Page 247 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

EARLY HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. 243

Chippewas, and were probably driven from Canada on account
of it, and took shelter with other straggling and adventurous
bands on the common battle-field between the Algic and Dah-
kota races, in the vicinity of Green Bay. They were prob-
ably among the earliest, if not the earliest of those bands, who
occupied that region, for their name, Menomonee or Wild Rice,
was the first name given to that Bay, according to CARVER.
They were first mentioned in the Jesuit Relations in 1669.
In 1718, they are reported to have numbered but eighty or one
hundred men. But learning wisdom from the sad effects of
their pugilistic history, they pursued a peaceable course with
their neighbours, who, in turn, child-like, let them alone; and
the Sioux having enough to do, to repel the encroachments of
the Chippewas on Lake Superior, left the Menomonees in
peaceable possession of their newly acquircd homes. As a
natural consequence, they greatly increased in numbers, and
their more war-like neighbors leaving the country, now too
much crowded for Indians, to try their fortunes in other or
more open fields, the hlenomonees were left in possession of a
large district of the now State of Wisconsin.
The Sioux, Chippewas, Winnebagoes, Sauks and Poxes,
and the Menomonees, appear to have been all the Indian tribes
who inhabited and claimed the territory now within the State,
since the whites came to the country, who were of any note or
became prominent by treaty stipulations. The Hurons, Iowas,
Illinois, Kickapoos, Miamies, Ottawas, and Pottawattamies,
appear to have had no permanent residence within the Terri-
tory. They were but straggling adventurers, passing through
the country, and fourteen of those represented as "the Indian
tribes of Wisconsin," appear to have been but other names, or
mere nicknames given to villages or small bands of those
tribes already mentioned.
The Wisconsin Indians, except the Sauks, and Poxes, and
the Winnebagoes, have not shed much white blood. A few of
them are said to have participated in BRADDOCK'S defeat; a