In 1875 the annuities were paid for the last time, according to the treaty stipulations. Congress, however, in consideration of the Indians’ need, made appropriations to continue the payments for several years. After 1882 the Indian Department permitted the sale of timber from the reservation; logging operations furnished wages for the working Indians, and the sale of the timber placed a considerable sum to their credit. The Chippewa claimed additional sums on treaty stipulations. Whether these claims have ever been settled or not can be ascertained from the Indian Department at Washington. As for the land, by 1913, 83,871 acres had been allotted in eighty-acre tracts to genuine claimants. Enough of the reservation remains for more eighty-acre tracts to be assigned to those who can prove their rights to claims. Timber is still being taken from the reservation.
For further information write to R. S. Buckland, special agent for the Chippewa Indians, Baraga, Michigan; or to Philip S. Everest, superintendent, Ashland, Wisconsin.
FIRST EXPLORATION OF EASTERN WISCONSIN
I should be pleased to ascertain who was the first white man to pass or voyage past the shores of Sheboygan County, Jolliet and Marquette or Father Claude Allouez? Allouez is said to have been the first to explore the west shore of Lake Michigan, but I have not been able to find out whether he reached Sheboygan County.
Alfonse Gerend,
Cato, Wisconsin.
We dislike very much to say dogmatically who was the first Frenchman to skirt the coast of Lake Michigan south of Sturgeon Bay portage. The more we study the subject the more we are inclined to believe that the records we possess reveal but a fragment of the activities of the French explorers, traders, and missionaries around Green Bay during the seventeenth century. We do not know but that Jean Nicolet may have coasted south in 1634; on the other hand, we do not know that he did. No one has yet been wise enough to lay out the course of the wanderings of Radisson and Groseilliers. For my own part, it seems probable that one of the first, if not
the first, white Frenchman who visited all the villages between Green Bay and Chicago was Nicolas Perrot, who between 1665-70 spent five years in the country, much of the time with the Potawatomi tribesmen. Benjamin Sulte, a very careful Canadian investigator, asserts categorically that Perrot was the first white man at Chicago. (Sulte’s articles in French in the Canada Royal Society Proceedings, 1903-13, throw much light on early seventeenth century conditions. They have never been translated, and are known only to a few scholars.) So far as I am able to judge, however, Sulte’s statement is based purely upon inference and is not backed by a written account. Therefore, it is certainly fair to say that the first definite written record of white men skirting the coast of the western shore of Lake Michigan is found in the journal of Father Jacques Marquette, who in September, 1673 came back to Green Bay via the Chicago and Sturgeon Bay portages.
With regard to Father Claude Allouez, I think we can speak with more certainty. He did not go to the Illinois mission until after the death of Marquette. He set out in the autumn of 1676 and wintered among the Potawatomi near Sturgeon Bay. You will find a synopsis of his voyage in Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVI, 96.
You may be interested in seeing a copy of Early Narratives of the Northwest just published by Scribner & Co. This volume contains most of the journals of these early explorers.
A COMMUNITY CHANGES ITS NAME