METIS CULTURE 1665-1669



The French bachelors are denied fishing, hunting and trapping rights
thereby forcing many young men to become Coureurs des Bois.


  10/23/2011

METIS HISTORY 1670-1684

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The French Coureurs des Bois create the Hudson Bay Company


1665  

(I)-Nicholas Perrot (Pere) dit Turbal aka Joly Coeur (Jolly Soul) (1644-1718), a freeman (Coureurs des Bois), is reported among the Outagamies (Foxes) and Potawatomis (Pouteouatamis or Ojibwa), trading Baie des Puants (Green Bay, Wisconsin).  It is believed he only arrived around this time from France.

(I)-Francois Marie Perrot (1644-1691) arrived at New France in 1660 as a servant of the Jesuit.  It would appear that he likely traveled into the Illinois Country and south west of Lac Svpeperievr (Lake Superior).  It is important to remember that about this time, Lake Michigan was called Lac Des Ilinois.   He would return to work with the Jesuits to about 1680's.

One hundred canoes, laden with Ojibwa and peltries, arrived Montreal from Lac Svpeperievr (Lake Superior).  About 100 canoes of Outaouax (Ojibwa) arrived from Lake Superior at Three Rivers to trade their furs.  A Frenchman who traveled with them reported they had 100,000 fighting men.  They had more than 100 villages.  He is likely referring to the whole region from the Iroquois in the east to the Nadouessioux (Dakota) to the west, south to the Illinois and north to the Bay of the north.  These Nations visit to trade with the Ojibwa of Lake Superior at both Sault Ste Marie and La Pointe.  It is not known if this un-named Frenchmen (Coureurs des Bois) explored these regions or is reporting from second hand information.

(II)-Pierre Esprit Chouart dit Radisson, Metis (1636-1710) and Medard Chouart des Groseillier (1618-1696), being completely frustrated by the Catholic French and the Jesuits, arrived in London during the great plague.  They went to Oxford to negotiate a voyage to Hudson Bay for trading purposes.  The bubonic plague devastated London, and carts collected the daily dead.

Fort St. Frederic, New York is built by the French.

The New York Colony instituted the Duke's Laws of 1665. Under these laws, offenses such as striking one's mother or father, or denying the "true God," were punishable by death.

August 6:   Trois Rivieres, Quebec, death (II)-Pierre Couc dit Lafleur, Metis, (see April 5, 1690?) son (I)-Pierre Couc dit Lafleur born 1624 and Marie Mite8ameg8k8e born 1631 died January 8, 1699 Trois Rivers, Quebec, a Algonquine.

August 8:   Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) departed Three Rivers with six fur traders and four hundred Savages (probably Huron) bound for Chequamegon (La Pointe, Lake Superior) .  A considerable number of Natives left the party by the time they reached the Sault and probably very few if any went all the way to Chequamegon (La Pointe).  Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) visited in Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin an Ojibwa (Ottawa) village at Fish Creek, south of present day Bayfield, that contained some 800 fighting men or 2,000 people.  Four miles north at Bono's Creek is a Wendat camp, also some Potawatomi, Sauk, Illini, Fox (Ojibwa) and Cree.  Some of the latter are likely traveling traders.  Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689), the Jesuit, wintered this year at Pointe du Saint Esprit.  Some credit Father Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) with establishing Saint Esprit on the southwestern shore of Chagouamigon, Bay Lac Svpeperievr (Lake Superior).  This is not far from the spot where (II)-Pierre Esprit Chouart dit Radisson, Metis's (1636-1710) hut of 1660 is located.  La Pointe du Saint Esprit is later shortened to La Pointe.  It is noteworthy that Father Rene Menard (1605-1661) had preceded Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) to this location.  Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) noted the Queues Coupees (Kiskakon, a clan of Ottawa's or Ojibwa) are most populous, peaceful and an enemy to warfare.  This contradicts the long held Jesuit opinion that the Ojibwa and Dakota Sioux are continuously at war.  Many Ojibwa have Dakota Sioux as wives and visa versa.  He stayed among the Ojibwa for two or three years without making a single convert.  He claimed to have converted some displaced Wendat (Huron), others suggest this is not true.  Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) is credited with first recording the name of the Great river Mississippi.  

The Ojibwa tradition claims many Europeans had previously visited La Pointe, many years before the visit of the Black Robes.  The Ojibwa informed the Black Robe that they already acknowledged the Great Spirit who included in himself Heaven and Earth.  Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) removed his shoe and shook the dust from his shoes as a gesture of his disgust with the Ojibwa and returned to the Sault.  The Ojibwa, adamantly holding to their religious beliefs, probably avoided years of needless wars.

Commander Henri de Chastelard of Salieres and the Carignan-Salieres Regiment of 100 officers and 1,000 men built:

     Fort Sorel on the site of Fort Richelieu.
     Fort Saint Louis on the Richelieu River, directly east Montreal. Later named Fort Chambly.
     Fort Saint Therese on the Richelieu River.
     Fort Saint Anne, north end Lake Champlain.
     Fort Saint Jean on the Richelieu River.

Kings GirlsSome claimed the first Filles du Roi (Kings Girls) arrived this summer at Quebec, the bulk going to the officers of the Carignan Salieres Regiment.  Others who specialized in the subject contend they began arriving about 1660.

Intendant Jean Talon, to encourage marriage, ordered the bachelors to be denied fishing, hunting and trapping rights.  This decree tended to drive more of the young men into the forest to become Coureurs des Bois.

October 15:   Quebec, marriage (I)-Jacques Galarneau born 1642 and Jacqueline Heron born 1645 epouse May 9, 1706 Montreal Jean Picard.

 

1666  

The Natives at Chequamegon (La Pointe) destroyed Father Claude Jean Allouez's (1622-1689) mission La Pointe de Saint Esprit.  The Wendat is spreading the word that the Black Robes are not a friend of the Natives, Mixed Blood or Coureurs des Bois.  The evil actions of the Jesuit Order in New France would effectively result in an exclusion order against any Black Robes in the North West Territories.  They would eventually be driven, even from Sault Ste Marie.  It is noteworthy that although the Institutional Church is corrupt, the Metis, Coureurs des Bois and Voyagers still adhered to their faith, as did the Natives to their beliefs, values and their one true God (The Great Spirit).

(I)-Rene Robert Cavalier de la Salle (b-1643) arrived New France and aligned himself with the Recollet.

April 21:  Quebec, birth, (II)-Marie Durand, Metis, daughter (I)-Jean Durand (1640-1671) and Annennontank, Huronne b-1649, married July 31, 1688, Mathurin Cadau..      

June 4:  Quebec, birth, Marie Durand, Metis daughter Jean Durand (1636-1671) and Catherine (Katherine) Annannontak Huron; Catherine 2nd marriage Jacques Coutourier.

  

1667  

The Hudson Bay Adventurers is organized by (II)-Pierre Esprit Chouart dit Radisson, Metis (1636-1710) and (I)-Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, (1618/21-1696), and George Carteret buys 20 pound stock to become the 1st known investor.

(II)-Marie Artaut, Metis, b-1667 in the country, daughter (I)-Pierre Artaut, Sieur de la Tour, b-1630 country married 1670 Louise Sauvagesse; married 1680 Michel des Rosiers dit St. Michel.

Trois Tivieres, Quebec, birth (II)-Elisabeth Couc dit Lafleur, Metis, d-1750, daughter (I)-Pierre Couc dit Lafleur (1624-1665) and Marie Mite8ameg8k8e (Miteouamigoukoue), an Algonquine, sauvagesse, (1631-1699).  Also known as Isabelle dit Mentour, dit La Chenette dit Tichenet, 1st married 1684 Joseph Germaneau; 2nd married Outoutagon; 3rd married Etienne de Vernard de Bougment; 4th marriage 1729 Carundawana, Robert Hunter

(I)- Nicholas Perrot (1644-1718) formed a fur trading company with Toussaint Baudry, Jean Desroches and Issac Nafrechoux.

(I)-Nicholas Perrot (Pere) dit Turbal aka Joly Coeur (Jolly Soul) (1644-1718), a freeman ( Coureurs des Bois), is reported at Baie des Puants (Green Bay, Wisconsin).

(I)-Nicholas Perrot (1644-1718) is the first to visit the Algonquin of Wisconsin.

Louis Nicholas joined Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) at La Pointe, Wisconsin.  Father Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) departed Chequamegon (La Pointe) for Sault Ste Marie going by way of the northern route, thereby circumnavigating Lac Svpeperievr (Lake Superior).  He established, at Sault Ste Marie, the mission Outchibouec then continued on to Quebec.  In Quebec he recruited Father Louis Nicolas and returned to La Pointe de Saint Esprit.  Father Nicolas called his Mission the Holy Ghost.  He considered the Natives as living in rampant paganism and his living conditions unbearable.  The Natives and traders did not treat the Black Robes with any degree of respect.  They knew the Jesuits brought war, disease and great lies.

The French Voyagers in time of need ate certain moss, on being boiled, furnishes an insipid soup, black and viscous, that rather serves to ward off death than to impart life.

The Illini (Illinois) visited Chequamegon, Lac Svpeperievr (Lake Superior) to trade with the Ojibwa.  Later, they would frequent Green Bay (Wisconsion).

Chagouamigong (La Pointe, Wisconsin) maintained a standing army of 800 men.  Seven Nations gather here in peace, they mingled one with another.

Father's Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) visited the Kickapoo at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers in Columbia County in Wisconsin.

The less the Jesuits employs the Coureurs des Bois, the better for the missions and for the fur trade, reports the Jesuits.  The Jesuit consider any savages not baptized as infidels and the Dutch are called heretics.   

(I)-Jean Vincent, Baron de St. Castin (1636-1700) married about 1667 daughter Madockawando, a Tarratine.  In 1680 he took possession of Fort Pentagoet (Town Castine) Acadia. 

 

1668  

Medart Chouart and sieur de Groseilliers (1618-1696) French explorer and Courier des Bois (a runner of the woods) and fur traders Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636-1710) who were rejected by New France helped Hudson Bay Company establish their first trading post in Nord du Quebec at the mouth of Rupert River.  It was called Waskaganish meaning Little House aka Ruperts House and Fort Rupert.  I was captured by the French in 1686 and renamed Fort Saint Jacques until 1713

Father's (I)-Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689) and (I)-Louis Nicolas, having failed in their conversion attempts, departed La Pointe none too soon for Father Nicolas.

Father Fremin, a Jesuit is a missionary at Senecas Country 1668 to 1670.

(I)-Nicholas Perrot (1644-1718) visited Potawatomi people.

Fort Charles is established by HBC at the mouth of Rupert's River

May 8:   Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) a Jesuit ,departed Quebec to join Claude Dablon, another Jesuit, at Sault Ste Marie to work among the 2,000 Ottawa.  The People provided Marquette with a map of the route to the Missispi (Mississippi) River.  The Jesuits have known of the existence of the Mississippi River since its discovery by Hernando de Soto in 1541.

June 5:   The Nonsuch and Eaglet sailed from London under the command of Zachariah Gillam (1636-1682) to test Radisson and des Groseillier's proposal to open a fur trade route through the Bay of the North (Hudson Bay).  The ship Eaglet, with Radisson, is forced back to England.  The Nonsuch, with Gillam and (I)-Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, (1618/21-1696), sailed into Hudson Bay and James Bay.

August 8:   Louis Couc, alias Montour, is listed voyager West.

September 29:   The Nonsuch with Gillam and (I)-Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, (1618/21-1696) sailed to Rupert River where they built Charles Fort, spending the winter in trade.  

October:   Medard Chouart (1618-1696) of Groseillier establishes Fort Charles on the Hudson Bay at the mouth of Rupert River.  He begins trading with about three hundred Cree and trades throughout the fall of this year.  They also brewed ale and beer to see them through the winter. 

October 9:   Louis Jolliet (Joliet), born September 21, 1745 died 1700 son of Jean Jolliet and Marie d'Abancourt, this year became a Coureurs des Bois (Wood-runner, or bush-loper as the English called them).  His brother Adrien Jolliet departed to trade the Great Lakes this year and is sometimes confused with brother Louis.

Father Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) joined Father Claude Dablon in conducting a mission and established a permanent settlement at Sault Ste Marie (Rapids of St Mary).  This is an interesting claim given that 2,000 Ojibwa have been wintering at this historic place for centuries.  The site is also long occupied by the Metis.  The Sault Ste Marie mission is abandoned by 1689.  Of all the Natives of North America, the Ojibwa have to have been the most accommodating race of peoples.  They provided food, clothing and shelter when needed. They provided protection from the Sioux and Iroquois.   They provided their daughters in marriage and accepted the Mixed Blood as brothers.  They preceded the French, acting as buffers or middlemen in exploration and fur trade.  They would give of their land in treaty, after treaty.

A mission is established at Point St. Ignace on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinac.  Some suggest this was 1671 and called St. Ignace de Michilimackinac (Mackinac, Michigan).  Others suggest this is an erroneous claim as the Jesuit Relations only makes reference to Mackinac for the first time in 1670.  The French had no intention to make Mackinac a colony, as it was not conducive to the growing of corn.   The Coureurs des Bois and Metis, however, saw the opportunity of turning this ancient location into a trading center and village.  Corn and wild rice can be traded for and did not pose a problem to these people.  Mackinac was seen as a strategic trading location for the north west and south west.

Father Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) arrived La Pointe de Saint Esprit.

November 9:   Hudson Bay replica of the British ship Nonsuch. Nonsuch replica  
The Indians showed Gillam a sheltered cove for his ship. The Nonsuch was captained by a Boston seaman named Zachariah Gillam (1636-1682) and Medard Chouart (1618-1696) of Groseillier. They wintered at Rupert River in James Bay and they built a log trading post calling it Fort St. Charles, later to be named Rupert's House. They dug a cellar, twelve feet deep, for their store of beer. They had brought some hens and pigs with them. Gillam (1636-1682) had been ordered to treat the Frenchmen with allthe manners of civility and courtesy as they were the persons upon whose credit we have undertaken this expedition. Groseillier roamed inland to drum up business, and 300 natives arrived the following spring to trade.  This is the first activity of the new Hudson Bay Adventures Company.

The Sovereign Council of New France allowed Canadians to sell liquor to the savages to prevent the fur trade from going to the English.

 

1669  

(I)-Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, (1618/21-1696) expedition returned to England, proving that it was possible, as predicted, to exploit the fur trade from the Bay of the North (Hudson Bay).

(II)-Madeleine Couc, Metis,  born 1669 daughter (I)-Pierre Couc dit Lafleur b-1624 and Marie Mite8ameg8k8e, Algonquine, (1631-1699); married 1692 St. Ignace, Michillimakinac, Maurice Menard dit Lafontaine.

(II)-Ignace Durand, Metis b-1669, died November 30, 1670?, Cap St. Ignace, Quebec, son (I)-Jean Durand (1640-1671) and Catherine Annennontank, Huronne b-1649; married February 24, 1691 Catherine Miville.

Father Garnier, a Jesuit is a missionary at Senecas Country 1669 to 1684.

John Lederer in (1669-1670) traveled through the Blue Ridge Mountains to trade West Virginia.

(I)-Jean Pere a coureur de bois of Trois Rivieres is trading with the Ottawa north of Lake Huron aka The Great Lake La Mer Douce (the calm Sea).  He had a commission to search for copper north of Lake Ontario but not to trade in furs.  He traveled as far west as Sault Ste Marie trading furs.  He then search the north shore of Lake Superior and discovered an Ojibwa copper mine.  

The Boston seaman named Zachariah Gillam (1636-1682) and Medard Chouart (1618-1696) of Groseillier, as soon as the ground could be worked, prepared garden beds and vegetables were sown at Rupert River in James Bay.

Two Frenchmen are drown as their boat overturned on Lake Superior this year.

Quebec birth, Inglas Durand, Metis and voyager son Jean Durand (1636-1671) and Catherine (Katherine) Annannontak Huron; Catherine 2nd marriage Jacques Coutourier.  

Between the La Pointe Ojibwa and the Illinois exists the Ketchigamins who are trading with the French.

Sault Ste Marie, (Michigan/Ontario) is a historic meeting place for 19 different tribes from as far away as the Bay of the North, the Mississippi River and Green Bay.  They came to trade and fish.  The Jesuits at this time are cultivating the land likely being instructed by the Sauvages.

Chequamegdon Bay (La Pointe, Wisconsin) is also a historic meeting place of all the tribes of the northwest and is frequented by the tribes from Lake Michigan to the Missouri River, and the Hudson Bay to the Ohio.  The Kiskakons (Ottawa) dwell at La Pointe.  Father (I)-Claude Jean Allouez (1613-1689) is at La Pointe and visited the western head waters of Lake Superior.

The Illinois from the Mississippi River visit La Pointe (Wisconsin) to trade.  They want muskets, powder, kettles, hatchets and knives.  They also report that merchants come to their villages to trade these items. 

The Nadouessi (Dakota) also trade La Pointe (Wisconsin) and are known as those who never attack until they have been attacked.  They report that 15 to 20 days west of Lake Superior are observed Frenchmen with four large canoes with sails.

The Kilistinaux who live to the north west of La Pointe (Wisconsin) arrived with 200 canoes to trade for merchandise and corn.

It is noteworthy that the Saulteurs or Pahouitingwach Irini (Ojibwa) are the only true habitants of Sault Ste Marie and Chequamegdon Point, the others are 'borrowers' as the Jesuit called them.  The Jesuits did not like the Ojibwa and accused them of indecencies, sacrifices and Jugglery.  The Ojibwa are without intelligence, and as a Nation are stupid.  They allow their sons and daughters to practice spiritual quests by fasting and praying.  These pagans hold no feast without sacrifice to their Great Spirit (God).    

The first Governor (Chief Factor) of Rupert's Land is the mad Quaker Charles Bayley (d-1680).  Rupert's lands as recorded on maps of the day is confined to the Bay of the North (Hudson Bay).  He led a mission to Rome with John Perrot to convert the Pope to their Quaker faith.  The duo is apprehended and confined to the madhouse.  Upon release he returned to London, is excommunicated from the Quakers, and eventually confined to the Tower of London (1663-1669).  The King released Bayley from the Tower on thecondition he betook himself to the navigation of Hudson Bay.  Bayley remained in Hudson Bay for the next nine years.  (II)-Pierre Esprit Chouart dit Radisson, Metis (1636-1710) and (I)-Medard Chouart des Groseilliers, (1618/21-1696) never trusted the mad Quaker and the feeling was mutual.

Claude Jean Allouez (1622-1689), the Jesuit, Vicar General of the Quebec diocese, who is working the Great Lakes, claimed to have baptized ten thousand Natives.  Such claims can only be delusions of grandeur.  Many other reports suggest this is a figment of his over zealous imagination.  Father Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) of Sault Ste Marie reported twenty five French traders in the area.  He claims to establish a mission at Des Peres (Green Bay, Wisconsin).  This year he also claimed to have established a mission at Point du Saint Esprit (La Pointe), Ojibwa Country at the western end of Lac Svpeperievr (Lake Superior) (Chequamegon Bay) among the displaced Ottawa and Huron.  He also claims to have encountered the Illinois.

Henry Morgan (1635-1688) a Welsh pirate in the ship HMS Oxford blew up killing 350 English and French sailors off the coast of Haiti.  Morgan was ordered to defend Jamaica against Spanish invasion, arrack Spanish Cuba, to capture munitions and to kill and disperse the Spanish forces.

June 10:  Quebec, birth, (II)-Jean Dubeau, Metis, died September 12, 1743 St. Augustine, Quebec, daughter (I)-Laurent Dubeau (1636-1689) and Marie Felix d'Arontio (Huronne); married November 22, 1703 St. Augustine, Quebec, Marguerite Harnois.

July 6:   Meanwhile out of Montreal, (I)-Rene Robert Cavalier de la Salle (b-1643) traveled inland in search of the route to China.  The party included Father (I)-Louis Hennepin (1626-1705) a Belgium Recollet, Henri de Tonty (1649-1704) and La Forest.  They traveled by way of the Inland Sea, exploring the Ohio and the upper reaches of the Mississippi.  The Mississippi is the longest river in the world, covering 4,240 miles including the Missouri River.  It is noteworthy that the Spanard Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1557) had explored the lower reaches of the Mississippi in his ten years of his expedition to America (1527-1537).  

July 6:  French Sulpician missionaries Francois Dollier de Casson (1636-1701) and Rene de Brehant de Galinee (1645-1678) with a Seneca guide set out from Montreal to convert the People along the Ohio River.  The Sulpician missionaries, Francois Dollier De Casson (1636-1701) and Rene de Brehaut of Galinee (1645-1678), covered the Great Lakes, Niagara River and Rochester, New York area, especially the Seneca, until 1670.  The two priests wintered on the north shore of Lake Erie.

August 12:  The 'Nonsuch' sailed for England with a cargo of furs.  This first venture is not profitable but sufficient to encourage more investment.  Gillam claims he made treaty with the Indians and purchased the Rupert River area. 

September 24:  French Sulpician missionaries Francois Dollier de Casson (1636-1701) and Rene de Brehant de Galinee (1645-1678) met Adrien Jollet and his men on his way back from Lake Superior.  He told the Sulpicians of the way of the Grand River to the north shore of Lake Erie and then through Detroit Strait to Lake Huron aka The Great Lake La Mer Douce (the calm Sea).  After learning the route from Adrien Jollet they still claimed to be the first European to travel this route.  I guess they didn't consider Jollet and his party Europeans.

October 28:   Sulpician Francois de Salignac of La Mothe Fenelon (1641-1679), and Claude Trouve (1644-1704), founded a mission among the Cayuga on the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario.  The Sulpician and (I)-Rene Robert Cavalier de la Salle (b-1643) ventured on into the Ohio Territory.

November 3:  The Prouteouatamis who are trading La Point, Wisconsin complained that some young Frenchmen, who live among them, for the purpose of trade, were threatening and maltreating them.  There are known to be six Frenchmen living among these people.

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