JESUIT MISSIONARY.
Perhaps the worst effect of the contact between the Europeans and the Indians was the introduction of brandy, always an effective persuader in bargaining, and the introduction of European diseases, particularly venereal disease and smallpox, the latter in some instances wiping out entire tribes. 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.
It should be noted that the adoption of new materials and living habits was not entirely one-sided. The white man learned how to use the Indian’s birch-bark canoe, many of his foods, tobacco, moccasins, snow shoes, and often buckskin clothing.
Both the Jesuits and the French military deliberately aimed at changing the Indian’s way of life but their aims were in direct opposition to one another. The Jesuits were not interested in “civilizing” the Indians. They desired to see these simple people maintained in their original ignorance except for their belief in the “One True God,” and such simple improvements in agriculture and other techniques as would improve their lot as mission Indians. The Jesuits, not without some justification, regarded contact between their charges and the French traders and soldiers as having a demoralizing influence.
MENOMINI INDIAN MEDICINE LODGE CEREMONY (PAINTING BY A. O. TIEMANN).
Despite great heroism and prodigious efforts on the part of the missionaries, permanent effects on the Indians by the Jesuits was to prove almost negligible. The Wisconsin Indian was highly war-like and found it difficult to appreciate the humility preached by the missionary. The Indian regarded such behavior as effeminate.
