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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
grounds upon, or adjacent to, the Menomonee river. Finally, after the lapse
of a century and a
quarter, down to 176o, when the French yielded to the English all claims
to the country, the
territory of the Menomonees had shifted somewhat to the westward and southward,
and their
principal village was found at the head of Green bay, while a smaller one
was still in existence
at the mouth of their favorite stream. So slight, however, had been this
change, that the country
of no other of the surrounding tribes had been encroached upon by the movement.
     In 1634, the Menomonees probably took part in a treaty with a representative
of the French,
who had thus early ventured so far into the wilds of the lake regions. More
than a score of
years elapsed before the tribe was again visited by white men,-that is to
say, there are no
authentic accounts of earlier visitations. In i66o, Father Ren6 Menard had
penetrated the Lake
Superior country as far, at least, as Kewenaw, in what is now the northern
part of Michigan,
whence some of his French companions probably passed down the Menomonee river
to the
waters of Green bay the following year; but no record of the Indians, through
whose territory
they passed, was made by these voyagers. Ten years more- 167o-brought to
the Menomonees
(who doubtless had already been visited by French fur-traders) Father Claudius
Allouez, to win
them to Christianity. He had previously founded a mission upon the bay of
Chegoimegon, now
Chaquamegon, or Ashland bay, an arm of Lake Superior, within the present
State of Wisconsin,
in charge of which, at that date, was Father James Marquette. Proceeding
from the " Sault" on,
the third of November, Allouez, early in December, 1669, reached the mouth
of Green bay, where,
on the third, in an Indian village of Sacs, Pottawattamies, Foxes and Winnebagoes,
containing about
six hundred souls, he celebrated the holy mass for the first time upon this
new field of his labors,
-eight Frenchmen, traders with the Indians, whom the missionary found there
upon his arrival,
taking part in the devotions. His first Christian work with the Menomonees
was performed in
May of the next year. Allouez found this tribe a feeble one, almost exterminated
by war. He
spent but little time with them, embarking, on the twentieth of that month,
after a visit to some
Pottawattamies and Winnebagoes, "with a Frenchman and a savage to go
to Sainte Mary of the
Sault."  His place was filled by Father Louis Andre, who, not long after,
erected a cabin upon
the Menomonee river, which, with one at a village where his predecessor had
already raised the
standard of the cross, was soon burned by the savages ; but the missionary,
living almost con-
stantly in his canoe, continued for some time to labor with the Menomonees
and surrounding
tribes. The efforts of Andre were rewarded with some conversions among the
former; for Mar-
quette, who visited them in 1673, found many good Christians among them.
    The record of ninety years of French domination in Wisconsin-beginning
in June, 1671,
and ending in October, 1761i-brings to light but little of interest so far
as the Menomonees are
concerned. Gradually they extended their intercourse with the white fur traders.
Gradually
and with few interruptions (one in 1728, 'and one in 1747 of a serious character)
they were
drawn under the banner of France, joining with that government in its wars
with the Iroquois;
in its contests, in 1712, 1729, 1730, and 1751, with the Foxes; and, subsequently,
in its conflicts
with the English.
    'The French post, at what is now Green Bay, Brown county, Wisconsin,
was, along with the
residue of the western forts, surrendered to the British in IT76o, although
actual.possession of the
former was not taken until the Fall of the next year. The land on which the
fort stood was
claimed by the Menomonees. Here, at that date, was their upper and principal
village, the
lower one being at the mouth of the Menomonee river. These Indians soon became
reconciled
to the English occupation of their territory, notwithstanding the machinations
of French traders
who endeavored to prejudice them against the new comers. The Menomonees,
at this time,
were very much reduced, having, but a short time previous, lost three hundred
of their warriors
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