorers, and as the use of firearms spread they were +worked more and more by Indians, under the stimulus of the trader. In +1810 Nicholas Boilvin, United States Indian agent at Prairie du Chien, +reported that the Indians about the lead mines had mostly abandoned the +chase and turned their attention to the manufacture of lead, which they +sold to fur traders. In 1825 there were at least 100 white miners in the +entire lead region,[243] and by 1829 they numbered in the thousands. + +Black Hawk's war came in 1832, and agricultural settlement sought the +southwestern part of the State after that campaign. The traders opened +country stores, and their establishments were nuclei of settlement.[244] +In Wisconsin the Indian trading post was a thing of the past. + +The birch canoe and the pack-horse had had their day in western New York +and about Montreal. In Wisconsin the age of the voyageur continued +nearly through the first third of this century. It went on in the Far +Northwest in substantially the same fashion that has been here +described, until quite recently; and in the great North Land tributary +to Hudson Bay the _chanson_ of the voyageur may still be heard, and the +dog-sledge laden with furs jingles across the snowy plains from distant +post to distant post.[245] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 221: In an address before the State Historical Society of +Wisconsin, on the Character and Influence of the Fur Trade in Wisconsin +(Proceedings, 1889, pp. 86-98), I have given details as to Wisconsin +settlements, posts, routes of trade, and Indian location and population +in 1820.] + +[Footnote 222: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 377. Compare the articles used by +Radisson, _ante_, p. 29. For La Salle's estimate of amount and kind of +goods needed for a post, and the profits thereon, see Penna. Archives, +2d series, VI., 18-19. Brandy was an important item, one beaver selling +for a pint. For goods and cost in 1728 see a bill quoted by E.D. Neill, +on p. 20, _Mag. West. Hist._, Nov., 1887, Cf. 4 Mass. Hist. Colls., +III., 344; Byrd Manuscripts, I., 180 ff.; Minn. Hist. Colls., II., 46; +Senate Doc. No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., II., 42 ff.] + +[Footnote 223: Wis. Fur Trade MSS. Cf. Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 377, and +Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 360. The amount of liquor taken to +the woods was very great. The French Jesuits had protested against its +use in vain (Parkman's Old Regime); the United States prohibited it to +no purpose. It was an indispensable part of a trader's outfit. Robert +Stuart, agent of the American Fur Company at Mackinaw, once wrote to +John Lawe, one of the leading traders at Green Bay, that the 56 bbls. of +whiskey which he sends is "enough to last two years, and half drown all +the Indians he deals with." See also Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 282; +McKenney's Tour to the Lakes, 169, 299-301; McKenney's Memoirs, I., +19-21. An old trader assured me that it was the custom to give five or +six gallons of "grog"--one-fourth water--to the hunter when he paid his +credits; he thought that only about one-eighth or one-ninth part of the +whole sales was in whiskey.] + +[Footnote 224: A light boat sometimes called a "Mackinaw boat," about 32 +feet long, by 6-1/2 to 15 feet wide amidships, and sharp at the ends.] + +[Footnote 225: See Wis. Hist. Colls., II., 108.] + +[Footnote 226: Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 263.] + +[Footnote 227: See Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 220, 286; III., 235; +McKenney's Tour, 194; Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, II., 55. Sometimes a +family made 1500 lbs. in a season.] + +[Footnote 228: Lewis Cass in Senate Docs., No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., +II., 1.] + +[Footnote 229: See D'Iberville's plans for relocating Indian tribes by +denying them credit at certain posts, Margry, IV., 597. The system was +used by the Dutch, and the Puritans also; see Weeden, Economic and +Social Hist. New Eng., I., 98. In 1765, after the French and Indian war, +the Chippeways of Chequamegon Bay told Henry, a British trader, that +unless he advanced them goods on credit, "their wives and children would +perish; for that there were neither ammunition nor clothing left among +them." He distributed goods worth 3000 beaver skins. Henry, Travels, +195-6. Cf. Neill, Minnesota, 225-6; N.Y. Col. Docs., VII., 543; Amer. +State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 64, 66, 329, 333-5; _North American +Review_, Jan., 1826, p. 110.] + +[Footnote 230: Biddle, an Indian agent, testified in 1822 that while the +cost of transporting 100 wt. from New York to Green Bay did not exceed +five dollars, which would produce a charge of less than 10 percent on +the original cost, the United States factor charged 50 per cent +additional. The United States capital stock was diminished by this +trade, however. The private dealers charged much more. Schoolcraft in +1831 estimated that $48.34 in goods and provisions at cost prices was +the average annual supply of each hunter, or $6.90 to each soul. The +substantial accuracy of this is sustained by my data. See Sen. Doc., No. +90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., II., 45; State Papers, No. 7, 18th Cong., 1st +Sess., I.; State Papers, No. 54, 18th Cong., 2d Sess., III.; +Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, III., 599; Invoice Book, Amer. Fur Co., for +1820, 1821; Wis. Fur Trade MSS. in possession of Wisconsin Historical +Society.] + +[Footnote 231: The following is a typical account, taken from the books +of Jacques Porlier, of Green Bay, for the year 1823: The Indian Michel +bought on credit in the fall: $16 worth of cloth; a trap, $1.00; two and +a half yards of cotton, $3.12-1/2; three measures of powder, $1.50; +lead, $1.00; a bottle of whiskey, 50 cents, and some other articles, +such as a gun worm, making in all a bill of about $25. This he paid in +full by bringing in eighty-five muskrats, worth nearly $20; a fox, +$1.00, and a mocock of maple sugar, worth $4.00.] + +[Footnote 232: A.J. Vieau, who traded in the thirties, gave me this +information.] + +[Footnote 233: For the value of the beaver at different periods and +places consult indexes, under "beaver," in N.Y. Col. Docs,; Bancroft, +Northwest Coast; Weeden, Economic and Social Hist. New Eng.; and see +Morgan, American Beaver, 243-4; Henry, Travels, 192; 2 Penna. Archives, +VI., 18; Servent, in Paris Ex. Univ. 1867, Rapports, VI., 117, 123; +Proc. Wis. State Hist. Soc., 1889, p. 86.] + +[Footnote 234: Minn. Hist. Colls. II., 46, gives the following table for +1836: + +_St. Louis Prices._ _Minn. Price._ _Nett Gain._ +Three pt. blanket = $3 25 60 rat skins at 20 cents = $12 00 $8 75 +1-1/2 yds. Stroud = 2 37 60 rat skins at 20 cents = 12 00 9 63 +1 N.W. gun = 6 50 100 rat skins at 20 cents = 20 00 13 50 +1 lb. lead = 06 2 rat skins at 20 cents = 40 34 +1 lb. powder = 28 10 rat skins at 20 cents = 2 00 1 72 +1 tin kettle = 2 50 60 rat skins at 20 cents = 12 00 9 50 +1 knife = 20 4 rat skins at 20 cents = 80 60 +1 lb. tobacco = 12 8 rat skins at 20 cents = 1 60 1 38 +1 looking glass = 04 4 rat skins at 20 cents = 80 76 +1-1/2 yd. +scarlet cloth = 3 00 60 rat skins at 20 cents = 12 00 9 00 + +See also the table of prices in Senate Docs., No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st +Sess.; II., 42 _et seq._] + +[Footnote 235: Douglass, Summary, I., 176.] + +[Footnote 236: Morgan, American Beaver, 243.] + +[Footnote 237: Proc. Wis. Hist. Soc., 1889, pp. 92-98.] + +[Footnote 238: Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 66.] + +[Footnote 239: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 220, 223.] + +[Footnote 240: The centers of Wisconsin trade were Green Bay, Prairie du +Chien, and La Pointe (on Madelaine island, Chequamegon bay). Lesser +points of distribution were Milwaukee and Portage. From these places, by +means of the interlacing rivers and the numerous lakes of northern +Wisconsin, the whole region was visited by birch canoes or Mackinaw +boats.] + +[Footnote 241: Schoolcraft in Senate Doc. No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., +II,. 43.] + +[Footnote 242: Lawe to Vieau, in Wis. Fur Trade MSS. See also U.S. +Indian Treaties, and Wis. Hist. Colls., V., 236.] + +[Footnote 243: House Ex. Docs., 19th Cong., 2d Sess., II., No. 7.] + +[Footnote 244: For example see the Vieau Narrative in Wis. Hist. Colls., +XI., and the Wis. Fur Trade MSS.] + +[Footnote 245: Butler, Wild North Land; Robinson, Great Fur Land, ch. +xv.] + + + + +EFFECTS OF THE TRADING POST. + + +We are now in a position to offer some conclusions as to the influence +of the Indian trading post. + +I. Upon the savage it had worked a transformation. It found him without +iron, hunting merely for food and raiment. It put into his hands iron +and guns, and made him a hunter for furs with which to purchase the +goods of civilization. Thus it tended to perpetuate the hunter stage; +but it must also be noted that for a time it seemed likely to develop a +class of merchants who should act as intermediaries solely. The +inter-tribal trade between Montreal and the Northwest, and between +Albany and the Illinois and Ohio country, appears to have been commerce +in the proper sense of the term[246] (_Kauf zum Verkauf_). The trading +post left the unarmed tribes at the mercy of those that had bought +firearms, and this caused a relocation of the Indian tribes and an +urgent demand for the trader by the remote and unvisited Indians. It +made the Indian dependent on the white man's supplies. The stage of +civilization that could make a gun and gunpowder was too far above the +bow and arrow stage to be reached by the Indian. Instead of elevating +him the trade exploited him. But at the same time, when one nation did +not monopolize the trade, or when it failed to regulate its own traders, +the trading post gave to the Indians the means of resistance to +agricultural settlement. The American settlers fought for their farms in +Kentucky and Tennessee at a serious disadvantage, because for over half +a century the Creeks and Cherokees had received arms and ammunition from +the trading posts of the French, the Spanish and the English. In +Wisconsin the settlers came after the Indian had become thoroughly +dependent on the American traders, and so late that no resistance was +made. The trading post gradually exploited the Indian's hunting ground. +By intermarriages with the French traders the purity of the stock was +destroyed and a mixed race produced.[247] The trader broke down the old +totemic divisions, and appointed chiefs regardless of the Indian social +organization, to foster his trade. Indians and traders alike testify +that this destruction of Indian institutions was responsible for much of +the difficulty in treating with them, the tribe being without a +recognized head.[248] The sale of their lands, made less valuable by the +extinction of game, gave them a new medium of exchange, at the same time +that, under the rivalry of trade, the sale of whiskey increased. + +II. Upon the white man the effect of the Indian trading post was also +very considerable. The Indian trade gave both English and French a +footing in America. But for the Indian supplies some of the most +important settlements would have perished.[249] It invited to +exploration: the dream of a water route to India and of mines was always +present in the more extensive expeditions, but the effective practical +inducement to opening the water systems of the interior, and the thing +that made exploration possible, was the fur trade. As has been shown, +the Indian eagerly invited the trader. Up to a certain point also the +trade fostered the advance of settlements. As long as they were in +extension of trade with the Indians they were welcomed. The trading +posts were the pioneers of many settlements along the entire colonial +frontier. In Wisconsin the sites of our principal cities are the sites +of old trading posts, and these earliest fur-trading settlements +furnished supplies to the farming, mining and lumbering pioneers. They +were centers about which settlement collected after the exploitation of +the Indian. Although the efforts of the Indians and of the great +trading companies, whose profits depended upon keeping the primitive +wilderness, were to obstruct agricultural settlement, as the history of +the Northwest and of British America shows, nevertheless reports brought +back by the individual trader guided the steps of the agricultural +pioneer. The trader was the farmer's pathfinder into some of the richest +regions of the continent. Both favorably and unfavorably the influence +of the Indian trade on settlement was very great. + +The trading post was the strategic point in the rivalry of France and +England for the Northwest. The American colonists came to know that the +land was worth more than the beaver that built in the streams, but the +mother country fought for the Northwest as the field of Indian trade in +all the wars from 1689 to 1812. The management of the Indian trade led +the government under the lead of Franklin and Washington into trading on +its own account, a unique feature of its policy. It was even proposed by +the Indian Superintendent at one time that the government should +manufacture the goods for this trade. In providing a new field for the +individual trader, whom he expected the government trading houses to +dispossess, Jefferson proposed the Lewis and Clarke expedition, which +crossed the continent by way of the Missouri and the Columbia, as the +British trader, Mackenzie, had before crossed it by way of Canadian +rivers. The genesis of this expedition illustrates at once the +comprehensive western schemes of Jefferson, and the importance of the +part played by the fur trade in opening the West. In 1786, while the +Annapolis convention was discussing the navigation of the Potomac, +Jefferson wrote to Washington from Paris inquiring about the best place +for a canal between the Ohio and the Great Lakes.[250] This was in +promotion of the project of Ledyard, a Connecticut man, who was then in +Paris endeavoring to interest the wealthiest house there in the fur +trade of the Far West. Jefferson took so great an interest in the plan +that he secured from the house a promise that if they undertook the +scheme the depot of supply should be at Alexandria, on the Potomac +river, which would be in connection with the Ohio, if the canal schemes +of the time were carried out. After the failure of the negotiations of +Ledyard, Jefferson proposed to him to cross Russia to Kamschatka, take +ship to Nootka Sound, and thence return to the United States by way of +the Missouri.[251] Ledyard was detained in Russia by the authorities in +spite of Jefferson's good offices, and the scheme fell through. But +Jefferson himself asserts that this suggested the idea of the Lewis and +Clarke expedition, which he proposed to Congress as a means of fostering +our Indian trade.[252] Bearing in mind his instructions to this party, +that they should see whether the Oregon furs might not be shipped down +the Missouri instead of passing around Cape Horn, and the relation of +his early canal schemes to this design, we see that he had conceived the +project of a transcontinental fur trade which should center in Virginia. +Astor's subsequent attempt to push through a similar plan resulted in +the foundation of his short-lived post of Astoria at the mouth of the +Columbia. This occupation greatly aided our claim to the Oregon country +as against the British traders, who had reached the region by way of the +northern arm of the Columbia. + +In Wisconsin, at least, the traders' posts, placed at the carrying +places around falls and rapids, pointed out the water powers of the +State. The portages between rivers became canals, or called out canal +schemes that influenced the early development of the State. When +Washington, at the close of his military service, inspected the Mohawk +valley and the portages between the headwaters of the Potomac and the +Ohio, as the channels "of conveyance of the extensive and valuable +trade of a rising empire,"[253] he stood between two eras--the era with +which he was personally familiar, when these routes had been followed by +the trader with the savage tribes,[254] and the era which he foresaw, +when American settlement passed along the same ways to the fertile West +and called into being the great trunk-lines of the present day.[255] The +trails became the early roads. An old Indian trader relates that "the +path between Green Bay and Milwaukee was originally an Indian trail, and +very crooked, but the whites would straighten it by cutting across lots +each winter with their jumpers, wearing bare streaks through the thin +covering, to be followed in the summer by foot and horseback travel +along the shortened path."[256] The process was typical of a greater +one. Along the lines that nature had drawn the Indians traded and +warred; along their trails and in their birch canoes the trader passed, +bringing a new and a transforming life. These slender lines of eastern +influence stretched throughout all our vast and intricate water-system, +even to the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, and the Arctic seas, and these +lines were in turn followed by agricultural and by manufacturing +civilization. + +In a speech upon the Pacific Railway delivered in the United States +Senate in 1850, Senator Benton used these words: "There is an idea +become current of late ... that none but a man of science, bred in a +school, can lay off a road. That is a mistake. There is a class of +topographical engineers older than the schools, and more unerring than +the mathematics. They are the wild animals--buffalo, elk, deer, +antelope, bears, which traverse the forest, not by compass, but by an +instinct which leads them always the right way--to the lowest passes in +the mountains, the shallowest fords in the rivers, the richest pastures +in the forest, the best salt springs, and the shortest practicable +routes between remote points. They travel thousands of miles, have their +annual migrations backwards and forwards, and never miss the best and +shortest route. These are the first engineers to lay out a road in a new +country; the Indians follow them, and hence a buffalo-road becomes a +war-path. The first white hunters follow the same trails in pursuing +their game; and after that the buffalo-road becomes the wagon-road of +the white man, and finally the macadamized or railroad of the scientific +man. It all resolves itself into the same thing--into the same +buffalo-road; and thence the buffalo becomes the first and safest +engineer. Thus it has been here in the countries which we inhabit and +the history of which is so familiar. The present national road from +Cumberland over the Alleghanies was the military road of General +Braddock; which had been the buffalo-path of the wild animals. So of the +two roads from western Virginia to Kentucky--one through the gap in the +Cumberland mountains, the other down the valley of the Kenhawa. They +were both the war-path of the Indians and the travelling route of the +buffalo, and their first white acquaintances the early hunters. +Buffaloes made them in going from the salt springs on the Holston to the +rich pastures and salt springs of Kentucky; Indians followed them first, +white hunters afterwards--and that is the way Kentucky was discovered. +In more than a hundred years no nearer or better routes have been found; +and science now makes her improved roads exactly where the buffalo's +foot first marked the way and the hunter's foot afterwards followed him. +So all over Kentucky and the West; and so in the Rocky Mountains. The +famous South Pass was no scientific discovery. Some people think +Fremont discovered it. It had been discovered forty years before--long +before he was born. He only described it and confirmed what the hunters +and traders had reported and what they showed him. It was discovered, or +rather first seen by white people, in 1808, two years after the return +of Lewis and Clark, and by the first company of hunters and traders that +went out after their report laid open the prospect of the fur trade in +the Rocky Mountains. + +"An enterprising Spaniard of St. Louis, Manuel Lisa, sent out the party; +an acquaintance and old friend of the Senator from Wisconsin who sits on +my left [General Henry Dodge] led the party--his name Andrew Henry. He +was the first man that saw that pass; and he found it in the prosecution +of his business, that of a hunter and trader, and by following the game +and the road which they had made. And that is the way all passes are +found. But these traders do not write books and make maps, but they +enable other people to do it."[257] + +Benton errs in thinking that the hunter was the pioneer in Kentucky. As +I have shown, the trader opened the way. But Benton is at least valid +authority upon the Great West, and his fundamental thesis has much truth +in it. A continuously higher life flowed into the old channels, knitting +the United States together into a complex organism. It is a process not +limited to America. In every country the exploitation of the wild +beasts,[258] and of the raw products generally, causes the entry of the +disintegrating and transforming influences of a higher civilization. +"The history of commerce is the history of the intercommunication of +peoples." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 246: Notwithstanding Kulischer's assertion that there is no +room for this in primitive society. _Vide_ Der Handel auf den primitiven +Culturstufen, in _Zeitschrift fuer Voelkerpsychologie und +Sprachwissenschaft_, X., No. 4, p. 378. Compare instances of +inter-tribal trade given _ante_, pp. 11, 26.] + +[Footnote 247: On the "_metis_," _bois-brules_, or half-breeds, consult +Smithsonian Reports, 1879, p. 309, and Robinson, Great Fur Land, ch. +iii.] + +[Footnote 248: Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 135; Biddle to Atkinson, 1819, in +Ind. Pamphlets, Vol. I, No. 15 (Wis. Hist. Soc. Library).] + +[Footnote 249: Parkman, Pioneers of France, 230; Carr, Mounds of the +Mississippi, p. 8, n. 8; Smith's Generall Historie, I., 88, 90, 155 +(Richmond, 1819).] + +[Footnote 250: Jefferson, Works, II., 60, 250, 370.] + +[Footnote 251: Allen's Lewis and Clarke Expedition, p. ix (edition of +1814. The introduction is by Jefferson).] + +[Footnote 252: Jefferson's messages of January 18, 1803, and February +19, 1806. See Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., I., 684.] + +[Footnote 253: See Adams, Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to +U.S., J.H.U. Studies, 3d Series, No. I., pp. 80-82.] + +[Footnote 254: _Ibid._ _Vide ante_, p. 41.] + +[Footnote 255: Narr. and Crit. Hist. Amer., VIII., 10. Compare Adams, as +above. At Jefferson's desire, in January and February of 1788, +Washington wrote various letters inquiring as to the feasibility of a +canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio, "whereby the fur and peltry of the +upper country can be transported"; saying: "Could a channel once be +opened to convey the fur and peltry from the Lakes into the eastern +country, its advantages would be so obvious as to induce an opinion that +it would in a short time become the channel of conveyance for much the +greater part of the commodities brought from thence." Sparks, +Washington's Works, IX., 303, 327.] + +[Footnote 256: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 230.] + +[Footnote 257: Cong. Rec., XXIII., 57. I found this interesting +confirmation of my views after this paper was written. Compare _Harper's +Magazine_, Sept. 1890, p. 565.] + +[Footnote 258: The traffic in furs in the Middle Ages was enormous, says +Friedlander, Sittengeschichte, III., 62. Numerous cities in England and +on the Continent, whose names are derived from the word "beaver" and +whose seals bear the beaver, testify to the former importance in Europe +of this animal; see _Canadian Journal_, 1859, 359. See Du Chaillu, +Viking Age, 209-10; Marco Polo, bk. iv., ch. xxi. "Wattenbach, in +_Historische Zeitschrift_, IX., 391, shows that German traders were +known in the lands about the Baltic at least as early as the knights.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Character and Influence of the +Indian Trade in Wisconsin, by Frederick Jackson Turner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIAN TRADE IN WISCONSIN *** + +***** This file should be named 20643.txt or 20643.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/4/20643/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Taavi Kalju and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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