The Wisconsin Collection is a partnership
who was Louis XIV at that particular time.
So, he had a corner on the market
of geographic information, if you like.
This is a commercial proposition.
I mean, the market for this map was European
but it was limited to a small part of society
the upper middle classes, the merchant classes
who could afford these types of maps.
I mean, these are not cheap artifacts
that you'd have in the house or your library
especially when they were hand colored, like this.
The title says, "The Western Part of Canada, or New France
"where the Illinois and Tracy and Iroquois Nations
and many other peoples are found."
But clearly, the purpose of this map
is to claim it for France.
The title has been repeated all over the face of the map.
And then, as if to endorse this ownership
the words, "La Louisiane"
indicating that this was the area of Louis.
In much smaller lettering, we do see
not graphic boundaries
but the names of the Indian Nations.
Over here, are the five nations of the Iroquois.
Here, the nations of the Illinois, the Potawatomi
the Maskouten, the Miami, the Kickapoo
are all named here.
It's really good to look at the pictorial decoration
because it's not extraneous.
It's part and parcel
of the purpose for which the map was made.
So, here we have the cartouche.
There's some very interesting images
that set up a kind of counterpoint
between Indian culture, indigenous culture
and the culture of the fur traders.
You have two Europeans who are shooting.
One's shooting a beaver.
And the other is shooting a bear, over here.
And here, we've got an image
of an Indian that's just let fly
and a rather nonchalant-looking cow
with an arrow sticking out of its flank.
Another interpretation of these cows
is that they're just bad drawings of buffalo.
I mean, good drawings of buffalo weren't really available yet.
It's very strange imagery, there.
They're not the usual model
of Native Americans that you normally see.
Narrator: The new world was full of people
and animals, and plants
the Europeans had never before encountered.
And the secondhand depictions of firsthand descriptions
were humorously far from accurate.
Only those who witnessed it for themselves
could see just how different from Europe
this new world actually was...
especially its people.
Frank Montano: Long ago, they said some people
could see things from the past or from the future.
One of the elders, one time, sitting at my table told me
that our great-grandfathers and their grandfathers
are sitting here
having a meeting, right here, right now.
And our grandchildren
seven generations down the line
are sitting here in this same place.
That's the way it is.
Because in the spirit world, there's no time element.
All things that happen from the beginning of time
till into infinity are happening right now.
So, sometimes, in the place we're at
we're allowed to get glimpses of those things
of what it was like, what it is like in the past
what's happening 100 years, 200 years ago
1,000 years ago.
Seeing people along these shores
gathering berries and gathering bark from trees
and doing things that are necessary for survival.
And that's what I see, a lot of times.
I see the people that lived here in the past.
Jerry Smith: There's a misconception that this was paradise.
In a way it was, and is, yet.
But the Indian people
they still had hardship in their lives.
There still were times of starvation.
But yet, there was such an abundance of things
if one place didn't produce something
they would always travel
and migrate to another place that had those things.
In a way, it was a hard life, but it was a good one.
There's a difference between some tribes.
Some were nomadic
some were farming villages.
For the Ojibwe, we were mostly nomadic.
We'd follow the seasons
the game, the animals, the berries.
Start in the spring, summer and fall--
In spring, when the walleyes began to run
and the fish began to run in the lakes.
Because it's at the end of the winter
and you're depleted of a lot of food you've stored
and dried up from the previous summer
so that's why the Great Spirit sent these fish to spawn.
Because the deer are not ready to be harvested
because they're going to have babies, the fawns.
And they've just come through a hard winter
and they don't have much meat on their bones, either.
They're real stringy and they taste different.
It's what they eat during the winter months.
So then, in the fall
the Indian people would leave their main villages
and they would go and harvest wild rice
on the different ricing lakes.
Then, in the wintertime
they would slowly make their way to their winter camps
for the hunting, the trapping and the fishing through the ice.
That's when they would break the villages up.
Family groups would camp together
but they were separated by great distance
so that each family would have a chance at survival.
Because if they were in a big village
they would soon kill all the game and everything off.
Long ago, Indian people used to fast
a dream or a vision, get a knowledge of the future.
But see, that's why some of the Indian people
they accepted the Bible
and Jesus Christ for his teachings.
Because, here's a man
who went out and fasted for 40 days and nights
to get himself closer to God and the Creator
just what the Indian people were doing on their own
even before the European people came here.
They were out there fasting
bringing themselves closer to the Creator
to get a knowledge of what his plan was for them.
And a person that fasted
they could receive knowledge of things
of the future.
So, apparently, there was an old man
living with his family
on this Madeline Island
which we call "Mana-wauna-kani"
place of the golden-breasted woodpecker.
That's the name of that Madeline Island
which was formerly known as La Pointe.
But that is the capital of the Ojibwe people.
So, there was this one man.
He began to dream of seeing a cloud on the ocean
but it was to the east.
He believed so strongly
in that dream that he was given by the great spirit
he wanted to see if it was true.
So, he prepared for a whole year.
A nice big canoe.
He got a bunch of furs that he trapped.
Well, when spring come
he said he was going to set off on this journey
because of what he had seen in his dream
his vision.
He began to paddle.
Here he went all the way across Lake Superior.
That's a big lake!
He still begun to go east.
And there upon the water was that great big sailing ship
which that man seen in his dream.
But he seen it as a cloud
because of the white sails.
So, his dream was actually a true one.
He met the people from across the ocean.
*
Narrator: That the people from across the ocean
would eventually reach Wisconsin seemed obvious to the Ojibwe.
For in this place where migration
was as common as permanent residency
the Ojibwe themselves were recent arrivals.
Just how recent is a matter of debate
for Ojibwe historian, Rick St. Germain.
Rick St. Germain: Historians believe that the Ojibwe perhaps arrived here
just before the turn of the 17th century.
And the oral history indicates
that the Ojibwe arrived, maybe as early as the 1400s.
I really don't take much of a position.
I'm a little bit of a coward in that respect.
I don't take a firm position on it.
I've heard numbers of stories of spiritual leaders
who transmit the history of the tribe
and the oral history is very exciting.
And I grew up with the oral history.
In fact, that's what got me so turned on to Ojibwe history.
I believe that they arrived here very early.
The region did have some resources that were valuable.
There were trade routes established here.
There were well-worn trails
and pathways for the Ojibwe to simply come in
and opportune themselves.
There were plenty of waterways that they could use their canoes
to transport and to move.
But they were moving into somebody else's territory.
It took quite a while to eventually settle
Lake Superior.
And they did so rather cautiously.
They knew they were interlopers
and they had to make peace with the tribes
that inhabited the region, both Nodouessioux and the Fox
Outagami, and the Menominee.
And even further down, the Ho-Chunk.
Because of the mobility
the Ojibwe here pretty much knew what was coming.
They knew for sure that there were a strange human being
that would arrive some time soon.
They had certainly heard enough stories
from their relatives who were trading partners
and were making long-distance voyages
which was fairly common.
But I don't think they knew
or they could appreciate or understand the full magnitude
of what the fur trade would do to them.
And of course, once the fur trade
and the market for the fur-bearing animals arrived
all hell broke loose.
It changed the Ojibwe forever.
*
David Woodward: So, he made this map as part of an atlas.
And I think there are something like four volumes of this atlas
and maybe 50 to 75 maps in each volume
covering the world, including geographical information, text
and indications of how you would compile a map
as well as the maps themselves.
Narrator: The French maps depicting this mysterious new world
were the high technology of the 17th century.
A tremendous advance in communicating new information
to a large number of people.
Today, that role is served
by another high-tech communication system
the Internet.
French professor Kenneth Fleurant
is using that technology to tell people
not about a new world
but a world that no longer exists.
Kenneth Fleurant: To encourage people
to reflect on the history of the French in this state
we developed this Web site.
I'm the Web Master of it.
And it's a virtual monument, really
to the French-speaking people in Wisconsin.
This summer, I was in New England.
And driving around
you really get a sense from the toponymy, the names
that you're in New England.
And when you come here you really get a sense
that you're in New France.
And indeed, we were in New France
right up through the end of the 18th century.
There's an article here on Jean Nicolet.
He was the first European
to arrive in what we call Green Bay, today.
He came to the new world
following his sense of adventure, probably
when he was about 19 years old.
And then, he was hired by Samuel de Champlain.
And he became a government agent.
But they sent him
to live with the natives on an island in the Ottawa River
for eight years.
He learned seven or eight Indian languages or dialects.
And that's one of the reasons he was sent here.
Rumors arrived in Quebec
that there were people here called the people of the sea.
Some called them Les Puants.
And there are all kinds of theories
about why these people were called Les Puants
and why some of the early maps call this area
La Lac des Puants, or La Baye des Puants.
The lake or the bay of the stinkards.
Of all of the languages that Nicolet spoke
he didn't speak the language
of the people he called the Winnebagos.
"Winnebago" was probably a mistranslation.
But it had something to do with the brackish water.
So, these were the people
of the water that wasn't fresh, sea water.
Exactly why they sent Nicolet isn't really known.
It may have been partially business.
It may have been establishing a foothold here.
But it also may have been
that they were trying to find the northwest passage
the route to China.
He thought that he was going to make contact
with the people who knew the route
to the sea to the west.
Maybe this explains a little bit
of the mythology of the state of Wisconsin
which has Nicolet arriving at Red Banks
getting out of his canoe dressed in Chinese robes.
Narrator: He wore a grand robe of China damask
all strewn with flowers and birds of many colors.
No sooner did they perceive him
than the women and children fled
at the sight of a man who carried thunder in both hands
for thus they called
the two pistols that he held.
The news of his coming
quickly spread to the places round about.
And there assembled 4,000 or 5,000 men.
There's a great deal of debate among historians
about the accuracy of the story.
When did he actually arrive?
We don't know it was 1634.
And yet, we've celebrated that date.
We don't know, in fact, that he arrived at Red Banks.
But we've erected a statue there.
We don't know a lot of things about Nicolet's trip.
Jerrold Rodesch: Most of the early history of Wisconsin is conjecture.
Nicolet's story is more elaborate now
that it's ever been before.
Everyone tells it that he made this landing at Red Banks
wearing his China damask robe
shooting his pistols.
And there's a statue on the highway.
There are paintings of the event.
There's much more in the history books
than there is in the historical record.
The only record we have of it
is from the Jesuit relations, the missionary's reports
including letters from Priests in the field
delivered in manuscript to France
where they were printed.
And they vary a lot in quality
both of writing and in terms of substance.
But as a basic kind of historical documentation
they're astonishingly good.
Narrator: He accompanied 400 Algonquins, who went during that time
to make peace with the Iroquois
which he successfully accomplished.
After this treaty of peace
he went to live with the Algonquin Nipissinians
where he passed for one of that nation
taking part in the very frequent councils of those tribes.
He was finally recalled
and appointed Agent and Interpreter.
Rodesch: Nicolet was a man of some learning.
He had a fairly substantial library for those times.
And the Jesuits respected him for that.
So, they made a record of him.
One of the most amazing things about the stories
is Nicolet's death.
He drowned in 1642 in the St. Lawrence River.
And he didn't know how to swim.
That was not all that unusual for the French at that time.
But imagine Nicolet taking this very long
and difficult and mysterious voyage on waterways
without knowing how to swim.
It suggests a different set of attitudes
different values, different relationships
with the natural world for people at that time
that we can even imagine.
This really was a different world, a different people.
The foreignness, the alien character
not only of the French from the Indian point of view
and the Indians from the French point of view
but of that whole world from our point of view.
And that's where history really becomes exciting
when you can begin to appreciate
those enormous distances between knowledge of another
and knowledge of the past.
That's why documents are so fascinating
because it is detective work, in many cases
that you try to get
as many small bits of information as possible
to see if they fit into a pattern that makes sense.
It's a matter of connecting the dots.
Not until the middle of the 19th century
had anybody connected Nicolet with what's now Wisconsin.
A historian identifies the people of the sea
with the Ho-Chunk or the Winnebago.
The assumption was that if they were the people of the sea
and if they were living at traditional sites
particularly the area around Green Bay
then Nicolet's voyage would've been to Green Bay.
So, you had a couple of speculative decisions made
in order to establish that.
But it comes to be pretty quickly accepted
because the Ho-Chunk were in the Green Bay area in the 1630s.
Red Banks was a place of importance for them.
And the leap was made to a Ho-Chunk settlement there.
Fleurant: Even if it isn't true
and I'm not saying it isn't.
But it helps us understand why the French came
and what they did while they were here
and what those first encounters between peoples
might have been like.
The mythology, the beginning stories
are very important to a people.
And this is one of our beginning stories
or maybe a middle story, since the natives were here.
The Europeans come and the two groups meet
and begin forming a new world here.
And Nicolet is our beginning story.
George Parker: The French were not colonists in the sense of the word
that the English were.
They weren't, "Here I sit, here I plant and here I die."
They could send expeditions out from Three Rivers
from Montreal, from Quebec for the fur trade.
And they wanted the furs, of course, for the felt
to go into hats and insulation, and things like that.
And they were taking beaver, otter and martens
and so forth, and so on
and whatever else was there.
So, they've come out in the spring.
They've established their bases
at places like Green Bay, Baye de Pointe, at St. Ignacius
Saint Esprit, which is up in the Apostle Islands.
They would occupy these during the summertime.
When the winter set in, they'd go back.
This is as dangerous a place in North America as there was.
I can't imagine anybody, nowadays, doing what they did
taking the risk they took for what they got out of it.
Now, granted, a lot of people left the fur trade and got rich.
But a lot more died.
One year, they got trapped and had to winter out here.
And I remember the passage from Radisson describing this.
"There did fall such a quantity of snow and frost
"and with such a thick mist
"that all the snow stuck to the trees that are there so rough.
"It caused darkness upon the earth.
"We felled over and over again in the snow.
"And if we were alone
"we should have difficulty enough to rise again.
It grows worse and worse daily."
Denise Sweet: The traders had an economic mission
and had to respect a certain value system
that they were coming in contact with.
They didn't have the sort of spiritual or religious mission
this manifest destiny
motivation behind them.
This was business.
This was establishing trade systems within the Great Lakes.
And they had a stake in being able to get along
with the people who knew the territory better than they.
Steve Cotherman: We're standing on the tower
at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor's Center.
And from this vantage point
in a 360-degree panorama, you can see
the entire history of northern Wisconsin
played out in the landscape here.
The most important part
is probably what goes on over here in Chequamegon Bay
in the 17th century.
We've got the coming of the French fur traders to this area.
And this is the place where Radisson
and Groselliers first came, saw the Apostle Islands
for the first time in recorded history.
That's some of the earliest documentation we have
that tells us what life was like in this region.
At that time in the mid-1660s
there were Ottawa and Huron living on the mainland here.
Madeline Island, way off to the back over here
was the spiritual center of the Ojibwe world.
Their descriptions of large summer villages
numbering in the two thousands
with the whole west end of the island
one large wigwam community of summer lodges.
in the course of doing this.
Narrator: Father David Claude Noel is a sculptor.
He is also a Norbertine Priest in De Pere, Wisconsin
just down the Fox River from Green Bay.
De Pere was once called "Les Rapids du Pere"
the rapids of the Fathers.
The rapids in De Pere
were a major fishing ground for the Indians.
And there were about six tribes
in the area.
This was the main route, then
from Green Bay down the Fox River
to the Mississippi.
So, a lot of traffic went through here
the coureur de bois, and all the travelers.
So, I wanted to do a monument in De Pere
because it's such an important historical spot in Wisconsin
and nobody knows about it.
I want to do three 12-foot statues
one of Claude Allouez, one of Nicholas Perrot
and then one of one of the Indians.
I happened to be reading a three-volume work
called Pioneer Priests in America.
And it mentioned Allouez.
And that was probably the first time
I had really read anything about him.
He was part of a large movement from France.
There were many, many of the Jesuits came here
to the Great Lakes.
I'm writing about 57 biographies.
And I want to put them on the wall around the monument.
It's a 60-foot circle.
Allouez was about 49 when he came to Green Bay.
This is simply a sketch
of what a 12-foot statue might be.
I've focused on Allouez with a dog.
In his journal he talks about going up the Fox and Wolf River
and coming back by land.
And one of the Indians--
It was impolite to ask directly a question like that
so the Indian asked the dog about the trip.
And of course, Allouez had to answer.
That's why I knew he had a dog.
"To convert our barbarians, or savages of Canada
"we need work no miracle but that of doing them good
"and suffering without complaint to God
regarding ourselves as useless servants."
Father Claude Allouez.
Perrot really won the hearts of the Indians.
He came as a trader.
But the government relied on him
because they knew he was the one person
who could help negotiate with the various tribes.
He was appointed Commandant
between De Pere and the Mississippi River.
I had to decide whether to put him in a military uniform
or as a trader.
Because a lot of his fortune was wrapped up in furs
I decided to have him standing on the stack of the furs
and holding a fur.
Actually, I had to buy some beaver skins to do this
because I didn't know what they looked like.
Narrator: Perrot rendered very important services to the colony
made known the glory of the King among those peoples
and induced them to form an alliance with us.
On one occasion, among the Potawatami
he was regarded as a God.
Father Noel: The soleil, the sunburst--
In 1671, up at Sioux Sault Marie
the representative of the French crown
claimed all this territory.
De Pere was part of that.
And I wanted the soleil
to represent Louis the XIV, the sun king.
But I derived the soleil
from the Monstrance.
As Catholics, we believe that the bread and wine
is changed into the body of Christ.
The host is put into a vessel like that
as the presence of Christ
just for display and an adoration kind of thing.
Perrot gave that Monstrance
to the mission at De Pere in 1686.
And there was a painting in the De Pere post office.
It's now in the Neville Museum
of when the mission was burned down.
This painting is called the "Red Pietŕ"
and it depicts an Indian going in, saving that Monstrance
and dying in the attempt.
That Monstrance was buried during the attack
because almost the whole settlement was burned.
It was found about 100 years later
when a farmer was plowing the land
and it was dug up.
And it's really the major artifact of that time.
Narrator: The power enjoyed by the Jesuits in the new world
was the direct result
of their strong political power in France.
When that failed
their presence in North America quickly dwindled
leaving the French fur traders free of the church's influence.
The result was a new people.
Cotherman: Traders coming to this region, primarily French-Canadians
began to make contact with the Indian peoples
that were here before they came
and then to marry into those families
as part of the system of the fur trade.
Within 60 years, you maybe had three generations
that were all intertwined culturally
between French-Canadian and Ojibwe, Cree or Huron peoples.
And after a while, you get a brand new culture
that's part European and part Indian.
It's part Catholic and part traditional Ojibwe beliefs.
It's part traditional
and it's part using the new European trade goods.
And this culture, this mixed culture called the Métis
becomes an integral part of the fur trade.
The fur trade could not have operated without connections.
And it is Métis culture
that runs the fur trade in this region
for 100 years after those first explorers get here.