Freeborn County, Minnesota - Chapter 5: Nicholas Pekeot, Foundek of First Post on Lake Pepin, 1882

Chapter 5: Nicholas Pekeot, Foundek of First Post on Lake Pepin

£arly Life. - Searches for Topper. - Interpreter at Sault St. Marie, Employed Ijy La Salle. - Bmlds Stocl;ade at Lake Pepin. - Hostile Indians Relinked. - A Silver Ostensorium Given to a Jesuit Chapel. - Perrot in the Battle against Seneeas, in New York. - Second Visit to Sioux Country. - Taking Possession by "Proces Verbal." - Discovery of Lead Mines. - Attends Council at Montreal. - Establishes a Pbst near Detroit, in Michigan. - Perrot's Death, and his Wife.

Nicholas Perrot, sometimes written Pere, was one of the most energetic of the class in Canada known as " coureurs des bois," or forest rangers. Born in 1644, at an early age he was identified with the fur trade of the great inland lakes. As early as 1665, he was among the Outagamies [Foxes], and in 1667 was at Green Bay. In 1669, he was appointed by Talon to go to the lake region in search of copper mines. At the formal taking possession of that country in the name of the King of France, at Sault St. Marie, on the 14th of May, 1671, he acted as interpreter. In 1677, he seems to have been employed at Fort Froutenac. La Salle was made very sick the next year, from eating a salad, and one Nicholas Perrot, called Joly Coeur (Jolly Soul) was suspected of having mingled poison with the food. After this he was associated with Du Luth in the execution of two Indians, as we have seen. In 1684, he was appointed by De la Barre, the Governor of Canada, as Commandant for the West, and left Montreal with twenty men. Arriving at Green Bay in Wisconsin, some Indians told him that they had visited countries toward the sotting sun, where they obtained the blue and green stones suspended from their ears and nosts, and that they saw horses and men like Frenchmen, probably the Spaniards of New Mexico ; and otliers said that they had obtamed hatchets from persons who lived in a house that walked on the water, near the mouth of the river of the Assiniboines, alluding to the English established at Hudson's Bay. Proceeding to the portage between the Fox and Wisconsui, thirteen Ilurons were met, who were bitterly opposed to the establishment of a post near the Sioux. After the

Mississippi was reached, a party of Winnebagoes was employed to notify the tribes of Northern Iowa that the French had ascended the river, and wished to meet them. It was further agreed that prairie fires would be kindled from time to time, so that the Indians could follow the French.

After entering Lake Pepin, near its mouth, on the east side, Perrot foimd a place suitable for a post, where there was wood. The stockade was built at the foot of a bluff beyond which was a large prairie. La Potherie makes this statement, which is repeated by Penicaut, who writes of Lake Pepin : " To the right and left of its shores there are also prairies. In that on the right on the bank of the lake, there is a fort, which was built by Nicholas Perrot, whose name it yet [1700] bears."

Soon after he was established, it was announced that a band of Aiouez [loways] was encamped above, and on the way to visit the post. The French ascended in canoes to meet them, but as they drew nigh, the Indian women ran up the bluffs, and hid in the woods ; but twenty of the braves mustered courage to advance and greet Perrot, and bore him to the chief's lodge. The chief, bending over Perrot, began to weep, and allowed the moisture to fall upon his visitor. After he had exhausted himself, the principal men of the party repeated the slabbering process. Then buffalo tongues were boiled in an earthen pot, and after being cut into small pieces, the chief took a piece, and, as a mark of respect, placed it in Perrot's mouth.

At the end of the beaver hunt, the Ayoes [loways] came to the post, but Perrot was absent visiting the Nadouaissioux. and they sent a chief to notify him of their arrival. Four Illinois met him on the way, and were anxious for the return of four children held by the French. When the

Explorebs And Pioneers Of Minnesota

Sioux, who were at war with tlie Illinois, perceived them, they wislied to seize their canoes, but the Frendi voyageurs who were guarding them, pushed into the middle of the river, and the French at the post coming to their assistance, a reconciliation was effected, and four of the Sioux took the Illinois upon their shoulders, and bore them to the shore.

An order having been received from Denonville. Governor of Canada, to bring the JSIiamis, and other tribes, to the rendezvous at Niagara, to go on an expedition against the Senecas, Perrot entrusting the post at Lake Pei)in to a few Frenchmen, visited the Miamis, who were dwelling below on the Mississippi, and with no guide but Indian camp fires, went sixty miles into the country beyond the river.

Upon his return, he perceiveci a great smoke, and at first thought that it was a war party proceeding to the Sioux country. Fortunately he met a Maskouten chief, who had been at the post to sec him, and he gave the intelligence, that the Outagamies [Foxes], Kikapous [Kickapoos], and Mascoutechs [Maskoutens], and others, from the region of Green Bay, had determined to pillage the post, kill the French, and then go to war against the Sioux. Hurrying on, he reached the fort, and learned that on that very day three spies had been there and seen that there were only SIX Frenchmen in charge. '

The next day two more spies appeared, but Perrot had taken the precaution to put loaded guns at the door of each hut, and caused his men frequently to change their clothes. To the query, " How m<any French were there?" the reply was given, " Forty, and that more w-ere daily expected, who had been on a buffalo hunt, and that the gims were well loaded and knives well shaqseued/' They were then told to go back to their camp and bring a chief of each nation represented, and that it Indians, in large numbers, came near, they would be fired at. In accordance with this message six chiefs presented themselves. After their bows and arrows were taken away they were invited to Perrot's cabin, who gave something to eat and tobacco to smoke. Looking at Perrot's loaded guns they asked, '-If he was afraid of his childrenV" He replied, he was not. They continued, " You are disjileased." lie answered, " I have good reason to be. The Spirit has warned me of your designs; you wiU take my thmgs away and put me in tlie kettle, and proceed against the Nadouiiissioux, The Spirit told me to be on ray guard, and he would help me." At this they were astonished, and confessed that an attack was meditated. That night the chiefs slei)t in the stockade, and early the next morning a part of the liostile force was encamped in the vicinity, and wished to trade. Perrot had now only a force of fifteen men, and seizing the chiefs, he told them he would break their heads if they did not disperse the Indians. One of the chiefs then stood up on the gate of the fort and said to the warriors, " Do not advance, young men, or you are dead. The Spirit has warned Metaminens [PerrotJ of your designs." They followed the advice, and afterwards Perrot presented them with two guns, two kettles, and some tobacco, to close the door of war against the Nadouaissioux, and the chiefs were all permitted to make a brief visit to the i)Ost.

Ileturning to Green Hay in 1686, he passed much time in collecting allies for the expedition against the Iroquois in New York. During this year he gave to the Jesuit cliai)el at Depere, five miles above Green Bay, a church utensil of silver, fifteen inches high, still in existence. The standard, nine inches in height, supports a radiated circlet closed with glass on both sides and surmoinited with a cross. This vessel, weighing about twenty ounces, was hitended to show the consecrated wafer of tlie mass, and is called a soleil, monstrance, or ostensorium.

During the spring of 1687 Perrot, with De Liith and Tonty, was with the Indian allies and the French in the expedition against the Senecas of the Genessee Valley in New York.

The next year Denonville, Governor of Canada, agaui sent Perrot with forty Frenchmen to the Sioux who, says Potherie, " were very distant, and who would not trade with us as easily as the other tribes, the Outagamis [Foxes] having boasted of having cut off the passage thereto."

When Perrot arrived at Mackinaw, the tribes of that region were much excited at the hostility of tlie Outagamis [Foxes] toward the Sauteurs [Chippeways]. As soon as Perrot and his party reached Green Bay a deputation of the Foxes sought an interview. lie told them that he had nothing to do with this quarrel with the Chippeways. In justification, they said that a party of tlieir young men, in going to war against the Nadouaissioux, had found a young man and three Chippeway girls.

Perrot was silent, and continued his journey towards the Nadouaissioux. Soon he wns met by five chiefs of the Foxes in a canoe, who begged him to go to their village. Perrot consented, and when he went into a chief's lodge they placed before him broiled venison, and raw meat for the rest of the French. He refused to eat because, said he, "that meat did not give him any spirit, but he would take some when the Outagamis [Foxes] were more reasonable."' He then chided tliem for not havmg gone, as requested by the Governor of Canada, to the Detroit of Lake Erie, and during the absence of the French fighting with the Chippeways. Having ordered them to go on their beaver hunt and only fight against the Iroquois, he left a few Frenchmen to trade and proceeded on his journey to the Sioux country. Arriving at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers they were impeded by ice, but with the aid of some Pottawattomies they transported their goods to the Wisconsin, which they found no longer frozen. Tlie Chippeways were informed that their daughters had been taken from the Foxes, and a deputation came to take them back, but being attacked by the Foxes, who did not know their errand, they fled without securing the three girls. Perrot then ascended the

As soon as the rivers were navigable, the Nadouaissioux came down and escorted Perrot to one of their villages, where he was welcomed with much enthusiasm. He was carried upon a beaver robe, followed by a long line of warriors, each bearhig a pipe, and singing. After taking liim around the village, he was borne to the chief's lodge, when several came in to weep over his head, with the same tenderness that the Ayoes (loways) did, when Perrot several years before arrived at Lake Pepin. " These weepings," says an old chronicler " do not weaken their souls. They are very good warriors, and reported the bravest in that region. They are at war with all tlie tribes at present except the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and Ayoes [loways], and even with these they have quarrels. At the break of day the Nadouaissioux bathe, even to the youngest. They have very fine forms, but the women are not comely, and they look upon them as slaves. They are jealous and suspicious about them, and they are the cause of quarrels and blood-shedding.

" The Sioux are very dextrous with their canoes, and they fight unto death if surrounded. Their country is full of swamps, which shelter them in summer from being molested. One must be a Nadouaissioux, to find the way to their villages."

While Perrot was absent in New York, fighting the Senecas, a Sioux chief knowing that few Frenchmen were left at Lake Pepin, came with one hundred warriors, and endeavored to pillage it. Of this complaint was made, and the guilty leader was near being put to death by his associates. Amicable relations having been formed, preparations were made by Perrot to return to liis post. As they were going away, one of the Frenchmen complained that a box of his goods had been stolen. Perrot ordered a voyageur to bring a cup of water, and into it he poured some brandy. He then addressed the Indians ajid told them he would dry up their marshes if the goods were not restored ; and then he set on fire the brandy in tlie cup. The savages were astonislied and terrified, and supposed that he possessed supernatural powers ; and in aUttle "-'^'lethe goods

Explobebs And Pioneers Of Minnesota

The Poxes, while rerrot was in the Sioux country, clianged their village, and settled on the Mississippi. Coming up to visit Perrot, they asked him to establish friendly relations between tliem and the Sioux. At the time some Sioux were at the post trading furs, and at first they supposed the French were plotting w^th the Foxes. Perrot, however, eased them by presenting the cahunet and saying that the Preuch considered the Outagamis [Foxes] as brothers, and then adding: "Smoke in my pipe; this is the maimer with which Onontio ((iovenior of Canada] feeds his children." The Sioux replied that they wished the Foxes to smoke first. This was reluctantly done, and the Sioux smoked, but would not conclude a definite peace until they consulted their chiefs. This was not concluded, because Perrot, before the chiefs came down, received orders to return to Canada.

About this time, in the presence of Father Joseph James Marest, a Jesuit missionary, Boisguillot, a trader on the Wisconsin and Mississippi. I>e Sueur, who afterward built a post below tlie Saint Croix lliver, about nine miles from Hastings, the following document was prepared:

" Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King at the post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by the Marquis Denonville, Governor and Lieutenant Governor of all New France, to manage the interests of commerce among all the Indian tribes and people of the Bay des Puants [Green Bay], Nadouessioux, Mascoutens, and other western nations of the Upper Mississijipi, and to take possession in the King's name of all the places where he has heretofore been and whither he will go:

" We this day, the eighth of May, one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the presence of the Reverend Father Marest, of the Society of Jesus, Missionary among the Nadouessioux, of Monsieur de BoisguUlot, commanding the French in the neighborliood of the Ouiskonclie, on the Mississippi, Augiistin Legardeur, Esquire, Sieur de Caumont, and of Messieurs Le Sueur, Hebert, Lemire and Blein.

" Declare to all whom it may concern, that, being come from the Bay des Puants, and to the Lake of the Ouiskonches, we did transport ourselves to the country of the Nadouessioux, on the border of the river St. Croix, and at the mouth of the river St. Pierre, on the bank of which were the Mantantans, and furtlier up to the interior, as far as the Menchokatonx [Med-ay-wah-kawntwawn], with whom dwell the majority of the Songeskitons [Se-see-twawns] and otlier Nadouessioux who are to the northwest of the Mississippi, to tiike possession, for and in the name of the King, of tlie countries and rivers inliabited by the said tribes, and of which they are prcijirietors. The present act done jn our presence, signed with our hand, and subscribed."

The three Cliipiieway girls of whom mention has been made were still with tlie I'oxes, and Perrot took them with him to ^Mackinaw, upon his return to Canada.

AVhile there, the Ottawas held some prisoners upon an island not far from the mainland. Tlie Jesuit Fathers went over and tried to save the captives from harsh treatment, but were misuccessful. The canoes appeared at length near each other, one man paddling in each, while the warriors were answering the shouts of the prisoners, who each held a white stick in his hand. As they neared the shore the chief of the party made a speech to the Indians wiio lived on the shore, and giving a history of the campaign, told them that they were masters of the jirisoners. The warriors then came on land, and, according to custom, abandoned the spoils. An old man then ordered nine men to conduct the prisoners to a separate place. The women and the young men formed a line with big sticks. The young prisoners soon found their feet, but the old men were so badly used they spat blood, and they were condemned to be burned at the ilamilion.

The Jesuit Fathers and the French officers were much embarrassed, and feared that the Iroquois would complain of the little care which had been used to prevent cruelty.

Perrot, in this emergency, walked to the place where the prisoners were singing the death dirge, in expectation of being l)unied, and told them to sit ilown and be silent. A few Ottauwaws rudely told them to sing on, but Perrot forbade. He then went back to the Council, where the old men had rendered judgment, and ordered one prisoner to be burned at Mackinaw, one at Saiilt St. Marie and another at Green Bay. Undaunted he spoke as follows : " I come to cut the strings of the

(logs. I will not suffer them to be eaten - I have pity on them, since my Father, Onontio, has commanded me. You Outaouaks [Ottavraws] are like tame bears, who will not recognize them who lias brouglit them up. You have foi^otten Onontio's protection. When he asks your obedience, you want to rule over him, and eat the flesh of those children he does not wish to give to you. Take care, that, if oyu swallow them, Onontio will tear them with violence from between your teeth. I speak as a brother, and I think I am showing pity to your children, by cuttmg the bonds of your prisoners."

His boldness had the desired effect. The prisoners were released, and two of them were sent witli him to Montreal, to be retimied to the Iroquois.

On the 22nd of May, 1690, with one hundred and forty-three voyageurs and six Indians, Ferret left Montreal as an escort of Sieur de Louvigny La Porte, a half-pay captain, appointed to succeed Durantaye at Mackinaw, l)y Frontenac, the new Governor of Canada, who in October of the previous year had arrived, to take the place of Denonville.

Perrot, as he approached Mackinaw, went in advance to notify the French of the coming of the commander of the post. As he came in sight of the settlement, he hoisted the white flag with the fleur de lis and the voyageurs shouted, " Long live the king! " Louvigny soon appeared and was received by one hundred " coureur des bois " mider arms.

From Mackinaw, Perrot proceeded to Green Bay, and a party of Miamis there begged him to make a trading establishment on the Mississippi towards the Ouiskonsing ( Wisconsin. ) The chief made him a present of a piece of lead from a muie which he had found in a small stream which flows into the Mississippi. Perrot promised to visit him within twenty days, and the chief then returned to his village below the d'Ouiskonche (iWsconsin) Eiver.

Having at length reached his post on Lake Pepin, he was informed that the Sioux were forming a large war party against the Outagamis (Foxes) and other allies of the French. He gave notice of his arrival to a party of a))out four hundred Sioux who were on the Mississippi.

They arrested the massengers and came to the post for the purpose of plunder. Perrot asked them why they acted in this manner, and said that the Foxes, Miamis, Kickapoos, Illinois, and Maskoutens had united in a war party against them, but that he had persuaded them to give it up, and now he wished them to return to their families and to their beaver. The Sioux declared that they had started on the war-path, and that they were ready to die. After they had traded their furs, they sent for Perrot to come to their camp, and begged that he would not hinder them from searching for their foes. Perrot tried to dissuade them, but they insisted that the Spirit had given them men to eat, at three days' journey from the post Then more powerful influences were used. After giving them two kettles and some merchandise, Poerrt spoke thus: " I love your life, and I am sure you will be defeated. Your Evil Spirit has deceived you. If you kill the Outagamis, or their allies, you must strike me first; if you kill them, you kill me just tlie same, for I hold them luider one wing and you under the other." After this he extended the calumet, which they at first refused; but at length a chief said he was right, and, making invocations to the sun, wished Perrot to take him back to his arms. This was granted, on condition that he would give up his weapons of war. The chief then tied them to a pole in the centre of the fort, turning them toward the sun. He then persuaded the other chiefs to give up the expedition, and, sending for Perrot, he placed the calumet before him, one end in the earth aud the other on a small forked twig to hold it firm. Then he took from his own sack a pair of his cleanest moccasins, and taking off Ferret's shoes, put on these. After he had made him eat, presenting the calumet, he said: " We listen to you now. Do for us as you do for our enemies, and prevent them from killing us, and we will separate for the beaver hunt. The sun is the witness of our obedience."

After this, Perrot descended the Mississippi and revealed to the Maskoutens, who had come to meet him, how he had pacified the Sionx. He, about this period, in accordance with his promise, visited the lead mines. He found the ore abundant " but the lead hard to work because it lay between rocks which required Ijlowing up. It had very little dross and was easily melted."

Explobebs And Pioaeebs Of Minnesota

Pemcaut, who ascended the Mississippi in 1700, wrote that twenty leagues below the "Wisconsin, on both sides of the Mississippi, were mines of lead called '- Nicolas Perrofs." Early French maps indicate as the locality of lead mines the site of modem towns. Galena, in Illinois, and Dubuque, In Iowa.

In August, 1693, about two hundred Frenchmen from Mackinaw, with delegates from the tribes of the AVest, arrived at Montreal to attend a grand council called by Governor Frontenac, and among these was Perrot.

gave the Indians a great feast, after which thej and the traders began to return to the wilderness. Perrot was ordered by Frontenac to establish a new post for tlie !Miamis in ilichigan, in the neigliBbrhood of the Kalamazoo River.

Two years later he is present again, in August, at a council in Montreal, then returned to the West, and in 1699 is recalled from (Jreen Hay. In 1701 he was at Montreal acting as interpreter, and appears to have died before 1718: his wife was Madeline Raclos, and his residence was in the Seigneury of Becancourt, not far from Three Rivers, on the St. Lawrence.