Page 234 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

230 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.
In his list ve find the Foxes, Hurons, Illinois, Kickapoos,
Pottawottamies and Sauks, all of whom were evidently of the
Algonquin or Chippewa race, and appear to have been but
straggling colonies of that nation from Canada, and most of
whom spent no more time in what is now Wisconsin, than adven-
turers would who were figh'ting their way through the country of
the Sioux, with a view to conquer, if possible, and secure a home,
or, if not, to try their fortune somewhere else, as most of them
did.
The main habitations of the Sioux seem to have been on
the Mississippi river, nor did they extend their hunting and
dwelling far west of that river, until after the Chippewas drove
them from the vicinity of the Lakes. What is now the eastern
and northern part of Wisconsin, and upper Michigan, appears
to have been the common fighting gr'ound between the Dahkota
and Algonquin races, until the Sioux yielded the country, and
extended their domain westerly into the prairie plains.
The other names of tribes found in his list, except the Win-
nebagoes, viz: Ainoves, At~hatcha~kangouen, Kienouches, Kis-
kahons, Kitchigamick, Makoua, Makouone, &lascoutens, Mara-
meg, Mikissioua, Nantoue, Oharaouatenon, Ottowa Sinagos,
and Ouagoussak, fourteen of the twenty-six, appear to have
been the names of single villages, or nick-names, as no men-
tion is made of them, except in connections of doubtful
authority. But the account carries its own refutation upon its
face. The space of time mentioned is from 1639 to 1759-
one hundred and twenty years. The district of country de-
scribed is not more than one ,tribe usually occupies, and to
crowd twenty-six tribes into this space, in this time, amounts
to such an absurdity as to destroy its own validity or force.
The names were probably obtained from traders, or the false
maps and accounts they had published, by persons who were
traveling, and on the wing; and, therefore, not to be relied
up on.
Among the most prominent, and indeed, the second point of
importance of antiquity of the Indians found in what is now