Page 235 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

EARLY HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. 231
Wisconsin, were the Chippewas, the chief or principal nation
of the Algonquin or Algic race. Their proper name is
Ojibewa. Their original location was Canada, over the entire
region of which they seem to have spread their cohorts, totems,
conquests and villages.
At what period they commenced to encroacli upon the terri-
tory of the Dahkotas, is not known to history: but it appears
to have been as early as the year 1600, of the Christian Era.
They traveled mostly in canoes, following the lakee, straits
and rivers, making portages when their course was obstructed
by falls, and across the intervening land betwcen lakes and
water-courses. They first crossed the Straits at St. Mary and
Mackinaw, and thence worked their way west and south, by
slow degrees, having to contend with the Sioux at evcry
advanced step. They worked their may to Green Bay, and
even south of it; and to La Pointe, and on to the 11ead.waters
of the St. Croix, Chippewa and Wisconsin rivers, prior to
1668, but were all driven back as far as St. Mary's in 1670,
and hence, as SHEA says: our north-eastern border, and north-
western Michigan, was the area of the first meeting of the
Algic and Dahkota races. Here clans of both these wide
spread families met and mingled at a very early period; hero
they first met in battle and mutually checked each other's
advance.
The smaller bands of the Algic race, whq were found in
the vicinity of Green Bay in 1639, and afterwards, must
have come by the same route, or by Mackinaw or the Pen-
insula of Michigan; of these I speak ihereafter. The chief
or principal Algic family, are the Ojibewas, commonly called
Chippewas, numerous bands of whom adhere or confederate
together, and constitute tho Chippewa nation. Each band
has its separate chief, totem, or sign of distinction, as other
large Indian races have. Strangers, travelers, and even tra-
ders, rnay be easily misled, or consider a band to be a sepa-
rate nation or tribe. This I conkeive to have been the cause
of so many different names as of distinct tribes, given by SIIEA,