THE LANDING OF NICOLET (MUSEUM MURAL BY GEORGE PETER).
Nicolet’s journey into the Wisconsin wilderness, a mere fourteen years after the landing of our pilgrim forefathers at Plymouth Rock, was the beginning of the period of French exploration and rule in Wisconsin which is as romantic and fascinating a story as any in our country’s history. Imagine Nicolet’s emotion as he approached his destination, a lone white man with seven Indians for companions, in a country which, as far as was known, had never before been visited by a white man. He had no idea as to what sort of reception he would receive from these strange people he was to visit. Their friendliness or enmity would be determined upon arrival. Fortunately he was hailed as a great visitor, and feasted and entertained accordingly.
Only three Indian tribes are definitely known to have been residents of Wisconsin when Nicolet visited here in 1634. These were the Winnebago; the Menomini, who resided along the shores of the Menominee River above Green Bay; and the Santee Sioux, whose villages were scattered along the upper reaches of the Mississippi River in northwestern Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota.
Documentary evidence strongly suggests that some other tribes, often mentioned as early residents, as, for example, the Mascouten, did not arrive until a generation later. Archaeological findings conclusively show the prehistoric occupation of Wisconsin by the Santee Sioux and the Winnebago, and support the probability of prehistoric occupation by the Menomini. Thus Wisconsin was controlled primarily by Siouan speaking peoples in 1634. The peaceful Menomini were far outnumbered by their powerful neighbors, the Winnebago, but this situation was soon to change radically.
WINNEBAGO VILLAGE (PAINTING BY A. O. TIEMANN).
Events occurring far to the East, in what is now New York State and eastern Canada, were to profoundly affect and change the Indian population of Wisconsin. When the French began permanent settlement along the St. Lawrence they found the Huron and the Iroquois Confederacy engaged in a death struggle for supremacy in the area. The French espoused the cause of the Hurons who quickly became the middlemen in the fur trade between the French and the western Indians.
The Iroquois, who were farmers and hence controlled less land than hunting tribes who were their neighbors, soon depleted their land of fur bearing animals and began to plan acquisition of land held by nearby tribes. At about this time the Dutch considerately gave the Iroquois guns, and by this act unleashed what was probably the most potent Indian military confederacy in North America upon the Hurons, who were practically exterminated in an amazingly short time. The Erie, Tobacco Nation, and Neutrals soon suffered the same fate as the Hurons.
The Algonkian tribes, attacked first by the Neutrals and then by the victorious Iroquois, fled pell-mell into eastern Michigan and the Sault area. Eventually most of these tribes either went around the southern or the northern extremity of Lake Michigan to arrive in the relative security of wilderness Wisconsin.