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Marquette & Joliet 1673

Ca. 1681 map of Marquette
and Jolliet's 1673 expedition
Louis Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary, were the first Europeans to explore and map much of the Mississippi River in 1673. 

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Plaque commemorating Jolliet in Chicago.


May 18, 1673, Jolliet and Marquette departed from St. Ignace with two canoes and five other voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry. They followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay (Lake Michigan). They then sailed up the Fox River (Wisconsin) to a distance of slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River. At that point Europeans eventually built a trading post, Portage, named for its location. From there, they ventured on and entered the Mississippi River near present-day Prairie du Chien on June 17.

The Jollies-Marquette expedition traveled down the Mississippi to within 435 miles (700 km) of the Gulf of Mexico, but they turned back north at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point, they had encountered natives carrying European goods, and they were concerned about an encounter with explorers or colonists from Spain. They followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which they learned from natives was a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. Following the Illinois and the Des Plaines rivers, via the Chicago Portage, they reached Lake Michigan near the location of modern-day Chicago. Marquette stopped at the mission of St. Francis Xavier in Green Bay, Wisc., in August, while Jolliet returned to Quebec to relate the news of their discoveries.

The party returned to the Illinois Territory in late 1674, becoming the first Europeans to winter over in what would become the city of Chicago. As welcomed guests of the Illinois Confederation, the explorers were feasted en route and developed trading relationships.




Statue of Jolliet in Quebec
Photo by: Jeangagnon Creative Commons

  1. Images for marquette and joliet

     


  3. Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet - PBS

    www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/p_mandj.html‎

    Two young men, Louis Joliet, a fur trader, and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, were chosen to lead an expedition from a mission at the northeast corner ...

  4. Marquette and Jolliet - Library

    library.thinkquest.org/4034/marquettejolliet.html‎

    LOUIS JOLLIET(sometimes spelled Joliet) (1645-1700). Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet searched together and found the waters of the Mississippi River.

  5. Marquette & Joliet - Wisconsin Historical Society

    www.wisconsinhistory.org/topics/marquette_joliet/‎

    Marquette & Joliet. Wisconsin Historical Museum Painting Collection. On a May morning more than 300 years ago, two unlikely explorers set out on a four-month ...

  6. Marquette-Joliet Expedition - Encyclopedia of Arkansas

    www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net › Browse‎

    Jul 29, 2009 – In 1673, Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and LouisJoliet, a fur trader, undertook an expedition to explore the unsettled territory ...

  7. Louis Jolliet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Jolliet‎

    Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary, ... of Jolliet's descendants, Barthélemy Joliette); and the Joliet Junior College in ...
    Early life - Discovery of the Mississippi - Later years - Legacy

  8. Who were Marquette and Joliet? Route/Expedition of Marquette ...

    totallyhistory.com/marquette-and-joliet/‎

    In 1672, Marquette and Joliet were ordered by Governor Frontenac of New France, which is today known as Canada, to search for a path to the Pacific Oc.

  9. Marquette and Joliet Explore the Mississippi River

    www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/uslocal/gulf/missriver/marq-jol.htm‎

    Jan 27, 2013 – The Governor had been hearing tales of a mighty river to the south, and it was this river that Marquette and Joliet were being sent to find.

  10. Marquette & Joliet

    www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/exp/lou/lou.htm‎

    Sep 29, 2000 – Welcome to our Jacques Marquette & Louis Joliet Background: Jacques Marquette was born on June 10, 1637 in Laon, ...

  11. The Mississippi Voyage of Jolliet and Marquette - American Journeys

    www.americanjourneys.org › AJ-051 Document Page‎

    French officials commissioned Louis Joliet and Father Marquette to explore the region and to claim that vast stretch of land for the French Crown. Count de ...

Illinois Indians and French Colonists


Robert E. Warren
Historical Research and Narrative

When French explorers, fur traders, and missionaries ventured into the Illinois Country during the late 1600s, they entered a land well-populated with Native American people. The Illinois Indians, composed of a dozen affiliated tribes, were a power to be reckoned with in the central Mississippi River Valley. As members of the two societies met and interacted, they saw opportunity in one another. The French had visions of economic development and colonial expansion along the Mississippi. The Illinois sought sophisticated weapons needed to defend their villages from attacks by hostile tribes.

With these incentives, a cultural collaboration emerged that would endure for nearly a century. Both societies native and newcomer changed during the period of interaction. So did the cultural relationship between them. The collaboration was built on three cornerstones: economy, military, and religion. The Illinois and the French became co-dependent trade partners and military allies, while at the same time the French sought to "civilize" the Illinois by converting them to Christianity. These interactions spawned changes in other aspects of life, including technology, settlement, marriage, and population size. The effects of collaboration were uneven in the sense that the Illinois changed to a greater degree than did the French colonists. However, both societies were affected in important ways.

It is difficult to say exactly when the collaboration began. The Illinois and the French were cognizant of one another decades before they actually met. Samuel de Champlain, the explorer who has been called the "Father of New France," took baby steps toward the Illinois when he began charting the St. Lawrence River valley and the eastern Great Lakes in the early 1600s. Champlain also initiated the French fur trade. Animal skins, especially beaver, were in great demand in Europe. Champlain sent itinerant fur traders coureurs de bois to travel among the Indians exchanging French trade goods for pelts. When beaver populations were depleted in the St. Lawrence trapping grounds, traders sought new suppliers among the pays d'en haut or "upper-country" tribes of the Great Lakes.

In 1634 multilingual fur trader Jean Nicollet became the first Euro-American to see Lake Michigan. While visiting a Winnebago Indian village in the Green Bay region, he sought information on undocumented Indians who lived beyond that point to the west and south. Among the groups reported by Nicollet and his successors was a large nation living well south of Green Bay called "Eriniouai," "Liniouek," or "Aliniouek," names signifying the Illinois or Illiniwek Indians.

French Traders and Their American Indian Trading Partners Exchanging European Goods for Furs. Decorative detail from Map of the inhabited part of Canada, from the French surveys engraved by William Faden, 1777. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (G1105.F22 1777).


The Illinois and Fox Wars 1730


The Fox (Meskwaki) Wars

The Battle at Starved Rock
The Indians of southern Wisconsin, the Fox included, often hunted buffalo on the Illinois prairie without the permission of the latter. In 1722, the Illinois captured the nephew of Oushala, a Fox chief, and burned him alive. Shortly thereafter, the Fox sent a strong force down into the Illinois Country to exact revenge. They forced the Illini to take refuge on top of Starved Rock where earlier Tonti had driven off the Iroquois. A runner was sent to Fort de Chartres for help. However, by the time de Broisbriand and a relief force of French and Indians arrived, the Fox had already retreated, leaving behind 120 dead.
The de Beauharnois Expedition
Angered by Fox raids, the French decided to take the offensive. In 1726, the Marquis de Beauharnois, the Governor of Canada, sent an expedition against the Fox which linked up with a force from Illinois. The Illinois contingent was commanded by Desliettes, the Commandant of the Illinois District. He led a force of twenty French soldiers and 500 Illini warriors. However, the Fox learned of the coming assault and escaped before they could be attacked.
The Battle of the Fox Fort
In the summer of 1730, the Iroquois League invited the Meskwaki nation to join them. Under constant pressure by the French and their allies, the Fox chose to accept. But to get to the Iroquois, they had to pass across Illini territory. The Fox dispatched an envoy to negotiate passage, but a quarrel ensued. No doubt the Illini were reluctant to see their two greatest enemies united. A short time later near Starved Rock, the Fox captured the nephew of a Cahokia chief and burned him at the stake. That of course ended any possibility of a peaceful resolution to the problem. The Fox fled the area with the Illini in pursuit.
The Illini caught up with the Fox in the open prairie buffalo country of Central Illinois. This was near the headwaters of the Sangamon River in present-day McClean County, Illinois (see end note). The Fox retreated into a grove of trees and set up a defensive position which they fortified.
The fortification, when completed, consisted of a log palisade reenforced with earth. A series of trenches connected the fortification with a nearby small river. Within the compound were cabins. The roofs of these were formed by laying woven mats across sturdy rafters, then covering the construction with earth. The Illini lay siege to this fort and dispatched runners to summon their allies. The response was greater than they could have anticipated.
The Illini and Their Allies
St. Ange marched north from Fort de Chartres with a force of 100 Frenchmen and 400 Cahokia, Peoria, and Missouri warriors. St Ange arrived on August 17, 1730. In the meantime, 200 Kickapoo, Mascouten, and Potawatomi had already arrived on the scene to aid the Illinois. De Villiers and Reaume came down from St. Joseph (Michigan) at the head of a force of 400 Sauk, Potawatomi, and Miami. Piankeshaw and Ouiatenon warriors led by de Noyelle arrived from the Miami post on September 1st. De Noyelle brought an order from the Governor of Canada that there would be no peace made with the Meskwaki. This fight was to the finish. In all, about 1000 Fox (men, women, and children) were invested by about 1400 allied warriors. The Native American nations represented were the Illinois, Sauk, Potawatomies, Kickapoos, Mascoutens, Miamis, Ouiatenons (Weas), and Piankeshaws.
The Battle
St Ange positioned his forces to cut off the Fox access to the river. At that point, the Fox defeat was just a matter of time. Central Illinois in the late summer is very hot and dry with temperatures often in the nineties. With their water supply cut off, the Fox faced disaster. The Fox fortification was surrounded and all avenues of retreat were cut off. Food supplies quickly ran low. The Fox threw their children out to their enemies, telling them to eat them. In fact most of these children were probably adopted into the besieging tribes. The Fox held out valiantly for 23 days. At last on the night of September 8th, a heavy rainstorm struck). The Fox made their escape in the darkness and rain but soon the allies caught up with them. From 800 to 1000 Fox men, women, and children were killed. The Fox would not again rise to any sort of strength until almost a century later, as allies to the Sauk Chieftain Blackhawk. The power of the Fox had been effectively broken.

Click to Read More

rfester.tripod.com/fox.html


  1. Meskwaki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meskwaki
    Jump to Fox Wars‎: The Meskwaki fought against the French, in what are called the Fox Wars, for more than three decades (1701–1742) to preserve their ...

  2. Meskwaki :: Meskwaki Culture

    www.meskwaki.com/meskwaki-culture/
    Meskwaki fought against the French in what are now called the Fox Wars (1701-1742). The Meskwaki resistance of French rule was so effective that the French ...

  3. The Fox (Meskwaki) Wars - Tripod

    rfester.tripod.com/fox.html
    The Meskwaki (Fox) were induced to settle near Fort Detroit by the French, but disagreements soon arose. When these turned violent, the Fox, together with their ...

  4. The Fox Wars

    www.msswarriors.org/history/.../Pages/.../WarriorsFoxWars.ht...
    Meskwaki Beseiged. The Fox Wars. "Ahhh...Where are the French, they use to come visit us all the time. Maybe we should send them a present." -Old Meskwaki ...

  5. TimeLineFinal - Meskwaki Settlement School

    www.msswarriors.org/history/.../TimeLineFinal.htm
    1737 French grant a general pardon to the Meskwaki thus ending the "Fox Wars." 1741 Russian navigators arrive in California, via Alaska and Aleutian Islands.

  6. 1701 – 1729: The Fox Wars

    www.msswarriors.org/history/.../Observations1701-1729.htm
    Meskwaki Anthology. A Collection of Observations Relating to the Meskwaki Tribe. 1701 – 1729: The Fox Wars. After years of a strained relationship between ...

  7. 1730 – 1734: Ending the Fox Wars

    www.msswarriors.org/history/.../Observations1730-1734.htm
    Meskwaki Anthology. A Collection of Observations Relating to the Meskwaki Tribe. 1730 – 1734: Ending the Fox Wars. The Meskwaki by 1730 were surrounded ...

  8. Facts for Kids: Sac and Fox Indians (Meskwaki-Sauk, Mesquakie)

    www.bigorrin.org/sf_kids.htm
    The Meskwaki and Sauk Indians were related to each other and spoke the ... However,the Fox tribe was nearly destroyed in a war with the French, and the ...

  9. Official Site of the Meskwaki Nation (Sac

    www.meskwaki.org/
    Hello Friend, we are pleased to welcome you to the official website of the Sac and FoxTribe of the Mississippi in Iowa/Meskwaki. Our Tribe is governed by a ...

  10. Native Americans: Sac and Fox History and Culture (Mesquakie-Sauk)

    www.native-languages.org › ... › What's newShare
    Last Meskwaki Code Talker Remembers: Article about the eight Meskwaki Indians who served as code-talkers in World War II. The Fox (Meskwaki) Wars: History ...




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