EARLY HISTORY OF THE IOWAY
The earliest mention[60] of the Tribe is in Le Sueur’s narrative of his expedition in 1700 to the fancied copper mines[61] of Riviere de Vert, (the Blue Earth tributary of the Minnesota river), embodied in La Harpe’s mss.[62] History of Louisiana, parts of which including Le Sueur’s Narrative, have been recently published.[63] As to this mine, we are told in the mss. copy[64] in the Congressional Library of the Relation of Penicaud, the shipwright who accompanied Le Sueur—“a man, (says Neill,[65] the erudite historian of Minnesota) of discernment but little scholarship”—that:
M. Le Sueur had heard of the mine some years before while travelling in the country of the Aiaos—(or Aivoe: the name has been written twice: and the orthography is obscure,)—where he traded.
This acquaintance with the Ioway must have been achieved when, as chief trader,[66] he occupied the “factory” of “Fort Perrot” on the “left” or east bank of the Mississippi,[67] just below Point Le Sable, near the foot of Lake Pepin: which first trading post of the upper Mississippi was erected in 1683, by Nicholas Perrot[68] and M. le Sueur by order of Governor De la Barre,[69] of Canada, “to establish (says the historian Neill) friendly alliances with the Ioway and Dakota”; and this post was for years the only one in all that region, until Le Sueur himself, in 1695, built the “French factory” of “Isle Pelee,” at the “right” bank, on Prairie or “Bald” Island, about ten miles below the St. Croix. The Ioway, (as will hereafter appear), occupied at that time a not very remote nor inaccessible location from Fort Perrot, in the region around and amidst the head waters of the Des Moines and Blue Earth rivers, and being allies of the Sioux, they doubtless brought their furs and obtained their trading supplies of Le Sueur at this “Fort”: and it is not improbable that Le Sueur (and his engages) also travelled in their country on hunting or trading expeditions.
In La Harpe’s account of Le Sueur’s long “voyage” up the Mississippi from its mouth to the “mine” with his “felucca,[70] two canoes and twenty men,”[71] the Ioway are frequently mentioned. The first instance is when about the 14th[72] of July, 1700, as he passed the mouth of the Illinois, he “met three Canadian voyageurs, who came to join his band, and received by them a letter from Father Marest,[73] Jesuit, dated July 10, 1700, at the Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin in Illinois:” of which the following is a copy:
I have the honor to write in order to inform you, that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the Scioux and the Ayavois.[74] The people have formed an alliance with the Quincapous, and some of the Mecoutins, Renards, and Metesigamias, and gone to revenge themselves, not on the Scioux, for they are too much afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably upon the Osages, for these suspect nothing, and the others are on their guard. As you will probably meet these allied nations, you ought to take precaution against their plans, and not allow them to board your vessel, since they are traitors, and utterly faithless. I pray God to accompany you in all your designs.
This letter of Father Marest shows, that the Ioway were then in alliance with the Sioux, and establishes, that their Indo-French name of “Ayavois” was already pretty well understood: and that even their own name for themselves was not unknown, Paoutees, or—(to transliterate the French orthography into our Indian alphabet),—Päut’æs, was not far off from their true designation of Pähutchæs: though, curiously enough, they are held to be another tribe! The warning of this war-party given Le Sueur by the “Father” proved no false alarm; for just below the Wisconsin, “five Canadians” were met with, “descending from the Scioux to go to Tamarois,” who, above the Wisconsin, had been fallen in with by a war-party of “ninety savages in nine canoes,” being of “four different nations, the Outagamis [Foxes], Saquis [Saukes], Poutouwatamis and Puans [Winnebago], who had “robbed and cruelly beat them.” Taking these five men with him as volunteers, Le Sueur proceeded up the river until he met this war-party near Black River, returning from an unsuccessful encounter with the “Scioux,” and brought them to terms, and, being evidently too strong for them to maltreat or meddle with in any way, extorted a kind of apology from them for what they had done.
On the first of October Le Sueur finally reached his destination near his “mine.” We extract from the narrative of his proceeding while here so much of it as refers to the Ioway:
After he [Le Sueur] entered into Blue river, thus named on account of the MINES of blue earth found at its mouth, he founded his post, situated in 44 degrees 13 minutes north latitude. He met at this place nine Scioux, who told him the river belonged to the Scioux of the West, the Ayavois [Ioways], and Otoctatas [Otoes], who lived a little farther off: that it was not their [the “Scioux”] custom to hunt on ground belonging to others, unless invited to do so by the owners, and that when they would come to the fort to obtain provisions they would be in danger of being killed in ascending or descending the rivers, which were narrow, and that if he would show them pity, he must establish himself on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St. Pierre, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the other Scioux, could go as well as them.... Le Sueur had forseen that the establishment of Blue river would not please the Scioux, ... because they were the first with whom trade was commenced, and in consequence of which they had already quite a number of guns.... On the 3d of October, they received at the fort several Scioux, among whom was Wahkantape, chief of the village. Soon two Canadians arrived who had been hunting, and had been robbed by the Scioux of the east, who had raised their guns against the establishment which M. Le Sueur had made on Blue river. On the 14th the fort was finished and named “Fort L’Huillier,” and on the 22d two Canadians were sent out to invite the Ayavois and Otoctatas to come and establish a village near the fort, because these Indians are industrious [?] and accustomed to cultivate the earth, [?] and they hoped to get provisions from them and to make them work [!] in the mines.
An assertion, a hope and an expectation which rather proves, that Le Sueur knew nothing of these Indians from actual observation in their country, but only knew of them from report and by a few individuals whom he probably met for trade at the posts at Forts Perrot or Isle Pele; for there is no evidence that they ever were “industrious,” or given to “cultivating the earth” any more than other Indians: nor are they at this day. But, to continue our extracts: