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Voyagers at Fort William, 1860

Nine men arrive at Fort William by canoe. Fort William, also called Kaministiguia, was the Hudson's Bay fur trading post. View the original source document: WHI 3955

In the 17th century, the Iroquois lived on a strip streching from Canada down the western edge of the Great Lakes, both sides of the Allegheny mountains, through Virginia and Kentucky and into the Ohio Valley. Competition over furs for European traders led to the Iroquois Wars of the mid-17th century. The Iroquois invaded areas of modern-day Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Ontario to secure furs. These attacks drove many Indian nations west to Wisconsin, which dramatically changed the lives of Wisconsin's existing Indian inhabitants.

European Competition for Furs

Within a generation of Columbus, the French had penetrated the St. Lawrence River and pointed their ships toward the interior of the North American continent. By 1630, they had built settlements at Quebec and Montreal. From there, the French could easily communicate and trade with the Huron, Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians around the Great Lakes.

While the French were building their settlements, the English and Dutch established New England and New York, and arranged trade with a different group of Indians — the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy — via the Hudson River.

In the 1640s, the Dutch demand for furs prompted the Iroquois to invade the rich fur-supplying territories to their north and west. The Iroquois also sought to subdue the Indians allied with the French. These attacks became known as the "Iroquois Wars" of the mid-17th century.

The Iroquois Attack

A Jesuit priest reported at the time that "in their method of warfare the Iroquois are so stealthy in their approach, so swift in their execution, and so expeditious in their retreat, that one commonly learns of their departure before gaining any knowledge of their arrival. They come like foxes through the woods, which afford them concealment and serve them as an impregnable fortress. They attack like lions, and, as their surprises are made when they are least expected, they meet with no resistance. They take flight like birds, disappearing before they have really appeared." (Jesuit Relations 45:193-195).

Because of the Iroquois invasion, nations friendly to the French were afraid to carry furs from the Great Lakes downriver to Montreal. In the words of a French observer, the Iroquois war "thwarts all our pleasures, and is the sole affliction of New France, which is in danger of becoming utterly devastated."

Indians Flee West

Many Indian nations living in modern Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Ontario fled for refuge into remote parts of the West such as Wisconsin. These groups included the Sauk, Fox, Potawatomi, Mascouten, Kickapoo, Ottawa, Miami, Huron, Petun (Tobacco) and Neutral Iroquois. But the powerful Sioux nations blocked their flight across the Mississippi River. As a result, most of these refugees took up territory in Wisconsin and Illinois.

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Portrait of Hodjiage-De, 1901

Portrait of Hodjiage-De "Fish Carrier" or "He Bears A Fish by The Forehead Strap" called William Henry Fishcarrier, in native dress with headdress and ornaments and Tomahawk holding pipe. Member of Iroquoian and Cayuga Tribes. Washington, D.C. View the original source document: WHI 27491

Competition for Western Resources

The arrival of new Indian nations strained the resources available to Wisconsin's original inhabitants: the Menominee, Ho-Chunk and Ojibwe, who had come to Wisconsin 150 years earlier. Competition for food and furs caused frequent combat and shifting alliances among the tribes. From roughly 1640–1690 the traditional cultures of all these Indian nations were transformed by war, disease, European tools and the need to trap more animals to obtain trade goods such as metal utensils.

Although the French military temporarily restrained the Iroquois in the 1660s, the warfare continued for several decades. By the time it ended, Wisconsin was filled with new Indian nations competing for homelands with one another, the Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Ojibwe and Sioux. They had all become dependent on French traders for now-crucial technology such as firearms and ammunition.

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[Sources: Wyman, Mark. The Wisconsin Frontier (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1998). Kellogg, Louise Phelps. The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1925). The History of Wisconsin: volume 1, From Exploration to Statehood by Alice E. Smith. (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973)]