The flow of traders, both licensed and unlicensed, into the pays du nord and the area that would become Wisconsin intensified in the late 1600s. In order for the trade to be successful and avoid conflicts with middlemen like the Meskwaki, the French knew that they needed to create alliances with the many Native groups who were living in Wisconsin at the time. To further this work, Simon-François Daumont de St.-Lusson was sent to Sault Ste. Marie in 1671 to claim for the King of France Lakes Huron and Superior and the adjacent region, including lands yet to be discovered by the French. He did this in the presence of around 2000 principal Native chiefs, including the Sauk, Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and thirteen other tribes.
Nicolas Perrot was a trader who was enlisted as a translator for St-Lusson. He proved to be an able translator and cultural ambassador to Native groups by helping to solidify these important but constantly changing relationships, and was called upon several times to negotiate treaties between the French and Native people. In 1685, he was appointed commander of the Baie des Puants (now Green Bay) and the neighboring regions. He traveled to the Mississippi River, constructing several posts from Prairie du Chien northward into what is now Minnesota: a trading post at Trempealeau, Fort St. Antoine on Lake Pepin (on the east shore of the lake, which is actually a wide portion of the Mississippi River), and Fort St. Nicolas at the mouth of the Wisconsin River.
When the English, shortly thereafter, asserted their claim to this territory, French officials ordered Perrot to claim the area for France again, which he did in a ceremony at Fort St. Antoine in May 1689. A few years later, trader Pierre Charles Le Sueur established small posts on Madeline Island and a Mississippi River island downstream from the mouth of the St. Croix River. These posts were in part aimed at simply establishing a French presence in this territory, in order to encourage the Native people to trade with them and not with the English.
Fox Wars
The French name for the Meskwaki people was “Renards”—in English, the Fox—giving rise to the name of the river that empties into Green Bay. With the occasional support of Mascouten and Kickapoo allies, the Fox or Meskwaki were the only tribe to systematically oppose French domination in Wisconsin. Because they acted as middlemen in the fur trade, they were angered at high prices for trade goods and alarmed by French attempts to supply their Dakota enemies to the west with firearms. When some members of the Iroquois confederacy invited them to trade with the English in New York, the Meskwaki relationship with the French worsened.
From 1712 to 1730, the French and Meskwakis engaged in a series of military confrontations which are often referred to as the Fox Wars. These violent clashes began at Detroit, included a confrontation in Illinois, and involved two major battles at Little Butte des Morts on the Fox River, among other violent incidents. These attacks created a chaotic situation in Wisconsin, making travel difficult and dangerous. Ultimately the wars decimated the Meskwaki, who sought refuge among the Sauk, who lived along the Wisconsin River. Around 1745, both nations moved to the lower Wisconsin and Rock Rivers.
During this time, Paul Marin, a native of Montreal and member of the French military, was put in charge of the Chequamegon region, including its fur trade. When the retreat of the Meskwakis meant that the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers were again open to travel by the French, Marin was sent to command at La Baie, the post at the mouth of the Fox River where the French had erected a new fort in 1731. Marin also opened small trading posts along the Wisconsin and upper Mississippi Rivers, and employed a number of voyageurs to carry out the trade. His son, Joseph, continued the family tradition of trade at La Baie, Chequamegon, and the upper Mississippi.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the ongoing tensions between France and England as they vied for domination of North America resulted in several wars, including King George’s War, which began in 1745. Paul Marin played a role in this war, leading French forces in various campaigns on the east coast and in Pennsylvania. When the global conflict that is sometimes known as the French and Indian War, called the Seven Years’ War in Europe and the War of Conquest by French-Canadians, broke out in 1756, battles between the English and the French were fought both in Europe and in North America. The end of the war, brought about by French defeats including the battle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham, was solemnized by the 1763 signature of the Treaty of Paris. This marked the end of French colonization in North America. Wisconsin and indeed nearly all of the Pays d’en haut became part of the British empire. However, this did not mean a sudden change for the people living there.
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