Page 233 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

EARLY HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. 229

lest he should avail himself of the information and become a
rival in the trade. To these maps were attached the true
names, the nick-names being understood, and attached to the
falso maps.
It may be added that even the French Missionaries were a
politico-religious race. They operated under the protection
and patronage of the French government, and their researches
and discoveries were made for the double purpose of extending
their religion, and the power and dominion of the French gov-
ernment, and as the English were protestants, and of a rival
government, it was policy with them not to publish correct
mape, names, or accounts of the Aborigines, lest advantage
should be taken of them.
The discrepancies in dates may have occurred from errors in
copying, from bad writing or from policy. Under thcse cir-
cumstances, it is not at all surprising that SHEA and others
should be mislead, and that great confusion and uncertainty
should occur in the Indian history of the country. But what
ever may have been the reason, the dates given by SHEA, from
the Jesuits, and those given by CARVER and others are often
very conflicting and uncertain.
In SHEA'S account of the Indians of Wisconsin referred to
above, he gives the names of twenty-six tribes, all within the
space usually occupied by one band of a tribe, and all in the
immediate vicinity of Green Bay, and this for what is now the
#tare of Wisconsin! He does not name the Sioux who wcre
beyond doubt the original owners of the soil, nor tho Chippe-
was who are the next largest occupants, nor the Iowas who
were sometime floating through the country. But he includes
the Oneidas as among the occupants of the country prior to
the British conquest of Canada, which occurred in 1759;
while it is known that the Oneidas came from the State of
New York to this country in 1826, and though he has got the
Oneidas in his list, he has omitted the Brothcrto~vns and
Stockbridges, who came to the (now) State about the same
time.