John M. Douglass

“ The Wisconsin tribes, of whom many were hereditary enemies, only needed a spark to set them at one another’s throats. This led to trouble at Detroit which resulted in the bloody Fox Wars, long, costly fighting for the French which contributed much towards their final downfall in the New World. ”

“ It is now time for us to leave our Indian friends, but before we go we learn that the winter season will be spent not only in the pursuits of fishing through the ice and hunting, but also, in the telling of stories, singing, and playing many different games. When the snows are deep, the tribe will don snowshoes for their hunting trips. We will miss seeing them play snowsnake. In this game the Indians compete with each other to see who can hurl the wooden “snake” the greatest distance across the 10 snow or ice. ”

“ As we arrive on the scene the tribe is preparing to set up a new camp. The women are busy unpacking their household gear, including reed mats used to cover the outer sides of the wigwam. The women themselves have carried the loads during the journey. This is not done because of any laziness on the part of the men, a common error of white observers, but simply because the men need their hands free to ward off a sudden enemy attack, or to kill any game they might chance upon during the journey. ”

“ Before the land was cleared for the farmer’s plow and with its dense forests yet to hear the lumberjack’s axe, the thick timberland of the north and even the rolling prairies of the central and southern portions of our state teemed with a great variety of wild life, including animals no longer occurring in Wisconsin, such as the woodland caribou, moose, elk, and buffalo or bison, as well as the more familiar deer, bear, and many smaller varieties. ”

“ He says that in a nearby village the chief is also a great war leader, but he is not well liked otherwise. For that reason he sometimes finds it difficult to make his warriors obey him and he is therefore not nearly as powerful as our leader. We soon realize that the Indian chiefs depend primarily upon personal prestige and influence to keep them in power. We are informed, however, that in some other tribes the chief is always selected from a certain clan. ”

“ Before the arrival of the Europeans, this Wisconsin wilderness was the home of Indians who were wonderfully adapted to a life in the forests. They depended almost entirely on hunting and the gathering of natural products for their food, shelter, clothing, tools, and weapons, although most of them raised some garden crops such as corn, squash, beans, and possibly tobacco. ”

“ The arrival of the Americans upon the Wisconsin scene pleased neither the Indians nor the French traders. Both relied to a great extent on the fur trade, and they knew that the clearing of land by the settlers would hasten the end of this activity. Many of the French, too, had Indian blood and considered their cause as one with the Indians. The United States 36 government first showed poor judgment in its attempt to make these people conform to American standards. ”

“ The Sioux-Chippewa war had resulted in the Sioux being forced to relinquish most of their Wisconsin territory to the Chippewa. The Potawatomi Indians, who had fought 28 under Langlade and participated in the killing of the unarmed English and Americans at Fort William Henry, were visited by a grim vengeance in the form of smallpox, contracted from the English soldiers and brought back by the tribes to their own country where it raged virtually unchecked. Great numbers of Indians lost their lives as a result. ”

“ Most students of the subject at present believe that members of the Prairie Band of the Potawatomi, who also call themselves the Mascoutens, are the descendents of that tribe, which is so often referred to in early Wisconsin history. The early Mascoutens were closely related to the Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo, according to early reports, in language and culture, and usually were the political allies of these tribes as well. Some bands of the Prairie Potawatomi are found associated with the Kickapoo in Oklahoma and Kansas, and also in Mexico. ”

“ Twelve hundred warriors were assembled at Prairie du Chien, and marched on St. Louis. Aided by the fact that they had advance knowledge of the enemy movements, that some of the tribesmen were more or less sympathetic with the American cause, and that the Indians showed no enthusiasm for attacking in the face of cannon fire, the Spanish and Americans succeeded in routing the attackers. After this action Wisconsin’s Indians were not involved in any important campaigns during the remaining years of the American Revolution. ”

“ Wisconsin had three main forts along the Fox-Wisconsin waterway. Fort Howard was erected at Green Bay in 1816, the same year that Fort Crawford was established at Prairie du Chien. Fort Winnebago was built at what is now Portage in 1828, shortly after the Red Bird rebellion. The United States army did its best to maintain peace between the Indians and whites, and to protect the Indians from unlicensed traders, and sometimes legitimate ones, who illegally sold whiskey to them. ”

“ Black Hawk then divided his people into two groups, one of which obtained rafts and canoes from friendly Winnebago, and proceeded down the Wisconsin River, hoping to reach the Mississippi River and cross back to Iowa. Soldiers from Prairie du Chien captured or shot most of them. Some others were hunted down in the woods by Menomini Indians led by white officers. As the rest of Black Hawk’s band fled overland toward the Mississippi River, they were pursued by the combined forces of General Atkinson, General Henry, and Major Dodd, a total force of some four thousand men. ”

“ We have learned, too, of the many spirits for good and evil who control the sun, moon, stars, winds, rain, thunder, and all the other phenomena of nature. One evening he pointed out the Milky Way and told us that this was the road over which the dead travelled to the land of the spirits. ”

“ One day we are told that the tribe is going to have a game drive, since considerable meat is needed by the village. We go along into the forest and watch the men chop down trees with their stone axes. ”

“ As for the Santee Sioux, who were in northern Wisconsin even before the arrival of the white man, it is again difficult to give accurate present population figures. The term Santee originally designated one band of Indians, but eventually came to mean all of the forest bands of the Sioux, of whom, in all probability, many never resided in Wisconsin. There are, according to the 1940 estimate, 1,197 Sioux living on the Santee reservation in Nebraska, and there are 585 Sioux in Minnesota who would be included in the Santee division. ”

“ We have enjoyed ourselves watching the activities of our friends at work and at play. We have learned, too, some of the beliefs of our friends. Grandfather has told us stories about the great white bear with the copper tail who dwells underground and is the greatest power for evil. ”

“ The dried kernels can then be ground into a meal, as needed, since the dry corn will remain edible for a long time.
Wild rice is the most important vegetable food provided for the Indians by nature. One day, in the middle of September, we all go a short distance up the river in our canoes and enter a small lake. Here the wild grain grows in great quantities. The men selected by the chief to determine when the rice is ready to be gathered have already given us the signal that the grain is ripe. ”

“ By 1811, the Sauk and Fox are reported to have devoted almost all their attention to lead mining, only hunting to supply themselves with meat. They exchanged the metal with Canadian traders for the goods they needed. Some early American traders who attempted to get in on this trade were killed by the Indians, who feared that once the Americans learned of the value of the lead deposits their cupidity would be aroused and the Indians would lose their land. ”

“ The discovery of new western lands and tribes spurred literally hundreds of Canadian youths to seek these virgin territories and the riches in furs to be had there. At first traders persuaded the Indians to make the long trip to Montreal with their furs. The presence of so 16 many traders in the forests, however, soon made these long trips unnecessary. By the time Perrot began trading in Wisconsin the traders were carrying their goods to the Indians in their own country. ”

“ Every man has taken this long fast in the hope of seeing a vision of a guardian spirit who would then be his lifetime protector.
The girls, too, must fast, but in a somewhat different fashion. Soon Morning Star, the older girl in our friend’s family, will reach womanhood and be segregated for a number of days in a secluded lodge, and during this period no men may approach her. ”

“ Even among the Menomini, whose tribal lumbering industry makes them economically the most prosperous in the state, the standard of living is not high. Finding a means whereby they can earn a decent living is probably the greatest difficulty. For the most part they suffer for lack of adequate clothing and food, particularly during the winter season. To alleviate the situation, a considerable number have migrated to the cities to obtain employment, and there are an estimated one thousand Indians living in Milwaukee, for example, of which the largest group is Oneida. ”

“ The hope, of course, is that eventually the Indians will be assimilated by the rest of our population and be able to live normal lives as United States citizens. Without intelligently directed help this process will take a long time, and during that period the Indians will continue to suffer. ”

“ In addition to the attack on Detroit, concerted attacks were made on other British posts, of which a number fell, including the one at Mackinac. The failure of the Indians to take Forts Detroit, Pitt, and Niagara assured defeat for Pontiac’s campaign.
On June 2, 1763, the Chippewa Indians took Fort Mackinac by a clever subterfuge. They faked a game of LaCrosse in front of the stockade and pretended accidentally to knock the ball into the fort. As the players rushed after the ball they seized guns from the watching Indian women who had concealed the weapons under their blankets. ”

“ The result, of course, was severe hardship for the Indians of Wisconsin. Lack of gunpowder and lead restricted their hunting abilities and made it more difficult for them to defend themselves against the Iroquois and other hostile tribes. The Indians were becoming increasingly dependent upon the French to the extent that they had lost much of the freedom they had enjoyed as a self-sufficient people. ”

“ The tendency for tribes to congregate around fur-trade areas at the behest of the traders also had a detrimental effect upon the Indians. In the Fox River valley and around Green Bay this overpopulation resulted in famine and the voluntary exodus of some tribes before 1700, among them the Miami and some of the Kickapoo and Mascouten. ”

“ This was a victory for the French, but a very costly one, for the Fox and their allies still had a great many warriors in the forests of Wisconsin. These, in retaliation, began a war of extermination against the allies of the French who had participated in the Detroit massacre and the hunted tribesmen soon complained that their people were starving because they dared not hunt in the forests lest their men be slain by the vengeful Fox. ”

“ When the sugar making is finished, the tribe breaks camp and travels by birch-bark canoe to a new location. The canoes are wonderfully light boats and can be paddled very swiftly. Their light weight makes them relatively easy to carry or portage from one stream to another. Our canoe has eyes painted on the bow and stern. The father explains that these eyes enable the canoe to “see where to go.”
INDIAN CHILDREN AT PLAY (PAINTING BY A. O. TIEMANN) .
4
BIRCH-BARK CANOE.
At the new summer camp we watch our friends build summer lodges. ”

“ Since our Indian family is fairly large, including the father’s parents as well as the mother, father, two boys, and two girls, the wigwam is proportionately large in order to accommodate all of them. ”

“ The father seems very proud when his son rejects the food, applies the charcoal to his face, and leaves the village to enter the forest alone. Grandfather 7 explains that Blackbird, by accepting the charcoal, automatically agreed to fast alone in the forest for one day. This one-day fast will be good training for the day when he will feel ready to go on the long fast of four or five days. ”

“ A small lake and several springs are only a short distance away, but the most important reason for camping here at this season is a large grove of sugar maple trees immediately to one side of the camp. March is the proper time to tap the trees for their sap. ”

“ Mackinac became the seat of Wisconsin’s fur trade when the fort was rebuilt there in 1764. It was the only fort northwest of Detroit with government officers and Indian agents. By 1767, large numbers of traders were coming into the Wisconsin area. The Indians by this time were so dependent on the white trader that any interruption in the supply of goods flowing to the Indians worked severe hardships upon them. ”

“ His tribe was given a small reservation in Iowa on the Des Moines River, where he died October 3, 1838. The treatment of Black Hawk and his people in the so-called “Black Hawk War” will always remain a blot on American history and a discredit to the Government.
From the time of the “Black Hawk War” on, Wisconsin Indians were rapidly deprived of their land. In September, 1832, the Winnebago ceded the rest of their holdings south and east of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. ”

“ Each player in turn tosses into the air small cone-shaped cups made of antler tips or bear-toe bones, and tries to catch one or more on a bone pin. The men are enthusiastic gamblers, too, using marked sticks which are thrown and scored somewhat like our own familiar dice games. ”