In Volume Seven of the _American Nation_ Mr. Thwaites states
(page 52) that Lake Superior was discovered in 1616. All
other secondary accounts give 1629. Can you tell me whether
or not the date 1616 is a misprint? If not where can I get
the information about its discovery?
E. G. DOUDNA,
_Eau Claire, Wisconsin_.
The dates of the discoveries of the several great lakes are not
definitely known, and there is no uniformity of statement concerning
their first exploration. Dr. Thwaites’s works reflect this
uncertainty. In the _American Nation_ volume to which you refer he was
inclined to accept the theory of Etienne Brulé’s exploration of Lake
Superior, and thought it might have occurred after his journey to the
Susquehanna in 1615, and before his return in 1618 to Quebec.
Therefore he gives the date as 1616. In his _Wisconsin_, published in
1908, he appears to have rejected the theory of Brulé’s explorations,
and states that Jean Nicolet in 1634 was probably the discoverer of
Lake Superior. In his school _History of the United States_ (Boston,
1912) he shows his doubt by giving “about 1629” as the date of the
discovery. Not all secondary accounts give the date as 1629. Our own
opinion is that there is no authority for this date, and that it
arises from a misinterpretation of Edward J. Neill’s statement in
Justin Winsor’s _Narrative and Critical History of America_, IV, 165.
One of the latest histories of the Great Lakes (Channing and Lansing’s
_The Story of the Great Lakes_, New York, 1909) gives no date for the
discovery of Lake Superior, but assigns 1610 to the first white man’s
voyage on Lake Huron, five years earlier than the traditional one of
1615 for Champlain’s first voyage. The whole matter turns on the
career of Etienne Brulé, one of the youths selected by Champlain to
reside among the Indians and learn their language. His adventures were
first discussed in detail in C. W. Butterfield’s, _Brulé’s
Explorations and Discoveries_ (Cleveland, 1898). A more recent
discussion in French, by the eminent Canadian authority Benjamin
Sulte, appeared in the Canadian Royal Society _Proceedings and
Transactions_, 3d series, vol. 1, section 1, 97-125. Butterfield and
Sulte substantially agree, and both consider that Etienne Brulé with a
companion named Grenolle probably visited Lake Superior and explored
it in 1622-23. The evidence is somewhat circumstantial, and the point
may never be determined; but Champlain must have had some information,
aside from that furnished by the Indians, for upon his map of 1632
appears the outline of Lake Superior entering Lake Huron by the “Sault
de Gaston,” as he calls the present Sault Ste. Marie. If one rejects
the evidence of Brulé’s voyage, which rests upon inference chiefly,
the date 1629 is the last one in which Champlain could have obtained
his information for his map published in 1632, since he was deported
by English conquerors from his colony in the former year, and did not
return until 1633.
Next to Brulé must be placed Jean Nicolet, who visited the Sault in
1634; whether he ascended the strait to the lake itself is
conjectural. Then in 1641 came the great gathering of Indians attended
by the Jesuit fathers, Jogues and Raymbault. (See L. P. Kellogg’s
_Early Narratives of the Northwest_, New York, 1917, 19-25). The first
description of Lake Superior is given by Pierre Esprit Radisson in his
_Journal_. The probable date of his voyage thereon is 1661, but Father
René Ménard arrived at Keweenaw Bay in the autumn of 1660.
It appears probable that the date of the discovery of Lake Superior
cannot be determined with accuracy, and must remain uncertain unless
scholars accept the conclusions of Butterfield and Sulte concerning
Brulé. The same is true of the discovery of the upper Mississippi; it
has been claimed for Nicolet in 1634, for Radisson in 1659, for La
Salle in 1669, all antedating the voyage of Jolliet and Marquette in
1673. The truth is that from the beginning of French settlement on the
St. Lawrence there was much roving to the sources of the great river.
Many of these coureurs des bois were brave and courageous explorers,
but they kept no records. It is thus dogmatic to say that the visit of
the first white man to any given point occurred on such or such a
date. We can only say when the first records were made describing such
an event. The records for the voyage of Brulé and Grenolle in 1622
have not yet been universally accepted.
THE POTAWATOMI DURING THE REVOLUTION: FATHER ALLOUEZ AMONG THE
KICKAPOO
I am sending you some more letters from Quitos. In one of
these letters he refers to War Chief Thunder fighting with
George Washington against the Canadians. I would like to
find out what fight that was. Can you tell me?
I would also like to find out whether Fathers Dablon and
Claude Allouez visited the Kickapoo Indians on Milwaukee
River in 1670 a few years before Jolliet and Marquette
discovered the Mississippi. I have seen something to this
effect somewhere.
A. GEREND,
_Cato, Wisconsin_.
It is an interesting fact that the Potawatomi of the west shore of
Lake Michigan, notably those of Milwaukee, and probably those farther
north, under the influence of Siggenauk or the Blackbird made a treaty
at Cahokia, Illinois, with George Rogers Clark in September, 1778, and
were thereafter for a time American allies. There was no actual
service under Gen. George Washington, but the chiefs probably received
medals or certificates in his name, and thus considered themselves
fighting under his care. The Potawatomi returned to the British
allegiance later, and opposed the Americans during all of the Indian
wars. If our surmise of what Quitos means about Old Thunder is
correct, it is a remarkable instance of the persistence of tradition
concerning an American alliance, and a corroboration of Col. George
Rogers Clark’s testimony about the attitude of the Milwaukee
Potawatomi. Clark calls the two chiefs Saguina or “Mr. Black Bird and
Nakiowin, two chiefs of the Bands of the sotairs [Chippewa] and
Outaway Nation bordering on Lake Michigan and the River St. Joseph.”
De Peyster, the British commandant at Mackinac, speaks in his poem or
rhymed chronicle of 1779 of “Those runagates at Milwakie” and calls
them in a footnote “A horrid set of refractory Indians.” Thus in the
Revolution, while most of the Wisconsin Indians were strong British
supporters, the mixed band of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi west of
Lake Michigan were American sympathizers.
With regard to your second question: There is no record in the _Jesuit
Relations_ of any visit of Allouez and Dablon to Milwaukee in 1670.
Such a statement was made before Dr. Thwaites’s edition of the _Jesuit
Relations_ appeared. Upon the publication in English of the exact text
of the _Relations_ it was seen that Allouez visited the Kickapoo in
1670 (not accompanied by Dablon) at their village four leagues (about
fifteen miles) from the Mascouten village which was near the site of
the modern Berlin, on the upper Fox River. Thus it was impossible for
the Kickapoo village to have been at Milwaukee. It is quite probable
that Perrot and other traders may have been at Milwaukee and along the
shore of Lake Michigan before Jolliet and Marquette, but there is no
recorded voyage before theirs.