The Detroit Ottawa Are Furious!

When the three escapees arrived back at the Ottawa village they uttered the cries for the dead. The Wyandotte came to the village when they heard the wailing and those who had survived the ambush said it was the Wyandotte that had killed them. The Wyandotte denied having any part of it saying they were allies to the Ottawa and could not slay their brothers.

The warrior who had recognized and killed the Wyandotte warrior at the ambush accused the Wyandotte of not only being capable of killing their brothers but their father as well! He said the only reason they have not done so is there were so few of them. He told of hearing of the cries of the raven just before the attack explaining that he had been on several sorties against the Flathead and they never used this cry. It was a Wyandotte tradition. He then announced the killing of the Wyandotte warrior from Detroit that he recognized and said if it were untrue let them produce that man as he was missing from the Wyandotte congregation.

After his accusations the Wyandotte returned to their village and fortified themselves from attack. The Jesuit fathers returned to the safety of the French fort and the Ottawa congregated around the Wyandotte fort. They called out to those inside their fortification saying that it seemed they were afraid walling themselves up in their stronghold daring not to come out while the Ottawa were out in the open. They accused the Wyandotte of fearing an attack but said they were mistaken. They allow them to go to their cornfields unmolested but when they did decide to attack them they would declare it as they were incapable of any treachery.

The Ottawa sent three sticks of porcelain to the Five Nations meeting them at Niagara. They presented them to their representatives with the request that they remain neutral in the dispute but if their intentions were to take the Wyandotte’s side they should declare it first. The Iroquoian envoys said they could not provide an answer but would take the strings to their towns.

The Wyandotte requested assistance from the French by appealing directly to Governor Beauharnois at Montreal. They also sent belts to the Christian Mohawk at Lake of the Two Mountains and St. Louis Falls asking them to take their side and provide asylum for them in Quebec. 

The French realized they had a full-fledged crisis on their hands. De Noyelles issued orders that no Frenchman should sell any powder, lead or guns to either side of the dispute. They were afraid this could cause the other side to accuse the French of providing the means of one side destroying the other. Beauharnois sent a great number of presents to Detroit with instructions to de Noyelles to settle things down.

However, dissention persisted for the next two years with the Ottawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi threatening the Wyandotte with extermination and the Wyandotte men fearing for their families. In the fall of 1738 they formally asked the governor for asylum. They sent word to Beauharnois that they had met with an emissary at Michilimackinac sent by their brothers from Sault St. Louis. They were invited by them to come settle with them because they were currently living amongst a multitude of nations that liked them not.

However, they recalled an invitation given them by the former Governor Vaudreuil to come live near him where they would have asylum, a Father and a protector. This was the option they preferred most and if it was not repeated by Beauharnois they said they preferred to withdraw somewhere else to die, but if he did grant their request they asked to be sent a military man to guide them safely through the nations who were intent on destroying them.

In June of 1739 they sent the words of Sastarestsy Taatchatin and Orontony to Beauharnois. They asked the governor again to provide asylum near him. They said this was always their only wish and that would never change. They also issued warnings saying that if they were not allowed to settle in Quebec they would be forced to do something the governor would not like but did not say what. Probably this was a veiled reference to going over to the English side. They also said that they could never be strong in their new religion unless remove from among so many nations that were not Christian.

The Wyandotte were desperate. They implored de Noyelle along with the three Black Gowns at the Mission of l’assomption Among the Huron to write to the governor on their behalf recommending so strongly their request that the governor would be sure to grant it. In the summer of 1740 he wrote to the governor saying that after desperately trying to bring peace he now thought it impossible. Although it was the wish of the governor that they stay at Detroit he thought it would either bring on their destruction or they would ally themselves with the Iroquois and the British. Like Father de la Richardie he also felt that their move to Montreal would be no loss because the Shawnee were ready to take their place at Detroit. Would Beauharnois finally consent?

NEXT WEEK: The Saga Continues

More Upheaval at Detroit!

Greetings to everyone! It’s powwow weekend here at Aamjiwnaang. The weather is not looking so great however. It’s cloudy and rain is in the forecast. I hope they’re wrong.

When we last left Detroit in the fall of 1738 the nations were in great turmoil. The Ottawa of both Detroit and Saginaw and their allies the Potawatomi, also of Detroit, and the Saulteux Ojibwa of the St. Clair and Au Sable Rivers were threatening to destroy the Wyandotte of Detroit. The Wyandotte were afraid for their women and children so were determined to move out of the area. Their preference was to be allowed to move to Quebec to be with their Iroquoian speaking brothers. The Mohawk and Huron of Quebec were all Jesuit converts. They were also considering moving to Upstate New York to live among the Five Nation Iroquois. They were allies but the Five Nation still held the faith of their fathers.

The French were desperately trying to make peace between them because the Wyandotte were allies with the Iroquois and the Ottawa were allies with all the other Nations of the Upper Great Lakes. If the Wyandotte located among the Five Nations then they would lose them to the British. They wanted to avoid this at all costs. A larger problem was that this situation could have easily gotten out of hand and turned into a full-blown war with the French in the middle.

So, how did things come to this? To understand we have to return to the following spring. The Wyandotte had called a council at Sieur de Noyelles’ house. He was the commandant of Detroit. The chiefs or their representatives of all of the above mentioned nations were there. They presented a belt to the Ottawa saying that by that belt they wished all to know that they had made peace with the Flathead and they now considered them brothers. They wished all would follow in order to make peace reign in the whole land. Then they issued a warning saying that if any of the other Detroit nations sent war parties against the Flathead it would assure that some of their young men would go ahead and warn them that they were coming to devour them. The Flathead were also called Choctaw and got their name from their practice of artificially flattening their foreheads when very young.

The Ottawa refused the belt asking the Wyandotte who they thought they were to dictate law to them. They accused the Wyandotte of considering bad actions and then take refuse with the Flathead. They took the belt and gave it to de Noyelles saying that it was him who represented Onontio, the governor, and that if the governor accepted it then they would honor his wishes.

The Ottawa also said the Wyandotte should remember that at the last general peace Onontio gave all the nations the Flathead to devour because they had become friendly with the British; that their blood was shed on the trails of the Flathead and on their mats. Their bones were still in the lodges of their enemy with their scalps hanging over them and that the frames on which they were burned were still spread out with the steaks still standing. Moreover, they said, if the Flathead Nation wanted peace with them they would have approached them and then they would consider peace or not.

The Wyandotte gave also gave a belt to the Potawatomi but were given a similar reply. They gave a third to the Saulteux who said because they were young men they would take it to their elders who would decide what to do. Then the council then broke up.

Sometime soon after this the Ottawa, Potawatomi and Ojibwa raised a war party of 17 men and set out for Flathead country. Two parties of Wyandotte joined them on the trail but did not continue on with them. When the war party reached their destination they found themselves surrounded by warriors in the forest all making the call of the raven. This was a common thing done before an attack signifying they were looking for blood. This surprised the Ottawa because this was not a custom of the Flathead so they suspected Wyandotte treachery.

Suddenly they found themselves attacked in the front by the Flathead and in the rear by the Wyandotte. One of the Ottawa recognized one of the Wyandotte and he killed him. Only three escaped the ambush including the Ottawa who had recognized the Wyandotte warrior. Five others were made prisoner and nine were killed.

NEXT WEEK: The Detroit Ottawa are Furious!

The Affair of the Wyandotte of Detroit

If you have been following my posts you will recall that after the catastrophic war with the Iroquois in 1649 the remnants of the Huron, Petun and Neutrals who had not converted to Christianity made their way to Michilimackinac to live near the Ottawa. There they became know as the Wyandotte, a corruption of the what the Huron called themselves, Ouendat. The Jesuits cut back their mission work in North America to mainly Lower Canada, but did keep a presence at Michilimackinac and Illinois as well as Michigan. They also set up a mission called The Mission of l’assomption Among the Huron at Detroit which, for nearly forty years bore nor fruit.

Father Armand de la Richardie arrived at Detroit in 1728 and labored among the Wyandotte for many years with no conversions. He finally gained one convert, an old Wyandotte chief named Hoosien. His family quickly followed but it wasn’t long after his conversion that he died. Thinking that after the old chief had gone his family would quickly revert to their traditional beliefs Father Richardie, who was in ill-health, thought of giving up and returning to Quebec. To his surprise his mission kept growing and within 3 years of the death of his first convert all the Detroit Wyandotte had embraced Roman Catholicism.

In 1738 the Wyandotte and the Ottawa of Detroit had a falling out. The Jesuits thought the Ottawa were ‘more brutal and superstitious’ than the Wyandotte. Sastaretsy, the title of the principle Wyandotte chief, sent word to the Governor General as well as to their brothers, the Iroquois of Sault St. Louis or Caughnawaga and the Huron of Lorette near Quebec City. He reported that the Ottawa had raised the hatchet to them and had asked the other Algonquian speaking nations there to joined them in exterminating them. This of course would be referring to the Sauteux Ojibwa, Potawatomi and Mississauga.

The Governor General sent presents to them asking, through the Commandant of Detroit Monsieur de Noyelle to settle the peace and keep the Wyandotte at Detroit. The Wyandotte agreed to heed the Governor but said at the first alarm they would either go to the Seneca or else beyond the Belle Riviere. This was the name the French had given to the Ohio River.

That winter the First Nations of Detroit lived in apprehension of each other. The Wyandotte wintered in the interior which was not their custom to do so. In the spring the principle chief or the Wyandotte, Orontony, whose baptismal name was Nicolas, sent branches of porcelain to the Governor begging him to allow the Detroit Wyandotte to move to Quebec. They asked for a tract of land near him to settle on and a French officer to escort them as protection from attack.

Meanwhile, they made peace with the Flathead to the south. This was a nation that continuously skirmished with the Nations of Detroit. They made threats to move south among them but reconsidered after receiving harsh words from Entatsogo, chief of the Sault. Now they begged the Governor to forgive them for not sending their elders to Montreal as asked to do so because they were alarmed by the Praying Indians of Sault St. Louis. They also sent word to the Governor that it was not the custom of the Wyandotte to ask for protection or asylum but that it was the duty of one who had compassion on them to come and console them or to lead them to a new place where they would be safe.

In June of that year Father Richardie wrote to the governor that he had done all he could to influence their minds but they would not let go of their fears and apprehensions. They had been talking to both the English and their allies the Iroquois of Upstate New York and that those two nations had been taking advantage of the Wyandotte’s alarm and trying to induce them toward their side. The Father suggested the Governor allow the move to Quebec and even send his nephew to escort them rather than see his charges go over to the other side. The good Father stated that if the move was made the Wyandotte would not be missed at Detroit because their were some Sauteaux Ojibwa from the St. Clair willing to move to Detroit to take their place not to mention the Shawanee.

NEXT WEEK: More Upheaval at Detroit!

The Iroquois Do It Right! Part 2

First let me apologize for being late with this post. The weather has been so fine I took advantage to work on my nature trails. I put in a bridge over a small stream that flows into the first pond. The wetlands are really taking shape.

We last left our story with the Detroit Wyandotte sending their chief La Forest to Quebec to invite the Quebec Wyandotte and Iroquois to join them in a war upon the Fox. Wouldn’t you know 47 Praying Indians from Lake of Two Mountains showed up at Detroit in October! Nobody went off to war with winter about to set in. Nobody but the Iroquois that is. The Mission Iroquois from the mission at the widening of the Ottawa River near Montreal were called Praying Indians. 

When they arrived they found that nearly all of the young men of the Ottawa and Potawatomi had already left for their winter hunting grounds. The Detroit First Nations gave the Wyandotte collars to persuade them to wait until spring when they promised all their warriors would join them but the Iroquois said it was impossible for them to wait. They procured arms and ammunition from the French commandant with directions as to the best route to follow to engage the Fox and off they went. They left on the 17th of October 1732 with a war party composed of 74 Wyandotte, 46 Iroquois and four Ottawa warriors.

They arrived at the St. Joseph River after a few days and found that all the Potawatomi there had also left for the winter hunt so they pushed on to Chicago. Some Potawatomi chiefs came to them there and proposed they wait until spring when they would also join them but they refused. From there they pushed into Kickapoo country. The Kickapoo were very frightened at first to see this small army of the fiercest of warriors in their territory but when they were told why they were there they offered to join them. However, they said they also had to wait until spring. But the war party refused and moved on.

They entered the country of the Mascoutins next and the results were the same. The Mascoutins’ territory bordered on Fox country so they asked them for 10 men to act as guides. The Mascoutins provided them but said they didn’t think they could overcome the Fox because they were so numerous. The guides took them as far as the Fox border in Wisconsin, pointed them  in the right direction to engage the Fox then returned to their village. 

Meanwhile the first of the winter snows arrived with blizzard like conditions blanketing the ground in heavy snow. The hardy warriors donned their snowshoes and marched for several more days. Some of them became sick and the older ones fatigued so they held a council to determine what to do. Some of the old men counselled a return home but the young men would not hear of it. One even said he would rather die then return home without killing some men. Two of the great Wyandotte chiefs said that although they were old they still felt strong enough to continue so the camp broke up with most of the older warriors making their way back to Chicago and the younger men marching forward. Now there were 40 Wyandotte and 30 Iroquois left.

They followed the route that led to the Wisconsin River and after a few days they saw three men coming toward them across a prairie. When the three Fox men saw them they turned and fled. Thinking they were from a small village of four or five lodges the Mascoutin guides had told them about they followed them over a large hill. When they reached the top of the hill they discovered much to their surprise the principal village of the Fox, forty-six lodges in all, lay stretched out on the banks of the Wisconsin River. The 3 warriors who had fled upon first sight of their enemy had arrived in time to warn the large village. When the Fox saw the Iroquois and Wyandotte on the top of the hill ninety well-armed Fox warriors came out to meet them. The battle was on!

NEXT WEEK: The Iroquois Do It Right! Part 3

The Iroquois Do It Right! Part 1

The Fox came under attack from various enemies over the next three years. In 1729 the Mascoutins and the Kickapoo made several raids on their villages. They were seeking revenge for the killing of their two hunters. The next year they were attacked by a force of 150 Frenchmen, from both Canada and Louisiana, and 900 First Nation warriors. The Fox had constructed a fort on a plain situated between the Wabash and Illinois rivers about 180 miles south of Chicago and southeast of present day Peoria, Illinois. They blockaded them in their fort finally forcing them out by starvation. They chased them down killing 200 warriors and 200 women and children. Another four or five hundred women and children were taken captive and distributed among the various First Nations.   

The year after their defeat in Illinois the nation of the same name attacked the Fox once again at a Fox village somewhere between le Rocher on the Illinois River and Miami country. When the Kickapoo, Mascoutins and Potawatomi heard this they went there immediately. When they arrived the Illinois withdrew and six Potawatomi were wounded and a seventh one was killed. Two Mascoutin were also killed as well as a few of the Fox warriors. They traded insults with the Fox calling out that they would make their supper off the Potawatomi, Mascoutin and Kickapoo. The great Pottawatomie war chief, Madouche replied it was the Fox that would make food for all the nations. Then the Illinois returned to join the fight and some time later the Fox withdrew.

In the summer of 1732 the Wyandotte, Ottawa and Potawatomi from Detroit made a sortie into Fox country. They split into two groups. The first group contained all the Wyandotte and about ten Ottawa warriors. They were the first to arrive on the shores of Lake Marameek where the Fox had constructed a fort on a tongue of land between the shore and an impassable wetland. Lake Marameek is undetermined but there is a Maramee River about 20 miles south of St. Louis, Missouri.

They held back until the next day when, at daybreak, they sent a party of five or six to scout near the palisade. A woman came out and they killed her. When the Fox saw this they sortied out of their fort but were ambushed by the larger force. They had four warriors killed and a few more wounded so they retreated back into their fort.

The next day the rest of the Ottawa and Potawatomi arrived and they brought the le Rocher Illinois with them. The Fox came out to meet them again and three Wyandotte were killed and a few of their allies were wounded. The Fox retreated again into their fort.

The Wyandotte called a council and it was decided to parlay with the Fox. They determined that a Potawatomi chief should go into the fort and propose that the Fox surrender and they would spare their lives. When he delivered this proposal the Fox told him they did not trust them to keep their word. Instead they proposed that the war party from Detroit should withdraw and the Fox would stay quiet in their fort until the following spring at which time they would come to Detroit or the St. Joseph River to settle up for the lives lost. This is how the whole affair ended. However, the Wyandotte sent their greatest chief La Forest to Montreal to ask the Wyandotte of Lorette and the Iroquois of the Lake of Two Mountains to join them in a war on the Fox to settle the matter.

The Fox had lost their allies and were being refused asylum by their once friendly neighbors the Sioux and the Winnebago. The French were attacking them as well as all the nations around them. By 1732 they were in poor shape indeed.

NEXT WEEK: The Iroquois Do It Right! Part 2

The Fox Wars Escalate

The Fox Nation only wanted their prisoners of war back from the Illinois. This according to the peace agreement of 1716. A decade later and they were still waiting. The French had tried to facilitate them but the Illinois were still being obstinate. So the Fox escalated their hostilities against the French. No Frenchmen was safe travelling through their country.

The French were trying to expand their posts westward into Sioux territory. The Sioux had asked for a post with a few Frenchmen to live among them. However, they were allies of the Fox. After a small expedition to their country the Frenchmen decided to return to Montreal by heading south skirting Fox territory making their way to Detroit. To accomplish this they had to travel through the Fox’s allies country. They were captured by the Mascoutins and Kickapoo and held prisoner.

When the Fox heard of this they sent a delegation to their allies demanding they hand over the French prisoners to them. The Mascoutins and Kickapoo refused. They sent a second delegation even more arrogantly expressing their demands. Again they were refused. This so incensed the Fox that on the way home they came across a small camp with two lodges. They found a Mascoutin hunter in one and a Kickapoo in the other. They killed them both. This breached the alliance they had with the two most important of their allies.

Meanwhile, The King of France after hearing of all the perceived trouble the Fox were continually causing among the other First Nations determined that a war of extermination was called for. So he issued the order. The French began by giving presents to the Sioux, Winnebago and the Iowa in order to induce them not to give refuse to the Fox should they ask for it. In the east the Iroquois had made friendly overtures to the Fox allowing them to trade with the English and could offer them asylum if they needed it. To prevent this they used the Potawatomi and the French Fort at the St. Joseph River to block them. They seemingly had the Fox penned up in their own country.

Monsieur de Lignery was chosen to lead the expedition. He arrived at Michilimackinac in August of 1728 where he found waiting there about 100 Menominee warriors along with the nations of Detroit, the Lake Huron Sauteaux and the Ottawa of Michilimackinac. His army was composed of 1200 First Nations warriors and 450 Frenchmen. They immediately struck out for Green Bay.

When they arrived at la Baye a few Sauk warriors joined them. The First Nations camped on one side of the river and the French on the other. The Sauk warriors brought one Fox and three Winnebago captives to de Lignery. After questioning them he turned them over his allies on the other side of the river. They put them to death the next day.

They continued their march toward Fox country but lost some time and most of their canoes due to the great rapids of the Fox River. Finally they came upon a Winnebago village . But the Winnebago had abandoned it two or three days before de Lignery arrived.

They continued their march arriving in Fox country that evening. Because it was too late to engage them they camped between two Fox villages. The next morning de Lignery sent out scouts who returned with a Fox woman and girl who told them their countrymen had left the village in great haste moving upstream about three days earlier. Another scouting party returned from the other Fox village with an old man they had captured. He told them the same thing the two female captives had told them. All but 600 of the First Nation force moved on to the third village. It was empty also so de Lignery returned to the middle village where they came across an old woman who had been a captive of the Fox.

Ouilemek, the great Potawatomi war chief, questioned her and she told him that the Fox had left four days earlier. She said that they had 100 canoes in which they placed all of their elders, women and children and the warriors had followed them along the banks on foot in order to protect them.

A council was called and de Lignery asked his First Nation allies to follow the Fox. They asked for two hundred Frenchmen but they were in such poor condition a forced march would have killed them. The expedition was a hard one and most had lost their shoes and had no food except some corn they had scavenged from the Fox’s fields. At this point de Lignery decided to halt the expedition. He ordered four villages burned as well as all the lodges scatter round about the countryside. They harvested the Fox’s crops, which were abundant, leaving the Fox with no food. Then they began the retreat to Michilimackinac. So went de Lignery’s war on the Fox, which he considered it a success because he estimated that half the population of those villages would starve to death over the winter!

NEXT WEEK: The Iroquois do it right!

The Fox Return to Their Old Ways

Greetings to all! So nice to get back to my posts and I’m glad they’re appreciated.

After the 1716 peace agreement with the French the Fox followed through by sending three of their chiefs to Montreal. They were about to send more when smallpox broke out in the city. Two of the three chiefs died including their great war chief Pemousa. Needless to say they were not happy about this turn of events so they held back the other hostages.

Meanwhile war raged on between the Illinois and the Mascoutins along with their allies the Kickapoo. But the Fox who were traditional allies with the Mascoutins and the Kickapoo kept out of it. That is until Minchilay, a nephew of Ouashala, who was a major Fox chief, undertook an ill-fated attack on the Illinois. He was captured and most cruelly burned to death.

Minchilay’s death so angered his uncle that he set off in a rage to avenge his nephew’s death. His brother, Navangounik was with him as they led a large war party of young warriors. They put the Illinois village responsible for Minchilay’s death under siege. The village began to run out of food and water so they asked for a parlay.

The young men wanted nothing to do with a parlay for peace but only wanted to burn the village leaving none alive. But Ouashala and Navangounik were more level-headed and insisted on listening to the Illinois chiefs. Three of them came out of their village with three prisoners of their wars with the Fox allies offering them for their lives. The young men were still intent on destroying the village but their two chiefs prevailed and a peace was reached.

The two Fox chiefs along with the son of another chief named Elecavas went to a council held at Monsieur de Montigny’s house. Elecavas was too sick to travel so he sent his son to speak for him. There was also a French missionary in attendance. They went there to explain their actions against the Illinois.

The two chiefs who took action against the Illinois village explained themselves by saying that although it was wrong of Minchilay to attack a nation that they were not at war with it was also wrong of them to so cruelly burn him to death. This was an act that needed to be avenged. But they pulled back from totally destroying that village and followed de Louvigny’s example toward them in 1716 by letting they live. They also promised to return to the terms of the peace and keep them if the French would forgive them and not call all their allies to make war on them.

Elecavas brought his father’s words which were less conciliatory than Ouashala’s. He said he wanted de Montigny to say to the Governor Vaudreuil that it had been two years since they had seen any trade goods and it appeared that the Governor still harbored the desire to totally destroy the Fox nation. They still waited for French goods but when they absolutely need to they would trade with the English. If Vaudreuil still wanted to annihilate them they could find them still at their fort and they would all die together.

De Montigny ignored Elecavas’ words but answered Ouashala. He generally agreed with him and reiterated that if the Fox returned to the path of peace he would not bring down all of their First Nation allies upon them. The last thing the French wanted was another war with the Fox and their allies. They were continually trying to settle disputes among the far nations so they could increase their profits from the fur industry.

The Fox tried their best to keep the peace even after being attacked by the Saulteux Chippewa from Michigan’s upper peninsula. Four times they were attacked and four times they gave no response. But after being assaulted by the Ottawa from Saginaw they went on the offence. This escalated to a full-blown war with the Saulteux. This only hindered the French’s plans to cultivate trade with the Sioux because to get to their country they had to go through Fox country and the Fox, who were friends with the Sioux, were now killing any Frenchmen they came across. Vaudreuil called upon Sieur de Lignery, commandant at Michilimackinac, to effect a peace between them.

De Lignery arrived at Green Bay in 1724 and managed to quell all the warring nations except the Fox and the Illinois and their allies.  Apparently the Illinois did not live up to the last peace agreement in 1716 because they still had not returned their prisoners.

To make maters worse the English stepped up their intrigues with all the nations of the upper lakes. Over the next three years they secretly sent collars, which were peace offerings, to them all encouraging the enemies of the French become their allies and trading partners. At the same time they encouraged the allies of the French to destroy all the French posts among them and to slaughter all the Frenchmen in their territories. The French’s response was to plan a war of extermination on the Fox!

NEXT WEEK:  The Fox Wars Escalate

Louvigny’s Expedition

After two years of trying to get his war off the ground the French’s First Nation allies got tired of waiting. A party of Iroquois from Sault Ste. Louis along with the Wyandotte and Potawatomi from de troit met with the northern nations at Chicago. They determined to go to le Rocher, a village in Illinois country, to see the sons of de Ramezay and de Longueuil. Their plan was to get them to raise a French force to join them on a march against the Fox’s allies.

When they arrived in Illinois territory they found both Frenchmen very sick at Kaskaskia. However, they ordered a Frenchmen named Bizaillon who was on the Illinois River to raise as many Illinois warriors as he could to join the expedition. After raising some Illinois he and a Frenchman named Pachot joined the campaign. 

They found 70 wigwams belonging to the Mascoutin and Kickapoo who were hunting along a river. They attacked so their enemy dug in on a steep rock and after a long seige their fortress gave way. The Iroquois and allies killed more than 100 and took 47 prisoners not counting women and children. In order to make tracking them difficult they moved down the river a distance of 75 miles but after 11 days they were overtaken by 400 warriors who were the elite of the Fox Nation.

The Fox attacked at dawn. The Iroquois, Wyandotte, Potawatomi and Illinois had only 80 warriors left in their party and 50 of them defended the redoubt where the wounded and prisoners were being kept. The battle raged until 3 o’clock in the afternoon when the Fox finally retreated after losing many warriors. The Iroquois etc. pursued them for several hours killing even more.

When they returned to Illinois country they took a count reporting 26 killed and 18 wounded. This expedition took place in November 1715 and the two stunning defeats served both to bolster the spirits of the French First Nation allies and demoralize the spirits of the Fox and their allies. Both the Mascoutin and Kickapoo nations surrendered themselves to the governor Vaudreuil swearing that if the Fox refused to capitulate as well they would turn on their former ally.

The following spring de Louvigny left Montreal with 225 Frenchmen and another 200 from de troit and Michilimackinac joined him. Another 400 First Nation allies also joined the campaign. They had all the munitions needed for the war including 2 pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar. They found 500 Fox warriors and 3,000 women congregated on their river in a fortress with three palisades.

The attack began in earnest but the bullets from their firearms were of no effect. However, they kept the heavy artillery firing constantly night and day. This constant barrage quickly damaged the palisades and the Fox feared they would be breached by the third night. They also had expected another 300 warriors to arrive as reinforcements but they didn’t materialize. Things looked bad for the Fox so they called out for a parlay to talk peace.

The French and allies ignored the Fox’s first overture and kept on firing. They also covertly placed two bombs underneath the gates of the fort and were ready to blow the gates off when the Fox called out again. This time Louvigny submitted the call to surrender to his First Nation allies. The First Nations imposed such stringent conditions that they thought the Fox would never agree to them. They were of the mind to utterly destroy the Fox Nation.

First, They had to agree to make peace with all the First Nations around them. Second, they had to bring their allies, the Mascoutin and Kickapoo on board, even if it be by force. Third, they must return all prisoners they held to their respective nations. Fourth, They must go to war in distant lands to get prisoners to replace all those killed by them during the war. Fifth, they must cover the costs of the war by goods procured through the hunt. Sixth, They must give up six chiefs or children of chiefs to be taken to Vaudreuil as and held as guarantees for the articles of the treaty. Much to everyone’s surprise the Fox agreed to these conditions!

Sieur de Louvigny’s campaign against the Fox was a great success but this would not be the last of their belligerence nor the end of the Fox Wars.

NEXT WEEK:  The Fox Return To their Old Ways.

The Fox Wars

Greetings All! Well I’m back from my hiatus. Check out the new pics on the side. I gave a presentation on Aamjiwnaang’s history and culture at a Native American Celebration Day at the St. Clair County Community College, Port Huron, MI last week. So, I let everything slide beforehand to prepare. But now back to the early 1700’s in the Great Lakes.

In the last post we left about 1000 Fox and Mascoutin men, women and children being massacred at Grosse Point, MI on Lake St. Clair. Back in their main villages the Fox, Mascoutin and their Kickapoo allies heard about the disaster at de troit. This made them extremely agitated so they began sending out war parties everywhere to exact revenge. They sent them to Green Bay and de troit attacking all who were not allied with them. This made the routes of travel totally unsafe.

In the spring of 1713 they killed a Frenchman named l’Epine at Green Bay. They then attacked de troit killing three Frenchmen and five Wyandotte people. So the Wyandotte along with the Miami sent a delegation to Quebec to ask the French to join them in an expedition against the Fox and their allies in order to seek satisfaction.

Governor Vaudreuil agreed that the Fox had become so unruly that if the French did nothing they would be looked upon with contempt by all the far nations. But, he didn’t want the expense of any expedition to be charge to the King’s treasury so he hatched a plan to pay for it by using the colony’s commerce.

There was in the upper country about a hundred coureurs de bois who were French fur traders that had gone rogue. They had been ordered to cease their trading activities but they refused the direct order from the King. Many were even dealing with the English for trade goods. They were now considered outlaws. But, Vaudreuil reasoned, if the King were to pardon them he could issue them new licences, supply them with trading goods if they would promise to congregate at Michilimackinac and join in the war against the Fox. The profits from the trade goods could in turn pay for the expedition.

In 1714 Claude de Ramsey became acting governor while de Vaudreuil was in France. For two years the French did nothing but in the spring of 1715 they sent presents to the Miami and Illinois in order to arrange a peace between the two. They were both very large nations and both were common enemies of the Fox.

Meanwhile de Vaudreuil returned, asking Sieur de Louvigny, a military man with some import with the First Nations, to go to Michilimackinac. He was to take with him twenty men, munitions for the garrison and trade goods. He also had orders to accomplish three things.

First he was to ascertain if a general peace was even a possibility. Depending on the attitude of the far nations toward the Fox and their allies he would know if there was anything acceptable to them to “cover their dead” and if the Fox were to agree to the terms. Second, he was to encourage the Sioux to break the peace they had arranged with the Fox and not to give them safe haven once the expedition commenced. Third, he was to offer the King’s amnesty to the coureurs de bois if they all came to Michilimackinac and agreed to participate. However, de Louvigny got sick and could not go until the following spring.

Finally he arrived at Michilimackinac and ascertained that a general peace was not possible. However, when he arrived he found the situation rife with problems. The Sauk were fighting with the Puants and Sauteurs. The coureurs de bois were a lawless group trading with everyone including the Fox. This upset all the far nations allied against the Fox. He also discovered that they were getting their trade goods from unscrupulous merchants in Montreal. To top things off the goods and munitions to supply the expedition didn’t arrive until late August, too late to do anything that year!

NEXT WEEK:  Louvigny’s Expedition

The Fox’s Demise

Ah, the weather is so fine,…just like summer! I do so want it to continue. But, alas I heard rumblings about a chance of wet flurries next week. Oh well, back to reality and back to our story.

We left the Fox and Mascoutin chiefs being escorted back to their fort after their First Nation adversaries rejected their peace plan. When they were returned safely the firing recommenced. For four days they fired upon each other without a word being spoken.

The Fox shot flaming arrows at the French fort hoping it would catch fire and burn down. Sometimes these flaming missiles flew three or four hundred at a time. It was a good plan because the buildings inside Fort Ponchartrain had thatched roofs. Some of them did catch fire and the French panicked but Dubuisson reassured them. They replaced the thatch with bear and deer skins, filled large pirogues with water and fashioned large poles with mops on the ends to extinguish any skins that might start to smolder.  This sufficed in handling the matter.

Now Dubuisson had another problem. He heard rumours that some of his First Nation allies want to quit the fight and leave. Others heard the same rumours and again the Frenchmen began to panic. They told Dubuisson they thought they should retire to Michilimackinac as quickly as possible. He rejected that idea immediately and called the plan cowardly. Then he called a council with the war chiefs.

When they were all gathered he started an harangue to encourage them to remain and fight to the end. But in the middle of his discourse the chiefs interrupted him. They told him they never would quit the fight and that some liar had started these bad rumours. They got so riled up that they all sang the war song, did the war dance then with a loud war cry rushed out of the fort to attack the Fox.

Every day a few Sauk who were with the Fox would abandon them and come over to the French side. They brought intelligence with them on the condition of the enemy. By this point in the war they reported that the Fox were in very poor condition. They said that over 80 women and children had died from lack of food and water. They were unable to intern them along with the warriors being killed daily because of being continually fired upon. This in turn caused disease to break out in their fort. They were indeed in bad shape, so bad that they had no other choice but to try again to sue for peace.

They demanded permission to speak to their adversaries and permission was granted. The Fox’s two greatest chiefs, Pemoussa the war chief and Allamina the civil chief came along with Kuit and Onabimaniton the two greatest Mascoutin chiefs. Pemoussa was dressed in his finest carrying wampum belts and painted green. He was supported by seven female captives who were also painted adorned with their finest beadwork also carrying wampum belts. Pemoussa led the procession.

The other three chiefs each carried a chickikoue, a small drum used to enlist spiritual assistance. They proceeded in the French fort in single file the three chiefs beating their chickikouies and all singing the song of it. When they had entered the fort they ceased the song and Pemoussa spoke.

Pemoussa conceded defeat and offered the seven women captives as payment for his life. He said he was not afraid to die but conceded for the lives of their women and children. He offered six wampum belts to tie the Fox and Mascoutin to the French and their allies in friendship and asked for a good word with which he could return to his village. Dubuisson again acquiesced to the war chiefs to give the Fox an answer. 

The chiefs and their warriors were so enraged at the Fox they refused to give them any answer but instead asked to speak with Dubuisson in private. They wanted to kill the four head chiefs on the spot so the Fox would be leaderless and surrender without condition. Dubuisson dismissed this idea out of hand. Besides, if he agreed to such a dishonorable plan the Governor General would not forgive him. The chiefs agreed and the Fox delegation was returned to their fort safely but without a treaty.

The firing recommenced once again and on the nineteenth day of the seige the Fox and Mascoutin decamped about midnight and their escape was not discovered until the next morning. The Ottawa, Wyandotte and the rest of their allies went off in hot pursuit. De Vincennes and a few Frenchmen went with them.

The Fox and their Mascoutin allies knew they would be pursued so they stopped at what today is Grosse Pointe, Michigan on Lake St. Clair and made an entrenchment there. They built very good ramparts which enabled them to kill 20 of the pursuers. Another siege ensured that lasted four days.

Dubuisson had sent word to the Ojibway on the St. Clair River and the Mississauga on Lake St. Clair to come to their aid when the war first broke out. They couldn’t because all their young men were gone on their winter hunt. But now they had returned and they began to show up at the rate of 100 canoes a day for the four days. Then they stormed the Fox entrenchment and slaughtered all but 100. Then they returned to Fort Ponchartrain with their 100 captives which they killed about five a day until they were all dead.

The Fox and Mascoutin who were invited to de troit were totally annihilated.They lost 1,000 men, women and children in the war. The Ottawa, Wyandotte and their allies, including 25 Iroquois from Fond du Lac, suffered 60 men killed and wounded and the French had one killed and several wounded. This tragedy at de troit would commence a period of about 25 years known in history as the Fox Wars.

NEXT WEEK: The Fox Wars