The French military now decided on a concentration policy. The western posts were to be restricted to three main centers. These were to be at Detroit, New Orleans, and near Tonty’s post in the Illinois country. Fairly large numbers of troops were stationed at these posts to provide adequate defense, and the western tribes were to be concentrated in these areas. This would facilitate the fur trade by permitting the Indians to trap their furs and bring them directly to the trading centers. The French government also hoped to “civilize” the Indians, teaching them to farm the land, learn the French language, and eventually even participate in the colonial economy.
The concentration policy was foredoomed to failure. 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.
CHAPTER THREE
THE FOX WARS AND THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE
SAUK AND FOX WARRIORS (FROM MAXIMILIAN).
Events occurring in Wisconsin during the first half of the Eighteenth Century were to bode little good for the French, and were to contribute towards the final downfall of New France at the hands of the British. For a good share of the years between 1701 and 1738 the French were to be largely occupied with the attempt to subjugate the Fox Indians and their allies.
Not only were the expeditions against the Fox to prove costly to the French, but the enmity of the Fox required shiftings of trade routes. As an inevitable result, friction between the French and English traders developed, since the Fox at times blocked both the Fox River in Wisconsin and the Illinois River to the French traders. The determined resistance of the Fox also prevented the fruition of French hopes to dominate the western tribes and influence them to espouse the French cause. Furthermore, the difficulty experienced by the French military in conquering a relatively small group of Wisconsin Indians did little to further French prestige among other western tribes.
The First Fox War was actually the result of the French concentration policy. Within a few years after the founding of Detroit in 1701 by the Sieur de Cadillac there were almost 6000 Indians in the vicinity of the fort. The Fox, meanwhile, determined to prevent the carrying of guns to their enemy, the Dakota Sioux, were halting French traders attempting to proceed up the Fox River on their journey to the Sioux country on the Upper Mississippi. A French fort in the Sioux country was also abandoned after the loss of several men due to attacks by the Fox.
Cadillac, realizing the need for some measure to bring these warlike tribesmen under control, in 1710 invited the Fox, along with the other tribes resident around Green Bay, to come and reside near Detroit. At this crucial time, when so much depended on the leadership of a Frenchman experienced in handling the tribes, Cadillac, probably the most capable Colonial officer of the times, was sent to Louisiana as governor of that colony. The new commandant at Detroit had none of Cadillac’s ability with the Indians.
The arrival of the Fox and their allies, the Kickapoo, Sauk, and Mascouten, was the signal for trouble. These tribesmen were feared as well as hated by the other Indians about Detroit. After a band of Mascouten were attacked by the Ottawa near the St. Joseph River, during the winter of 1711-1712, the Fox, in revenge, immediately attacked the Ottawa and Huron at the Detroit post.