p. 10 and 11

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lie at the sources of the Wisconsin, the Ontanagon, the Chippewa and St.
Croix rivers--they were associated with the Sauks and lived on friendly
terms with the Dacotahs or Sioux: the Fox and Chippewa tribes are
closely affiliated in general origin and in language. (1)

The Indian stocks of the eastern part of the United Sates [States], the Can-
adas, and Hudsons bay have been in a continual progress towards the
West and North-west (2) whilst another stock of people have proceeded
from the direction of the North Pacific towards the Atlantic waters in a
general eastern direction. This race of people live on that part of the
continent lying North and West of Athabasca lake and the river Unjigah.
They are denominated by Schoolcraft Arctides (3) and although one
branch of them has been described by Mackenzie, as called Che-pe-wyans;
yet this Algonquin term, signifying "puckered blankets," has reference
only to the most easterly and southerly division of the race. All that
gives identity to general tradition and distinctive character and language
relates as well to all the tribes extending to the Arctic ocean and west
through the Peace river pass of the Rocky Mountains. Philology brings
into one view all the dialects of a wide spread race who extend from the
borders of the Atnah nation on the Columbia, across the Rocky Moun-
tains eastwardly to the Lake of the Hills and the Mississippi or Chur-
chill river, covering many degrees of latitude and longitude (4). These
two tides of immigration are distinctly marked, and the Arctides may be
therefore supposed to bring their traditions more directly from opposite
portions of the Continent, and from Asia, and it may be inferred, from
more unmixed and primitive sources (5). Some of their traditions are
of a striking character; they believe like the more southerly tribes in the
general tradition of a deluge, and of a paradise or land of future bliss.
They veil the Great Spirit or Creator of the Globe under the allegory of
a gigantic bird. They believe that there was nothing visible but one vast
ocean, upon which the bird descended from the sky, with a noise of his
wings, resembling thunder. The earth as he alighted immediately rose
above the waters. This bird of creative power then made all the classes
of animals, who were made out of earth. They all had precedency to
man. Man alone, the last in the series was created from the integument
of a dog. This they believe was their own origin, and they will not eat the
flesh of this animal as is done by other tribes of the Continent. They
have a tradition that they originally came from a foreign country which
was inhabited by a wicked people. They had to cross a great lake or

(1) Schoolcrafts Red race of America, p. 136.
(2) Schoolcraft tradition of the Arctides. (3) Ibid. (4) Ibid. (5) Ibid.

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water which was shallow, narrow and full of islands; their track lay
through snow and ice and they suffered miserably from cold. They rep-
resent their ancestors as living to very great ages; and describe a deluge
in which the waters spread over the whole earth except the highest moun-
tains on which their progenitors were saved. They have also some notion
of the doctrine of transmigration, and, as is observed by Schoolcraft,
while this numerous family of the red race resemble in many traits the
great Algic race of the eastern part of the Continent, yet in others they
are contra-distinguished from them; and he adds that the farther
North we go, the greater evidences do we behold, of imagination in the
aboriginal race, together with some foreshadowings of future punish-
ment (1).

The Sauks and Foxes according to their accounts originally came from
the mouths of the St. Lawrence and the waters of the New England
coasts; the Winnebagoes formerly dwelt far in the South in certain
marshy places full of stinking waters (2); but being driven thence by
their enemies they came and settled at the Bay des Puans, now Green
Bay; hence the nation was called Les Puans, and the Bay also, from
their original place of residence. According to the map prefixed to Hen-
nepins second edition of his New Discovery, printed in 1698, the Pot-
awatomies occupied a village at the entrance of Fox river into Green
Bay; the Ottawas dwelt at Michilimackinaw; the Leapers at Sault St.
Marie; north of the Wisconsin and between Cape Puans and the Mis-
sissippi, the Illinois are located; and South of the Fox river in the vicin-
ity of Lake Winnebago are seated the Kickapoos. Lake Michigan is
called the Lake of the Illinois and Lake Superior, the upper lake. In
1744 as appears by the map appended to the third volume of Charlevoix's
Nouvelle France, the Sakis are established at Green Bay, the Foxes be-
tween Green Bay and the Mississippi; the Mascontins between Fox river
and Rock river; and the Illinois south of the Mascoutins to the junction
of the Ohio (then called the Ouabache) with the Mississippi.

From the year 1641, when the French Missionaries in the labors of
their religious zeal had penetrated the wilds of the North west, to the
Sault St. Marie at the outlet of the great "Lac Tracy" or Superior, down
to the present day the collection of materials for an accurate history
of events in our region of country is ample and satisfactory.

Beyond that period the antiquary in historical research must
rely on tradition or resort to hypothesis; and in either case he must as-

(1) Schoolcraft Arctides. (2) Hennepin, Chapter LXVIII.