THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
M. Du Chesneau's Memoir on
the Western Indians, &c.
New York-Colonial Manuscripts,
Paris Documents: II, 1681, pp. 160-164.
(page 160)
wherever he should think most proper. This was granted him by the Intendant;
but the Governor did not allow the persons he had selected to depart until the
twenty-fourth of October following, after all business had been transacted.(see fn. 1)
Trade with the English is justified every day; and all those who have prosecuted it agree that Beaver carried to them sells for double what it costs here; for that worth 52 sous 6 deniers the pound, duty paid, brings eight livres there, and the beaver for Russia sells there at ten livres the pound, in goods.(see fn. 2)
Sieur Lebert, a merchant, told the Intendant that those who returned from New England brought cloths, which sell in this country for nine livres, and cost there only one hundred and ten sous; also other things in proportion.
Done at Quebec, the 13th November, 1681.
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By us, the undersigned, Intendant of New France. |
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DU CHESNEAU. |
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M. Du Chesneau's Memoir on the Western Indians, &c.
Memoir to make known to my Lord the Indian Nations from whom we derive our peltries; their and our interests; the present condition of those Tribes; together with a brief description of the Country inhabited by the English, and of Acadia, adjoining thereunto.
The Outawas Indians, who are divided into several tribes, and are nearest to us, are those of the greatest use to us, because through them we obtain Beaver; and although they, for the most part, do not hunt, and have but a small portion of peltry in their Country, they go in search of it to the most distant places, and exchange for it our Merchandise which they procure at Montreal. They are the Themistamens,(see fn. 3) Nepisseriens,(see fn. 4) Missisakis,(see fn. 5) Amicoüés,(see fn. 6) (page 161) Sauteurs,(see fn. 7) Kiscakons,(see fn. 8) and Thionontatorons.(see fn. 9) They get their peltries, in the North, from the people of the interior, from the Kislistinons, Assinibouets and Nadouessioux, and in the south, from the Sakis, Poutouatamis,(see fn. 10) Puants,(see fn. 11) Oumaominiecs or La Folle Avoine,(see fn. 12) Outagamis or Foxes,(see fn. 13) Maskoutins, Miamis and Illinois.
Some of these tribes occasionally come down to Montreal, but usually they do not do so in very great numbers, because they are too far distant, are not expert at managing canoes, and because the other Indians intimidate them, in order to be the carriers of their Merchandise and to profit thereby.
'Tis the interest of these people to be at peace with each other, to enjoy great freedom in their trade, to be treated kindly when at Montreal, not to be deceived in the sale of merchandise to them, and to respond liberally to the presents they make, without exacting any, since 'tis certain that they are well content if they get only half the value of what is received from them.
It is their interest, likewise, to be afforded great security and facility in the carriage of goods to those who do not come down to Montreal, and not to be obstructed nor harrassed by a crowd of Frenchmen who disturb their trade; and when differences and wars break out between all those nations, that the Governor-General endeavor to appease them and to procure them peace.
As these tribes never transact any business without making presents to illustrate and confirm their words, should their voluntary offerings not be kindly received, and should they be forced to give more than they are inclined, they endeavor to enter into arrangements among (page 162) themselves; they entertain a profound contempt for the selfish, and do not, unless by great necessity, avail themselves of negotiations that people wish to make a traffic of.
This is what occurred a year ago when the Iroquois made an irruption into the country of the Illinois, in which the Miamis were engaged. I shall speak of this by and by. The latter being in great dread of the Iroquois, induced the former to seek an accommodation; sent them presents, and besought them to enter into an amicable arrangement without the intervention of the Governor of the French, because this cost them too much.
'Tis our interest to keep these people united; to take cognizance of all their differences, however trifling these be; to watch carefully that not one of them terminate without our mediation, and to constitute ourselves, in all things, their arbiters and protectors; to bring them into total dependence by these means, by gentle treatment, a few presents, and embassies; by not allowing a great many of the French, who are always very insolent, to go into their country, and by enforcing his Majesty's last ordinance regarding the licenses to be granted for these trading voyages.
They ought also to be made to understand that all their happiness consists in being attached to the French, which they cannot better evince than by establishing a perpetual trade with them, as this affords the means of maintaining mutual friendship and obliging us to provide for all their wants.
But our principal interest, and what will alone crown all our designs with success, is, according to the dictates of our duty, to establish Religion on a solid basis among those people who have any disposition thereunto. This would succeed, were those in authority in this country to chastise such as set the Indians bad example, and to forbid, in accordance with the prohibition contained in the King's ordinance of the year 1679, the conveying of Brandy to the Natives, inasmuch as drunkenness is, among them, the greatest obstacle to religion; destroys both their health and substance, and gives rise among them to quarrels, batteries and murders, that cannot be remedied on account of the distance; and these poor creatures have such an inveterate passion for brandy, which they use only for the purpose of inebriation, that nothing is too valuable to procure it. This produces, in addition to the disorders I have just mentioned, the waste, the debauchery, of all their beaver; then they must run into debt to obtain their necessary supplies; having no means to pay for these, they return no more, and thus cheat the French who have advanced them their substance.
To convey a correct idea of the present state of all those Indian Nations, it is necessary to explain the cause of the cruel war waged by the Iroquois for these three years past against the Illinois. The former, who are great warriors, who cannot remain idle, and who pretend to subject all other nations to themselves, though they compose only five villages, and can muster, under arms, no more than two thousand men at most, never want a pretext for commencing hostilities.
The following was their assumed excuse for the present war: Going, about twenty years ago, to attack the Outagamis, they met the Illinois and killed a considerable number of them. This continued during the succeeding years, and finally, having destroyed a great many, they forced them to abandon their country and to seek for refuge in very distant parts.
The Iroquois having got quit of the Illinois, took no more trouble with them, and went to war against another nation called Andostagués, who were very numerous, and whom they entirely destroyed. Pending this war, the Illinois returned to their country, and the Iroquois complained that they had killed nearly forty of their people who were on their way to hunt (page 163) beaver in the Illinois country. To obtain satisfaction, the Iroquois resolved to make war on them. Their true motive, however, was to gratify the English at Manatte and Orange, of whom they are too near neighbors, and who, by means of presents, engaged the Iroquois in this expedition, the object of which was to force the Illinois to bring their beaver to them, so that they may go and trade it afterwards with the English; also, to intimidate the other nations and constrain them to do the same thing.
The improper conduct of Sieur de la Salle, Governor of Fort Frontenac, in the neighborhood of the Iroquois, has contributed considerably to cause the latter to adopt this proceeding; for after he had obtained permission to discover the Great River of Mississippi, and had, as he allege, the grant of the Illinois, he no longer observed any terms with the Iroquois. He ill-treated them, and avowed that he would convey arms and ammunition to the Illinois, and would die assisting them.
They did, in fact, remark that he carried quantities thereof thither, and that after having traded with them he returned without prosecuting his discovery, which was the pretext for his journey to the country of the said Savages as it was to that of the French.
The Iroquois dispatched, in the month of April of last year, 1680, an army, consisting of between five and six hundred men, who approached an Illinois village where Sieur de Tonty, one of Sieur de la Salle's men, happened to be with some Frenchmen, and two Recollet fathers whom the Iroquois left unharmed. One of these, a most holy man, has since been killed by the Indians. But they would not listen to the terms of peace proposed to them by Sieur de Tonty, who was slightly wounded at the commencement of the attack; the Illinois having fled a hundred leagues thence, were pursued by the Iroquois, who killed and captured as many as twelve hundred of them, including women and children, having lost only thirty men.
The Iroquois, returning home loaded with beaver and some goods, passed by the Miamis, and deliberated whether they should attack them. They did not do so, however, and some of their followers having, whilst hunting, killed a child and captured some women belonging to that nation, the chiefs of their village went to the Iroquois with presents to demand their prisoners, saying they were friends. Their request was granted, and an Illinois child was given them in the place of the one that had been killed.
Another detachment of the Iroquois army, met some hunters belonging to the Bay des Puants,(see fn. 14) whom they captured and brought into their country, without, however, subjecting them to the ill-treatment they inflict on prisoners.
The victory achieved by the Iroquois rendered them so insolent that they have continued ever since that time to send out divers war parties. The success of these is not yet known, but it is not doubted that they have been successful, because those tribes are very warlike and the Illinois are but indifferently so.
They were, however, somewhat apprehensive that the French Governor was dissatisfied with them, and expected that he would repair this summer to Fort Frontenac and invite them thither; they were prepared for this, and he might possibly have arranged matters, but he has neglected this voyage.
Another unfortunate circumstance occurred on the nineteenth of last September. Some Indians of the Bay des Puants, going hunting, met a Seneca Iroquois, a man of influence in his village; they made him prisoner, to serve as an hostage in case the Iroquois should not send back some of their people whom they captured as above stated, and brought him near the (page 164) quarters of the Kiskakons at the village of Michilimakinak, and invariably treated him very well for some days previous to the arrival at the said village of Sieur de Tonty, on his return from Fort Frontenac, after his interview with Sieur de la Salle, and who was on his way to the Miamis, among whom the said Sieur de la Salle proposed to winter. Meantime some Tiohontatés having met a little Illinois girl, the Seneca's slave, who had gone astray four days before her capture, brought her likewise to the said place of Michilimakinak, into a cabin near the Kiskakons' village, whence some Illinois on their departure had carried her off, and brought her into the cabin where Sieur de Tonty was then regaling some Indians, in return for some good offices he had received from them in his necessity. He had given his knife to an Illinois to cut up the tobacco he had presented to them at the time. The Tionontatés came into the said cabin and brought thither the Iroquois Seneca prisoner, who on seeing the Illinois girl recognized her as his slave. The Tionontatés would fain induce the Illinois to give her up to him, and passed some jokes on them, which so irritated them that one of the Illinois arose quite angry and said the Illinois slave could be removed and he would master the Iroquois; and on the renewal of some rude jokes, he snatched from his comrade's hands the knife Sieur de Tonty had lent him, and with it struck the Iroquois, and even those who would prevent him repeated the blow, and finished by killing him, notwithstanding all the efforts that were made to prevent him.
Immediately the Tionontatés thought only of sending off to the Iroquois to advise them that one of their chiefs had been killed by the Illinois is the cabin of the Kiskakons with the Frenchmen's knife. At the same time all the Outawa nations, on hearing of this murder, took to flight, dreading the anger of the Iroquois; and, doubting not but they would ere long have war in their Country, sent word to the Governor of the French, who spoke on the subject to the Intendant, and they concluded that nothing was to be done for the moment but to send to the Iroquois, to lay before them a true statement of the occurrence; to invite them to come next spring to Fort Frontenac, whither the Governor would repair; to notify them, meanwhile, not to get up any expedition; and, in order to dispel the alarm of the Outawas, to advise these, also, of the measures about to be adopted with the Iroquois.
The Intendant is persuaded, and dares to answer for it, that we shall reëstablish peace and quietness throughout the country, and secure our trade, if attention be paid to the Iroquois; if some presents, which cost nothing, be made them; if those they make be well employed, and reserved to be returned to them when occasion requires, as was the practice with Messrs de Tracy and de Courcelles; if the impression be removed from their minds that we wish to furnish arms and ammunition to the Illinois, and, if they be assured, on the contrary, that we wish nothing else than to preserve peace among all those nations, whose Fathers we are, and to chastise those who infringe it. For this purpose the Jesuit fathers will be of great use, as well those who are among them, as those of the Mission of La Prairie de la Madelaine, which is filled, in our midst, with the most considerable of that nation; also, the gentlemen of Saint Sulpice, who have charge of the Mission at the Mountain of Montreal, where there are some Iroquois who are much esteemed. Not but that we always have the English, as well towards Manatte and Orange as towards Hudson's Bay, as impediments.
From all that has just been stated,
respecting the tribes from whom we derive beaver, we can form an opinion of
their present condition, and may conclude that nothing disturbs their repose
but the Iroquois. For, although they are infinitely more numerous, the Iroquois
is so
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1 (top p. 160, fn. 1) The Intendant's ordinance of the 12th September last, and the delay in its execution, render the truth of this article probably, and though conclusive pieces on this head cannot be furnished, yet it is a very general report, and a man of honor, whose name the Intendant's Secretary will furnish to My lord, if he desire, has informed the said Intendant that within five or six days the Governor, Sieurs Perrot, Boisseau and Du Lut have divided the money they derived from the Beavers they had sent to New England. The said petition and ordinance are annexed, marked R.
2 (top p. 160, fn. 2) The trial of Favre, David and Salvage, with his certificate as to the price of Beaver, justify this article.
3 (bott. p. 160, fn. 1) Temiscamings. They resided on the Lake Temiscaming, one of the sources of the Ottawa river.-Ed.
4 (bott. p. 160, fn. 2) Or Nipissings, from Nippi water, and ing the suffix for locality. They were visited by Champlain in 1615, and by Sagurt in 1624. The latter says their proper name is Squekan-eronons. Coronelli, in his map of 1688, call their lake Skekouen. It lies to the Northeast of Lake Huron.
5 (bott. p. 160, fn. 3) This Algonquin tribe was settled originally to the north of lakes Ontario and Erie; but in 1755 they are laid down on Mitchell's map on the north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Nippissirien, or Nipissing. La Potherie derives the name from Missi, several, and Sakis, mouths of rivers, because they lived on a river of the same name, which discharge itself into Lake Huron by "several mouths." Histoire de l'Amerique Sept II., 60. Others, however, derive it from Missi and Sakiegun, a lake.
6 (bott. p. 160, fn. 4) This nation, which derived its name from Ahmik or Amikoa, a Beaver, in the Algonquin tongue, was esteemed among the most noble of those of Canada. They were supposed to be descended from the Great Beaver, which was, next to the Great Hare, their principal divinity, and inhabited the beaver islands in Lake Michigan. They passed over afterwards to Manitoualin Island. Charlevoix.
7 (p. 161, fn. 1) The Indians of the Falls of St. Mary. In the Relation of 1642, they are called "Pauoitig-oueieuhak," or inhabitants of the Falls; in that of 1671, "Pahouitingdachirini," or the Men of the Shallow Cataract, and were estimated at 150 souls; they then united with the Noquets, Marameg and Outchibous. The two latter claimed the north side of Lake Superior as their country. The Outchibous are known as Ojibways, or Chippeways, and are called Raratwans, or people of the Falls, by the Dahcotahs. They now are settled in the north part of Minnesota. A grammar of their language has been composed and published by the Rev. Mr. Belcourt, who has also compiled a Sauteux Dictionary.-Ed.
8 (p. 161, fn. 2) The Kiskakons, called also Queues coupées by the French, are first mentioned in the Relation of 1666, 67. They had formerly lived on Lake Huron; in 1672 were found at the Falls of St. Mary and along Lake Superior (Shea's Marquette, I, 61); and in the beginning of the last century were settled, according to La Potherie (Histoire de l'Amerique, Sept., I, 64), at Michilimakinac.
9 (p. 161, fn. 3) See III., 443, Note 2.
10 (p. 161, fn. 4) This tribe abandoned their country, and took refuge among the Chippeways in 1641, so as to be secure from their enemies, the Sioux. In 1670 they returned to Green Bay and the borders of the Lake Machihigan; were located in 1701 at the River St. Joseph, where a portion of them were in 1830. They have since removed to Kansas.
11 (p. 161, fn. 5) Winnebagoes. They are mentioned by Sagard, in 1632, as Puans, and in the Relation of 1669, under the name of Ouinibigoutz. Champlain, on his map, calls Lake Michigan "Lac des Puans." This name, Puans, says La Potherie, II., 68, copying Marquette, has not so bad a meaning in Indian as in French; for with them it means Salt, rather than Fetid. The Winnebagoes are of the Sioux or Dahcotah stock. They were nearly destroyed in 1640, by the Illinois; were allies of Pontiac in 1763; were defeated by Wayne in 1795, and adhered to the British in 1812.
12 (p. 161, fn. 6) Menomonies. This tribe was seated, in 1669, on the north part of Green Bay. The name is derived from Monomoniah, "Wild rice" (Zizania aquatica, of Linnaeus); hence the French appellation. The progress of immigration into Wisconsin has forced them from their ancient grounds to the head waters of the Mississippi. They numbered, in 1849, about 2,500 souls; some of whom are in an advanced state of civilization.
13 (p. 161, fn. 7) The Sacs and Foxes are identically the same nation. They are of the Algonquin family, and are supposed to have been originally located on the north shores of Lake Ontario, whence they emigrated to Lake Huron, giving their name to Saginaw; thence they went to the Fox river of Green Bay, where they were found in 1666. The Menomonies, Chippeways and French drove them thence to the Wisconsin river, where Carver met them in 1766. Schoolcraft derives the name of the Sacs from Osaukee, signifying those who went out of the land. Outagami, the name of the other, is the Algonquin word for a Fox, which epithet they obtained, 'tis said, on account of their great cunning; but their real name is Musquakies, from Moskwah, red, and Aki, land or country.
14 (p. 163, fn. 1) Green Bay, Wisconsin.-Ed.
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