(5) “The Iowas, neighbors and allies of the Sioux, dwelt between the 44th and 45th degrees of north latitude, twelve days’ journey beyond the Mississippi: that they very likely belonged to the latter nation, is shown by the name of Nadouessioux Maskoutens, or Nadouessioux of the prairies, that the Algonquins had given them; for Maskoute, [Mush-ku-day,] the root of Maskoutens, signifies land destitute of trees, or prairie.”
(6) “We know indeed that two Frenchmen visited, in 1659, the forty Sioux villages without crossing, or even seeing, the Mississippi, of which they have only spoken from hearsay, and from the descriptions that the Hurons of Black River gave them of it. The villages belonged, then, all to the eastern portion of the Sioux territory, situated on this side of the river; that is to say, in the half of the country really occupied by this nation. It may, however, be that in the infant Mississippi, disguised, too, under a Sioux name, our two travelers did not recognize the large and powerful river that the Hurons told them of under its Algonquin title. In this case, they must have been, though without their knowledge, the first to see again in the seventeenth century, the Mississippi, discovered in the sixteenth by Ferdinand de Soto.” ... “One of these travelers was called Des Groseillers, and lived many months with the Sioux. This we gather from the following passage of the M. S. Journal of the Jesuits of Quebec, (Aug., 1660).... “The Ottowas arrived on the 19th.... There were three hundred of them. Des Groseillers was in their company; he had gone to them the year before.... Des Groseillers has wintered with the nation of the Ox [nation du boeuf], which he makes to be 4,000 men. They are the sedentary Nadouesserons’ (Sioux of the East).”
(7) “From the commencement of 1660, the Ottowas inhabited Chegoimegon Point [Shah-gah-wah-mik-ong—Ely], as well as the islands adjacent to it on the southern shore of Lake Superior. The Hurons, at that time, were in hiding near the sources of the Black River, at six days distance (40 or 50 leagues), from the same lake, and at seven or eight from Green Bay. The two peoples were visited, in 1659, by two French traders, who, penetrating beyond, made alliance with the Sioux. It is then between the years 1657 [at which time the Hurons and Ottowas were living in Mechingan,] and 1660, that the events described by Perrot must have taken place; that is, from the flight of these tribes to the Mississippi, up to their first troubles with the Sioux, which were followed by a new migration—that was not their last one.” ... “In reckoning at forty or fifty leagues the six days journey that separated the residence of the Hurons from Lake Superior, I have only applied the rule given in the Relation of 1658 by Father Dreuillettes; ‘You will see also,’ he writes, ‘the new roads to go to the sea of the north, ... with the distance of the places, according to the days travel that the savages have made, which I put at fifteen leagues a day in descending, on account of the rapidity of the waters, and at seven or eight leagues in ascending.’” [The common league of France is equal to 2.76 miles.]
(8) “This disastrous expedition following the arrival of the Hurons at Chegoimegon, it could not, consequently, have taken place before 1662. On the other hand, it preceded, by many years perhaps, the visit that the Chief of the Sinagaux Ottowas paid the Sioux in 1665 or 1666; it is then very likely that the defeat of the Hurons by the Sioux occurred in one of the two years, 1662 or 1663.” ... “Two reasons have impelled me to place in 1665-1666, the arrival of the Sioux prisoners at Chegoimegon, followed by their return to their country with the chief of the Sinagaux and the four Frenchmen of whom Perrot speaks. The first is that, in this year, the Sioux very certainly visited the Point of the Holy Spirit; the second, that, according to the account of these events, as it is given by our author, four or five years at least, had passed away between this visit and the abandoning of Chegoimegon, in 1670-71, by the Hurons and the Ottowas.”
(9) “Kalamalastigouia—an application of DuLhut, made in 1693, in which he solicits the concession of this post, gives the name as Kamanastigouian.”
(10) “Perrot, who was recalled in 1685, from the country of the Sioux, received, four years later, express orders to take possession of it in the name of the king, as seen in the following document: ...
“‘Nicolas Perrot, commandant pour le roi au poste des Nadouesioux ... declarons a tous qu’il appartiendra etre venus a la baye des Puants et au lac des Outagamis, rivieres des dits Outagamis et Maskoutins, riviere de l’Ouiskonche et celle de Mississippi, nous etre transportes au pays des Nadouesioux, sur le bord de la riviere de Sainte Croix, a l’entree de la riviere de Saint Pierre, sur laquelle etaient les Mantantons, et, plus haut dans les terres, au nord-est du Mississippi, jusqu aux Menchokatouches, chez lesquels habitent la plus grande partie des Songeskitoux et autres Nadouesioux qui sont au nord-est du Mississippi, pour et au nom du Roy, prendre possession des terres et rivieres ou les dites nations habitent, et desquelles elles sont proprietaires ... fait au poste Saint-Antoine le dit jour et an que dessus’”—[le 8 Mai 1689.] See Neills’ History of Minnesota, pages 143 to 145, for translation of this “deed” in full.