Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read), 1880

I lulian Tribes - Divisioii.s ami I'oimlaliiin - LocalKin nf ihc Various Nations - Green Hay and the Lake Winnebago aiid Kox River Country the Centers of Large Indian Populations - The Bellitjerent Iroi|Uois.

HE whole Indian population in all the territory l)'ing between the Mississippi and the Atlantic did not exceed two hundred thousand, and this was so scattered that vast solitudes intervened between the little tracts which were occupied by the villages of the several tribes.

The great body of the country was an uninhabited wilderness, with an occasional Indian settlement. The traveler, at that day, passing from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, on the south side of the river, to Lake Ontario, would find the country, for nearly the whole distance, an uninhabiteil district. On the north side, he would tra\'el hundreds of miles without meeting a human being. At last he would reach the huts of Taddousac, and after leaving them would again pass through the long, dreary solitude between that point and Stadicone - the site of Ouebec - where evidences of Indian population would again begin to appear; from there to the mouth of the Ottawa, no inhabitants were to be found, other than temporary sojourners - the deadly Iroquois, lurking in the dark recesses of the forest, or a hunting party of Algonquins ; but if it were the season of the periodical descent of the Ottawas and Hurons, with their yearly harvest of furs, he would see the St. Lawrence covered with fleets of canoes, to enliven tlie scene for a few days, when, disappearing as suddenly as they came, the place would relapse into a solitude. Proceeding up the Ottawa he would trax'erse hundreds of miles, through an uninhabited region, until he reached the \'illages arid planting grounds of the Ottawas; from thence, passing through a vast wilderness, to the Lake of the Nippissings, another Indian settlement would be met. From this point, down French River and southward, for over a hundred miles, along the shore of Lake Huron, no inhabitants were to be found until reaching the pleasant country of the Hurons. Skirting the shores of .Lake Huron, northward to the shores of Lake Superior, he would find a desolate, uninhabited waste. From that point, in a southwesterly direction to the Mississippi, traveling through a portion of what is now the State of Wisconsin, he would find only occasional roving bands of the Chippewas, contesting with the Sioux of the Mississippi for the possession of the south shore of Lake Superior - the ancient hunting-ground of the Dacotahs. On the Mississippi he would find the lodges of the Dacotahs or Siou.x; and stretching from there, away toward the Cordilleras, the vast, uninhabited plains or hunting-grounds of these tribes.

If, half a century later, after the marauding Iroquois had routed the Hurons, Ottawas and other Algonquin tribes from their ancient planting-grounds and council-fires in the East, he were to retrace his steps, he would pass over the historical ground of the Northwest - the soil of Wisconsin - the great battle-field in the long contest between the Dacotahs of the Mississippi, and the Algonquins of the East - where these two great divisions of the Indian family fought for the possession of the rich hunting grounds of Central and Northern Wisconsin; and he would find Michilimackinac, Green Bay and the Lake Winnebago and'' Fox River country the centers of large Indian populations, who had posessed themselves of new homes in the West, and who eventually drove the Sioux across the Mississippi.

The French soon learned that the Indians were divided into four or five great families, each containing many tribes which were again subdivided into bands. The most numerous division was the great Algonquin family, inhabiting what is now the greater part of Canada and the Eastern and Middle States - Illinois,

Indiana, Ohio and Virginia, and e\entually Wisconsin and Michigan; the Iroquois, a confederacy of five nations, occupying the territory now the State of New York, their \'illages and planting grounds being on the shores of the lakes which now perpetuate their names; the Hurons, an alienated branch of the Iroquois family, occupying the peninsula between Lake Huron and Lakes Erie and Ontario; the Dacotahs, of the Mississippi and the plains beyond; and the Mobilians and a few lesser divisions in the South.

Their general habits, customs and mode of life were similar, yet varj-ing in a greater or lesser degree. The whole country was one great battle-ground, and the long, intestine strife which, from time immemorial, was waged with implacable fury between the several divisions, resulted frequently in the extermination of tribes - sometimes of nations - and the relapse of a settled district into a wilderness. The ravages of war, pestilence and famine frequently decimated a populous nation to a mere remnant, to be absorbed b)' some more fortunate one. Tribes appeared and disappeared, changing locations - some in the process of extermination, others developing new strength and extending their dominion.

Of this latter class were the Iroquois, a powerful confederacy of five nations, and which at the time of the arrival of the French were waging a relentless war on the Algonquins and the Hurons. Their location gave them the control of the head of the St. Lawrence and tiie south shore of Lake Ontario, and consequently cut off all communication between that river and the lakes. They lived in fortified villages which were surrounded with rows of palisades twenty to thirty feet high. Champlain describes them very minutely. Three or four rows of trunks of trees, set slanting from the earth upward, intersected each other near the top; at this intersection was constructed a gallery, with breastworks and wooden gutters for holding water which could be expeditiously discharged on the palisades in the event of their being set on fire. The galleries contained magazines of stones, to be hurled at assailants, and the villages were supplied with water by sluices running from the lakes. The countr)- of this community was liighly fertile, and they cultivated large fields of maize. Their huntingground was a large district bordering the St. Lawrence, and eastward and southward to Lake Champlain and the western slopes of the Alleghanies. Their location and resources were most favorable for peace or war, and they made a most industrious use of their opportunities. Their war-parties in large numbers ravaged the country in all directions, spreading carnage and desolation from the Illinois to the land of their kinsmen, the Hurons and the Ottawas. They were the terror of the American wilds, and kept the whole country in constant alarm.

The tribes north of the St. Lawrence were chiefly nomads, wandering from place to place in that rough district, and subsisting principally by the chase.

The Hurons, in their delightful country, were more of an agricultural people, and lived, like their kinsmen, the Iroquois, in fortified villages, with adjacent planting-grounds in which they cultivated fields of maize and squash. They numbered from fifteen to twenty thousand.

The Ottawas were their neighbors and friends; but, living in a country better adapted to hunting and trapping, depended more largely on those pursuits for a means of subsistence.

Champlain effected an alliance with the two latter nations, and, with them for guides and assistants, was now ready to make those explorations which first made the civilized world acquainted with the geography and resources of the interior of the continent.