The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin   By: Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932)

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor

History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman

NINTH SERIES XI XII

The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin

A Study of the Trading Post as an Institution

BY FREDERICK J. TURNER, PH.D.

Professor of History, University of Wisconsin

BALTIMORE THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS PUBLISHED MONTHLY November and December, 1891

COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY N. MURRAY.

ISAAC FRIEDENWALD CO., PRINTERS, BALTIMORE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE. I. INTRODUCTION 7 II. PRIMITIVE INTER TRIBAL TRADE 10 III. PLACE OF THE INDIAN TRADE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA 11 1. Early Trade along the Atlantic Coast 11 2. In New England 12 3. In the Middle Region 18 4. In the South 16 5. In the Far West 18 IV. THE RIVER AND LAKE SYSTEMS OF THE NORTHWEST 19 V. WISCONSIN INDIANS 22 VI. PERIODS OF THE WISCONSIN INDIAN TRADE 25 VII. FRENCH EXPLORATION IN WISCONSIN 26 VIII. FRENCH POSTS IN WISCONSIN 33 IX. THE FOX WARS 34 X. FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN WISCONSIN 38 XI. THE TRADERS' STRUGGLE TO RETAIN THEIR TRADE 40 XII. THE ENGLISH AND THE NORTHWEST. INFLUENCE OF THE INDIAN TRADE ON DIPLOMACY 42 XIII. THE NORTHWEST COMPANY 51 XIV. AMERICAN INFLUENCES 51 XV. GOVERNMENT TRADING HOUSES 58 XVI. WISCONSIN TRADE IN 1820 61 XVII. EFFECTS OF THE TRADING POST 67

THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF THE INDIAN TRADE IN WISCONSIN.

INTRODUCTION.[1]

The trading post is an old and influential institution. Established in the midst of an undeveloped society by a more advanced people, it is a center not only of new economic influences, but also of all the transforming forces that accompany the intercourse of a higher with a lower civilization. The Phoenicians developed the institution into a great historic agency. Closely associated with piracy at first, their commerce gradually freed itself from this and spread throughout the Mediterranean lands. A passage in the Odyssey (Book XV.) enables us to trace the genesis of the Phoenician trading post:

"Thither came the Phoenicians, mariners renowned, greedy merchant men with countless trinkets in a black ship.... They abode among us a whole year, and got together much wealth in their hollow ship. And when their hollow ship was now laden to depart, they sent a messenger.... There came a man versed in craft to my father's house with a golden chain strung here and there with amber beads. Now, the maidens in the hall and my lady mother were handling the chain and gazing on it and offering him their price."