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.
Extract, Memoir on Louisiana, ca. 1702
(Due to length divided here into two
parts.)
Beaurain, Chevalier de in: English Translation
of Margry, Vol. 6, pp. 93-110.
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pp. |
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At the entrance to that river M. Le Sueur established his post, situated at 44 degrees 13 minutes north latitude.
At this spot he met nine Sioux, who told him that this river was in the country of the Western Sioux, the Ayavois and the Otoctatas; that the Ayavois lived on the shore of a lake thirty leagues to the west, and the Otoctatas a little further on; that it was not their custom to hunt over the lands of the others, unless invited to do so by those whom the lands belonged; that when they wanted to come to the Fort to get what they needed, they would run the risk of being killed by their enemies as they went up or came down these rivers, which were narrow; and that, if he would have pity on them, the fort must be established on the Mississippi, near the outfall of the River de Saint Pierre, where the Ayavois, Otoctatas and Sioux could come as well as they. After this speech, they began, in accordance with their custom, to weep on the head of M. Le Sueur, saying 'ouachisson, ouaepanimanabo', which means 'Have pity on us'!.
M. Le Sueur had anticipated that his post on the Blue River would not please the Eastern Sioux, who are practically the masters of all the other Sioux and of the tribes just mentioned; for they were the first with whom we traded, which gave them the advantage of being supplied with guns. Nevertheless he had not undertaken this enterprise solely with the object of trading for beaver skins, but in order to ascertain fully the character of the various mines which he had previously discovered. He therefore told them that he was sorry that he had not known their wishes sooner; that it was quite right, since he had come on purpose for them, that he should have established himself on their lands; but, unfortunately, the season was too (page 102) far advanced for him to retrace his steps. He then made them a present of some powder, bullets, knives and a fathom of tobacco, to invite them to come to the fort which he was about to build, as soon as they could; and there, when they had all assembled, he would tell them the will of the King, their ruler and his.
The Western Sioux, according to the account of the Eastern Sioux, consist of over a thousand households. They never use canoes, nor cultivate the land, nor gather in the wild oats; they generally remain in the prairies between the upper Mississippi and the Missouri River, and live by hunting only.
All the Sioux in general say that they have three souls and that, after death, the one which has done good goes to the warm countries; that which has done evil, to the cold countries; and the other guards the body. Polygamy is customary among them; they are very jealous of their wives, for whom they sometimes fight duels. They are very skilful with the bow, and have often been seen to kill ducks on the wing. They make their huts of a number of ox-hides, dressed and sewn together, and carry them with them everywhere; in each hut, there are generally two or three men, with their families. They are all great smokers, but their manner of smoking is different from that of the other Indians; some Sioux swallow all the tobacco-smoke, while others, after swallowing it and keeping it of some time in their chests, afterwards expel it through the nose.
On the 3rd of the same month they received a number of Sioux at the fort, and among them was Ouacantanpaye, chief of a village. Shortly after, two Canadians arrived, who had gone hunting; they had been robbed by the Eastern Sioux, who had taken away their guns, because they were angry about the post which M. Le Sueur (page 103) had established on the Blue River.
On the 14th the fort was completed, and they gave it the name of Fort L'Huillier.
On the 22nd two Canadians were despatched to go and invited the Ayavois and the Otoctatas to come and form a village near the fort, because those Indians are industrious, and accustomed to cultivating the land, and it was hoped to obtain provisions from them and get them to work at the mines.
On the 24th, six Oujatespouitons Sioux arrived. They wanted to enter the fort, but the French prevented them, telling them that we did not receive men who had killed Frenchmen,- that is the phrase they make use of when anyone has attacked them. Next day they came to M. Le Sueur's hut to beg him to have pity on them. They wanted, according to their custom, to weep upon his head and to make him a present of a few bundles of beaver skins, but he refused, saying that he was astonished that people who had robbed him should yet have the effrontery to come to his house. To this they replied that they had indeed heard that some Frenchmen had been robbed, but no one from their village had been present when that evil deed was committed. M. Le Sueur answered that he knew that it was the Mendeouacantons who had killed him, and not the Oujatespouitons. "But you are Sioux," he continued, "and it was the Sioux that robbed me; and if I were to follow your methods, I should have you shot; for is it not true that when any strangers" (that is what they call Indians who are not Sioux) "have attacked a Sioux, whether a Mendeouacanton, a Oujatespouiton or any other, all the villages avenge the attack made on this Sioux upon the first man they meet." As they had no answer to make to what he said, they had (page 104) recourse to tears, repeating, as their custom is, "Ouaechisson! ouaepanimanabo!" Upon that, M. Le Sueur told them to stop weeping; he added that the hearts of the Frenchmen were good, and that he had only come into their country in order to take pity of them. At the same time, he made them a present, saying "Take back your beaver-skins, and tell all the Sioux that they will get no more powder or bullets from me, and will never smoke from my calumet again" (that is, we shall never be good friends again) "until they have given me satisfaction for the robbery committed on the French."
The same day, the two Frenchmen who had been sent off on the 22nd, returned, having been unable to find the way leading to the Ayavois and the Otoctatas.
On the 26th M. Le Sueur proceeded to the mine with three canoes, which he loaded with blue and green earths; they were taken from the mountains near which are the very productive copper mines, some ore from which was assayed by M. L'Huillier one of His Majesty's farmers-general, on 1696 at Paris. Some stones are also found there, quite green, which it would be interesting to put to some use.
On the 9th of November, eight Mantanton Sioux arrived at the fort, sent by the chiefs of their villages to tell him that the Mandeouacantons were still at their lake, in the lands on the east of the Mississippi, and could not come for a long time; that, for a single village, where they had had no sense, the others ought not to bear the punishment; that, if he would point out to them what sort of satisfaction was desired, they would come and give it. M. Le Sueur replied that he was rejoiced (page 105) to find that they were sensible, and that it was for them to see what they ought to do in the matter.
On the 15th, two Mantanton Sioux arrived. These Indians had been sent specially to give notice that all the Eastern Sioux and some of those of the West had combined to come to the French post because they had heard that the Cristinaux and the Assinipoils were coming to make war upon them. The last two tribes live on the upper part of the Mississippi, over eighty leagues above the fort, towards the east.
The Assinipoils speak the Sioux language, and are really Sioux; it was only a few years ago that they went to war with their tribe. This is the origin of that war.
The Christinaux, having acquired the use of firearms before the Sioux, through the English at Hudson's Bay, came repeatedly to fight the Assinipoils, who were their nearest neighbours; the latter, finding themselves weak, asked for peace and, to make it firmer, allied themselves to the Cristinaux by taking wives from that tribe. The other Sioux, who had not entered into this alliance, and had always been at war with them, kept it up; and one day, finding some Cristinaux among the Assinipoils, they tomahawked them. This caused the Assinipoils to make war on their tribe, joining the Cristinaux, who supply them with arms and goods derived from the English at Hudson.
On the 16th, the two Sioux went back to their village, and the French party heard that the Ayavois and the Otoctatas had gone to settle in the direction of the Missoury River, near the Maha, a tribe which lives in those parts.
On the 26th the Mantantons and the Oujatespouitons arrived at their fort. After they had set up their huts in the woods, (page 106) Ouacantanpaye came to beg M. Le Sueur to go to his hut. He found there sixteen men, with a number of women and children, whose faces were bedaubed with black. In the middle of the hut were several ox-hides which served as a carpet. They made a sign to him to sit down; and at the same time, all these people set to and wept for half a quarter of an hour; then the chief set before him food made of wild oats and, in accordance with their custom, he carried to his mouth the first three spoonfuls. After that, he told him that all those whom he saw present there were, like himself, relatives of Tioscate (that was the name of the Sioux whom M. Le Sueur took to Canada in 1695, who died there in 1696). At the name of Tioscate they began to weep again and to wipe their tears on the head and shoulders of M. Le Sueur. Then Ouacantanpaye, resuming his speech, told him that Tioscate begged him to forget the attack made upon the French by the Mendeouacantons, and to have pity on his brothers, giving them powder and bullets to defend themselves against their enemies and to find food for their wives and children, who were pining with hunger in a land full of all kinds of animals, as they had no means of killing them. "Look," added the chief, pointing to the women and children of the dead man; "there are you children, your brothers and sisters; it is for you to consider whether you would have them live or die; they will live if you give them powder and bullets, and, on the contrary, they will die if you refuse them." Such is their manner of speaking, which is full of figurative expressions. The half of these arguments was sufficient to decide M. Le Sueur to grant their request; but, as the Sioux never reply immediately, especially on a matter of importance, and he had to speak to (page 107) them in reference to his post, he went out of the hut without saying anything to them. The chief and all who were in the hut followed him to the entrance to the fort, and, when he had gone in, they walked round it three times, weeping and shouting at the top of their voices "Atheouanan", which means 'My father, take pity on us!'
The next day, he called together into the fort the most important men of both villages; and as it is not possible to subdue the Sioux nor to prevent them from going on the war-path except by inducing them to cultivate the land, he told them that, if they wished to become worthy of the protection of the King, they must give up their vagrant life and come and form a village near his settlements, where they would be secure from any attack by their enemies; that, in order to make it easy for them to lead a happy life there and to protect them from suffering from want of food, he would give them all the corn they would need for sowing a large extent of land; that the King their chief and his, had forbidden him, in sending him to that country, to trade for beaver-skins, because he had heard that beaver hunting made it necessary for them to separate which made them liable to be killed by their enemies; that, for this reason he had come to settle on the Blue River, the vicinity of which,- as they had often assured him,- was full of animals of all kinds and for the skins of those animals, they should be given what they required; that they should bear in mind that they could not do without the goods of the French, and that, if they did not wish to be deprived of them, their only course was never to make war on the tribes allied to us. And, as it is the custom of the Indians to accompany their speeches by a present of a (page 108) value proportionate to the importance of the matter they deal with, he gave them fifty livres of powder, the same quantity of bullets, six guns, ten hatchets, twelve fathoms of tobacco and a calumet made of steel.
On the 1st of December, the Mantantons invited M. Le Sueur to a feast; they had made four of their huts into one, in which there were a hundred men seated in a circle, each with his dish in front of him. When the repast was over, their chief Ouacantanpaye made them all smoke, one after another, the steel calumet which had been given to them. Then he made M. Le Sueur a present of a slave and a bag of wild oats, and, pointing to his men, said "There is the remnant of the great village, which formerly you saw so populous, all the others have been slain in war, and the few men whom you see in this hut accept the present you have given them, and have resolved to obey the great chief of all the tribes, of whom you have told us. Thus you must look upon us as Sioux no longer, but as Frenchmen; and, instead of saying that the Sioux are wretches, who have no sense and are capable of nothing better than to rob and steal from the French, you shall say 'My brothers are wretches, with no sense; we must try and give them some; they rob us, but, to prevent them from doing so, I will take care that they are never short of iron'- that is, of all sorts of goods. If you do that, I assure you that in a short time the Mantantons will become Frenchmen and will cease to have the vices with which you reproach them." After he had finished this speech, he covered his head with his robe; and the others did the same, and they all mourned for their relatives who had died in war and sang an eternal farewell to their country in a tone so mournful that one (page 109) could not help but sympathize with their grief. After that, Ouacantanpaye made them smoke again, and distributed to them the presents that had been given them; then he said that he was going to the Mendeouacantons to inform them of his decision and invite them to do the same.
On the 12th, three chiefs of the Mendeouacantons and a number of Indians from the same village arrived at the fort, and next day they made a sort of reparation of the robbery they had committed on the Frenchmen, to the value of a thousand livres. For this purpose, they gave four hundred livres of beaver-skins and promised that they would come and settle near the French, the following summer, after making canoes and getting in their harvest of wild oats. The same day they went back to their village to the east of the Mississippi.
Names of the Sioux tribes
of the east
with their meanings.
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The Mantantons.- |
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Which means, Village of the big lake which discharges into a small one. |
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The Mendeouacantons.- |
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Village of the Spirit lake. |
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The Quioepetons.- |
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Village of a lake on a river. |
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The Psinoumanitons.- |
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Village of those who look for wild oats. |
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The Ouadebatons.- |
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Village of the river. |
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The Ocatamenetons.- |
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Village of the people on the point of a lake. |
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The Songasquitons.- |
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Village of the fort. |
The Sioux of the west, who are known.
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The Touchouaesintons.- |
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Which means, Village of the pole. |
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The Psinchatons..- |
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Village of the red wild oats. |
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The Oujatespouitons.- |
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Village scattered in many small bands. |
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The Psinoutanhinhintons.- |
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Village of the tall wild oats. |
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The Tintangaoughiatons.- |
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Village of the great hut. |
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The Ouaepetons.- |
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Village of the leaf. |
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The Onghetgeodatons.- |
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Village of dung. |
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The Ouasicontetons.- |
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Village of those who shoot into a tall pine tree. |
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The Hinhanetons.- |
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Village of the quarry of red stone. |
The continuation of M. Le Sueur's memoirs has not appeared;(see fn. 1) he crossed to France with M. d'Iberville in April 1702. A few years after, when returning to the colony, he died on the way.
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XI.
Precautions taken in Canada against
Le Sueur.
Extract from a letter from the Chevalier de Callieres.
(Ministere des Colonies, Canada, Corres. Generale, C 11, Vol. 19, Folio 123.)
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31st of October 1701. |
The wife of the Sieur Le Sueur came down from Montreal, about ten days ago
and handed me the letter which you did me the honour of writing me on the 22nd
of June, in which you inform me that His Majesty wishes me to give permission
to his partners to send to him, in the Scioux country, the goods which they
have had for two years at Montreal. Learning from her that these goods
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1. Penicant's narrative, in Vol. V., gives the end of Le Sueur's enterprise (Page 416).
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