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.
Beauharnois and Hocquart
to the Minister
(October 1, 1732)
Beauharnois and Hocquart in: Michigan
Pioneer and Historical Collections ,
vol. 34, pp. 90-104.
p. 100.
The Sr. de Beauharnois had anticipated His Majesty's intentions with regard to the Chicachas,1 against whom he has made the tribes, who are near enough to harrass them, declare war.
The Oniatanous who went there last year, lost two men in the attack which they made upon these savages, and should be in the field to avenge their dead.
The Sr. de Beauharnois wrote, this year, to the commandants with the Illinois at Fort de Chartres2; the Oniatanous, and the Miamis, to induce their savages to attack Chichachas whom they should look upon as the common enemy of all the tribes.
He has likewise had the Hurons of Detroit sounded
by the Sr. de Boishebert, they have raised a war-party to attack what remains
of the Fox Indians, being unwilling that a single one of them should be left,
and they might also turn their arms against the Chicaches. Although the Sr. de
Beauharnois was not informed of His Majesty's wishes as to the course it was
advisable to take to reduce that tribe and obtain peace for those parts, he
considered that one of the necessary means was to create divisions among the
tribes, as he has done. It is certain that the small parties which will from
time to time, fall upon the Chicachas will harrass them greatly, and reduce
them to such a condition as to keep them quiet; in addition to which being
harrassed in another direction by the people under M. Perrier to whom the Sr.
de Beauharnois has sent word of the methods he was employing from this side,
they will be easier to reduce to subjection, and there seems no more suitable
means of compassing it.
_____________________
1 The Choctaw legends say their ancestors came from the far west and located in Mississippi. Here they separated, and the part which went East were known as the Chickasaw nation.- Jes. Rel. Vol. LXVI. p. 343.
2 Fort de Chartres, built in 1720 was about sixteen miles N. W. of Kaskaskia, and a mile from the Mississippi.- C.M.B.
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