The Indians in Wisconsin's History

by John M. Douglass

Wisconsin’s Indians, under the French and British had become increasingly dependent upon the white man. Without the invaders’ tools, weapons, utensils, and various other things which the Indian had come to depend upon, he found himself unable to supply himself with the necessities of life. The French and British traders, of course, were interested almost exclusively in procuring furs from the Indians, and as long as the aborigines could obtain furs for them, the traders would supply their needs.

The Americans, however, were primarily interested in exploiting and settling the Indians’ land; fur trading was secondary. As they pushed into the new territory in ever increasing numbers, first to exploit the lead mines of southwestern Wisconsin, and then to farm the fertile soil, the Indian was doomed to be relentlessly pushed aside. He had lost his independence. Now he was to lose his land and the very means of his livelihood.

The arrival of the Americans upon the Wisconsin scene pleased neither the Indians nor the French traders. Both relied to a great extent on the fur trade, and they knew that the clearing of land by the settlers would hasten the end of this activity. Many of the French, too, had Indian blood and considered their cause as one with the Indians. The United States government first showed poor judgment in its attempt to make these people conform to American standards. For example, the French and Indians were warned that common-law marriages between the two races would no longer be tolerated, but must be legalized by either a civil or church ceremony, and violators would face punishment. Both the French and Indians bitterly fought what seemed to them oppression, and eventually later decisions recognized the legality of common-law unions of earlier regimes.

Wisconsin’s Indian agents were for a time under the authority of two superintendents of Indian affairs. Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory, of which Wisconsin was a part from 1818 to 1836, was in charge of the Indian agent at Green Bay. The agent at Prairie du Chien worked under the direction of William Clark who, as Superintendent of St. Louis from 1807 to 1838, had authority to the source of the Mississippi River. These agents distributed annuities and payments due the Indians and attempted to keep white settlers from squatting on Indian land. The settlers, however, rudely took over Indian land and, in the inevitable conflict that followed, the militia and army would be called out to protect the whites. In the ensuing “peace treaty” the Indians would be forced to cede their lands and move westward.

INVADING SETTLERS (PAINTING BY A. O. TIEMANN).

Wisconsin’s early territorial period was also the era of the frontier fort manned by the regular U. S. Army. Since the pay for the ordinary soldier was very small, the army attracted men who could not succeed elsewhere, or immigrants who wished to desert at the first opportunity and travel westward. The officers, however, were of different character entirely. Educated at West Point, they were by far the most educated and cultured men in the frontier settlements. With their wives, they represented the cream of Wisconsin society of this period.

THE ENFORCING OF LEGAL MARRIAGE (PAINTING BY A. O. TIEMANN).

Wisconsin had three main forts along the Fox-Wisconsin waterway. Fort Howard was erected at Green Bay in 1816, the same year that Fort Crawford was established at Prairie du Chien. Fort Winnebago was built at what is now Portage in 1828, shortly after the Red Bird rebellion. The United States army did its best to maintain peace between the Indians and whites, and to protect the Indians from unlicensed traders, and sometimes legitimate ones, who illegally sold whiskey to them. In their efforts in this direction they often found themselves in conflict with civil authorities who sometimes protected the traders apprehended in such violations.