FWRIMOND J. BONDUEL

Missionary to Wiseonsin Territory

By MALCOLM ROSHOLT & Msgr. JOHN BRITTEN GEHL

ROSHOLT HOUSE d One River Drive fli"'ROSholt, Wis. 54473

1 FLORIMOND J. BONDUEL

MISSIONARY TO WISCONSIN TERRITORY

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-41848

Copyright @ 1976 by Malcolm Rosholt One River Drive, Rosholt, Wi. 54473

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.

Printed in the United States of America By Palmer Publications, Inc., Amherst, Wisconsin 54406

2 FLORIMOND ]. BONDUEL MISSIONARY TO WISCONSIN TERRITORY

By Malcolm Rosholt & John Britten Gehl

3 4 • j •

,... c.. IF'.. d. ON 1J .....

"Il, \ , 1, ~"t_j \\" ... .Il t ." I Il_ , ..lL> It, ,I , .) ·1 \. to"'" .~

Lithograph of Florimond J. Bonduel probably made at time of ordination in Detroit in 1834,

5 6 DEDICATED

to the memory of Archbishop B.G. Messmer of Milwaukee and Monsignor Joseph A. Marx of Green Bay, Wisconsin, who early recognized the unique role played by l'Abbe Florimond Joseph Bonduel in the history of Wisconsin and the Catholic church.

7 8 CONTENTS

Dedication...... ; ...... 7 Preface 11 I. First to be Ordained in Detroit 13 II. Bonduel vs. Schoolcraft ~ ...... 22 III. First to Celebrate Mass in Milwaukee 35 IV. Green Bay Missions 39 V. At Prairie du Chien. . 59 VI. Exploring the Mississippi ~ '. .. 66 VII. On the "Payground" 75 VIII. The "Menominee Purchase" 80

IX. Journey to Washington v f II' •••••••••••••••••••• 96

X. Return to the Frontier f ••••••••••••••••••••••••106 XI. William Bruce's Lament 116

XII. A Visit with Solomon Juneau ! •••••••••128 XIII. The Child of Two Mothers 134 XIV. Migration to Keshena 143 XV. Farewell to the Menomini ...... •.....1'57 XVI. A Plea for More Schools 164 XVII. The Two Small Lots of Mme. Vindevoghel 169 XVIII. The Apostolic Missionary ...... 179 XIX. End of the Trail ., ~ 190 XX. Appendix 197

Notes and References ~ . r 228 Index 232

9 10 PREFACE

The word "Menomini," pronounced Menominee, is used throughout the narrative instead of Menominee except where the latter spelling is quoted from an original document. The spelling "Menomini," preferred by anthropologists, is both singular and plural. We wish to express our appreciation to Dr. Maurice E. Perret and Mr. D.W. Ferguson, both of the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point who translated the French and Latin materials found in the Propaganda Fide microfilms and other sources. For research assistance we want to thank the Reverend Mr. Thomas E. Blantz, C.S.C., archivist at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Arthur Fish, and Dr. John Moore, both of the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point, Ms. Helen Simpson, archivist at the Oshkosh Public Library, Jean-Marie Duvosquel of the University of Brussels (Belgium), Msgr. C.A. Ropella of Green Bay, Msgr. Bernard Karol, St. Ignace, Wi., Sister Dorothy Johnson, OSF, St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, and Mary Bires, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. For original letters, pictures and materials we are grateful to the Reverends C. Luke Leitermann, Pickerel, Wi., Lawrence Clark, Mineral Point, Wi., David M. Brehm, Prairie du Chien, Wi., and Joseph F. Rauch, Mackinac, Mi.

Malcolm Rosholt One River Drive Rosholt, Wi. 54473

Msgr. John B. Gehl Route 3 DePere, Wi. 54115

11 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 12 I I I I I I I I. FIRST TO BE ORDAINED IN DETROIT

As he lay in state in St. John's church in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the mourners could see he was not a big man, and in death he seemed even smaller. But in life he had carried himself with such dignity that people always thought of him as taller than he was. It was on Sunday, three days after his death on December 13, 1861 that the Reverend Mr. Florimond Joseph Bonduel was borne away by his high kinsmen of the Catholic church, and by parishioners of St. John's church, and by his friends in Fire Engine companies 1 and 2, and by city fathers 'and citizens riding in carriages and sleighs extending a mile back of the hearse. At the grave side in Allouez cemetery, brief remarks were heard from fellow pastors speaking in French, German and English, for the man they came to eulogize was not only a naturalized citizen of the United States, but an international citizen born in West Flan.ders, then part of the first French Republic, where, by the vicissitudes of history, he got his education under the new Netherlands flag and in 1830 inherited Belgian citizenship under the new Belgian flag. In 1831, he left for the United States and here, three years later on February 9, 1834, he became the first priest to be ordained in St. Ann's Cathedral in the newly-established diocese of Detroit. The· time of his death was also a time of great conflict in the United States, and the stars and stripes had taken on new meaning to the people of the North. For three days during the obsequies, flags flew at half mast in Green Bay in honor of this pioneer priest and missionary, probably the first time this had happened in the history of the city. While his· ministry at St. John's in Green Bay had been comparatively brief, what many people remembered was the time he had served the first St. John's Evangelical when it was located in "Shanty Town," three miles to the south of the present city center. And there must have been some who remembered his beautiful fruit 13 orchard, and others who remembered how he had cared for the new cemetery, later known as Allouez, which lay far up the slope of the hill that looks to the setting sun glinting off the Fox river. Still, no one in that big crowd could be certain what itwas that set this man apart from other men, for he was all too human himself, something of a hot-head, a man of strong feelings, and sometimes given to pettiness. But these shortcomings were outweighed by his unbounded enthusiasm and willingness to help others, to encourage the troubled in spirit, and to promote the welfare of both whites and Indians in his lifelong ambition to ameliorate the human condition. To acconlplish his life's work he overtaxed himself again and again and finally, after hearing confessions in the mission chapel at DePere that cold December day, his body would accept this abuse no longer and he became ill and died a few days later. An obituary in the Green Bay Advocate said that instead of choosing position and wealth in this world, Bonduel had chosen the more "praiseworthy method of serving his Master by carrying the banner of the cross to the untaught Indians by whom he has been truly regarded as a father, looking not more to their spiritual than to their temporal interests [and] meeting with hardships such as fall to the lot of but few men."* 1 The Indians may have been "untaught" to the editors of the Green Bay Advocate, but to a man like Father Bonduel who could speak to them in their own language, the difference between being "taught" or "untaught," became a relative matter, for he saw them, at least on one occasion, as a people "whose innocence and purity of manners [had] rendered them worthy of contemplation of heaven and earth...,,* 2 And the Indians reciprocated this feeling towards their pastor. the Mekatewikwanaie or Black Robe, for he had learned not only their language but he had gone out of his way to help them at a time when this was not a popular thing to do. He had put on the armor of St. George to fight the dragon of racism and bureaucracy. He had gone to the state legislature in Madison to successfully appeal against the removal of the Menomini to the Crow Wing river country in Minnesota and they loved him for it. The people of Green Bay knew him, possibly, as the first priest to say mass in Milwaukee. Of his earlier life and training, however, they knew very little. An official affidavit [in French] sent from Belgium

*lGreen Bay Advocate, Dec. 19, 1861. *2 New York Catholic Diary, Vol. 111,327. 14 to the Probate Court in Brown county, Wisconsin, under date of June 27, 1831, declares that he was born in the eighth year of the French Republic [under Napoleon I] on the second "complimentary day," the son of John Baptist Bonf!uel, 37, a resident and manufacturer of Comines in Belgium, and Marie Katherine Lutun, his wife. According to Archbishop S.G. Messmer, who made a study of the "complimentary days" in the French calendar, Bonduel was born on September 17,1800.*3 A Belgian biography, however, gives his date of birth as September 18, 1799.*4 This discrepancy has never been resolved. The death certificate in Brown county, however, gives his age as 62 at time of death in 1861. As to his youth, the same Belgian biography has this to say: After doing. well in his elementary studies, he was·started on a business career when fate intervened to call him to a higher destiny. Born of very pious parents, he felt developing within him a profound zeal for religion and a strong desire to make it better known and loved. With the consent of his parents, he renounced all his business interests and entered a small seminary at Roulers. When that institution was closed, he went to the seminary at Tournay to begin his study of theology. Before he was re-ceived into the priesthood, he had resolved to consecrate his life to foreign missions. * 5 The commune of ·Comines lies in West Flanders scarcely a stone's throw from the French border and the name 'Bonduel' itself is French, .110t Flemish. The commune also lies about 50 miles west of Waterloo and it is not impossible that as a youth, Bonduel, scarcely young enough to escape military service himself, could hear the distant thunder of heavy guns on that day in June when Napoleon was defeated. The proximity of the event and the rumors that no doubt drifted back from the battlefields made a lasting impression upon him and in late·r years this moment in time often impinged on his consciousness. Despite the vicissitudes and oft-changing flags of nations that followed the Napoleonic wars, the son of Baptist and Marie Catherine Bonduel managed to get a good education, and he must have spent at least a decade in busilless either for himself or as an assistant to his father. But his inclinations lay elsewhere. Fortunately, he had a gift

*3 S.G. Messmer, "The Reverend Florimond Joseph Bonduel, Wisconsin Pioneer Missionary," in The Salesianum (St. Francis, Wisconsin) April 1924, Vol. XIX, No.2, 3-4. *4 l'Abbe L.J. Messiaen, Historie Chronologique et Religieuse des Seigneurs et de fa Ville de Comines (Courtrai, 1892), Vol. III, 485. *5 Ibid. 15 for languages. Besides his native Flemish, he was fluent in French, English and Latin, and had learned sufficient German to read to a German congregation in Green Bay on one occasion. By the time he reached Green Bay in 1838, after four years on Mackinac Island, he probably spoke Chippewa. Since this is the parent language of the Menomini, it gave him a head start in learning that language as well. But he never quite submerged his French accent which led some people to refer to him as "thafelegant Frenchman." Nowhere does Bonduel tell us what led hin1 away from a business career into the priesthood, but he may have been inspired by the Reverend Mr. Peter DeSmet, one of the first Flemish missionaries among the Indians of the American West. DeSmet later returned to lecture before university students in Europe, and Bonduel almost surely heard him speak on one occasion at least. Perhaps it was at this time, around 1830, that he gave up his business career to enter the priesthood. Although the French biography speaks of a "seminary" which he attended at Roulers, it is not certain that this was a religious institution in the modern sense. Most of his training for the religious was taken in Cincinnati after he came to the United States in 1831. He probably supported himself with his own funds while attending the seminary at Cincinnati although later, as a missionary, he was to complain more- than once of his poverty and how hard he had to work to keep the wolf from the door. Still later, when seeking the title of "Apostolic Missionary" from his superiors in Rome, he told them how much of his own money·he had spent in founding missions in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota Territory. He seems to have continued to be enough of a business man, however, to take advantage of his position as a pioneer in the American West to buy choice pieces of real estate at government prices, some of which he kept for himself and some of which he donated to the Detroit or Milwaukee diocese. Both Catholic and Protestant pastors at this time, if they had any investment capital at all, often bought land as an investment, since land values were increasing rapidly, in some areas almost leaping in value. Before he left for the United States, Bonduel must have made contact with the Leopoldine Association of Vienna, and definitely with the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, both newly-created missionary organizations in Europe. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith was founded by laymen at Lyons, France in 1822. Most of the funds raised in France in the 19th Century for mission work abroad., especially in North America,.. were 16 channeled through this organization, and Bonduel seems to l:ave kept the directors of the society informed of his work from time to time. He appears to have departed Tournay, Belgium on July 9, 1831, and sailed from Ostend or Antwerp a few days later. He was accompanied by a fellow seminarian, Ghislenus J. Boheme, 29. After reaching New York, the two men probably went by boat to Buffalo via the Hudson river and Erie canal and then took a lake steamer out of Buffalo to Cleveland. Here they may have changed to a barge on the Ohio canal and sailed to Chillicothe and Portsmouth, and from Portsmouth by river boat on the Ohio to Cincinnati, where Bishop Edward Fenwich was waiting for them. In an expense account submitted to the Paris Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1855, Bonduel says he attended the "College of St. Francis Xavier" in Cincinnati from the autumn of 1831 to the spring of 1833. * 6 His companion, Boheme, was also enrolled here. The college, first known as the Athenaeum, opened October 17, 1831, the first Catholic school of higher learning in the Northwest Territory. Bonduel was no doubt there for the dedication and may also have attended the dedication The corpus or body of Christ believed given to Bonduel in Belgium before he left for the five days later of the Catholic United States in 1831 to begin his mission­ Telegraph, oldest Catholic ary career. The figure is today in the collect­ tion of the Green Bay diocese. newspaper in the Midwest. At the college in Cincinnati he says he prepared himself to work as a missionary in the West, and when not attending classes, he was kept busy catechizing young adults and teaching English to the emigrant children, no doubt mostly German. After a few months at the college, both Bonduel and Boheme were being praised in a

*6 Bonduel to Paris Council, Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide (Society for the Propagation of the Faith), April 26, 1855, in Baraga Collection, University of Notre Dame Archives (hereafter as UNDA). 17 memorandum, written in Latin by Bishop Fenwick, for their excellent scholastic records and piety. ~ 7 In 1833 Bonduel says he was "called" [appele] to the new diocese of Detroit where he continued his studies as a novitiate in preparation for his ordination on February 9, 1834. For several ,months after his ordination he served as one of the assistant pastors at St. Ann's Cathedral under the new bishop, Frederic Rese. High mass was celebrated on Sunday mornings at 11 o'clock for the french-speaking men1bers of the congregation and Bonduel, no doubt, officiated on these occasions. In addition to his pastoral duties, he also served as an instructor in French at the newly-opened St. Clare Academy (in son1e sources as an "institute" or "seminary"), a day school operated under the auspices of the Colletine Poor Clares, a religious community of nuns who came from Bruge in Belgium in 1826 to establish the order in the United States. Sister Mary Frances Vindevoghel came to Detroit from Pittsburgh in 1833 to open the school and she also became its first abbess. In another report to the Paris Council, Bonduel says that while at Detroit he founded "la Mission D'Oconer" north of Detroit and la Mission de la Riviere Rouge, adeuz lieux au sud est du Detroit, " that is, a mission on the Red river, probably not too far from the present Ford Rouge plant, a site which in 1834 lay well outside the city.*8 In still another letter he describes an outbreak of cholera in Detroit in 1834. Three priests besides himself, two of whom were John Martin Henni, later bishop of the ·first diocese in Wisconsin Territory, and Father Martin Kundig, were kept busy serving as doctors and confessors to the cholera victims, bleeding them, and when this failed, administering the last sacrament.*9 Despite the cholera epidemic, it appears that Bonduel found his position at St. Ann's interesting, so interesting in fact that he wanted to impart some of his pent-up intellectual energy to friends in Belgium who were associated with the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, namely Messieurs Rapsaet*10 and Olislagers de Meersenhoven. A long communication is dated June 1, 1834 from

*7 Memorandum by Edward Fenwick, April 26, 1832 in UNDA. Fenwick was bishop of the Cincinnati diocese which at this time took in the entire Northwest Territory. *8 Bonduel to Paris Council, April 26, 1855, UNDA. *9 Ibid, April 25, 1855. *10 The spelling of this name is not clear, nor has it been possible,. temporarily, to identify it. 18 Detroit begins with flattery for the two reverend gentlemen, long and pious sentiments about the Catholic church, praise for the early Jesuit missionaries, an historical overview of French relations with North America, and the beauties of the lakes and rivers of the Northwest.*11 Farther on he refers to the Fox or Outagamie Indians who occupied the territory surrounding Detroit. "Near Monroe [Michigan]" he writes, "it may be pos~ible yet to see an Indian cemetery situated on land which the Indians later donated to the church. On one of his apostolic missions, Bishop [Frederic] Rese visited them and he told'me that the Indians buried their dead not in the ground but in the trees. When one dies, a tree is cut down, and the trunk is split into halves. Both h'alves are then hollowed out and the deceased is incarcerated in the hollowed log." Continuing, he says: "At present we count 3,000 Catholic Indians recently converted throughout the various stations of which the most famous are at l'Arbre Croche and St. Joseph...Detroit is, properly speaking, the center of all Indian missions. It is on the banks of the Detroit river that we must raise the sacred standard in full view of the 50,000 Indians in this area, and to the terror of the Midianites and Amelekites who surround us, pointing out to the holy Levites the land of Canaan, and reawakening in their hearts the consoling hope of seeing in broad day, by the evangelical trumphet, the miracle of Jericho." He then wonders how this can be realized without help in proportion to the needs. "God alone, dear sirs, knows how great these needs are... Oh! How much the condition of the Catholic church in this new diocese cries for help from the Catholics of Europe to increase their giving. The attacks by the Indians, the poverty of the Catholics in general, the burning of our churcll, the cost· of an unjust lawsuit brought against Monsieur Richard*12...as well as a host of other things must convince anyone of our needs and our embarrassments." In addition, 11e points out that the convent school of the Colletine Poor Clares had made a most favorable impressioll on the minds of the people in the city. There were already quite a few resident and

*11 Letter to Paris Council, Propaganda Fide Microfilms, UNDA. *12 Gabriel Richard (pronounced Ree-shard) was sued for libel after a parishioner in Detroit divorced his wife and sought to remarry. Richard put him under the bann of the church and refused him communion. See Frank B. Woodford and Albert Hyma, eds, Gabriel Richard, Frontier Ambassador (Detroit, 1955),117-128. 19 non-resident pupils attending the school which had been named St. Clare Academy and dedicated by the new bishop, Rese. This explanation is followed by a long, rather emotionally exaggerated "compliment" in praise of Bishop Rese's arrival in Detroit and all the many wonderful things that had happened since he had come. Speaking of St. Clare Academy, Bonduel gives his friends this colorful picture: "Classroom examinations are held every three months," he says. "The moral and amusing pieces which they play act after these examinations, the walks and picnics which they give them as a reward for their diligence, please the parents as well as the pupils, driving away prejudice and each day creating new believers. On one of these pleasure tours a steamboat took the children to an island five miles from Detroit. We traveled across the city in a vehicle especially outfitted for the occasion. As soon as we were on board, we sailed to our destination. Hardly had we landed before the children jumped ashore and ran about in a large meadow, shouting and playing. Here we also had a picnic lunch. At five in the afternoon the same boat came to pick us up. There were three musicians on board to conduct us to Detroit to the sound of music, and the Reverend Mr. Martin Kundig, superior of the house of Poor Clares, and I, having brought our flutes along,*13 joined the musicians in their fun. The whole city came out to see this show, as much edified as astonished by the liberal principles of the Catholic priests. This is how prejudices can be diffused and darkness replaced by light through the small ways that Christianity and charity inspire in us, and when peoples' hearts are prepared for a sincere return to God. These are the marvels which we are witness to in our episcopal city. They should interest you, especially, my dear sirs, since they are the fruit of the cares and the piety of the good Sisters who, incidentally, are from Belgium." He concludes his epistle by enclosing a letter he had written to the New York Catholic Diary, published April 29, 1834. This describes the "flourishingn revival of religion since Bishop Rese arrived in Detroit and the progress of new churches abuilding. He was also looking forward to the founding of a Catholic newspaper in the city and was overjoyed at the "prospects of religion" and the excellent rapport that existed between the clergy and the laity, and between the clergy themselves. Bonduel, in the above letter, praises the Colletine Poor Clares and *13 There seems to be some confusion in oral accounts relating to the particular type of instrument played by Bonduel. Some sources use the word "clarinet", but in the list of personal property compiled after his death, the appraisers use the word "flute". 20 indirectly the abbess, Marie Frances Vindevoghel. He would one day regret he ever mentioned her, but it is important to remember, in view of the melodrama that followed 20 years later, that he did praise the poor Clares for performing a useful service in Detroit. The balance of the letter, which is in French, pleads with his friends to help him recover certain religious ornaments which had been sent from Belgium to Bishop Leo De Nechere in New Orleans. The bishop had died in 1833 and there were ornaments among his possessions which the churches in Detroit were in great need of, Bonduel insists, and he begs his friends to write to the proper authorities to reclaim these objects and have them sent to Detroit where there were Belgians who would appreciate their value. Wishing to preserve the grandeur and mystery of the mass, these early missionaries-Bonduel included-made every effort to acquire ornaments to adorn the altars and churches they had built, and while on leave in Europe, they became noted for their capacity to scoop up the very lace, napry and tapestries from the altars and walls of European churches for the benefit of their own churches and chapels in America. The era of good will between .the clergy and laity in Detroit, of which Bonduel wrote so eloquently, was a passing phenon1enon. Dissatisfaction developed shortly after, both within the clergy and between the Colletine Poor Clares and Bishop Rese. The confrontation between the latter two protagonists disrupted the administration of the diocese and probably led to the forced retirement of the bishop, much of the dissension stemming from a small piece of property purchased in Detroit by the abbess, Mme. Vindevoghel, in the bishop's name. Bonduel escaped personal involvement in this affair when he was transferred earlier to the mission on Mackinac Island. Here he worked among French-Canadian traders, Indians and descendants of French-Indian families. And in this field of ·work he would continue, on and off, for nearly a quarter of a century. During this time he would found many missions. He would struggle to keep the Menomini Indians-his Indians as he came to call them-from having to leave· Wisconsin, and he would try, unsuccessfully, to prevent a mixed-blood boy from being taken away fron1 his Indian mother by a mob north of Oshkosh. He would see Wisconsin become a territory in 1836 and a state in 1848, and in 1852 he would travel with the Menomini tribe from Lake Poygan to their new reservation at Keshena Falls. All in all, he would see history in the making and some of it he would make himself. 21 II. BONDUEL vs. SCHOOLCRAFT

It was his first missionary assignment, this trip to Mackinac Island, and it is easy to imagine how thrilled l'Abbe Florimond J. Bonduel was to be on his own at last, how eager he was to be of service in the vinyard of the Lord. Appropriately, it seems, he began his missionary career with a baptism at St. Ann's church on August 16, 1834.*14 He could have arrived on the island the day before that, or earlier,. either on board the schooner White Pigeon, named for a Potawatomi Indian chief, or perhaps on board the schooner Napoleon, named for another chief. As· the vessel approached the island on the day of his arrival, he probably reflected on the blood-soaked terrain before him. It had been an outpost of empire for more than a century under the French and the English, and it was still a link in a chain of trading posts extending all the way out to the Pacific Northwest for the American Fur Company. The French-Canadians referred to this area as pays d'en haut, meaning "the upper country" as opposed to the "lower country" down the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence river. As the crewmen threw the anchor over the side to wait for the small craft to come alongside, the stranger probably noted the long row of log cabins ashore roofed and sided with cedar bark, nearly all in shabby condition in contrast to the neat, white lines of the military garrison commanding the top of the great limestone cliff at the left. On the ridge to the east he probably saw a church and school nestled against the hillside overlooking Lake Huron. That church, the well-known "Mission House", was Protestant, and most of the Establishment on the island was Protestant, including Henry R. Schoolcraft, government Indian agent for Michigan Territory, and Robert Stuart, manager of the American Fur Company's post for

*14 Baptismal record furnished by the Reverend Mr. Joseph F. Rauch, Mackinac Island, Michigan, Dec. 19, 1973 to the authors. 22 many years. The Reverend Mr. William F. Ferry, Presbyterian, who, started the Mission School in 1823, built a church next to the school two years later. He was still there when Bonduel arrived but would . leave in October, later to become the founder of New Haven, Michigan. Surrounded mostly by Protestants, it was clear to see that Bonduel's work was not going to be easy. As he stood there on deck taking in the view, he probably noted the scores of Indian tepees and wigwams along the beach all the way from the village eastward to the end of the curve of the beautiful harbor. He could see, also, no doubt, the long birchbark canoes, high in the bow and stern, out on the straits where the Indians were spearing or netting trout and whitefish. Many of the Indians he saw were Ottawas who had stopped temporarily on the island while en route to pick up a new blanket and other presents from the British on the Canadian side, or were on their way back to the big Catholic mission at l'Arbre Croche [the Crooked Tree], the present site of Harbor Springs on Little Traverse Bay in Lake Michigan. But the majority of the Indians in - this area were Chippewas from the Lake Superior Country, in addition to Potawatomi, Menon1ini, Winnebagoes and Hurons. After the new missionary got ashore, probably one of the first things he did was to inspect the premises of St. Ann's church. It no doubt was named for St. Ann by Father Gabriel Richard of Detroit on one of his visits to the island earlier. How much of the church was part of another structure which was moved from Old Mackinaw across the straits is uncertain. When Gabriel Richard came here the first time in 1799 he described the church as being 25 feet wide and 45 feet long, built of cedar and "very old." Bonduel apparently tried to remodel or enlarge the building but to what extent he succeeded is not clear. In any event it was demolished and the present St. Ann's church bears the dedication date of 1874. In addition to his work on Mackinac, Bonduel founded an annex mission across the bay on Point St. Ignace, burial place of Father Marquette. He also founded a mission on St. Helena Island, a few miles west of St. Ignace in Lake Michigan. In his report to the Paris Council of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, he says he spent 15,000 francs [$3,000] on a school and a "nice church" and rectory at Mackinac, and on a school at St. Ignace.*15 Finally, he says he founded a mission on what may have been Green Island. The entry on this in the record is not clear, but he describes its location as "opposite St. Helena Island and west of Pointe St. Ignace." No

*15 Bonduel to Paris Council, op cit, April 26, 1855. 23 funds were spent on either St. Helena or the other island and it is doubtful whether he ever went back to either. At Mackinac Island, Michigan, and later in Wisconsin, he was mainly concerned with the adults and children of French-Indian families and with the full-blood Indians. In the 20 years or so between his first mission at Mackinac until his retirement from active mission work he says he won 7000 Indians from being carried away by Satan and saved for "the heritage of the Good Shepherd."*16 In a footnote to this he says that this figure included converts made in Michigan as well as in Wisconsin. The figure is probably exaggerated to impress the powers that controlled the purse strings. Although population statistics on the Indians are based on annuity payments and other devices, it seems doubtful whether there were any more than 7,000 Indians in the entire state of Wisconsin at this time, and even fewer in Michigan, most of them in the Upper Peninsula. It seems evident that Bonduel had no difficulty making his presence felt on Mackinac. Writing in The Salesianum, Archibishop Messmer makes this comment about him: "If in Mackinac Fr. Bonduel had to compete with the Presbyterian Mission School, he had to do the same in Green Bay with the Episcopal Mission School, though here the fight was not a bitter one.,,*17 The word "bitter" here is probably too strong because from his own correspondence it seems clear that he had as many friends on Mackinac as he had enemies. The Dominican priest, Samuel Mazzuchelli, served briefly on Mackinac Island before Bonduel arrived. In a letter to Louis Grignon under date of August 12, 1831, Mazzachelli refers to the Reverend Ferry and a "controversy" he was having with him, but fails to explain the nature of this affair.*18 In his own book Memoirs of Father Mazzuchelli, G.P. he also n1akes no mention of it, but whatever it was, some of the legacy of discord apparently had been handed down to Bonduel. However, the white, Protestant presence on the island was on the decline. The Reverend Ferry was leaving the island convinced that saving the Indians from perdition was a fruitless task. Robert Stuart was moving the officers of the American Fur Company to Sault Ste. Marie, and the Indian trade in furs was dwindling because many of

*16 Florimond J. Bonduel, Tableau comparatif entre fa condition morale des tribus Indiennes de I 'etat de Wisconsin (Tournay, Belgium, 1855). See Appendix.. *1 7 The Salesianum, op cit, 11. *18 Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIX, 178. 24 the Indians were being moved to reservations farther to the west and in Minnesota Territory. There is little reason to doubt, however, that Bonduel was himself anti-Protestant at this time, even as most Protestant pastors were anti-Catholic. In the lecture he delivered to the Paris Council in 1855, he makes a caustic reference to "Protestant heretics" in Wisconsin, but the pamphlet this lecture was printed in appeared only in Belgium where no Protestant heretic from Wisconsin was likely to see it, nor does it appear to have been translated into English until now. (See Appendix.) Brief glimpses of his work on Mackinac are found in his correspondence to friends and superiors. For one thing, he had made a deep impression on a teenage girl, namely, Martha Tanner, a

~ .__._ _ . --Courtesy DetroitPublic Library. 25 mixed-blood daughter of John Tanner. She had been made a ward of Lieutenant John K. Pierce of the local garrison post. He was a brother of Franklin Pierce, later president of the United States (1852-57). Lt. Pierce's wife was of mixed French and Ottawa parentage which may explain in part the family's interest in Martha Tanner. Father Mazzuchelli had baptized her when she was eight years old, and when she was 13 or 14, she left Mackinac to enter St. Clare Acaden1Y, the new convent school in Detroit. After she got there, she found that she had to. have a copy of her baptismal certificate and wrote to Bonduel for it. He sent it on to her together with a personal note which reads, in part, as follows: Nothing could afford me a greater pleasure than the perusual of your kind letter which was handed to me this morning by the Rev'd Mr. Pierz.*19 The warm interest I always took both for your temporal and spiritual welfare gives now occasion to rejoice in serving you in full possession of the one and the other. Such is the effect which I expected from your visit to the seminary or convent in which you are now living at present, and I have not the least doubt but the lady that so obstinately was opposed to your going there would feel as happy as yourself if she could be led thither by Providence with motives as generous as your own. But this is a blessing. ...Address frequent and fervent prayers to your God to know his adorable will [and] I shall join mine with yours, very dear child, to obtain a greater success. Apparently when Ms. Tanner left Mackinac, she had wanted to give him a present. Instead, he turns her regret around and says, "You did well, dear child, to forget to give me something...It was not yours, but mine to give.,,*2o At the end of his letter to Ms. Tanner, Bonduel signs his name with an elegant flourish, and within the flourish appears the abbreviation: P.D.S. As a member of an upper-middle class family, he seemed overly conscious of titles and the privileges that usually attend them. Sensing the historic importance of having been first to be ordained in the new diocese of Detroit, he went to Bishop Rese and showed him a letter which he had written and signed with the title Proto Missionarius Sacerdos Michigansis [first to be ordained in Michigan] . The bishop did not approve and instead gave his imprimatur to Proto Sacerdos Detroitensis, "first to be ordained in Detroit," hence the abbreviation P.S.D.*21 *19 Francis Pierz was stationed with the Catholic Ottawa mission at l'Arbre Croche from 1839-1852-George Pare, The Catholic Church in Detroit (Detroit, 1951),602. *20 Bonduel to Martha Tanner, Oct. 11, 1836 in Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. *21 Edwin James, Thirty Years Indian Captivity of John Tanner (1830), reprinted by Ross & Haines, Minneapolis, 1956, 274. 26 The above letter to Martha Tanner sheds new light on one of the children of John Tanner, a man whom Schoolcraft describes in lurid terms and accuses of murdering his brother James in 1846, an accusation which was never proved. Tanner, "the white Indian," was taken captive as a boy at the mouth of the Miami river in Ohio by Shawaneese Indians and was raised by different families of Indians in Michigan and the Lake Superior county. He was twice married to Indian women and was known to the Indians as "the Falcon."* 2 2 Aside from his priestly duties, Bonduel was busy in Mackinac purchasing land for future needs of the Catholic church. The importance of this may have been impressed upon him by Father Stephen T. Badin whom he probably had known in Cincinnati when at the seminary. Badin, a pioneer missionary to Kentucky, could tell him much about the importance of buying land not only for church and school use, but for the timber it contained and the fire wood that could be salvaged to warm the rectory, church and school. Accordingly, Bonduel purchased several parcels of land on Mackinac and deeded them over to Bishop Rese in Detroit. Rese died in Europe in 1871 and after his death his heirs in Germany claimed the land on Mackinac as part of his estate. It was necessary for the diocese to get sworn depositions from three witnesses on Mackinac who remembered that their pastor, Bonduel, had purchased the land for church purposes only. The appeal of the heirs was then turned down by a U.S. court. Sometime, perhaps in the late autumn of 1834, Bonduel had an opportunity to visit the old Catholic mission at l'Arbre Croche, probably traveling by canoe or Durham boat across the straits and down along the coast of lower Michigan to Little Traverse Bay. He did not get around to writing about this trip until February 1835 when he addressed a long letter to the New York Catholic Diary. Here he compares the mission work done at l'Arbre Croche to a jewel in the crown of the bishop's apostolic labors. He tells us that he stayed several days and on one occasion preached to a large congregation of the Ottawa Indians. He describes this experience, in part, as follows: "Nothing was comparable to the attentionlwhich they paid to the familiar discourse in which I addressed them. The attitude of their bodies, the expression of their countenances...the profound uninterrupted silence preserved during the whole time of the instruction, penetrated me with deep esteem for the flock, and

*22 Bonduel to Olislagers de Meersenhoven, Mackinac, Oct. 7, 1836, UNDA 27 respect for their pastor, Rev't Simon Saenderl...But my admiration was especially increased during the time when the pastor, taking into his hands the unleavened bread, prepared for the august sacrifice of the mass and lifted up his eyes towards heaven, the source of all grace, religiously thanked the eternal Father, blessed the mystic elements of the sacrifices and, with much fear and love, pronounced on them the efficacious words of the consecration; then these fervent Christians united their prayers with those of the angels, and humbly prostrated themselves...The silence was immediately broken by that beautiful hyn1n adoro te, *23 etc. which they sang in their own language.*24 Bonduel says he was almost overcome with emotion at the sight and sound of these many Indians receiving the sacrament of communion. Recalling the sacredness of the occasion, he takes the readers of the New York Catholic Diary to task for having been deceived about the Indians, and for the prejudices of their own educational system. "Go and interrogate these people," he insistR, "whose innocence and purity of manners have rendered them worthy of the contemplation of heaven and earth..." In this manner Bonduel gives us a clue to his own attitude towards the Indians. They are not sub-human; they are men and won1en with human wants and feelings, accountable to one God, or Great Mystery, even as the white man and the black man is accountable. But his letter reveals a certain naivety about them he would one day overcome. He was just beginning his missionary career and he seems to have been taken in by what he thought was a compliment to himself and his preaching when the Indians remained silent and attentive. Later he would learn that courtesy in listening to others was an Indian virtue observed long before l'Arbre Croche. Despite unfavorable weather over Lake Michigan, but trusting to God-and his good Indian sailors-Bonduel returned to Mackinac where he immediately gave thanks for the success of his mission. In October and December 1836 he wrote a short letter and a long letter. The short one, dated October 7th, was apparently addressed

*23 Adoro te, literally "I entreat thee," a hymn ascribed to St. Thomas Aquinas. It appeared in the 1570 revised edition of the Missal or mass book used in the Catholic church until Vatican II. The song is the embodiment of a belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

*24 New York Catholic Diary, Vol. III, 327. 28 to a close friend in Tournay, Belgium.*25 In this he complains bitterly about Messrs. Rapsaet and Olislagers. It may be recalled that he had written to them from Detroit two years earlier, expecting that his epistle, filled with descriptive n1aterial about the Detroit diocese and Catholic missions in the Northwest, would be published in the French press, but it was not. He also had sent somewhat the same letter to the Leopoldine Association in Vienna and this was published. An American consul saw it and wrote to Bishop Rese to compliment the author on it. But this was not enough. The rejection, or possibly the neglect shown by his two friends, was too much for the zealous publicist and he vows never to write to them again. It was probably just as well that Olislagers, at least, never saw this letter. A few years later he was "recommending" Bonduel to Bishop Peter Paul Lefevre, who had replaced Rese in Detroit, saying he had received interesting letters fron1 Bonduel and that Bishop Rese had said that he was a "distinguished missionary whom he held in highest esteem and [who could not] be praised too highly."* 2 6 In the October 7th letter he also tells his friend that he has traveled quite extensively among the Indian missions of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, and that it had cost him 27,000 or 28,000 francs and that "a book could scarcely contain all that I could write about the pains, the labors, the cares, the inequitudes and even, I dare say, since it is for God, the tears which these places have cost me. " But he assures his friend that to the astonishment of the heretics [read Protestants], not to mention Catholics, the whole amount had been nearly repaid. The following spring he was going to Mill-Waky to start another mission and "I will be the first priest to ever say mass there. What happiness! What glory!" In the second letter that year, dated December 4th, he was writing [in French] to the Paris Council, but here he actually gives his letter a heading, viz: "Miscellaneous accounts, political, religious and literary.,,* 27 In this he complains that the spiritof heresy propagated by the Presbyterian mission on Mackinac had taken deep root and "destroyed the temporary efforts of our best missionaries." It was the youth especially, he thought, who had been entrusted to the care of the mission who had been affected the most and "drunk the fatal

*25 Bonduel to ? ,Mackinac Island, Oct. 7, 1836, UNDA. *26 Olislagers de Meerseenhoven, Tournay, March 25, 1842 to Lefevre, in Detroit Papers, UNDA. *27 Bonduel to Paris Council, Mackinac, De~. 4, 1836, UNDA. 29 poison." He considered that the spirit of liberty, so badly misunderstood in America, had been matched by a contempt for holy things, particularly as it related to persons who had consecrated themselves to God. He thought that the immorality, disorder and corruption that followed upon the heels of this spirit of liberty were all "sinister signs of the long and painful fight which waited me before I found the remedy for these great evils." He had to force Catholic families to entrust their children to him, he says, and when this was done he instructed them, and taught them hymns, no doubt leading them on his flute. In fact, they had taken to singing with so much enthusiasm that within a few months "the entire island of Mackinac could hear the echoes of the praises of the Lord." He also tells the Paris Council of a woman who had been abused by her husband, an alcoholic. With her child, she had fled from Mackinac in mid-winter across the ice to St. Ignace. Both froze to death, and were brought back to Mackinac and buried in the Catholic cemetery located on the island. "Big crowds of mourners,. both Catholic and Protestant, attended the funeral," he says, deeply nl0ved by this bond of ecumenical friendship. Sometime after the Reverend Ferry left the island, a "Reverend" Stevens*28 arrived to conduct a series of revival meetings which Bonduel thought were "a corrupt imitation of our Catholic spiritual retreats." He says it is at these revivals "that the Portestants believe the holy spirit communicates with them in their h~art, but it is not difficult to understand the nature of this holy spirit when one witnesses the extravagent acts w.hich the people perform. They imagine they are saints and give themselves the names of saints, while considering everyone sinners (sic) who do not belong to their faith, meaning all Catll0Iics," He also charged Stevens and his wife with bringing confusion into his parish and creating disharmony among local families. "One person came to my house and said, 'Mr. Bonduel, this woman [Stevens' wife] is still in my house and she says you are a pagan and a sinner.' " On hearing this, Bonduel says he took a copy of the Protestant Bible and The Cathechism of the Council of Trent and went to Stevens to challenge him to a public debate. When Bonduel arrived at the house of Stevens he says he spoke "coolly but politely to his wife." Trembling with fear, she called to her husband. After Stevens

*28 No doubt Jedidiah D. Stevens and wife Sabrina, both mentioned in Edwin O. Wood, Historic Mackinac, Vol. 1,401 as "teachers". 30 came in, Bonduel con1plained about the insulting remarks he had heard about himself and warned Stevens that it was time to put an end of this. He ended his visit by challenging him to show his "flock" which side "contained the truth." Bonduel was under the impression that Stevens was an ordained minister and therefore refers to his "flock" which apparently was not necessary. Shortly after Stevens left the island, the Presbyterian Home Mission Board sent another teacher to Mackinac with specific instructions to open a school at St. Ignace. "But our good Canadian Catholics," Bonduel writes ruefully, "refused to trust him with their children [and] he returned to Mackinac, but he did not seem to resent my efforts to have him thwarted." Bonduel left Mackinac in the spirng of 1835 to visit Detroit. Frederic Baraga, who was also beginning a long and arduous career among the Indians of the Lake Superior country, mentions seeing Bonduel at Detroit and that he was having difficulty finding transportation back to Mackinac.*29 In his absence, the Presbyterians had been preparing to establish a school at St. Ignace. Unfortunately for the Catholics, Lewis Cass, secretary of war, passed through Mackinac at this time accompanied by Stevens T. Mason ex-officio governor of Michigan Territory. The two men apparently agreed, secretly, to provide $390 from government funds to open a . Protestant school at St. Ignace. If this was a clandestine decision, it was probably illegal, although the government had adopted a policy of supporting schools for Indians whether under Protestant or Catholic supervision when this was available. Separation of church and state here was overlooked under the circumstances, because clerics were hired to teach secular subjects to the Indians although the distinction between secular and religious subjects was not important. It was all meant to "civilize" the Indian. Bonduel, hearing, no doubt, about the rumors of aid for a Protestant school in St. Ignace, was concerned because his own school at St. Ignace was not ready to open yet. However, to forestall any eventually, he had managed to get an option on the only available vacant building in the village. He also got the key to the building. Two days before the Protestant school teacher was .to leave for St. Igance he called on Bonduel, and by a coincidence, found Bishop Rese a guest at the house. The three men then tried to be polite in

*29 Baraga to Rese, Detroit, May 21, 1835, in Detroit Papers, UNDA. 31 each other's company, as befits civilized men, and they discussed the literary beauties of the Bible. Finally, the Protestant teacher said, "Mr. Bonduel, would you object if I were to go to St. Ignace and teach Catholic children?" I cannot tell you not go go," Bonduel allegedly replied, "since I am not your superior, but I do not like that Catholic families should trust the education of their children to persons not of their own faith and it' would be impossible for you not to indoctrinate them if you were faithful to what you believe yourself." The next day the teacher left Mackinac bound for St. Ignace, crossing the strait in a boat accompanied by several ladies from the Presbyterian mission, all singing hymns to God. Arriving there, the owner of the school building said he could not open the door since he did not have a key to the building. In his letter to the Paris Council on this episode, Bonduel concludes with a bit of doggerel in which both Neptune and Jupiter are introduced to celebrate this small victory over a Protestant school teacher. Bonduel admits that he had the key to the building in his own pocket. A year or so before the incident with the school teacher, Bonduel had been called to St. Ignace by a young Indian male who had been converted to Catholicisn1 by Baraga, but later left the church. "I crossed the lake several times to see him," Bonduel says, "but he refused to take confession and was nearly lost to the faith. When he became ill, I permitted an Indian doctor to call on him and see whether he could cure the patient of his ailment through the medium of magic. I took the opportunity to meet this extraordinary doctor in the hut of the Indian after someone in the village urged me to go there and see what was going on. The doctor was sitting next to the patient, holding a big knife in his hand, and I told him that if he could cure the young man by his magic, I would give him $200. Since he did not accept my offer I threatened him with God's wrath unless he abandoned his sorceries. I made him understand what tortures and torments God had prepared for people who do not believe in Him. Whereupon he grew pale and threw an angry glance at me. All this had a happy effect on the spirit of the patient who at once dismissed the doctor, and accepted confession. Eight days later he died in true sentiments of penitence. However, the Devil wanted to take revenge on me for this conquest." Bonduel knew that the Devil was after him for he says, "during the time I spent in the salvation of his [the patient's] soul, an Indian woman...began spreading malicious rumors about me. I did not do anything about it until the day of the funeral for the young man. 32 1'he won1an was at the funeral and after the service I had her arrested. Found guilty, she would have been put in jail, but sentence was C0111111uted after she agreed to visit all the families she had talked to and beg them for her forgiveness. In the future I told her to mark her words. This was a severe sentence but necessary in order to put an end to the slanders created by enemies among both Catholics and Protestants." . In this letter to the Paris Council he also believes that conditions at St. Ignace were especially fav~rable for the Catholic church and would attract people from more families in the future. On the other side of the coin, he thought the treaty concluded at Mackinac between the government and the two Indian tribes, the Ottawa and Chippewa, on March 28, 1836, was a farce. He accuses both Secretary of War Cass and Henry Schoolcraft of undermining the best interests of Catholics through a clause in the treaty although he fails to identify the clause. Schoolcraft, he says, hailed the treaty as a monument of triumph to the Indians "despite the fact that the law forbids the sale of a single barrel of whisky by the horde of barbarians who furnished it to them." Some of the "barbarians," he admits sadly, were his own parishioners. He then quotes Jean de la Fontain: La raison du plus fort est tourjours la meileure! [The reason of the strongest is always the best.] Further on in this correspondence he refers to a letter written to the editor of an Illinois newspaper, the Galena Gazette & Advertiser, by someone signing his name as Veritas which concerned the treaty of 1836 with the Ottawa and Chippewa nations.. One of the- clauses in the treaty made it plain that no one, unless born or living within the district of the lands ceded to the government, was entitled to participate in a division of a sum of $150,000, but Veritas alleges that the treaty was negotiated "for the special benefit of Mr. Schoolcraft's friends and his wife's relations," a statement in which Bonduel heartily concurs. In fact, he insists that the family of Schoolcraft stood. to gain one-fifth of the $150,000 while other Ottawa and Chippewa families who had "more legitimate rights to this n10ney got nothing." Schoolcraft was married to a woman of French-Chippewa descent, and the reference to "Schoolcraft's friends and his wife's relations" hints at the Chippewa relatives of Mrs. Schoolcraft who, according to legend, were legion. Several of the last pages in this long correspondence are taken up with helpful comments about fellow missionaries and their work, as 33 well as descriptive materials about the Indian trib.es of the Lake Superior country. Bonduel also mentions that he has already been to Green Bay twice, once in 1835, and again in 1836 when he accompanied Bishop Rese there. And by now he is convinced that progress in religion is no less rapid an10ng "civilized races" that it is among "inhabitants of the forest," and that there are not enough missionaries to meet the demand. He refrains from referring to the Indians as "uncivilized," but calls them "inhabitants of the forest" instead. Finally, he refers back to Detroit where he fears the growing influence of the Episcopaleans. He cites the new Episcopal school, St. Philippi College, as evidence. He castigates the newspapers in Detroit, too. Hear this: "From all sides there are appeals for spiritual help, and from all sides the people are thirsty for the word and consolation of religion, but instead they are attacked by the enemies of our religion [who] vomit thousands of impious papers and defamations to kill the moral life of society-a society which is headed towards its own dissolution. Hence, the spirit of persecution and fanaticism marches forward with torch in hand...using the night to consume our most beautiful religious and literary institutions. And in the land of the free there is vandalism a thousand times n10re barbarian than the one we read about with awe from the annals of the 5th Century."* 3 0 To bolster his own fears for the future, he takes comfort in the thought that the "father of lies" [the devil] is as active in America as in Europe, and to prove his point, he refers to the infamous Maria Monk who titilated Protestant readers of the 19th Century with her book, Awful Disclosures, allegedly an account of her life in a convent in Montreal, Canada. Bonduel encloses in his letter a long article' from the Catholic Diary written by a Protestant, William L. Stone, who attempts to refute the awful disclosures of Maria Monk.*31

*30 No doubt a reference to the depredations of the Vandals and final break-up of the Roman Empire. The "spirit of persecution" to which he alludes is probably a reference to the dark days of the French Revolution when Catholicism in France was being exorcised, or it could refer to the wanton destruction of the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1833, or even to the looting and burning of the first Catholic church at Sault Ste. Marie not long after. *31 From the New York Catholic Dairy, Oct. 15,1836. 34 III. FIRST TO CELEBRATE MASS IN MILWAUKEE

By 1835 schooners and lake steamers were carrying on a fairly steady passenger and cargo service between Detroit, Mackinac, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago, and it was easy to commute from one point to the other, at least when the lakes were ice free. Sometime that summer, Bishop. Rese asked Bonduel to leave his mission work on Mackinac Island for a few days and go to Green Bay. Perhaps he wanted him to inspect the Catholic mission located in "Shanty Town"* 3 2 which then lay in the area of the present Allouez cemetery. Or he may have wanted him to attend the first sale of public lands in the future state of Wisconsin on August 17th. We know that Bonduel arrived in Green Bay before July 7th, for on that day he wrote to Louis Grignon in Kaukauna to say that since his arrival he had learned that Grignon's daughter, Elizabeth, had been forced to discontinue teaching at the school for Indian children in "Shanty Town" owing to a lack of funds. He was confident that Louis would do everything in his power to help the situation and furthermore, that the school could "not be directed by hands better than those of Miss Grignon."* 3 3 He was also expecting James Duane Doty back from Chicago and was sure the latter would find some means to assist "the work of God." The initials P.S.D. appear below his signature. Actually, there were two big tracts of government land coming up for sale, one lying between Fort Winnebago [Portage] and the "four lakes" [Madison]-and the other at Milwaukee. The first tract, as mentioned, was being offered on August 17th, and the other on August 31st.*34

*32 Bella French thinks that the name "Shanty Town" came from an army expression which referred to any store or grog shop as a "Shanty Town". See Bella French, History ofBrown County (Green Bay, 1876),45. *33 Original letter in collection of the Reverend Mr. C. Luke Leitermann, . Pickerel, WI. *34 Green Bay Intelligencer, June 13,1835. 35 Ostensorium brought back to Green Bay by Bonduel and now in Neville Public Museum.

36 Solomon Juneau, pioneer business n1an and trader of Milwaukee, attended at least one of the sales of public lands held that summer in Green Bay, and it seems quite possible that he met Bonduel there earlier in the summer, although there is no evidence that the latter remained in the Bay area after the letter he wrote to Louis Grignon on July 7th. Nor is there any evidence that Bonduel purchased any land either for himself or the church at this time. Mter his visit to Green Bay he returned to Mackinac and continued his mission work. In 1836 and 1837 he was in Detroit on at least two occasions, and it was probably on the last visit to see his bishop that he diverted his footsteps to visit Milwaukee in 1837. He offers no clue to the route he took, but his presence there at this time is confirmed by his expense account to the Paris Council which reads as follows: La Grande Mission Mere de Milwaukie(sic) fondee au mois D'aout 1837 sur Ie Lac Michigan oi I'Ouest [I founded the great mother mission at Milwaukee, lying on the west coast of Lake Michigan, in August 1837]. He does not say he celebrated mass because the expense account was concerned with the business end of establishing missions, not ecclesiastical matters. But it may be recalled that in a letter to a friend in Belgium that he had said "next spring I shall go to Milwaukee to establish another one [mission]. I shall be the first priest who has said mass there..." Solomon Juneau had no doubt assured him that if he got there in 1837 he would be first.* 3 5 Peter Leo Johnson suggests that Father Bernard Schaeffer can1e from Chicago to Milwaukee on April 10, 1837 to baptize five children, two of whom were the children of Solomon Juneau, and that Schaeffer was therefore the first Catholic priest to visit Milwaukee. But the record of baptisms in St. Mary's church in Chicago do not show that Schaeffer went to Milwaukee, merely that five children with parents in Milwaukee were baptized. The Juneau family and others almost surely went by lake boat to Chicago to have their children baptized, for it was not uncommon for people in pioneer days to travel long distances to reach an ordained clergyman, either to be baptized or to get married.*3 6

*35 Two previous attempts have been made to authenticate this first mass, one by Archbishop S.G. Messmer, and the other by Msgr. Peter Leo Johnson. See "Milwaukee's First Mass" in The Salesianum, January 1936, Vol. XXXI, No.1, 74-80, and also Peter Leo Johnson, Stuffed Saddlebags (Milwaukee, 1942),204. *36 "The First Chicago Church Records" in Illinois Catholic Historical Review, Vol. III, April 1921, 404-431. Father John Mary Ireneus St. Cyr, the first Catholic priest in Chicago, was assisted by Father Schaeffer from 1836 to April 1837 at which time St. Cyr returned to St. Louis.-Letter of St. Cyr in Chicago Historical Society. 37 Other sources suggest that Father Theodore van den Broek established a mission in Milwaukee before Bonduel. If Van den Broek is quoted correctly, he may have been confused, or his words misunderstood, because there is no evidence presently available to confirm this claim. Moreover, his baptisn1al records at Little Chute, Wisconsin, show that at no time did he ever get farther south than Green Lake, Portage and Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin. The obituary on Bonduel which appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel fails to mention this first mass. But two later references in the Sentinel do, namely on November 27, 1869 and on August 25, 1870. The story on November 27th states that Bonduel "celebrated mass in August 1837 in the residence of the Hon. Solomon Juneau then situated in the center of the lot now designated as the Mitchell Bank. The building was destroyed by fire in April 1843."* 3 7 Solomon Juneau was not only the first mayor of the village but also its first postmaster. On July 13, 1837, about two years after he moved to Milwaukee fron1 Green Bay, he conveyed two lots on the East Side to Bishop Rese of the Detroit diocese for church purposes.*3 8 The lots are located on the northwest corner of East State and North Jackson street where St. Peter's church was begun in 1838, the first Catholic church in the future city.*3 9 It has been suggested that Juneau donated these two lots to Bonduel, but since the latter did not reach Milwaukee until August, he was not there, at least, when they were conveyed and furthermore the deed makes no mention of him. After his visit to Milwaukee in 1837, Bonduel may have sailed south to Kenosha where he says he founded a n1ission. Since the entry in his expense account follows the entry on the first mass in Milwaukee, it seems reasonable to assume that the Kenosha mission was also founded in August, 1837. From Kenosha, or Milwaukee, he returned to Mackinac Island where he remained, at least until August 3, 1838,*40 his last baptismal entry. He had been ordered by Bishop Rese to take over the mission work in Green Bay. *37 The one-time Mitchell Bank property on this site in Milwaukee is currently listed as 207 East Michigan avenue. *38 Volume E of Deeds, 61, Milwaukee county, WI. *39 St. Peters church was later moved to the campus of St. Francis Seminary as a museum, Qut more recently moved to the ethnic museum complex of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Eagle, WI. under the sponsorship of the Knights of Columbus chapter of Milwaukee. *40 The Reverend Mr. Joseph F. Rauch, Mackinac, Dec. 19, 1973 to the authors. Antoine Ivan Rezek in History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette (Houghton, MI. 1907), Vol. II, 184, gives August 30th as the last baptismal entry which appears to be an error. 38 IV. GREEN BAY MISSIONS

When Bonduel arrived in the Green Bay area in the summer of 1838, he found a village that was bursting at the seams with new hotels, business places, shops and docking facilities. Daniel Whitney was even getting ready to launch a lake schooner made in his own drydock in "Navarino," the new village he had platted in 1828 at the junction of the Manitoo [Devil] and Fox rivers, the present downtown Green Bay.*41 Later, James Duane Doty, acting for the American Fur Company, entered a small plat directly south of Navarino and called it "Astor" after the New York fur trad~r, now dead. The two villages came together in 1838 to form the borough of Green Bay, now a city as well as a body of water lying between the "thumb" and "glove" of northeastern Wisconsin. The new missionary, however, did not stop in Green Bay but went south on the Military Road, following the east bank of the Fox river as far as "Shanty Town." It was along this stretch of the river, on both the east and west banks, that the first inhabitants, mostly French-Canadians and mixed-bloods, were living. These people were squatters on long slips of land running back from the river known as "private claims," and recognized by previous governments as such. When the United States took jurisdiction of th'e Bay area, following the war of 1812, these "private claims" were also recognized, surveyed, and given legal status according to nunlbers. They are still referred to in legal -documents affecting this stretch of the river as "private claims" and not by section numbers or quarter-sections, etc. The first court house for Brown county was located in "Shanty town" and the first trading posts operated by the Daniel Whitney's

*41 The spelling Manitoo appears in the Green Bay Intelligencer of Feb. 19, 1834, and it seems significant that the Indian word commonly spelled Manitou today was, to the white man, then associated chiefly with an evil spirit, although the Indians saw it as both good and evil. The Devil river appears on Lapham's map of Wisconsin of 1850 as the East river. 39 and the Robert Irwin's were located" here. It seemed like the logical place to establish a church, too. In fact, the Episcopalians had already done so, for no one could have foreseen how fast the other community at Navarino-Astor would grow and eclipse the other. Actually, the first Catholic church within the present state of Wisconsin was located a block south of an old French cemetery that was probably laid out around 1745. The cemetery was a rectangular parcel of ground running south of the present Crooks street, roughly paralleling Adan1s street near to the intersection of Washington and Adams. (See plat.) This first church, called St. Francis Xavier, was begun in 1823, probably of log construction, but not finished before 1825. It was used as a chapel and school house for about three years before it burned in 1828. In 1831, after two visits to Green Bay, Bishop Edward Fenwick of the Cincinnati diocese (the Detroit diocese was not created until 1833), ordered construction of a church to be located in "Shanty Town." Two early plats show this church standing "in the northwest corner of the present Allouez cemetery, fronting on the old Military Road (today Highway 57), while the new cemetery platted in connection with the church stood on a ridge more than 250 feet east of the church. The description on this property also provided for an alleyway, 20 feet wide, running from the church lot down to the Fox river. It was important at this time to have access to the river as well as to any highway. Not long after the new cemetery was created, the remains of the Langlades and Grignons, once buried in the old French cemetery, were disinterred and removed to the new cemetery first called "Bellevue," after the township, but later known as Allouez. Bonduel took pride in caring for this new church as well as for the newly-established cemetery. It has been argued by some historians that St. John's Evangelist church which Bishop Fenwick ordered construction on in 1831, actually stood on the hill to the south of the cemetery in "Bellevue." In 1922 a big door key was excavated by workmen in this area, suggesting that a building might have stood here once. Unfortunately, there are now two keys allegedly found on this site and no hard evidence that either fit the door of a church. Bonduel's house is identified on the accompanying plat. St. John's Evangelist church, also identified, was conceived by the architect-priest, Samuel Mazzuchelli, who explains in his own biography that it was 38 feet wide and 80 feet long, "all put together with skill and proportion by the well-trained American 40 ra Agne. Brlquet.t daught.r of J. P. & Nancy OOU""""

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Both plats above, ca. 1840, show same general area in Private Claim 17 of Brown county. Upper plat shows location of two lots purchased in name of Marie Frances Vindevoghel, Abbess of St. Clare Seminary in Detroit. Bonduel's house stood near store on old Military Road.

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Village of Astor before incorporation with Navarino in 1838 to found new city of Green Bay. "Creek" (upper) is East river. Note location of first cemetery, 1745-1835, and location of first church in Wisconsin.

42 carpenters...*42 He thought it would last for centuries. Unfortunately, most frame buildings could burn faster than a fire engine company could reach them, and this one too was destroyed by fire in 1847. The congregation at St. John's was served first by Mazzuchelli, and at different times by the Reverend Mr. Theodore Van den Broek, an immigrant from Holland, and also by a new order of preachers to Wisconsin known as the Redemptorists. The first Redemptorist father to serve here was the Reverend Mr. Simon Saenderl who arrived in August 1832 to relieve Mazzuchelli. Father Francis Haetcher arrived in October. Both men nearly starved to death the first winter for lack of funds and food. Vicar-General Frederic Rese, then at Cincinnati, failed to back up his missionaries in Green Bay. Father Sanderl left the "Shanty Town" mission in August 1833, while Haetcher continued another year. In November 1835 Saenderl returned, accompanied by another Redemporist, Joseph Proust. The latter remained until May 1836, and Saenderl until August that year. Haetcher returned in August and continued until May 1837 when he too left, never to return. In addition to lack of support, the Redemptorists were thwarted by Protestant missionaries sent out by the Domestic & Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal church. The Episcopaleans had established a school for Indian children in "Shanty Town" as early as 1829. They had moved into this area when the Society sent Eleazer Williams and others west to Green Bay in the 1820s with the "New York Indians," that is, the Brothertowns, Stockbridges, Munsees and Oneidas. The Catholics in Green Bay appealed to Father Haetcher not to leave and promised him their loyal support despite malicious rumors which were being circulated about him by the Protestants. Disillusioned, probably as muc~ with his own bishop as with the Protestants, he decided to leave. Thus when Bonduel arrived more than a year later, he was again stepping into a difficult position. But at least he had the support of his bishop, that is, of Rese. What he faced was the Protestant opposition led mainly by the Reverend Mr. D.E. Brown, the new superintendent of the Indian mission school. This school was located less than a mile south of St. John's church. There is no evidence that a separate building was ever erected by the Catholics for a school. Instead, part of St. John's church was

*42 Samuel Mazzuchelli, Memoirs Historical and Edifying of a Missionary Apostolic (Chicago 1915), 59-60. 43 probably utilized for this purpose. After the Redemptorist fathers left, schoolwork was apparently discontinued, although Father Van den Broek came over from his mission at Little Chute from time to time to celebrate mass in the church. According to oral tradition, he often forgot to bring his record book along, although who could blame him for not wanting to carry anything on a 20-mile hike? Lacking his record book, he wrote the name of the child baptized or the person deceased on the inside of the sacristy door. How many names were thus preserved is not known but the door was considered of such importance that special efforts were made to save it when the church burned in 1847. Although the door was preserved into the 20th Century, it too has since disappeared. The Indian children and mixed-bloods at "Shanty Town" were taught primarily by Rosalie Dousman, with Elizabeth Grignon as one of her assistants. It was, no doubt, Mazzuchelli who suggested to Bishop Fenwick that Mrs. Dousman be hired for the job. In his book written years later, Mazzuchelli refers to a certain teacher as "that zealous and prudent person...mistress of the Menominee language, and familiar with both English and French...*4 3 He fails to give her name although he was obviously referring to Mrs. Dousman who, incidentally, spoke Chippewa, not Menomini. Her grandmother was a Chippewa and since she grew up in Mackinac, she had learned the language of her grandmother's people. After receiving a formal French education in Quebec, she returned to Mackinac where she married John Dousman (originally as d'Housemann) and they moved to Green Bay where he invested in real estate but died suddenly in 1825, leaving a widow and seven children. She then sought employment in parochial teaching, a profession she was to follow the rest of her life, first in Green Bay, where she met Bonduel no doubt, later at Lake Poygan and finally at Keshena. Two daughters, Kate and Jane, also taught at Keshena for many years. A few months after Bonduel arrived in Green Bay, there were three other Catholic missionaries working in Wisconsin Territory, namely, Van den' Broek at Little Chute, Patrick O'Kelly at Milwaukee and Frederic Baraga at La Pointe on Madeline Island. There is little to report on Bonduel's residence in Green Bay aside from several new missions he founded. He wrote no long letters, apparently. Some time in 1839 Paul Ducharm, a former neighbor who once lived in "Shanty Town" but had removed to Kaukauna, wrote to him about some Potawatomi Indians who had arrived at his

*43 Mazzuchelli, ibid, 51. 44 place from St. Joseph, Michigan. The Potawatomi as a tribe had been forced to move to the west of the Mississippi by the government but many of them were trying to evade this order by moving into Wisconsin. Ducharm's letter is not available, but Bonduel wrote to him from Green Bay on July 1, 1839 [in French] as follows: I am very sorry that I can not accompany our good Indians as far as your home where I had a strong wish to see you. I have requested those good people [the Menomini] to receive the Potawatomi of St. Joseph among them, that is to say, the Catholic Potawatomi who must soon leave St. Joseph by order of the government. They have a priest with them who will probably accompany them. I shall myself ask the Bishop for permission to reside among them.*44 They have approved my proposal and I am confident that you will encourage them in that opinion. You will greatly oblige Bishop Rese and you will do a great service to Catholic Indians at St. Joseph and to the Menominees. I only ask that you keep this quiet until the matter is settled.*45 ,A short time after he arrived in the Bay area in the summer of 1838, Bonduel on September 1st purchased from Vitallus Solomon and wife Mary a parcel of land in "Shanty Town" containing a quarter of an acre for which he paid $125.*46 On November 16th, he purchased a lot from the Solomons for $500,*47 and on December 10th he purchased an acre from Joseph Ducharm and wife Mary for $100.*48 On February (date omitted) 1839 he purchased 15 acres from Paul Ducharm for $120,*49 and on February 18th "he purchased- 7.10 acres from Joseph Ducharm for $500.*50 Since all five descriptions appear to lie in Private Claim No. 17, it seems that Bonduel was attempting to consolidate a piece of ground for himself and for future church purposes. According to an early plat, he built or bought a house already on this property. It was also on this tract that he developed a big fruit orchard which came to be something of a landmark in its time. It probably lay on the flat

*44 The French text is not clear. Was he planning to reside among the Potawatomi band that had come up from St. Joseph, or was he planning to join a band which was' being removed to the west of the Mississippi? In any event, nothing came of this. *45 Bonduel to Ducharm, Green Bay, July 1, 1839, in Lawe Family Papers, Chicago Historical Society. *46 K of Deeds, Brown county, 277. *47 K of Deeds, 353-354. *48 K of Deeds, 373-374. *49 K of Deeds, 513-514. *50 K of Deeds, 466-467-468. 45 ground to the south of present Mirmar avenue fronting on the old Military Road. Some idea of the care and planning that went into this fruit orchard is provided in a law suit which was initiated by Bonduel in the fall term of circuit court in 1841 against one Charles Kensler for illegal trespass. In pioneer times, one of the facts of life that people had to live with, whether in Wisconsin or Kansas, was the constant threat of trespass. Someone was either cutting timber where he was not supposed to be cutting, or he was using a road without permission, or he was allowing his cattle to stray into a neighbor's garden or meadow. There were no fences and cattle and swine were expected to find their own fodder. The only defence against "estray" cattle, as they are called in numerous advertisements, was for the land owner ,to build a rail fence, or picket fence of some kind, around his garden or orchard. Board cull fencing was also used where there were sawmills nearby, but rail fencing was most common. There was one big drawback: the rail fence could be torn down without much trouble, or even carried off. And this is what happened to the fence of the master-gardner, Bonduel, a man who came from a land where gardening and vinyards are not only a necessity but an art form. As the complainant in the action, he was suing for $600 in damages, charging that Kensler had not only carried off his rail fences, but that "divers other horses, mares, cows and hogs did buck down, tear up,consume and destroy...100 current bushes, 100 raspberry bushes, 100 vines, 100 cherry trees and 200 apple trees, and 300 bushels of other kinds of great value...,,* 51 In addition, Kensler was charged with entering the house of Bonduel and "did then and there break, injure and destroy divers, to wit: two locks, 40 hinges, 50 staples, 20 doors of great value... " The provocations had begun in early January 1841, and had continued through the spring and summer, obviously becoming more and more unbearable despite, no doubt, repeated warnings, until finally there was no other choice than to bring the culprit to justice. But Bonduel was a Catholic priest, and a foreigner with a French accent, both unwelcon1e to many people, and the jury that heard the case was probably Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Thus, all he got for the extensive damage to orchard and house, not to mention mental harrassment, was $100, and, while the documentation on the case is incomplete, it appears that he finally accepted $30, probably because

*51 Bonduel vs. Kensler, File Box 8, Clerk of Courts, Brown County. 46 that is all that Kensler said he could pay. After paying his own attorney fees, Bonduel was probably not only out of pocket, but had suffered a serious economic loss in property damage. Not everything was destroyed, perhaps, but consider the time it takes to find new trees to replenish an orchard, not to mention replacing the rail fencing which Kensler may have used for fire wood! Meanwhile, when not baptizing or catechizing the Indian children at St. John's, Pastor Bonduel was out collecting church, or "pew dues." On November 8, 1840 he gave a receipt for $20 to Miss Rachel Lawe for the rent of two pews which she occupied together with her father, John Lawe, for fiscal year ending October 1841.* 52 Earlier that year he had written to Charles Grignon at "Great Kokelin" [Kaukauna] to thank him for the liberal contribution he had made toward the pastor's maintenance. These early missionaries got no salary but lived on what the missionary societies sent them, or on contributions from parishioners for masses sung and other ministerial acts. Bonduel expressed his appreciation to Grignon in these words: Allow me to express my sincere regret for not calling on you yesterday. It was my most ardent desire to see you not only to perform a duty of civility which is carried on between your respectable family and myself, but especially to express to you, Respected Sir, and to Mrs. C. Grignon, those sentiments of gratitude you are so much entitled to for the liberal and generous present I received from you through the mediunl of Miss E. [Elizabeth] Grignon, your cousin. The present, Respected Sir, was received with a pleasure not unequal to that which you experienced yourself in sending it to me. It remains only for me now to watch for the first opportunit~· wherein your liberal act may be praised by men, and blessed by God. 53 With him and his friends everything had to be de rigueur. His friendship for Charles Grignon continued through the years and while Charles' father, Augustin, and other members of the Grignon household became openly hostile to him for a time, it never interferred with his friendship for Charles. One of his last acts of thoughtfulness before he left Keshena in 1854 was to send a gift to Grignon's oldest daughter, a book of some kind, perhaps of devotions. Charles, part Indian, married a white woman, Mary Meade, a daughter of David P. Meade of Zanesville, Ohio. During his first residency in Green Bay, one of the unexplained acts of good will Bonduel performed for his friend Charles was to compose a poem in French which was probably read by Grignon at a

*52 Collections, XIV, 205. *53 Original letter in collection of Msgr. John B. Gehl. 47. function held in Green Bay on September 8, 1841. Called Chant Democrate [A Democratic Hymn], it has rhyme and cadence, and was apparently written in honor of Henry Dodge who was running for Congress from Wisconsin Territory that fall. A "hero" of the Black Hawk war and a Democrat, who else could it be than Dodge? The French text and the translation were found in the private papers of the late Msgr. Joseph A. Marx of Green Bay, but the name of the translator is not available. Chant Democrate

1. Accourez tous, peuple du Territoire, Vers Ie Heros qui brava cent dangers, Et qui chassa, suivi de la victoire, Nos ennemis bien loin de nos foyers.

Le Choeur

Ah! que nos voix, nos instruments sonores, Fassent fremir mille cris dans les airs, Et que son nom plus brille)lt que l'aurore StIr nos drapeaux paraisse ecrit en vers! (bis.)

2. Nous jouissons du fruit de ses conquetes, En reposant en paix sous non pommiers; Hatons-nous donc de couronner sa t~te, De myrte vert, de pampre et de lauriers.

Le Choeur Ah! que nos voix, etc.

3. II fut des lois Ie soutien honorable, Et de Themis il ecouta la voix; Dans sa balance it partit equitable, Et ne voulut se servir d'autres poids.

Le Choeur Ah! que nos voix, etc.

4. A Washington parmi nos democrates On Ie verra figurer Ie premier; II ~tonne nos fiers aristrocrates De ses talents, et de son air guerrier. 48 Le Choeur Ah! que nos voix, etc.

5. A son reLour 011 vena L'abondance Accompagner Lous nos vaisseaux marchands; Ils flotteront sur les vagues de l'Anse, Viendronl au port, en depit des anlans.

49 Le Choeur Ah! que nos voix, etc.

6. De nos forets, la vapeur enflammee Faith repeter les echos d'alentours Et Mercllre, suivant sa destinee A pour jamais trace un nouveau cours.

Le Choellr Finis TRANSLATION of Chant Democrate (Democratic Hymn)

1. Come all ye people of the Territory To,the Hero who braved a hundred dangers And who drove, followed by victory, Our enemies far from our homes.

Chorus Ah! May our voices, our instruments of sound Make the air tremble with a thousand cries, And may his name more brilliant than the dawn Appear upon our banners written in verse. (Repeat)

2. We enjoy the fruit of his conquests, Resting peacefully under our apple-trees; Let us hasten to crown his brow With myrtle green, grapes-leaves, and laurel. Chorus

3. He was the support of the laws, He listened to the voice of Themis; In her balance he was just And would not use any other scales. Chorus

4. At Washington among our democrats One will see hinl among the first; He will astonish our proud aristocrates With his talents, his military air. Chorus 50 5. On his return one will see abundance Acconlpanying all our freight ships; They will float on the waves of the Bay, Will come to port in spite of obstacles. Chorus

6. The smoke and flames of our forests Repeat the echoes of the country about, And Mercury, following his "destiny Has for all time traced a new course. Chorus Although somewhat older, Solomon Juneau became the other man in Bonduel's limited circle of tres chers amis [very dear friends']. Most of the burden of friendship seemed to fall on Juneau. Whenever Bonduel wrote to him, either in French or English, he was usually asking a favor for someone. In a letter he addressed to him on August 22, 1840 from Green Bay, he salutes him with "my dear sir and friend." In it he refers to a young man who is on his way to Milwaukee to find work and hopes his good friend will look out for him. A few months later on December 28th, he addressed Juneau as "Very dear sir and Friend." In this letter he says he is taking the liberty to write to him about a new business venture which a Madam Durant proposed to open in Milwaukee. What she had in mind was a store catering exclusively to women. At the moment she had stock in Green Bay valued at $1500 to $2000 and as soon as lake navigation resumed, she was sailing to Buffalo to make more purchases. Juneau was asked to assist her. He was probably spared the effort since nothing appears to have come of this venture.*54 In the same letter, Bonduel thanks Juneau for two dollars which a Madam Grignon had passed on to him, presumably a donation for his mission work. "In no way did I engage to ask for these alms," he assures his friend, "but realizing how poor I am, charity obliged her to overstep the usual rules." He begs him to accept his sincere thanks. He sent Juneau still another letter that year which is undated because it has been mutilated in the passage of time, but which leaves no doubt about its intent. Juneau must have been facing financial difficulties because Bonduel tells him that he was a little afraid to

*54 Both of these letters in collection of the Reverend Mr. C. Luke Leitermann, Pickerel, Wi. 51 write to him in his present state of affairs which "did not allow you to do for me what the kindness of your heart would dictate. But bless God for it, our submission to the will of the Lord in what mortifies us, is the best way to change (balance of sentence lost)." Juneau's eldest son,Narcissus, was proving to be a bit of a problem to his parents and Bonduel tells his friend how sorry he is to hear about this, but he is confident that the youth would arm himself "with courage against the temptations of the world" and attend church on Sunday "to worship with a true heart." Apparently Juneau himself had back-slidden because Bonduel tells him how pleased he is to hear that his friend has rediscovered his faith. There is a reference to some statement or confession Juneau made in public ·the year before which Bonduel approves of and he urges him to follow up on his own words "boldly." The next sentence is not clear in the French text but he seems to be advising Mme. Juneau to tell her children the true nature of the family's straitened circumstances, and how nice it would be if someone would send her money to help liquidate part of the indebtedness she and her husband had contracted.*55 However, this did not seem to affect their friendship because four years later in 1844, when a fourteenth child was born to Solomon and Josette Juneau, they named him Bonduel. Meanwhile, Bishop Mathias Loras of the Dubuque diocese had asked Bonduel to go to Milwaukee to see Juneau about something. In reply to Loras, Bonduel had written to explain why he had not been able to go, at the same time that he tells Juneau that he has been waiting for a second letter from Loras. If it was imperative for him to go, he says, he will go "with pleasure in spite of my extreme poverty and the danger to my health from undertaking such a journey without money and winter clothing." Traveling in winter in pioneer times could be hazardous, but wasn't he exaggerating, just a little, to play on Juneau's sympathies? For a man who was later to boast about all the money he spent of his own funds to found missions, we are left to wonder just what he was getting at. Nevertheless, he closes his letter to Juneau, begging to hear from him and assuring him of his undying friendship. As a postscript he adds: "Allow me to make the customary wishes [for the New Year] not like the general run of men do, but with that spirit and faith which is inspired in us by Christianity." About this time Father Peter Paul Lefevere, a missionary in

*55 Letter in collection of Msgr. John B. Gehl. 52 Missouri, had returned to Belgium to visit his family in Roulers and, no doubt, to attend to other duties. He 'was not only a fellow c04ntryman but a friend of Bonduel's, and the latter wrote to ask him whether he would be so kind as to bring back some blessed oils which he needed. He also urged him to call on Olislagers de Meersenhoven at Tournay and to ask him for a contribution to Lefevere's mission work in Missouri. Lefevere did this. He refers to his host as "Baron" Olislagers, but all he got for his trouble were a few altar linens and a silver chalice, but no funds for any mission work in America. And Bonduel got no blessed oils since Lefevere was under the impression that Father Vincent Badin, vicarate-general of the Cincinnati diocese, had some to spare. While visiting in Belgium, Lefevere learned that he had been made bishop of the Detroit diocese. On his return to Detroit, Bonduel wrote to congratulate him on his elevation to the bishopric. The new bishop replied in most gracious language, deferring to God, whose help he would now need, but certain that "the piety, prudence, and zeal of my co-laborers, the clergy [would] help to render the yoke sweet and the burden light."* 5 6 Either in June or July 1842, the newly-consecrated bishop, Peter Paul Lefevere, visited Green Bay and other missions in the "upper country." On his tour he seemed particularly interested in organizing temperance societies among the Indians, but he was also anxious for the pastors under his jurisdiction to take the pledge, and in a letter to Bishop John B. Purcell of Cincinnati, he says he had "the great consolation of administering the pledge to Rev'd Mr. Bonduel at Green Bay and Rev'd Mr. Santilly [Toussaint Santelli] at Mackinac and about 600 of the faithful, among whom there were 400 Indians who came before the altar and solemnly pledged themselves to abstain from all intoxicating liquors...,,* 57 The 600 who took the pledge were probably Indians at Mackinac and l'Arbre Croche.. But taking the pledge for either Bonduel or Santelli, both from countries where wine is a staple in the diet, must have represented a real sacrifice. On the other hand, Bonduel had seen the disastrous effects of the liquor traffic among the Indians and realized that he had to abstain himself if he was to set an example to

*56 Lefevere to Bonduel, Detroit, Jan. 18, 1842, typed letter in collection of Msgr. John B. Gehl. *57 Lefevere to Purcell, Detroit, July 19, 1842 in Cincinnati Papers, UNDA. In 1846 Lefevere inspected the l'Anse mission of Frederic Baraga and here too he organized a temperance society among the I~dinas.-P. Chrysostomus Verwyst, Life and Labors of the Rt. Rev. Frederic Baraga (Milwaukee, 1900), 228. 53 others. In fighting the liquor trade, Lefevere was following a tradition reaching back to the early days of Catholic missions in Detroit when the church opposed the English who were using liquor as a means of destroying the- French trade with the Indians. Earlier in the year of 1842, Bonduel received a letter from Louis Martin, apparently a mixed-blood living at Point St. Ignace, and a member of the congregation founded by Bonduel. Martin's letter is a tale of woe and tribulation. He begins by telling his former pastor that "we are in a desolate and miserable station." He says the buildings "that you commenced to build are all just as you left them...yes, much worse." However, he had a son who needed an education and could the pastor find a job for him so that he could attend school? Finally, Martin said hardly a day went by that the Indians did not wonder why their "parent" [Bonduel] left them, and he begs him to come back to his "strayed sheep...,,* 58 It appears that one of the sheep who had strayed was none other than Louis Martin. Five years later, John Baptist Perrault was writing to Bishop Lefevere in Detroit to complain that this same Martin was cutting wood, actually 300 cords, fron1 land that Bonduel had purchased at St. Ignace and deeded to the bishop.*59 After he left Mackinac in 1838, Bonduel went first to Detroit before sailing back through Lake Huron and Lake Michigan to Green Bay. While in Detroit, he probably helped to celebrate holy mass at St. Ann's Cathedral, even as he had done four years earlier in 1834, and he may have noticed an inscription engraved under the base of a particular silver n10nstrance, or ostensorium used in the celebration of the mass. In French the inscription reads: Ce soleil a este donne par M Nicholas Perrot a la mission de St. Franciois Xavier en la Baye des Puants, 1686. [This monstrance donated by Mr. Nicholas Perrot to the mission of St. Francis Xavier at the bay of the puants, 1686.] *60 The silver monstrance, handcrafted in France, was already a valuable antique when Bonduel purchased it in Detroit, for he realized from the inscription on the bottom that it had been presented by Nicholas Perrot, fur trader and commandant of the

*58 Martin to Bonduel, Point St. Ignace, Apr. 9, 1842 in Detroit Papers, UNDA. *59 Perrault to Lefevere, St. Ignace, MI, Feb. 1,1847 in Detroit Papers, UNDA. *60 Although the word puant in French refers to something with a bad odor, it actually was an appelation which the early French explorers and traders applied to the Winnebago Indians, not because they had a bad odor but probably because the water where they had their villages was bad, either around Green Bay or some nearby lake or marsh. It also seems clear from this that the present Green Bay was first known as "Winnebago Bay". 54 military district in the "upper country," to a Jesuit mission called St. Francis Xavier situated upon the banks of the Fox river near the present city of DePere. The mission was destroyed not long after by an Indian war party, and the monstrance was apparently buried by the Jesuit fathers before they fled. In 1802 it was discovered by accident in a building excavation. The ostensorium was brought from Green Bay to Detroit by Father Vincent Badin after the first church in Green Bay burned in 1828. When Bonduel saw it in Detroit, he thought that it properly belonged in Green Bay although an object of antiquity like this has no real home. Before he left Detroit, he arranged to buy it from Badin, allegedly for the equivalent of $26, and brought it back to Green Bay. Here he may have used it during his residency at St. John's church from 1838 to 1843 and perhaps again in 1858 until the time of his death in 1861. It was later loaned to the State Historical Society and is presently on exhibit at the Neville Museum in Green Bay, "one of the most important relics of the western empire of New France in the seventeenth century."* 61 Aside from the ostensorium, Bonduel had either been presented with or had purchased an Indian calumet, or peace pipe. The pipe once had a long stem which was adorned with feathers and colorful beads, but both stem and feathers have disappeared. It is presently preserved at the Sacred Heart Center, Oneida, Wi. For some reason, it appears that Bonduel did not pick up his mail very often when he lived at Shanty Town. The post office was in Green Bay, nearly three miles to the north, which may be one reason for the negligence, and he apparently did not subscribe to the Green Bay Intelligencer, the first newspaper published in Wisconsin, or he would have noticed in the October 6, 1838 edition that there was an unclaimed letter waiting for him at the post office .. The name appears as "Joseph Bonduel" and it continued to appear in the semi-weekly until December 31st when it was dropped .. He must have finally picked up his mail. On Decenlber 17, 1839 the Green Bay Democrat, which replaced the Intelligencer, reported that Bonduel had performed the marriage of James Boyd and Maria M. Lawe "all of Green Bay." One of the more interesting secular matters he attended to while in Green Bay was to apply for his naturalization papers which are dated October 12, 1841. Since he was the first person with a name

*61 The French in America, 1520-1880 (The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1951),

55 beginning with "A" or "B" to apply for naturalization in Brown county, his name appears on the top of page one in Volume A of'the record-another first for him! During his residency in the Bay area from 1838 to 1843, Bonduel founded several missions. In most cases churches or chapels were built then or later on these sites. According to his expense account, he spent 9,000 francs [$1800] on a mission church ''Pres de la Baie Verte, oi I'est de cette Ville," meanin.g "Near Green Bay to the east of the village." He was referring to the founding of a church at Bay Settlement, a few miles to the northeast. He fails to give the date, but in a letter to the Boston Pilot*6 2 he says it was founded in 1837. Here he must have meant 1838, since he was still in Mackinac until August that year. "At the time," he writes in retrospect, "there were only a few Catholic Indian and Canadian families scattered along the southeast shore of Green Bay, that then took the name of Bay Settlement." He describes his real estate transaction as follows: "In the very center of that Settlement in the summer of 1844 I bought 110 acres of land, a small portion of which I presented to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Henni of Milwaukee, for church and school purposes. The Catholics of Bay Settlement have since built a church on the three-acre lot that I gave to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Henni. I furnished a part of the materials of the old church that was built in 1845."* 6 3 In one of the entries of his expense account, there is a notation which reveals that he had donated land to Bishop Henni for a "College of Green Bay," and that not long after construction was begun, .the building was destroyed by fire. The plan for a Catholic college in the Bay area was then abandoned, apparently, until St. Norberts was founded at DePere in 1898. Also, during his first residency in Green Bay he established an Indian mission on the Oconto river, north of the Bay, presumably near the present city of Oconto. One source says he founded a congregation here among early French inhabitants in 1852.*64 This

*62 Boston Pilot, Aug. 1,1857, written from Bay Settlement, June 29, 1857. *63 The records in Brown county show that he actually purchased 40 acres on July 25, 1843, and 68 18/100 acres on September 16, 1844.-M of Deeds, 415-416 and N of Deeds, 179-180. Later he bought 10 acres on December 22, 1857 and 30 acres on January 13, 1858, also at Bay Settlement.-1 of Deeds, 149, and 1 of Deeds, 148. This brought the total to slightly more than 158 acres in the Bay Settlement area. *64 Harry H. Heming, History of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin, (Milwaukee, WI, 1896), 703. 56 would place the founding at the time that he was in Keshena. It seems more logical to assume that he went there by boat from Green Bay sometime between 1838 and 1843. According to his expense account, he did not spend any money on the Oconto mission, but he had used 300 francs for some work on a church, presumably at St. John's in "Shanty Town," and 1500 francs towards a new church for German Catholics in Green Bay itself. Finally, he says that he established a mission on the Fox river to the west of Green Bay, in addition to one at deux Rivieres on Lake Michigan, and another at Manitowoc. Deux Rivieres in English, he explains, is called "Twin Rivers" [today Two Rivers] . His description of a mission founded "west of Green Bay" is not clear, but it probably refers to Duck Creek where a band of the Menomini was located as late as 1844. A log church was built here and a cemetery laid out on the west end of present Yelp Avenue. Both church and cemetery have disappeared and in their place stands a cross of the Crucified Christ. The base of the cross is embedded in a box-like foundation six feet high, buttressed on the four sides by tombstones salvaged from the abandoned cemetery, no doubt one of the most unique religious memorials in Wisconsin. The only documentary evidence uncovered on Bonduel's financial arrangements with the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is also dated from this period. It is an order from the society treasurer at Lyons, France to Bishop Lefevere in Detroit to pay Monsieur Bonduel the sum of 105 francs (about $1]. The bishop got most of the alloted funds, but the question arises, why not all of it? This might suggest that the society had separate arrangements witll the missionaries it was supporting, or backing, although from other evidence, the backing Bonduel got seems to have been quite limited. The original document is reproduced here with an English translation:

57 ~;- fll'J .LN~/ fir; ~ff"'~..JI'J'~"'i',.....~,/ n,(bl.~~~'I·iU' Ju· C'..n~«rc~. c:-?2·f'~,0;:k/.. '<::'~...~..)'-/.-

WORK of the Lyons, March 16, 1842 *1 Propagation of the Faith in favor of Foreign Missions of the Two Worlds Central Council of Lyons Monseigneur: I have the honor of informing you that as a result of the allocation apportioned to your missions by the councils of the Propagation of the Faith, you are authorized to receive from Messieurs V. Guerin & Son of this city the sum of 760 francs and 75 centimes on an order payable at sight. According to accounting regulations of the Central Council oT Lyons, I have the honor of transmitting to you under this cover the said order which I beg you to fill out, without abbreviations, the sum above your signature. Our banker can only pay on one of these orders detached from out stub-book, like the one here included. Please accept the assurance of respectful sentiments with which I have the honor to be, Monseigneur P. S. Here is the division, . Monseigneur, of the Your most humble and varions gifts forming most obedient servant, the the total of the treasurer of the Central Council accompanying order Fred(eric) Sanduie(?) For Your Eminence, 605.75 For Monsieur Bonduel 105.00 For Monsieur Vaerlop 50.00

760.75 To His Eminence, Monseigneur, Lefevere, bishop administrator of Detroit. *1. In Detroit Papers, UNDA. 58 V. AT PRAIRIE DU CHIEN

There seems to be little information available on what Florimond J. Bonduel. was doing for the period covering the latter part of 1843 and early months of 1844. In a letter to Alessandro Barnabo, secretary to the Prefect of the Propaganda Fide,*65 he says he was recalled to Detroit by Bishop Lefevere in 1843 to serve as a private secretary for several months. Since the Milwaukee diocese was not created by Pope Gregory XVI until November 28,1843, Bonduel was still under the jurisdiction of the Detroit diocese. It was not until the spring of 1844, when John Martin Henni went to Rome to be invested with the title of bishop, that the Milwaukee diocese was established with jurisdiction over Wisconsin and Minnesota Territories. One of the first matters Henni attended to on his return from Rome in May of 1844 was to ask for the recall of Bonduel from Detroit for assignment to Prairie du Chien. He was in Milwaukee a few days after he arrived from Detroit, and on June 19th he was telling his bien cher ami, Olislagers de Meersenhoven that he was leaving "in a few moments" for Prairie du Chien.*6 6 Later that summer, in a letter to the Catholic Telegraph, he says he was in Prairie du Chien on June 19th to receive Bishop Henni.*6 7 Manifestly, he was not in Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien on the same day in 1844. The first available baptismal entry Bonduel made at St. Gabriel's church is dated August 11, 1844,* 68 although, as indicated" he was in Prairie du Chien somewhat earlier.

*65 Barnabo, raised to a cardinal in 1856, became Prefect of the Propaganda and served until 1874. *66 Bonduel to Olislagers de Meersenhoven, June 19, 1856, in UNDA. *67 Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati), Sept. 21, 1844. *68 The Reverend Mr. David W. Brehm, Prairie du Chien, Dec. 13, 1973 to the authors. 59 In Prairie du Chien he was ministering .to Americans, Frenchmen, and descendants of French-Indian families. He was apparently on good terms with Hercules Dousman, the leading business man in that community if not the Territory. In a postscript to a letter he wrote to Mrs. C. Grignon in January 1845 he tells her that he performed the marriage of the widow, Madam Deuve Rolette, to Hercules Dousman on December 26, 1844.*69 The family ramifications on both sides of this alliance were nearly all associated with the skins of animals, the same that had just built and furnished "Villa LOllis" hardby the Mississippi river. The wedding ceremony, however, was probably performed in St. Gabriel's church on north Beaumont road. This church, probably begun in 1836, was somewhat completed by 1839 and built according to specifications drawn up "by Father Mazzuchelli, 50 feet wide and 102 feet long. It was constructed of native lime stone and mortar mixed with clam shells from the nearby river to give the n10rtar strength. Though remodeled on the interior . roof and lengthened by a chancel on the east end and a new entrance on the west end, it is still today essentially the same nave that Bonduel held mass in 130 years ago. Nowhere else in Wisconsin does the past impinge on the present as majestically as in this church, the oldest in continuous use in the state.*7 0 Father Mazzuchelli, with his penchant for naming his churches after the angels and archangels, gave the congregation a new patron, St. Gabriel's, a change from an earlier log church called St. John's which is believed to have stood closer to the Mississippi river. During his residency at Prairie du Chien, Bonduel also founded a mission on the Kickapoo river, and one at Patch Grove, both in 1845. He also takes credit for establishing a mission for the Winnebagoes at "du Portage des Winnebagoes a 1'ouest du Wisconsin" [Winnebago portage west of the Wisconsin.] He reported spending 2,000 francs on the Kickapoo mission, 1500 francs on the Patch Grove mission and 2500 francs on the "portage" mission.*71 Since the famed portage between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers lay on the left or east bank of the Wisconsin, it may be that Bonduel was

*69 The envelope is addressed to "Mrs. C. Grignon (the widow)" at Green Bay. Apparently this is not Mrs. Charles Grignon, wife of the interpreter who was still among the living, but rather Catiche Cardin, the widow of Louis Grignon.-Qriginalletter in SHS. *70 St. Joseph's church at La Pointe on Madeline Island, built earlier by Baraga of logs, was completely rebuilt in 1841 and therefore cannot be considered a competitor. *71 Bonduel to Paris Council, April 26, 1855, UNDA. 60 confused in his directions, or that he actually founded a mission on the right bank, farther to the west around Baraboo since both Van de Broek and Mazzuchelli were in Portage ahead of Bonduel. In 1846 he nlade a trip by steam boat up the Mississippi river and founded three nlore missions, one at Stillwater in Minnesota Territory, one at St. Charles in the center of Lake St. Croix, and one at the confluence of the "little river St. Croix and the Mississippi."* 7 2 Prescott, Wisconsin lies at the confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi, and the St. Croix is by no means a "little" river, but he nlay have been comparing it to the much wider Mississippi. Nevertheless, his visit to Stillwater in 1846 establishes him as one of the first Catholic missionaries to enter Minnesota Territory in the 19th Century. He fails to mention whether or not he went ashore at Fort Snelling to climb the steep cliffs depicted in J.C. Wild's oil portrait done in 1844. In his letter to Mme. Grignon in 1845, Bonduel tells her that he has been seriously ill, is now feeling better, but fails to go into any diagnosis of the illness. He asks to be remenlbered to John Lawe and family, and to Monsieur Van den Broek and Madam Porlier. It seems a bit odd, perhaps, that he should be referring to Van den Broek as "Monsieur" instead of as pastor or reverend, but it was obviously in good taste or he would not "have used it. "Madam Porlier" was probably the widow of Joseph Porlier who in an election held in Green Bay township in 1835 had been named one of two men to the office of "fence viewer."* 7 3 This office, long since discontinued, was apparently meant to have someone available in the township to ajudicate one of the most common sources of friction in pioneer times, namely the location of the section corners which were often in error as a result of careless surveys, and therefore creating inaccurate "fence lines." In his letter to the Catholic Telegraph, written from Prairie du Chien, Bonduel begins a new phase in his career in which he personally begins to mount a campaign aimed at publicizing the Catholic church, his superiors and himself. His Belgian biographers, it may be recalled, said that he personally believed he was called to make the church more widely known and loved, and apparently this is what he set out to do through his letters to the press and others. He could do this, of course, because few clergymen could express

*72 Ibid. *73 Green Bay Intelligencer, April 9, 1835. 61 themselves as lucidly-or effusively-as he could. He could write a 10,000-word letter with a simple steel pen at one sitting, although in his haste he often nlade mistakes in figures and dates. His letter to the Catholic Telegraph, too long to quote, goes into ecstasy over Bishop Henni's visit to Prairie du Chien in 1845 when "a great number of the most respectable" people drove out six miles in carriages to greet him at the Wisconsin river ferry. The bishop had been in Dubuque and probably crossed the Mississippi at Cassville and drove north from there. In Prairie du Chien he preached three tinles on a Sunday, twice in English and once in German. Citizens from the village and officers from Fort Crawford, Catholic and Protestant, attended, and "great respect and attention was paid by everyone present to the word of God, which he delivered with much zeal, dignity, talent and edification." A month before Henni came to Prairie du Chien he had been in Green Bay where Bonduel had gone ahead to meet him, arriving there on June 4th, to assist the local congregation at "Shanty Town" to make the necessary arrangements to welcome the bishop. "The joy that the Catholics experienced in seeing their newly-consecrated bishop was in the extreme," he writes. Later "the worthy prelate went in an Indian canoe to Little Chute, 23 miles south of Green Bay, where there was a flourishing Indian mission conducted by the Rev't. Theodore van den Broek. All the Catholic Indians living upon Wolf river, 40 miles southwest, came to Little Chute to receive the bishop's blessing, and to prepare themselves with the other Indians for confirmation...The venerable prelate was much edified by the piety of those Indians whose purity of morals and ·peaceable dispositions contrast very much with the wild, savage and destructive habits of the Winnebago Indians, our neighbors here at the Prairie, notwithstanding the many thousand dollars spent by governrnent during several years to improve their moral condition." Here, no doubt, the people Bonduel had in mind for the alleged failure to "civilize" the Winnebagoes around Prairie du Chien were the Protestant missionaries. As mentioned earlier, the government supported both Protestant and Catholic missionaries but in this case, apparently, the Catholics had been excluded which was not uncommon in the early period of westward expansion. Even before coming to the United States, Bonduel had probably accepted the assunlption that all unconverted Indians were somewhat immoral, had no culture, and could only be rescued from barbarism by baptism in the church which would result in "good morals" and "peaceable dispositions," both associated in the eyes of the white 62 man with the essence of Judeo-Christian behavior. Like most men of good will, he could not accept the idea of genocide for the Indians which many of the frontiersmen seemed t.o favor. The solution lay, instead, in their assimilation, and· the first step in that direction was in their conversion to the same religion espoused by the white man. From Little Chute the Bishop, accompanied by Bonduel, went on to Pipe Village [Calumet] on the east shore of Lake Winnebago where there was a large German Catholic settlement and where the bishop could address his audiences in their own language. After several days in Pipe Village, the bishop's retinue returned to Green Bay, arriving there on July 19th where the current pastor of St. John's church was Peter Carabin. While the bishop remained,. Bonduel went ahead to Bay Settlement to prepare the children for communion services to be conducted by the bishop. He says that 60 families in the settlement were then beginning to build a church on the three-acre lot he had donated to the diocese earlier. The first Sunday that Henni spent in "Shanty Town" he celebrated mass, and afterlla sermon had been delivered in French, no doubt by Bonduel, Henni addressed the audience in English. Both Catholics and Protestants attended. There was little else to do in those days and a visiting dignitary drew people to him no matter what his views or faith. During the celebration of the mass, many of the communicants came dressed in white, and Bonduel was impressed by the neatness, beauty and "peculiar taste" that decorated the altar and sanctuary, and the "elegance, richness and gorgeous eclat shining around the bishop's chair covered with a profusion of gold-like silk .. " He also commended the choir for its "heavenly music" and thought the bishop expressed himself with "solidity and pathos." In fact, he says "everything was calculated to please the eye, to charm the ear, to inform the intellect, to touch the heart [and] recall many from the path of error and ignorance." On the following day, the bishop, accompanied by Bonduel, traveled by team and wagon to Bay Settlement. Bonduel describes it this way: We had already been riding two miles and a half above the east side of East river below Navarino, when I observed to the Rt. Rev. Bishop that somebody had strewed a great quantity of wild flowers along the public road. The good prelate immediately discovered its pious meaning, and remained silent for some time; but I understood the secret language of his heart. The tears that streamed from his eyes told volumes. In the meantime, the German family that had done that act of religion which 63 proved purer than the gold wherewith Moses adorned the Tabernacle of the Lord, was kneeling down in respectful attitude as we were passing to receive the bishop's blessing. The venerable pontiff rose with composure and dignity, and gave his blessing to the pious and innocent family. Those flowers were strewed in the very middle of the road, apparently with an intended negligence, but in reality with a good deal of symmetry and taste. That carpet (sic) of which nature had furnished the materials, and which had been manufactured by the hand of religion and piety, was six feet wide and 300 feet long. It is thus that divine faith in purifying the emotions of the human heart, in elevating and enobling man's intellectual faculties, teaches yet, even a poor ignorant man, the music and poetry of natur~... As they continued along the road, no doubt along Highway 57 today, since he notes that the "lake" was on the left, they.beheld a "great number of highly cultivated farms, n10stly occupied and owned by Catholic families." Later, Bishop Henni left Green Bay and sailed north to visit La Pointe on Madeline Island where Frederic Baraga was pastor, while Bonduel returned to his duties at Prairie du Chien. A stage line was now operating regularly between Green Bay and Portage. While on Mackinac Island, Bonduel had to console a mixed-blood convert who had gone off to a convent school in Detroit at a very young age. In Prairie du Chien he had another young lady to counseL This was Emily Jenkins, also a convert whom he had been a godfather to at her adult baptism. Ms. Jenkins was manifestly in love with a Louis A. Atwood who in January 1846 wrote to her that he was coming to Prairie du Chien and was looking forward "with great pleasure to the time when you and I will be pacing the deck of the War Eagle or the Cecilia or General Brooke.. .with our arms entwined around each other's waist, talking of our secrets and old times...,,* 74 Atwood was probably not a Catholic and they may have broken up over it. In any event, Ms. Jenkins had written to Bonduel at the mission on Lake Poygan, asking for his advice. In reply he describes the incomparable beauties of spring smiling on the flowers around Lake Poygan, and the sweet notes of birds charming the "rude feelings of our Aborigines." As to her personal problems he tells her that she now has all the facilities she could ever wish to comply with the divine presence "left to us by our Divine Redeemer." He advises .her to consult with Father Joseph Cretin, the new pastor at St. Gabriel's church, "who truly by his piety and prudence is well calculated to advance your spiritual welfare." He thought also that

*74 Emily Jenkins Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 64 she would "experience a thousand times...as I did frequently experience myself, that your heart was never made for this world, but for God alone."* 7 5 These were noble thoughts but not the' kind that Ms. Jenkins probably wanted to hear. Her brother (or half-brother) Benjamin Manahan, was a member of the Territorial Council at the time, and a few months after she heard from Bonduel, she was writing to Manahan, wondering whether there was a Catholic church in Madison for him to attend. The substance of her correspondence suggests a young woman disappointed in love who was seeking consolation in the thought of her own conversion and worrying about a brother going to church in Madison. In one of his last letters before leaving Prairie du Chien, Bonduel was again writing to his friend Solomon Juneau in Milwaukee.*7 6 He wanted him to act as a broker for a piece of property and a house which a Lieutenant Garret Barry wanted to buy in Milwaukee. The transaction was apparently arranged satisfactorily and Barry, after resigning his comnlission in the army, rose, by 1860, to become treasurer of Milwaukee county, only to lose his life that same year, with many others, in the sinking of the Lady Elgin.

*75 Bonduel to Emily Jenkins, Lake Poygan, June 1, 1847, in SHS. *76 Bonduel to Juneau, Jan. 22, 1845. Photocopy of original letter in collection of Msgr. John B. Gehl. 65 VI. EXPLORING THE MISSISSIPPI

On October 15, 1847 Bonduel took pen in hand and wrote a long letter, in French, to his friend Olislagers de Meersenhoven in Belgium. He wanted to explain what he had been doing in the past­ three years. He was writing not from Prairie du Chien, but from Lake Poygan in Winnebogo county, Wisconsin where he had been transferred in the late fall of 1846. Since this letter covers both his residence at Prairie du Chien and his first year at Lake Poygan, it will be divided in order that it may be brought into focus with the rest of his missionary career. The letter opens with recollections of his activities at Prairie du Chien, and then reads in part as follows: *77 Monsieur and Very Dear Friend: "One month after my arrival at Prairie du Chien, I published in the Catholic newspaper of Cincinnati* 78 a rather interesting letter on religion in Wisconsin, the effect produced by the episcopal visit of Bishop Henni to the north of the diocese of Milwaukee, and on the moral conditions of Prairie du Chien and surroundings...When I found myself in Milwaukee in the spring of 1845 I was asked by Bishop Henni to write to Paris and say that he had received the 15,000 francs which you had the goodness to send him. Since then I have literally ceased all correspondence with my friends in Europe...1 shall now give you a brief account of a journey I made to the north and northwest of our diocese in June 1846. "Prairie du Chien, a former French colony, is a town of 1200 to 1500 souls. During the two years I remained there I opened two missions, 10 or 12 miles fron1 the city, one at Patch Grove and the other to the south of the Kickapoo river. There are about 1,000 Catholics within the limits of this circumference. The city of Prairie du Chien itself is one of the most beautifully situated on the upper

*77 Bonduel to Olislagers, de Meersenhoven, Oct. 15, 1847, UNDA. *78 Catholic Telegraph, Sept. 21, 1844 under Prairie du Chien dateline of August 24. 66 Mississippi river and is located near the mouth of the Wisconsin river...There is a very beautiful church built in stone, but not yet finished. It has already cost 12,000 gourdes* 79 and it will take 5000 more to complete it. "In addition to the church there is a pretty chapel and a rectory which I built there for 8000 gourdes, half of which I donated. The balance is to be liquidated by the parish. Bishop Henni confirmed 70 persons there in 1844, among whom were several converts. "The treaty which the wild Winnebagoes have made with the government of the United States will have a great influence on religion at the Prairie. When removed to the north, they will provide room for more civilized people to till their land.*8 0 "The mission of St. Peter is located in the northwest of the diocese of Iowa, at the mouth of the Minnesota river and west bank of the Mississippi. The mission of St. Paul, on the other side of the Mississippi, is 10 miles from St. Peter and also from the Falls of St. Anthony. St. Paul and St. Anthony are in our diocese. I visited these two missions more than a year ago and I found about 800 Catholics, including the 20 families who live at Pig's Eye, five miles south of St. Paul on the Mississippi. *8 1 "Time does not permit me to give you a topographical description of St. Anthony Falls, all very beautiful but infinitely inferior to those of Niagara whose first aspect made me shed tears of joy and admiration, crying with the Prophet: Quam admirabilis opera tua Domine! [How wonderful are thy works 0 God.] "A pious Catholic in St. Paul offered me a good piece of land near St. Anthony Falls to build a church. Most of the Catholics of St. Paul come from the mission of the Red river [Canada]. Their faith, their Christian simplicity and the regularity of their morals speak well for the pastors who are in charge of the mission of the Red river of the

*79 A gourde is defined as a paper money and monetary unit of Haiti equal to 100 centimes and equivalent to about U.S. 20

Interior of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church in Prairie du Chien, oldest church in contin­ uous use in Wisconsin, begun in 1836 and mostly completed by 1839. Ceiling has been reinforced and interior walls refinished in recent remodeling program. Chancel at far end also of later date. -Photo by The Rev. James J. Strzok, S. J. dark...practically unknown, the people began to laugh on seeing me descend on them from a nearby slope in this rig. Imagine for an instant one of our fish carts from Ostend [Belgium] with two

*82 The log chapel of St. Paul was built by Father Lucian GaJtier in 1841 and dedicated November 1st.-Bertha L. Heilbron, op cit, 64. When Bonduel says he celebrated mass on the Sunday of the octave of the Most Holy Sacrament, he was referring to one of the Catholic feast days when the mass for this particular feast was said on the one day and repeated seven successive days. This liturgy was discontinued after Vatican II. 68 wheels, and you will have a fair idea of the carriage which I was riding in.*83 "I began to laugh, too, and grabbed a bell and went up and down the street calling on people to come to worship. Within an hour I had gathered about fifty people and we assembled in a room loaned to me by a good Protestant. 1 gave instruction in English to them before going to bed. "The next day I made preparations to build a chapel. Stillwater will become a great city some day because of its easy access to Lake Superior. The Honorable Benjamin Manahan*84 (a Catholic) has just proposed in the legislature at Madison to open a road from the falls on the St. Croix river...to Lake Superior...It is only two years ago that Stillwater was founded. There are now about eight hundred inhabitants but only a few Catholics, almost everyone employed in the sawmill on the St. Croix river in Stillwater and which is the most important industry in the village. "Navigation from St. Louis to Stillwater never ceases, but this cannot be said for boats going to St. Paul where navigation is often held up in summer months for lack of water. While waiting for a steamboat which never came, I embarked on a raft one Saturday morning which took me to Mr. [Charles] Bruce, a man living on the west bank of Lake St. Croix, fifteen miles from Stillwater...*85 "Like Lake Pepin on the Mississippi, Lake St. Croix contains a great number of precious stones. The depth is thirty to fifty feet and it is filled with a wide variety of fish. This Mr. Bruce I came to see had liv~d on the lake since 1838. He and his family were then the only Catholics on the west shore. From here to St. Paul, which lies to the northwest, there are more than 3,000 people. Mr. Bruce is the son of T (?) Bruce, a former official of the South West Company on Red river.*86 His mother was a Chippewa who would never permit him to leave for England where his father left a fortune for him. He

*83 There can be little doubt that he was riding in one of the famed "Red River carts" used for transporting furs and supplies between Canada and Fort Snelling. *84 Earlier, Ms. Emily Jenkins refers to him _as "Benedic". Manahan was a member of the Territorial Council in 1847 representing the western counties of Crawford, St. Croix, Chippewa and La Pointe.-Wisconsin Blue Book (1885) 121-122. *85 The circumstances of time and place suggest that Bruce was the same man who twice came to the assistance of John Tanner in the Red river country. When Tanner knew Bruce he was acting as an interpreter for the Hudson's Bay company.-See Tanner's Na"rrative, 213,265. See also E.F. Ely's diary, February 29, 1840, typescript in Minnesota Historical Society. *86 The Southwest Company, an English fur trading company competing at one time with the Hudson's Bay Company. 69 was born to the east of Red Lake, the source of the Red river from whence it gets its name.*87 It is from the north of this lake, one can see on the map, that the line is drawn between the United States and Canada. "Since the country where Bruce was born is not well suited to cultivation, he decided to move to a milder climate. The physical and moral character of this man is quite remarkable. His boldness and courage made him feared by all the Indians of the north who ever had any dealings with the colony on the Red river. He was put in charge of the guards at the Red River Fort of Lord Selkirk,*88 founder of the colony [of Assiniboia in 1811] and who was mainly responsible for the dissolution of the North West Company. Bruce, hearing that there were Black Robes at Mont Real in Canada (I must mention that he was still a pagan) who were charged by the Great Spirit - Kitchimanitou - with the redemption of mankind by baptism, went with his wife to Mont Real by canoe, a distance of 900 leagues, to receive baptism and to be married by a priest. The Grand Vicar, the Bishop of Mont Real, announced this singular event from the pulpit. The whole city turned out to see him. As he was very swarthy, they wanted to give him the name 'Gaspar', one of the three Magi who, because of his dark complexion, history attributes to the Prince, and also because of the distance he had come to worship the King of the Jews.*89 But the Indians do not like the Blacks. Bruce would take the name 'Gaspar' only on condition that he also be given the name of Charles. "It ".vas at the home of this good metisse [mixed blood] that I said Holy Mass about the end of last June [1846]. I gave communion to 10 persons and baptized six children. I also made some preparations toward building a chapel nearby which will be consecrated under the patronage of St. Charles, his patron. There are 15 Catholic families in this part of Lake St. Croix. This mission, in addition to Stillwater and St. Anth'ony Falls and the one I started at the mouth of the St. Croix river,_ can be visited by a missionary whom the bishop intends to station at St. Paul which forms a central point for the missions of

*87 There is an Upper and Lower Red Lake in northern Minnesota. Lower Red Lake is drained by the Red Lake river which joins the Thief River and flows southwesterly into the Red River of the North. Bonduel was no doubt referring to the Red River of the North which originates in central Minnesota and runs north to Lake Winnepeg in Canada. *88 Thomas Douglas Lord Selkirk. *89 Gaspar, one of the three Wisemen, according to tradition, came from India, and the great distance he came to worship was the distance separating India from the Holy Land. 70 the northwest of our diocese [Le. the diocese of Milwaukee up to 1850]. "I was waiting for the steamboat to take me to the upper Lake St.­ Croix when Mr. Bruce asked me to go with him to the other side of the lake, 15 miles to the southwest, to see a natural monument which he had discovered two years earlier. We could see it from four miles away, looking just like one of our ancient castles in Europe of the 12th and 13th Centuries. This natural phenomenon is nothing but the central petrification of a vast mound of sand which is uncommonly white... ''There were 13 Catholic families at the head of Lake St. Croix when I visited that mission... In another four years there will be a big town there... I left a few days later for Prairie du Chien where I was given a letter from Bishop Henni which asked me to meet him at Mineral Point to accompany him on his episcopal visitation. After having prepared 60 persons at Prairie du Chien for confirmation, where the bishop will officiate, I left for Mineral Point where the Catholics, aided by their pastor, have built a pretty stone church and rectory. "The bishop not having arrived yet, I went to Madison where we have some land on which to build a church. There are not many Catholics there, but if we had the means to build a church it would be more easy to visit the village of Fox*90 which is only six miles away and where there are 25 Catholic families, without counting those who have formed a new village whose name I do not recall at the moment. "From Madison I went to visit the little Winnebago mission of Portage [Fort Winnebago] and from there I went on to northern Wisconsin. I remained 15 days at the Portage, instructing the 20 Catholic families who live between there and the Baraboo river... southwest of the Portage. From Baraboo and the Portage, I went to the north of the Wisconsin river where there are 800 Catholics, most of them employed in the saw mills which furnish alnl0st all the lumber used in the state of Louisiana. "But the Lord did not wish to use my ministry for the consolation of these poor souls. I fell ill at the first settlement which I visited, and my illness becanle so grave that they had to take me back to the Portage in a cart, a distance of 70 miles where they hoped to cure

*90 Probably Fox Settlement, named for William H. Fox, his brother George and their families who settled in section 35 of Fitchburg township, Dane county.-Frederic G. Cassidy, The Place Names of Dane County, Vlisconsin (American Dialect Society, 1947). 116. 71 me.*91 But excessive heat and fever almost took my life away in the midst of the burning sands of Wisconsin.*92 I asked God to let me die and give one that crown of justice which he has promised to those who suffer and strive for His glory, but my hour was not come. I had enough strength to take me as far as Milwaukee where the fatherly care of our Most Worthy Bishop hastened the return of my health. "This is the time to say something about this important place. It is known in Europe and especially in France that I founded the first mission at Milwaukee in 1837. At that time there was no church nor pastor there. Now there are two churches which are quite insufficient to contain the half of the Catholic population of this city and its surroundings. Three congregations make up the flock of the Most Worthy Pastor [Henni?], a French congregation, a German congregation, and an English or American congregation as they prefer to call it. "The German and English congregations are the most numerous. Bishop· Henni, who will be in Europe by the time you receive this letter, will have the honor of giving you the exact number of Catholics in the Milwaukee area which, according to my own estimate, is not less than 7,000. With the needs of religion increasing for the Catholic population, Bishop Henni has purchased several lots in the city for a seminary, for ~ house for the Sisters of Charity, and for Christian institutions already in progress as well as for the future cathedral which the very rapid progress of religion in Wisconsin requires at once. "It may be recalled that I have been visiting the missions of northwestern Wisconsin for more than 12 years and I believe that few missionaries are in a better position to represent to the directors of the Propagation of the Faith in Lyons or Paris, the spiritual and temporal needs of our holy religion in this region. The narrow framework which I have chosen in writing this letter does not allow me to pause long enough to say all the good things I could say about the mission in Milwaukee and other places which are flourishing in the eastern part of the state such as at Racine, South Port

*91 Unconfirmed reports by others interested in,Bonduel have insisted that he was once in the "Wisconsin Pinery", a loose term for various areas of northern Wisconsin where the white pine could be found in abundance. If Bonduel was 70 miles north of Portage, he most probably had reached the tavern of Robert Wakeley located on the left bank of the Wisconsin river about a mile south of the present city of Nekoosa. *92 The "burning sand" he refers to is no doubt the sandy country of Adams county. Bonduel was probably following what was known as the "old Pinery Road", the first road laid out into northern Wisconsin in the 1830s. 72 [Kenosha], Prairieville [Waukesha], Watertown, and 20 other towns and villages which are now visited by the clergy of Milwaukee, all of which have flourishing churches and schools. "My health having somewhat improved, I went to Green Bay to p~epare the children and adults for confirmation service which the bishop administered eight days later. This mission in Green Bay is, so to speak, connected with that of L'Anse where I founded a new mission in 1840, the same year I finished the construction of a church for a Catholic population of 80 families of French, German, and Irish.*93 In the course of his visit to Green Bay, the bishop made an episcopal visit to the village of Calumet where he confirmed 22 persons. This congregation has greatly increased since I last visited it. Last week the two German pastors there told me that there were a thousand Catholics in the area. The village is situated 45 miles south of Green Bay... "From Green Bay the bishop and I went to Fond du Lac. There were then only a few Catholics there although the number has since greatly increased. I bought some land and built a church in the center of the village.*94 This mission forms a central point between the missions of Oshkosh to the north, and Byron's Settlement to the south where there are 50 Catholic families. *9 5 The bishop preached at Fond du Lac while I said Holy Mass and baptized five children. I have also made some arrangements to build a church in each of these last missions.*9 6 "The next day we left for the Portage, passing through Fox Lake. Ther~ is no church there, although there are many Catholics who are visited from time to time by the pastor from Watertown where there is a large congregation of Irish,Canadians, and Germans, a church and a rectory. The bishop could stay only a short time at the Portage where, as I mentioned earlier, there are only a few Catholic

*93 The place name l'Anse is usually associated today with Upper Michigan. But in the early period there were, apparently, two or three places called l'Anse which in French simply means a cove or bay. Bonduel fails to explain, although it could refer to an inlet or bay near the mouth of the Menominee river. Nor does he mention this mission in his expense account. The church he is referring to was probably at Bay Settlement. *94 The small chapel at Fond du Lac, first known as St. Louis, was later replaced by the present St. Joseph Catholic church. The deed of conveyance from Bonduel to Bishop Henni is dated March 28, 1848 and the consideration was for $1. A copy of the deed is preserved in the parish records. *95 Byron's Settlement, a few miles south· of Fond du Lac, is probably associated with the present Byron on Highway 175. *96 This sentence appears in small letters, scarcely legible, written above the line as an afterthought. The translation may not be entirely accurate. 73 families...One can see an old Catholic cemetery and the sad ruins of a church which was burned (it is said) by the Indians on one of their orgies. "From Portage we reached the town of Prairie du Sac where I had gone six weeks earlier to make confession before undertaking the difficult mission into the Pinery of the north. It is pertinent to remark that there are two townships on the Prairie du Sac river which may be 15 to 20 square miles in size, one on the east and one ' on the west [side of the river]. Monsieur Aristi*97 lives to the south of the village or of the town properly called Sac [probably Sauk City] . Monsieur Aristi who bears the title of "count" in this country, is a Catholic as well as members of his family. All attended Holy Mass which was celebrated by the most worthy pastor at Aristi (that is the name of the town) in the new chapel which the Catholics built on land so generously donated by the count. "The bishop preached in English and in German according to custom before administering the Holy Sacrament of confirmation. Next day we crossed the Wisconsin river once more, heading for Mineral Point and Platteville where I left the bishop to return to console my own flock in Prairie·du Chien which was presently in the midst of some kind of an epidemic. "The bishop was extremely delighted to see that the stone church in Mineral Point which was begun two years earlier and was now completed, in addition to the fine rectory built by the zealous pastor.*98 His Eminence notified the pastor there that he intended to hold confirmation services after visiting the congregations of Platteville, Potosi, Shullsburg, Sinsinawa, Benton, and some whose names I do not recall. .." The remainder of the letter jumps to Bonduel's Lake Poygan experience. It is rather remarkable that he left out all mention of Fort Snelling in his peregrinations around St. Paul, obviously an oversight but also logical for a man who apparently never kept a journal in his travels.

*97 The "Count Aristi" here is undoubtedly Agostin Haraszthy (pronounced ah-rot'-zee), a pioneer to Sauk county in 1840.-C.W. Butterfield, The History of Sauk County, Wisconsin (1880), 203. *98 Probably the Rev. Joseph Causse, a Frenchman. See The History of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin, 470. 74 VII. ON THE "PAYGROUND"

In his letter to Olislagers de Meersenhoven written on October 15, 1847, Bonduel says he had been stationed at Lake Poygan since November 4, 1846, which was apparently the day of his arrival either from Prairie du Chien or Milwaukee. He says "the bishop placed me in charge of the Poygan mission, and the government of the United States appointed me superintendent of the English school for the purpose of civilizing the Menominee Indians.,,* 9 9 Actually, it was the sub-Indian agent, A.G. Ellis in Green Bay who had arranged to have the former missionary, Van den Broek, removed from the Poygan mission and, through Bishop Henni, to have Bonduel replace him. Ellis was dissatisfied with Van den Broek, not on religious grounds, but mainly because he resided at Little Chute, more than 30 miles away_ Realizing that they were going to lose their pastor, the so-called "Christian Party", that is, the Christian Indians among the Menomini tribe, remembered the other Black Robe they had known in Green Bay in the early 1840's, and they wanted him to join them and devote his full time to their "assimilation" which the Christian Indians, at least, had come to accept as a fait accompli. Accordingly, they asked a third person to write a formal letter which was probably addressed to the sub-agent at Green Bay, and Ellis may have passed the information on to Bishop Henni. The original letter of petition, apparently a rough draft, reads as follows: The undersigned, the chiefs and headmen of the Menominee tribe of Indians, acknowledging our faith in and belonging to the Christian (Catholic) religion and being well acquainted with the Rev. F.J. Bonduel and entertaining the highest respect and love for him, and on many occasions have experienced the benign influence of the Holy Catholic church through his instrumentality, respectfully request and beg of you to appoint'and make him our pastor, to reside at or near Lake Poygan on the Wolf river and to give him general superintendence of the spiritual affairs

*99 Bonduel to Olislagers de Meersenhoven, Oct. 15,1847, UNDA. 75 of our tribe; and with confidence, to you our Great Spiritual Father, we petition and appeal, knowing that whatsoever you may deem for our pre§ent and future welfare will graciously be granted and at the same time assuring you that a compliance with our request ~ill be followed with our most fervent and continued gratitude. Done at Green Bay the 17th day of July A.D. *100 It is not known what the non-Christian chiefs, led by Oshkosh, thought about this petition or that Oshkosh was even aware of it. It was out of his hands, in any event, because in matters pertaining to "civilization" he was no longer his own master. He could protest, but only within prescribed limits, for the Mo 'qkoma 'n (Long Knives) had engulfed his land in the same way that the Menomini had once taken this land away from the Fox, the Potawatomi, and the Winnebago before them. Bonduel's mission to the Menomini was two-fold, one, to "civilize"· them through modern education and practical advice on farming, and second, to lead them to an acceptance of Christian belief in a hereafter associated with one God and away froril polytheistic beliefs in many gods and a hereafter associated with the "happy hunting grounds." In his letter to his friend in Belgium, Bonduel says he founded a mission at Lake Poygan called St. Francis Xavier, a claim he repeats in his expense account a few years later. This may be misleading. Father Vanden Broek had been working among the .Christian Indians at Lake Poygan since 1845, now and then, and probably gave the name St. Francis Xavier to the mission. It was perhaps founded in July 1846 when Van den Broek, at the urging of Ellis, went to Poygan with some carpenters and began construction of a school houseat his own expense. But the school was left unfinished after his removal. The government then stepped in and apparently finished the building and added another, one for a boys' school and one for girls. The mission was situated on the "Payground" in Section 16 of Poygan township, six n1iles west of Winneconne. Under the terms of the Treaty of the Cedars signed in 1836 between the government and the Menomini, the latter were to remove from the Green Bay-Little Chute area to the west bank of the Wolf river in Winnebago county. The Indians were in no hurry to move but finally the government agent, David Jones, decided in 1844 to make their next annuity 'Payment on Lake Poygan. Payments were made annually to the Indians for the sale of their lands lying between the Fox and the

*1 00 The original is in the diocesan archives at Green Bay. 76 Wolf rivers, according to the 1836 treaty, and the place of the payment came to be known as "the payground", Le. the ground on which the payment was made. The site of the "Payground" south of Lake Poygan may have been suggested by the Christian Indians because it was the only high ground in the area suitable at the time for an Indian village as compared to the low, marshy ground around it. Bonduel later calls attenti9Jl to the marsh which he says was covered with two to eight feet of water. He also remarks that a great number of the Indians . died in the summer and fall of the year he came and he blamed i billious fever which, he said, resulted from the "fatal miasma" or "fetid vapors" which rose from the nearby lake and the marshes around. Within a few days after his arrival in November he had conducted funeral services for 52 persons, presumably from among the Catholic Indian families in the several villages scattered around the "payground." Short of food and short of farm tools to cultivate their corn and potatoes, plus illness brought on by the unhealthful terrain, the Menomini bands on Lake Poygan were probably reduced to the lowest level of their existence. The sight of these poverty-stricken people was almost too much for the new pastor to bear and he wanted to turn around and run away from it. However, the Indians came to him with tears in their eyes, he says, and begged him to stay. He thanks God later for the courage he was given to change his mind. It is not difficult to imagine how he felt when he arrived. Not only was he greeted by the wretched conditions of the Indians, but in addition, there "was not a house, not a cabin, not even a cave for me to sleep in." [Pas une maison, pas une cabine, pas meme une caverne pour me loger]. After visiting with the Christian chiefs, he walked back to the Wolf river, crossed the river to the east bank and went north a mile or so to the trading post of George Cown where he was able to rent either a bed or room until his house could be built. Actually, he ordered construction of a building 20 feet wide and 42 feet long, with a partition in the middle which allowed for living quarters in one end and a chapel in the other. The bedroom was apparently located over the living room and reached by a ladder. Since there was a sawmill nearby, the building was probably of frame construction, not of logs. When he began housekeeping for himself, he was able to engage an Indian woman as housekeeper. Some one came to Cown's trading post about this time to charge a few items and Cown identifies this 77 account as "Priest woman."* 1 0 1 But Bonduel must have become son1etl1ing of a cook himself by this time, and for breakfast, at least, he had fresh eggs from a flock of chickens he kept in a nearby shanty. Unable to drink any wine since he had taken the pledge, he probably had to subsist on tea. At least he had to boil the water which may have been the key to his own survival. Maintaining a school for the Indian boys was not easy. Absenteeism was rampant and it took considerable persuasion on the part of the teacher to keep the school going. Mrs. Rosalie Dousman of Green Bay was employed to teach the girls. Bonduel was often assisted by George Lawe, also of Green Bay, and he boasts in the short period he has been teaching that the Indian children had learned as much as any comparable group of children in a European school. He had also taught them to sing hymns and this, no doubt, is where the flute came in handy as an accompaniment. Twice in his letters he mentions that he has succeeded in encouraging the Indians in "sentiments of religion and humanity." The French word humanite (humanity) seemed to fascinate him. It could have been a reflection of a sub-conscious belief held by most Frenchn1en after Napoleon I that France was the cultural center of the world and Paris its capital. All together, Bonduel was proud of the work he managed to accomplish as a pastor-teacher in the year he had spent since he came to engage du Serpent Antique [the Old Serpent], as he describes the situation. He was especially pleased with his conversion of Pierre Sabeitak more commonly written as "Shopodock" whom he refers to as the son of the second chief of the tribe, a reference to the old patriarch, Aiame'tah. In another part of his letter to Olislagers de Meersenhoven he says there were only a quarter of the Menomini Indians located at the Poygan mission. Since there were around 2500 Menomini scattered across northeastern Wisconsin at this time, this means that several of the bands were not living on the west bank of the Wolf river. There was a small band on Rock river, another on the Black river, and a few families on the upper Wisconsin river. Others like the Peshtigo, Oconto and Menominee river bands of the north remained in their old hunting grounds until 1852-53 when they were forced to join the other bands on the new reservation, a place first referred to as "the Falls of the Wolf river" by the white man, but later as Keshena Falls

*101 Document listed as "debts due Cown" under date of Oct. 18, 1848 in National Archives, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters Received, Green Bay Agency, 1834-80 (hereafter as BIA), microfilm 234, roll 320, frame 0707. 78 after Chief Keshena of the Menominee river band. Bonduel also tells his friend in Belgium that there were 83 Catholic Indian families living around the Payground. Fron1 this it would appear that most of the Menomini and a few Chippewa and Potawatomi living around the Mission St. Francis Xavier were Catholics. Two of the Catholic bands were led by Chief LaMotte and Chief Carron, and probably a third or even fourth band by the elderly Aiame'tah and his two sons, Sa'kituk and Shopodock. Bonduel leaned mostly on LaMotte as a sort of liaison officer between himself and the Indians. Alfred Cope, who we will meet later, described LaMotte as "a large man with a composed countenance."* 1 0 2 In the one year or so since he had joined the Catholic Indians on Lake Poygan, Bonduel says they had cleared or were cultivating more than 200 acres of land. He was especially pleased to report that many families had abandoned their wigwams in favor of log cabins and he thought the prospects for the future of the church among the Indians here looked good.

*102 Alfred Cope, "Mission to the Menominee: A Quaker's Green Bay Diary", in Wisconsin Magazine ofHistory, Summer 1966,320. 79 . VIII. THE "MENOMINEE PURCHASE"

On October 18, 1848 at Lake Poygan, Bonduel saw history in the making. He was present when the Menomini chiefs, assembled in Council, agreed to sell all of their remaining lands in Wisconsin covering roughly Portage, Waupaca, Waushara, Wood, Green Lake, Shawano, Oconto and Marinette counties. By this treaty, referred to in the press as the "Menominee Purchase," the tribe also agreed to accept reservation status. Of the "Menominee Purchase" the Milwaukee Sentinel had this to say: The impression has gone abroad that this purchase comprised the poorest and most unproductive portion of Wisconsin, hence emigrants destined for Wisconsin have invariably shunned it... Instead of being the poorest.. .it is directly the reverse. The soil is exceedingly productive... The face of the country from Waupaca to Berlin is rolling, covered with beautiful oak openings and an occasional tract of pine. It is filled with beautiful lakes - as clear as crystal, formed by springs and filled with fish. In the northern part of this tract are large and extensive pineries extending for miles beyond the headwaters of the Wolf [river]. These extensive pineries will open a lumber trade in a few years that will be ul!paralleled by anything of a similar characte'r in the history of the west...,,*103 By the terms of the treaty, the Menonlini sold their lands for $350,000 in exchange for a 600,000-acre tract on the Crow Wing river in Minnesota Territory. But they had to deduct $30,000 fronl this amount to pay all debts to local trading posts before they moved, and another sum of $40,000 to be divided among their Menomini "cousins," that is, the mixed-bloods, most of whom were living in the Green Bay, DePere and Little Chute area. By accepting this payment, the mixed-bloods were cutting themselves off fronl future annuity payments, which is to say, money owing the Indians for lands sold to the government by treaty. The Indians were seldonl ever paid a lump sum, but were paid annually a specified amount,

*103 Milwaukee Sentinel, September 18, 1852. .80 something like a land contract. It appears that the Indians were never given a copy of the treaty that they "touched their pens" to. Commissioner William MediIl, who headed the United States team of negotiators, perhaps never thought they would want one. But the Menomini were learning. A year after the treaty was made, a Council was held on the Payground at Lake Poygan to settle various matters with William H. Bruce, the' newly-appointed sub-Indian agent. Acting as interpreters were William Powell and, John DuBay. It seems that the chiefs had been wondering out loud to the sub-agent why they had never been given a copy of the treaty. After listening to all the reasons why they had not been given a copy, Chief Carron said: "I did not know that the white man had so many different ways of expressing themselves... As an Indian I have but one way of speaking; my tongue is not forked."* 1 04 Without another word, the chiefs rose and walked out despite the fact that Bruce said he had more business to attend to. The chiefs had had misgivings about moving to the Crow Wing country, and in the summer of 1850, after an exploring party led by Chief Oshkosh went out to look at it, they became convinced that this was not a suitable place to live. They feared the Sioux, they saw no game, and they dreaded the cold winds that would sweep across the open marsh country in winter. Meanwhile, in June of 1849 all of the Menomini chiefs and sub-chiefs, apparently 26 in number, arrived in Green Bay to help supervise the distribution of the $40,000 which was to be disbursed by a representative sent to Green Bay by President Zachary Taylor. Most of the chiefs brought their families with them and quarters were provided for them in the vacant barracks of Fort Howard. Rooms were found at the fort where the details of the payment could be worked out and interviews held with the mixed-bloods to determine who was entitled to a share in the payment. The two representatives sent to Green Bay by the President were Thomas Wistar, Jr., of Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, and his secretary, Alfred Cope, both Quaker Friends. President Taylor had' served as commandant at Fort Howard from 1816 to 1818, and he had picked the Quakers for this sensitive assignmellt because he thought the Indians in Wisconsin were familiar with the reputation of the Quakers for fair dealing and honesty. Unfortunately, the Menomini had never heard of William Penn, or the Quakers, but after listening

*104 BIA, 234-320, frames 0299-0301. 81 to Wistar, they were ready to accord him their greatest courtesy. The four chiefs who were selected to check the names of the mixed-bloods were Oshehena'nieu, brother of Oshkosh, Keshena, LaMotte and Wah'ta'sa. Little is known about the latter except that he was an orator on occasion and a leader of one of the bands situated south of Lake Poygan, but LaMotte was the man Wistar came to depend on the most because of his "steady, dignified demeanor...and the intelligence he had exhibited throughout the [preliminary] proceedings."* 1 0 5 As the leader of the Catholic Party, LaMotte was probably urged to accept this assignment by Bonduel who was also at Green Bay at this time, and if Alfred· Cope heard hymn singing coming from the Indian quarters at Fort Howard in the evenings, as he wrote in his diary, it was probably coming from an Indian choral group under the direction of the pastor. Cope, it seems clear, listened to much of what Bonduel had to tell him about the Indians because he refers indirectly to the "Roman Catholic missionary stationed with the Menominee [who] was said to be critically familiar with several of the Indian tongues of this region...,,* 106 The sequence of events in the Cope diary suggests that Bonduel met Cope in Green Bay the first week in July, 1849. He was probably there to keep an eye on his parishioners from breaking their temperance pledges and to protect their interests in any way possible. After Wistar had made up the roll of mixed-bloods entitled to a share of the $40,000 bonus, totalling 777 persons, he left for New York city to bring back gold coins for the payment. When he got back he found that several of the pagan chiefs, Oshkosh included, had found the dry spell too long to endure. Nevertheless, the payment went off fairly well. The plan was to give each person $50. This absorbed $38,500, leaving $1,250 for a favored 50 to split into $25 shares which, with the $50 they already had in hand, gave them $75 each. The names on the roll, published in the Green Bay Adv.ocate on June 28th and July 19th, suggest that the 50 who got the most needed it the least, for among them were Augustin Grignon, John DuBay, the children of John Lawe, et ale Bonduel no doubt renewed an old acquaintance at this payment,

*105 Alfred Cope, "Mission to the Menominee: A Quaker's Green Bay Diary", in Wisconsin Magazine ofHistory, Autumn, 1966, 36. *106 Ibid. Summer, 1966, 322. 82 Photograph of Chief Oshkosh reprinted from a daguerreotype believed taken in 1855 at the time Indian delegation was returning from Milwaukee following the second abduction of Nahkom's son. The city of Oshkosh, anxious to honor the man after whom it was named, held a reception for the delegation. Many years later, William Ellsworth, a pioneer of the city, said he was present at the time and noted at one point in the proceedings that a certain group, apparently as ajoke, had coaxed the chief into a studio to have his picture taken. In a spirit of fun, they then rigged up a top hat festooned with ribbon and feathers, although Oshkosh never wore a hat like that. -- Photo courtesy Oihkosh Public Museum.

83 namely Solomon Juneau, who was there with his wife Josette and several children. The latter had come to get their share of the payment, since Josette was of French-Menomini descent. The roll published in the Advocate does not add up to 777 people because the names of wives and children of the heads of families are seldom listed, although possibly because of their father's position, the Juneau children are listed. The majority of family names among these mixed-bloods are of French origin. A few are Indian. Rosalie Dousman was also among the recipients. Although of Chippewa origin on her grandmother's side of her French ancestry, she must have had a trace of Menomini genes or she would not have qualified. Cope and Wistar were both pleased to learn on their arrival in Green Bay that the Menomini were not a "wild bunch of Indians," such as they had been led to believe. On the contrary, they were struck by the decency, order, and the forebearance which the chiefs showed to one another in Council and to the whites who participated, even to putting up good humoredly with the sub-Indian agent, William H. Bruce, who tried to dominate them, on one occasion at least, by shouting at them. Cope says he spoke with three persons who were present at the Treaty of Lake Poygan in 1848. The one who impressed him the most was someone he refers to as having "much feeling for the Menominees and to be intimately acquainted with their affairs...*107 This person, whose information was corroborated by two other informants Cope talked with, told him how the Menomini had been forced to accept the treaty against their will and were misled by certain stipulations in a previous treaty [1836] which affected the treaty of 1848 but which was suppressed in translation by one of the government-hired interpreters at the 1836 treaty.*108 There can be little doubt that Bonduel was Cope's source of information. Cope describes his new acquaintance as a "small, intelligent-looking man of winning manners." Unfortunately, nothing presently available makes any mention of Bonduel's visit to Green' Bay that summer. He must have been there on the last day of the payment, too, when affairs suddenly took a ludicrous turn. Five of the mixed-bloods, namely, Peter B. Grignon, William Powell, John DuBay, and· Robert Grignon thought that Wistar had defrauded them of a few 'dollars, and Wistar was served with a warrant on ,board ship

*107 Ibid, Spring, 1967, 216. *108 Ibid. 217. 84 just as he was preparing to leave for Buffalo. He was brought back in the night to face his accusers. In addition, he had to find counsel to defend himself. A trial was held by candle light and fortunately, J.W. Dunlap, a tanner and a justice of the peace, heard the case immediately and dismissed the charges. Bonduel was at first inclined to agree with the government policy of having the Menomini removed to a reservation to the west of the Mississippi river, and he intended to accompany them to their new home, but some time in the spring of 1849 he changed his mind and made every effort to thwart the government's intention to move the tribe out of the state. He must have thought back on all the hard work the Christian Indians had done to make "improvements" on the new land they had occupied west of the Wolf river in 1844, and perhaps realized, after talking to some of the chiefs, that their removal would represent a serious economic loss for which the purchase price of their land by the government could never compensate. But there was no stopping the frontiersn1en. They were ready to kill or burn the Indians out of their way. The government, bowing to the popular will, had to make provision for them elsewhere before they were destroyed entirely. The' low esteem in which the Indians were held by the white man is reflected by James Densmore, editor of the Oshkosh Democrat, who wrote that the American Indian was a "degraded race, incapable of improvement...and the sooner the race dies out the better for them and for others."* 1 09 When Bonduel saw this editorial comment, he wrote a strong letter of protest, not to Densmore, but to Samuel Ryan Jr., editor of the Green Bay Spectator, who published it. Unfortunately, it is not available since no one remembered to keep a file of the Spectator which ran only two years and was moved to Appleton, Wisconsin where it was absorbed by the Crescent. Aside from what the Indians stood to lose by the treaty, Bonduel was convinced that the negotiators for the government had personally enriched themselves. He suspected treachery when Schoolcraft negotiated the Chippewa-Ottawa treaty on Mackinac Island in 1836 and now he was ready to believe that something irregular or illegal had again taken place at the signing of the Treaty of Lake Poygan in 1848. Moreover, he was dissatisfied with the method of payment to the Indians and what followed every year at "payme11t time" when the Indians were rich one day and poor the

*109 Oshkosh Democrat, Oct. 31, 1851. 85 next because they spent their money on liquor and in revelry. He had seen it happen on Mackinac Island and now he was seeing the same thing happen every year at Poygan despite his own efforts to organize a temperance society among the Indians. It was therefore inevitable that he should be drawn into local politics among the Indians, and the traders who fattened on them. The leading traders were the Grignons, beginning with Augustin, the patriarch of a large family of sons and grandsons. Sub-agent A.G. Ellis, who took office in 1845, soon learned how difficult it was to deal with the Grignons who had been connected with the Menomini tribe by ties of marriage for more than half a century and "held a sovereign sway over them." He said they held this pre-eminent position "especially and in a great degree by the use of liquor.,,*110 The sub-agent was writing to his superior in Washington, William Medill, to acquaint him with the difficulties he was having with the traders. Not long after Ellis took office,. Indian leaders came to him with the request that he should sign a power of attorney to a single individual, presumably to Augustin Grignon, who would then be authorized to take payment of a certain sum of interest money the Indians were drawing from the sale of their lands and held in escrow by the treasury of the United States under the terms of the treaty in 1836. Ellis refused this request and the chiefs then sent Charles Grignon to Washington to talk to the President about it. The President at first agreed to the request to turn over the interest money to the Menomini chiefs, but later changed his mind and said that this money should be applied to education and agriculture among the tribe as a whole. The Grignons, Ellis writes, were enraged by this decision and suspected some "influence opposed to their scheme" but finally narrowed this "influence" down to Bonduel. "Filled with this idea, they have resolved to drive Mr. Bonduel from the mission at all costs," Ellis writes in his letter to Medill. When Augustin Grignon realized that the decision was final, he encouraged Chief Oshkosh into going with him to calIon the sub-agent at Green Bay. The chief wasted little time in this interview before launching into a diatribe against Bonduel whom he referred to as a "bad man in every way." After listening to this harrange, Ellis asked the chief if he had any other business. Oshkosh then said he wanted to send a message to the President concerning the interest money which he wanted'to sign in Ellis' presence.

*110 Ellis to Medill, Aug. 10,1848, BrA 234-320, frames 0054-0059. 86 "Under the direction of his prompter [Grignon]" Ellis continues, "he then demanded to know who had told the President [Taylor] not to pay the interest, and what was he going to do with it? and especially, he wanted to know if it was going to be the white men who they did not want around them, alluding directly to Mr. Bonduel, with much more to the same import, all which I regarded as a speech from Grignon rather than the chief." Ellis told his visitors that day that Bonduel had been placed at the mission by the Bishop with the approbation of the Indian department, that he had labored faithfully for their good, had given them nothing but good advice, and as long as he conducted himself as he had in the past, he would be retained. Either that same day or shortly later, Oshkosh left for his village on the Wisconsin river, and on his way he stopped over night at the house of a trader-most likely Grignon's-where he drank too much, and from there went over to Bonduel's chapel-house in the middle of the night to berate him and use threatening language. Bonduel must have accepted thes~ threats for what they were. He says nothing about the incident, but Ellis was concerned for his safety and did not put it above the Grignon's to bring harm to him for "he had from the first waged an uncompromising war on the whisky trade. He has established a Temperance Society at Lake Poygan which nUlTLbers nearly 100 faithful members, and his whole influence in every way [is] calculated to improve the condition of the Indians. ,,* 111 The exception among the traders in the area apparently was George Gown, married to a mixed-blood descendant of the Gautiers of Mackinac Island. Gown's trading post stood on the east shore of a big marsh which, after a dam was built at Neenah, became the lake known today as Winneconne. The Indians did much of their trading at Cown's, even tll0ugh Augustin Grignon had a trading post for the American Fur Company on the Payground much closer to their villages. The Grignon trading post records are not available, but an account book is preserved from Cown's post which was presented to the government auditors as proof of his claims against the Indians for past due bills. Although the total was more than $12,000, Gown said he would settle for that amount.*112

*111 Some idea of the extensive influence of the Grignon family on the Menomini Indians may be found in "Ellis Recollections", Collections, Vol. VII, 242-244. *112 BIA, 234-320, frame 0703. 87 To reinforce Cown's claim, Bonduel, who knew him well by now, came before a 'notary to swear that Cown was a proper business man who never sold liquor to the Indians and had at all times carried on a trade "with justice and equIty, totally different in that point from the mass of other Indian traders who live on the American side, and who the most part of them are incessantly trying to affect the peace of [my] mission by introducing ardent spirits into the Indian country...*113 This statement is interesting because here, for the first time, reference is made to "Indian country" and to "the American side." After the treaty of 1836 was signed by the Menomini, they were supposed to move their villages away from the Green Bay and Little Chute area to the west bank of the Wolf river. To most of the white settlers pouring into Winnebago and Outagamie counties in the 1840s, the west' bank of the Wolf then became known as "the Indian land." It still belonged to the Indians. But, by the treaty of 1848, the Menomini also gave up this land, although they had until 1850 to leave it. Thus when Bonduel speaks of "Indian country" he means the land lying to the west of the Wolf river, and when he nlentions the "American side" he means the east bank of the Wolf, or what came to be known as "Winneconne Settlement." But the thought that the Indians had been cheated in the Treaty of 1848 by a mercenary group of representatives of the government rankled in' Bonduel's mind. He was influenced, no doubt, by sentiments he also heard among the chiefs. Word of his displeasure, though, must have reached others because a year after the treaty was signed he received a letter of enquiry on this from Richard Chute, a busine'ss man in Washington associated with the trading firm of George and William Ewing of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Bonduel hesitated to reply, he said, but as a pastor and superintendent of the Indian school, he was "bound to profess a regard for truth," and he would declare himself on the side of justice and tell him what he knew. *114 He reported that Colonel William MediII, commissioner of Indian affairs, after exhausting his efforts to bring the Indians to his own terms, began to threaten them with his displeasure and the displeasure of the President, adding that if they did not consent to a treaty, he ,would authorize the Yankees (sic) to occupy their land

*113 BIA) 234-320) frame 0141. *114 Bonduel to Chute, Lake Poygan) Oct. 13, 1849, BIA, 234-320, frame 0999. 88 "without making a treaty since the state of Wisconsin wanted these lands for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. " Apparently MediII leaked some of this information to outsiders and Bonduel says he was approached by a man from Taycheedah to forn1ally protest to the commissioner "for the imprudence of the remarks that ,he made in public" and which had led the Yankees to believe tl1at they could begin settling on the "Indian land"-a fact all too well borne out in the spring of 1849 when the first pioneers crossed the Wolf river to the west bank and began locating on claims south of Fremont. The chiefs called a Council to. which friends, including Bonduel, were invited. The chiefs were angry, and there was apparently talk of retaliation against the white trespassers, but Bonduel said he advised them against any bloodshed and that it was "more prudent to make a treaty." He also recalled that Medill had told the chiefs that if any of them were to create difficulties, he would take their medals away from them and make new chiefs. The medals were marks of distinction among the Indians of all tribes and were awarded to them, usually for distinguished services as allies in war, or as keepers of the peace, that is, for agreeing to sell their lands. If MediII threatened to take their medals away and create new chiefs, he was following an old practice of blackmail used by government agents before him. "Colonel MediII appeared to me so positive in regard to carrying into effect this declaration," Bonduel writes, "that I went and told one of the principal chiefs to act prudently lest he should feel the effect of the Honorable commissioner's displeasure." He also says that LaMotte, one of the principal chiefs, had made a present of a handsome otter pelt to MediII to be forwarded to the President of the United States, but when Medililearned that LaMotte was opposed to some of the terms of the proposed treaty, he told Bonduel to tell him that the pelt would be returned to him because the President would never accept anything from a man who was opposed to "the best interests" of the United States. In February 1850, Bonduel was visited by William G. Ewing, one-time judge of probate court in Allen county, Indiana, who was in business with his brother, George W. Ewing, trading with the Indians and dealing in real estate from Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri.*115 After William Ewing left the mission, Bonduel wrote to his brother,

*115 Encyclopedia ofBiography ofIndians, Vol. 1,394-397. 89 George W. Ewing, to tell him of the visit. In this letter he says, inter alia: I do not know what poor Medill will say of us who have been so successfully busy in making his treaty appear in the eyes of the government what it is in reality: a Fraud! Should the administration change he would look upon me as a fallen star, a broken column! But he would be greatly mistaken. At all times, and in every place, I could affect his position as a politician a hundred times more than he could ever affect me in my position as a clergyman. As such, he will never be able to do the least in the world to hurt me. This castigation may bring him back to a proper degree of repentance and to the pursuit of a more equitable and wiser course.*116 In a postscript he hopes that his friend will visit him the coming summer accompanied by "our Honorable friend Thompson." He was referring to Richard W. Thompson, later an attorney for the Menomini Indians in Washington. The concern expressed in his letter reflects how the Menomini felt about moving to the west of the Mississippi, and Bonduel boldly asks Ewing to use his influence in Washington to prevent their removal "since our Indians act so generously." This last is probably a reference to a commission promised Thompson by the Indians if he succeeded in his lobbying efforts to keep the tribe from leaving Wisconsin. Bonduel, who had served as pastor and agriculture advisor to the Menomini for nearly three years now, appears to have assumed a certain propriety interest in them, and he was trying to show the pagans how easy it was to become farmers and to live in log shanties. He was determined to convert them both to his own religion and to the religion of progress which the federal government was expecting. His sense of commitment to them became stronger the longer he remained with them, and when the Treaty of Lake Poygan was signed in 1848 he was there not as a disinterested eyewitness, but as a man concerned for the legitimate econon1ic interests of the entire tribe. On May 29, 1849, perhaps overcome by his own sense of comn1itment, Bonduel unwittingly stepped into political quick sand. He had been asked to come over to the trading post of George Cown and when he got there he found most of the principal chiefs assembled including Oshkosh, Aiame'tah, the ancient one who once

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*116 Bonduel to George Ewing, Feb. 19, 1850 in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. 90 could produce thunder, Keshena of the Menominee river band, Sa'kituk, a son of Aiami'tah, Wa'ta'sa, Waukechon, Che'quetum, better known as "Laughing Hyena," Kinepoway, Tako, Little Wave, Shawano, Shopodock and Shu'nu'ni'u, better known as Souligny. What the chiefs wanted of Bonduel was to make a transcript of their meeting that day, the purpose of which was to petition the President of the United States to give George Cown $12,000 to settle all debts he held against the Menomini Indians. Oshkosh was owing him $243.76, Tako, $104.12, and so on, and most of the debts were . fairly long standing.*11 7 According to treaty, the money to pay Cown and other traders was to be deducted from a $30,000 fund held in escrow by the President "to settle the affairs of the tribe preparatory to their removal to the country set apart for and given to them..."*118 With this petition out of the way, the meeting was about to break up when, at the last moment, one of the chiefs allegedly told Bonduel to stay a minute and write a petition to the President on his own behalf, since it was the wish of the chiefs to give him $800, "a very small compensation for the immense services that he has rendered to us and to our children in point of humanity and as pastor amongst us for the space of two years and a half, during which time he has received no compensation of any account for his valuable services as pastor of this mission."* 119 The nomenclature and style of this letter, of course, make it Bqnduel's own. Although he was being paid a salary now of $420 a year from the government as superintendent and teacher of the Indian school on the Payground, he probably got nothing from his parishioners. A comparison between the two petitions n1ade out that day shows that the chiefs who signed the documents were not identical. Chief Oshkosh put his X mark beside his name on both documents as well as his younger brother, Oshehena'nieu, in addition to Tako, Waukechon and Sa'kituk. In fact, on the second petition for Bonduel's benefit, Sa'kituk's name appears twice. Souligny appears on both documents as well as Shopodock, but on the second, Souligny and one other name, impossible to identify, appear as "not present.,,* 12 0 Yet, someone else has made the cross after their

*117 BIA, 234-320, frames 0703-0707. *118 BIA, 234-320, frame 0155. *119 BIA, 234-321, frames 0135 and 0318. *120 BIA, 234-321, frames 0308, 0326-0329. 91 names. Pierre LaMotte signed both documents, whereas Carron signed the one for Bonduel but not the other. Kinepoway, also known as Akine'bui, signed both. Several months later another meeting was called by several chiefs in which they charged that their petition to pay Cown had not been entirely fulfilled by the government, but that "large demands had been made against the tribe by individuals who did not and had not lived among them and who had furnished the tribe with immense quantities of ardent spirits [nevertheless] had succeeded in obtaining a large share of the $30,000 whilst our friend and legitimate trader George Cown...has received only the sum of $3,657 instead of the $12,000 we had promised.,,*121 The petition then goes on to ask that the balance of $8,343 be paid to Cown. Nothing is said about the $800 for Bonduel. In fact, it is never mentioned again. When word of the meeting held at Cown's trading post on May 29th reached Bruce in Green Bay he wrote to Bonduel on June 11th requesting information on it "as soon as possible."* 122 This was important to Bruce because if it was a "Council," then it represented an official meeting called by Indian chiefs without his knowledge and this, in his opinion, was illegal: Indians were not supposed to meet without the approval of the sub-agent. But Bonduel, who must have known all the principal chiefs on a first-name basis by now, failed to see why he could not sit down and talk with them at this own discretion. He was their pastor, at least to the so-called "Christian Party." Yet, he was an employee of the government, too, and not entirely his own master. William H. Bruce, who was Bonduel's immediate employer, seems to have been a man of both education and competence. He came to Bay Settlement in the late 1830s and later moved to Green Bay where he engaged in road construction and the commission business. He was no doubt familiar with just about everyone in the Bay area, including Bonduel, before he was appointed sub-Indian agent in the spring of 1849 to replace A.G. Ellis. The Indian sub-agency w·as not a big office in the affairs of the nation but to the commissioner of Indian affairs, it was important because it represented the last link in the chain of command between the President of the United States and the Indians. Bruce's immediate superior was Elias Murray, general superintendent of all

*121 BIA, 234-320, frame 0700. *122 BIA, 234-321, frame 0129. 92 Indian tribes for the northern district of the United States with offices in Sheboygan,- Wisconsin. Yet, the Indians could approach neither Murray nor the President except through their sub-agent, who, for the Menomini, was William H. Bruce. In the years that Bruce lived in the Bay area he must have absorbed considerable knowledge of the Menomini Indians, for when Schoolcraft published Volume II of his Indian Tribes, he included an eleven-page vocabulary of the Menomini language prepared by Bruce. Thus it may be assumed that as a whole he was sympathetic to the Indians and to their culture, that is, as long as it did not conflict with his orders which were to remove them to the West of the Mississippi as fast as possible. He had to know, therefore, what was going on. He was the Great Father's representative, the extended hand reaching out to assure the Indians of the government's "utmost good faith," as the Northwest Ordinance so aptly expresses it. At least, that was the theory. But Bruce's letter irritated Bonduel. Here he was, a man living on the fringe of Western culture, seldom meeting his peers, even among the few white men he encountered. Accustomed to a higher standard of living, he was now having to make-do with an Indian housekeeper who probably had her own version of preparing bouillabaisse. In the winter time the frame chapel-house was seldom warm because it had no insulation, and in summer the windows had to be left open to catch the breeze off the lake, but with the windows open the· deer flies, house flies and enormous mosquitoes sneaked in despite the cotton netting probably covering the windows,' or more accurately, window. He was desperately lonesome at times. When Julius Murray, a son of Captain Murray, came to calion him, he later described his visit' in a letter to his father which reads, in part, as follows: He [Bonduel] took me into his school room and showed the progress of his schollars (sic) were making. He then had them sing several songs, which they done (sic) very well. He had me by the arm, taking me around and showing everything he thought w~uld interest me until dinner time and would hardly let me come away.. ~ 123 Beyond the personal discomforts, he was also under constant observation by the Indians, not spied upon necessarily, but just watched by a people who had little else to do. Some, of course, were on the lookout for a piece of bread, for no matter how good the hunting or fishing, there were always some who never had enough to

*123 BIA, 234-321, frame 0565. 93 eat. He had to be both spiritual and temporal healer to them. When they became ill, they often called upon him to bring the magic·of the white maIl'S medicine, and when that failed, he was asked to perform the last rites for a tormented soul losing his way in the darkness of the eternal night. It was not easy to be a man of God on the frontier of Wisconsin, especially where the Old Serpent controlled so much of the territory. Bonduel waited a few days before replying to Bruce. He repeats the information already given above, but in answer to his direct question about a Council he says: "Whether this was a Council or not, 1 do not know anything -about it...As far as 1know, there was no Council and consequently 1 was not secretary for the deliberation of a Council that had no moral existence for me...1 was simply requested by the chiefs to write the RESTJLT (sic) of their deliberations." Explaining why the chiefs wanted to give him a bonus of $800 out of the same fund as Cown was being paid from, he has this to say: The Indians know very well that I support this Christian mission with or by the fruit of my own labor. All the means of my teaching have been and are daily absorbed by the insufficient expense of this infant Christian mission, which for nearly three years has been supported by the sweat of my brow. The Department [probably meaning the BIA] and the public at large are acquainted with this fact!!!" He closes with the salutation: "With much regard 1 have the honor to remain, Sir, your truly obedient servant in Christ."* 124 The use of the three exclamation marks was not uncommon at the time. Yet, there can be little doubt that he was exasperated. And Bruce too must have realized that he was being addressed not by an obedient servant in Christ but by an offended man who was feeling sorry for himself, begging to know why he should not accept a gift which he had won by the sweat of his brow. Apparently he never stopped to think that the $30,000 fund was not meant for this purpose, and this must have occurred to him later, for when the chiefs reassembled in January 1850 to petition the President a second time on behalf of Cown, Bonduel was present as a witness but did not write the petition, nor was there any mention made to the $800. Not long after, a strange rllmor began to circulate on the Payground about a defection of the Menomini tribe to the British in Canada. Sub-agent Bruce must have heard about it from someone in

*124 Bonduel to Bruce, June 12, 1849, BIA 234-320, frames 0316-0217. 94 Green Bay and wrote to Bonduel to ask if there was any truth in it. The latter replied in part as follows: Agreeable to your request, I do hereby certify that several Christian Indians and others have been influenced by their friends to defect to the British side in case they should be compelled by government to go west of the Mississippi river...To concur with the views of government on this matter I have in public severely rebuked my Christian congregation for showing a disposition that, if carried to effect, might prove fatal to their future welfare.*125 It seems extremely doubtful that the Menomini would think of defecting to the British at this stage of history. They had been allies of the Americans in the campaign against Black Hawk and were now physically removed from the nearest British outpost by several hundred miles. They could scarcely have defected if they had wanted to except as individual refugees. The rumor may have started among sonle of the younger men as a joke and was picked up by the white man, ever anxious to believe the worst about the Indians. It seems rather incredible that Bonduel should have been taken in by it.

*125 Bonduel to Bruce, July 25, 1849, IDA, 234-320, frame 0256. 95 IX. JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON D.C.

There were two matters that were bothering the Menomini Indians in the spring of 1850, and what bothered them also bothered their pastor. Uppermost in their minds was the matter of having to move to a reservation in Minnesota Territory. The chiefs had been trying to get to Washington to talk with the President but were thwarted by their sub-agent, Bruce, who was committed by policy and treaty regulations to their removal to the west of the Mississippi river. But the chiefs had cleverly managed to bring up the question of their removal to Thomas Wistar Jr. when he was in Green Bay in 1849 to mak~ the "payment" to the mixed bloods, and though Wistar denied any authority to interfere, he apparently agreed, unofficially, to do what he could for them. Whether it was Wistar or someone else, the fact is that the matter was brought to the attention of the President who agreed to meet with the chiefs later that summer. The second matter that was disturbing the Menomini concetned the provisions of the treaty held at Lake Poygan in 1848, and the belief that government negotiators had made money on the deal. There was no proof of this, only rumors which probably became more damning with each telling. Having to listen to all this whispering and reproach, and probably convinced from his Mackinac experience that the Indians were right in their estimate of the treaty negotiators at Lake Poygan, Bonduel took the unprecedented step of drafting a letter, or Memorial, as it was referred to later, which he addressed to the President of the United States. In this he enumerates charges of malfeasance and fraud against various individuals in the Indian department. The Memorial was signed not by him, however, but allegedly by several chiefs and sub-chiefs, nearly all of the Christian Party of the Menomini tribe. Only two of the chiefs who "touched the pen" were leaders of bands, namely LaMotte and the aged Aiami'tah. The 96 others were sub-chiefs, but all men in whom Bonduel had a special interest because they were probably Catholic and members of his church. Since none of the signatories to this Memorial could write, son1eone else had to sign their names for them. At the right of each name at the close appears the usual "his X mark." Bonduel says the ·Memorial was handed to the President by James Duane Doty, Wisconsin's representative in Congress. It can only be assumed that Bonduel sent the Memorial to Doty for forwarding to the President, but no one seems to know whether Doty read it first or had any idea what it contained. The original document does not appear to be available in the BIA microfilms, but apparently a copy, or the original, was sent back to Bruce in Green Bay, for the 'nature of its contents is reflected in the vehement denials it drew from the accused and in the sharp counter-charges that were made against the complainant whom everyone knew was not a red man but a white man wearing a black robe. An affidavit signed by Colonel Samuel Ryan, a former secretary to A.G. Ellis, says that the letter signed by the chiefs on November 12, 1850 comprised 15 pages of closely written cap paper*126 and contained "many serious charges" against William MediII, the former commissioner of Indian affairs, A. (for Albert) G. Ellis, the former sub-agent, Morgan L. Martin, Green Bay attorney, and William H. Bruce who replaced Ellis on April 21, 1849.*127 Colonel Ryan was mainly concerned with preserving the good name of Ellis, a man who had served honorably in public office as an assemblyman to the state legislature, and four years as sub-agent without blame or blemish. He was also the co-founder in 1833 of the Green Bay Intelligencer, the first newspaper in Wisconsin, and in 1853 founder of The Pinery, the first newspaper in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. In his affidavit, Colonel Ryan vows that Ellis' actions at the treaty making in 1848 were "open and above board, without favor, affection or partiality to the Grignons, traders or half breeds." All this must have come as son1ething of a shock to Ellis who a year earlier had written a flattering appraisal of Bonduel's work among the Indians. In his own comn1ents to Bruce, Ellis is certain that the Memorial did not originate with the chiefs and did "not reflect. the mind of the tribe."*128 The charges against Medill, he *126 Abbreviation for foolscap, a printing paper 131J2 by 17 inches. *127 BIA, 234-320, frame 0611. *128 Ellis to Bruce, Feb. 8, 1850, BIA, 234, 234-320, frames 0598-0602. 97 said, were "gratutitous and malicious." Medill had handled the treaty negotiations with "patience and kindness" and the Indians had consented to the treaty with "cheerfulness and were perfectly satisfied..." This last sentence suggests that Ellis was not on the Payground at all times or he would have known that MediII had probably not treated the Indians with patience, or kindness, as Bonduel had already charged and as Captain William Powell was to testify to later. * 129 Moreover, for Ellis to say that the Menomini were "perfectly satisfied" at being uprooted from their old planting groounds goes beyond credulity. In his own letter to Bruce, Morgan L. Martin denounced Bonduel out of hand and denied that there had been any improprieties whatever at the treaty signing. ~ 130 And as to an allegation of wrong doing involving the disbursement of the $30,000 to payoff Indian debts, Martin vowed that "not a murmur of discontent or a whisper of disapprobation was heard from any quarter except from the Schoolmaster Bonduel. ,,* 13 1 This last statement seems uncalled for. Bonduel was not referred to as an ordained pastor or a superintendent of a mission school, only a "schoolmaster." Martin attributed Bonduel's objection "to the fact that his female assistant (sic) was and has been a personal enemy of all the Grignons for many years"-a reference to Mrs. Dousman-and he called the letter "artfully drawn" and "evidently not the work of the Indian chiefs but of their 'beloved pastor' or his mistress who reside on Lake Poygan." He added that he used the term "mistress" not in the usual sense "but as indicative of the superiority which an artful and intriguing woman maintains over the thought and actions of the servile tools who indicted this petition..." Thus do men, often stabbing each other in the back, come to the defense of one of their own when attacked from without. The most insidious suggestion, however, came from Ellis who advised Bruce, in so many words, to remove Bonduel before further efforts could be made to "disturb the Indians and defeat the government and its

*129 "William Powell's Recollections" in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison, 1913), 173-175. *130 Morgan L. Martin to Bruce, Feb. 5, 1850, BIA, 234-320, frame 0605. *131 Martin apparently became hostile to Bonduel as a result of this affair and it was from Martin's correspondence, apparently, that Katherine C. Turner drew her unflattering information about Bonduel which appears in Red Men Calling on the Great White Father (Norman, OK, 1951) 104-105. 98 benevolent plans for their benefit and happiness." Bruce thought over this suggestion and a few days later he too took an unprecedented step. He wrote to Bishop Henni in Milwaukee to say that it was "imperatively necessary that the Rev. Mr. Bonduel. ..should be removed." He hoped the Bishop would send a new man who would be willing to "use his endeavors to induce the Indians to comply with the terms of the late treaty," and he would be obliged to the Bishop if he would notify him at the earliest opportunity because he would be "sorry to leave the Indians without any spiritual guide."*132 But Bruce apparently did not realize at first how deeply he too had stepped into quick sand, for among other things, he had committed the unpardonable sin of bypassing a superior. He had written directly to the bishop without conferring either with Captain Murray in Sheboygan or the commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington. Was it within his jurisdiction to fire Bonduel? It probably was, but Bruce had not reckoned with the political-religious implications of his actions. It was one thing to fire a blacksmith, which he had done, for selling government iron to the white settlers instead of to the Indians, but quite another n1atter to fire a man who ostensibly represented God, the bishop and the Indians! Bishop Henni sent Bruce's letter to the Indian department in Washington with a covering letter from Bonduel and asked for an explanation. The flap did not stop in the department but went all the way up to Thomas Ewing, secretary of the interior.*133 On March 22nd, Secretary Ewing forwarded Henni's letter to Orlando Brown, the new commissioner of Indian affairs, and commented in part as follows: The attempt of Mr. Bruce to expell a member of the gospel from his mission and cutoff his connexion with the Indians under his charge is wholly unwarrantable. Such an exercise of power ought not to be and is not by law entrusted to the discretion of the local agent without instructions from the department, for if it were, perhaps personal feelings might blind and interfere with the discharge of official duty. The Indians civilized or savage had a strong attachment to their homes and a natural reluctance to leave them, and the missionary or religious teacher settled among them, if he be fit for his station, will sympathize with them in their sorrows and be their Special Counsellor and friend. For this he does not merit reprehension, nor even if he go further and attempt

*132 Bruce to Henni, Green Bay, Feb. 18, 1850, BIA, 234-320, frame 0121. *133 The Department of Interior took over the Indian department from United States army jurisdiction in 1849. 99 in a lawful manner to avert what they and he may consider a calamity. But if he have a just appreciation of the conditions of the Indians and sound judgment as to what will tend· to promote their welfare, though he may make efforts to change the policy of the government, he will not throw obstacles in the way of those engaged in carrying it out, and I am warranted in believing, from the letter of the Right Rev't Bishop Henni that such has not been the case in this instance. The secretary closed his memorandum by reminding the commissioner that an order of expulsion, no matter what the circumstance, should have been presented to the commissioner first. * 134 It seems fair to state that no secretary of the interior ever came to the rescue of a clergyman more eloquently than Ewing to Brown. It is also doubtful whether any future agent of the Indian department in Washington ever had to deal with anyone quite as prickly. as Bonduel, for despite the assurances of Bishop Henni to Ewing that Bonduel was doing nothing out of the way, internal evidence suggests that he was doing quite a bit, overtly and covertly, to sabotage the government's intention to move th~ tribe to the west of the Mississippi river, and Bruce knew it. On March 26th, Commissioner Brown wrote to Bruce and enclosed Ewing's letter. It took a few days for it to reach Green Bay and after Bruce got it, he must have pondered its contents. He went through all the regulations and revised regulations and in his reply to Brown cited specific paragraphs and precedent to prove that he had the authority to ask for Bonduel's removal. He became fully convinced, he says, that Bonduel was determined to prevent by every means in his power the removal of the Indians and that "he was underhandedly using all his influences to effect that object...,,*135 But Bruce must have sensed that he was inviting trouble, and after citing further evidence of his good intentions, he promises in future to conform his conduct "to the instructions contained in the secretary's letter and hope the Department will not again have to censure me in this particular." In a postscript he adds that he has no document of any kind in his office which shows that Bonduel had ever been appointed by the Department of the Interior and "that being the case, I considered the sub-agency alone was responsible for his acts." In other words, if a sub-agent [Ellis] could hire him without a

*134 Ewing to Brown, Washington D.C. March 22, 1850, BIA, 234-320, frame 0124. *135 Bruce to Orlando Brown, April 17, 1850, BIA, 234-320, frames 0664-5. 100 referral letter to Washington, Bruce, who replaced Ellis, could fire him. Thus, after apologizing and promising to conform to instructions in the future, Bruce could not help adding a postscript in a final effort to vindicate himself. According to the treaty of 1848, the Menomini had until June 1850 to move to a reservation. After the chiefs had been out to inspect the Crow Wing country that summer, they had begged their protector, the Great Father in Washington, for an alternate site, preferrably in Wisconsin.*136 They anticipated by 18 years the famous Navajo chief, Barboncito, who was to say about his own tribe's removal, "I hope to God you will not ask me to go to any other country except my own." Just how the arrangements were made for the Menomini chiefs to get to Washington is not clear, but by the time they got there, President Taylor was dead and the chiefs had to deal with a new administration under Millard Fillmore. And instead of .being met by the commissioner of Indian affairs, they were met by Charles E. Mix, acting on behalf of A.G. Loughery, the acting commissioner of Indian affairs. It must have been something of a revelation to the Indian chiefs to learn how easily the white man's chiefs appeared and disappeared. The Indian delegation, accompanied by Bruce, passed through Buffalo, New York, on August 26th.*137 In addition to Oshkosh, chiefs of bands included LaMotte, Waukechon, Keshena, Souligny, Asha'wani'pinas, leader of the Peshtigo band, Che'qui'tum, known to the whites as "Laughing Hyena," and Carron who said he was there as a representative of the aging Aiame'tah. There may have been others. They were accompanied not only by Bruce but by Charles Grignon and William Powell, interpreters, and Francis Desnoyers who operated a trading post in Green Bay and was married to a Menomini mixed-blood. Desnoyers is not mentioned in connection with any meeting, but he probably came along as an unofficial advisor. He later put in a bill for expenses of $200.*138 Friends can be expensive. Bonduel arrived a day or two later accompanied by George Cown. It is not difficult to imagine the look on Bruce's face when he encountered Bonduel and it remains something of a mystery just

*136 BIA, 234-320, frames 0646-0651. *137 The Buffalo Commercial Aug. 27,1850. *138 BIA, 234-322, frame 0355. 101 what he was really doing here, or who brought him, the Indians or the Ewings. At their first meeting the Indian chiefs were introduced by Bruce to Mr. Mix, and Mix told them, after they were seated, that their Great Father had heard of their arrival and would attend to their business when it was properly presented to him. Oshkosh led off the discussion by saying that the delegation had come to Washington for the express purpose of discussing certain matters relative to the treaty which Medill had made with them, and, since the time for their removal under the treaty had nearly expired, their main objective was to obtain permisson to remain in their present villages for another year. The Indians had drawn up a petition to this effect with the help of their attorney, R.W. Thompson, who read the petition. After listening to this, Mix asked the chiefs if they had any other matter to lay before the President. This question opened Pandora's box. Oshkosh led by saying that their annuity money was being used to payoff Indian debts to traders and others. Whether Oshkosh used the word "illegal" is uncertain, but this is what he implied. A $30,000 fund had been set aside for this purpose, deducted from the sale of their lands, to pay the traders' old debts and Oshkosh was under the impression that the gover.nment was actually deducting this from their annuities instead of from the $30,000 specifically allotted for this purpose by treaty. Several of the chiefs assented to what Oshkosh said. LaMotte then said he had signed the requisition for the claim which Oshkosh alluded to, namely to payoff George Cown with the understanding that the amount was to be deducted from the $30,000 fund and not out of annuity monies. When it came for his turn to speak, Waukechon said the Indians had expected, according to the treaty, to have the $30,000 placed in their own hands to payoff the debts to traders, but instead, the money had been turned over to the sub-Indian agent and he had distributed it among the claimants at his own discretion-a direct slap at Bruce. At this point, B011duel spoke up to say that the chiefs were laboring under a false impression as to the payment of the claim to Cown, and. that this clain1 had already been deducted from the "last winter's payment," no doubt meaning the annual payment in October 1849. Bonduel said that it was a just claim and the chiefs themselves had met and requested that it should be paid, and this was done i~ the presence of "many respectable interpreters." Chief Souligny countered this by saying he was of the same mind 102 as Oshkosh and that he had never heard of this claim being paid until he reached Washington and that he and others had never consented to its payment. Bonduel replied to Souligny that it was the chiefs of the Christian Party who had requested the payment of the claim "as Mr. Cown had been their regular trader, and that the money was justly due, and that several of the pagan chiefs had also signed the paper requesting the payment." Keshena, Asha'wani'pinas, and Che'quo'tam desired to have their names put down as chiefs who had not signed the Cown claim and were still opposed to it. The minutes of this meeting report that Mr. Bonduel "spoke with some warmth about Mr. Cown's claim, and he wished to state now, in the presence of the sub-Indian agent and the traders who were also here, that this was a fairer claim than many others that had been paid." He added that other claims which had been paid were for whisky sold to the Indians by traders who came among them "to their injury and degradation." Furthermore, he was glad to have an opportullity of saying so here in the presence of.the traders who had got much of the money, and of the agent who paid it.. Bruce probably bit his lip. Aside from Cown, there can be little doubt that several of the other "traders" referred to were members of the Grignon families. In fact, Charles Grignon must have made some remark about it on behalf of his relatives. But Mix stopped him and said that if the President wanted to investigate the matter, there would be time for this later. Chief Carron then suggested that these matters could wait and what was uppermost on his mind was the question of remaining in Wisconsin another year. The other chiefs nodded their agreement, and Carron said they would discuss this and other matters among themselves and later advise the commissioner. This closed the meeting. From all this it seems clear that the chiefs had not agreed on an agenda before they reached Washington. They were divided, and some had either forgotten or never actually signed the petition favoring the Cown claim. Earlier in May of that year Bonduel had signed a deposition saying that he was present at the Council of the Menomini chiefs "all the time that the arrangement was being concluded...and said arrangement was fairly, honorably and in good faith entered into by both the contracting parties and at their request 103 it was submitted in writing by hin1...,,* 13 9 If Bonduel "spoke with some warmth" he was not only trying to see that the Cown claim was paid, but he was probably using the circumstance to put the Grignon family in its place for trafficking in whisky with the Indians. But he also seemed to have information on the payn1ent which the Indians did not have when he says that the partial payment of $3,657 on the Cown claim was deducted from the Indian annuities at "last winter's payment," that is, in 1849. A document in the BIA files shows that Cown, on June 1, 1850, was paid $4,171.50 by the treasury department "being the amount of one half his claim against the Menominee Indians for goods & provisions furnished said tribe, etc. by decision of the commissioner of Indian affairs & the other to be paid in the year 1851 under same decision."*140 These three sums added up would come to $12,000. It seems fairly evident that neither the Indians nor Bonduel were aware that Cown had been paid on June 1, 1850, three months before they went to Washington. It is also possible that Cown himself did not know that he had been paid until he got to Washington, since the money had been turned over to his attorneys, William and George Ewing. Later, it will be seen that the Ewings were more than attorneys in Washington; they were traders deeply involved in making n1011ey in Indian country. And just what was George Cown doing in Washington? And why was Bonduel so upset over the Cown claim? Was he only concerned about Cown's interests, or was it the shadow of the Ewing brothers that haunted him? Since there is no further mention of the Cown claim in the BIA files, it can only be assumed that it was paid in full in 1851 and that ended the matter. Meanwhile, in a letter to one of his superiors in Rome, written several years later, Bonduel tells his correspondent that at the time he was in Washington he met personally with President Fillmore who "after a kind hearing on this subject [the removal of the Menomini to the Crow Wing] assured me that my Indians would get justice from the general government."*141 His expenses to Washington were probably paid by the Indians. In a letter to Elias Murray from George W. Lawe, the new sub-agent at Green Bay, it is revealed that $1080 was divided among "the

*139 BIA, 234-320, frames 0682-0685; see also 0143, 0690. *140 BIA, 234-320, frame 0688. See also Bryan & Cochrano to Orlando Brown, May 16, 1850 in BIA, 234-320, frames 0682-84. *141 Bonduel to ? ,March 26, 1857, UNDA. 104 commissioners employed by the chiefs to go to Washington...,,*142 Sub-agent Lawe lacked higher education and his use of the word "commissioners" seems misleading. It probably refers to John B. Jacobs, William Powell and Charles Grignon, three interpreters, and to Francis Desnoyers and Bonduel. In any event, the meeting with the Great Father gave the chiefs what they came for, namely another year in Wisconsin which also gave Bonduel another year to plead their case.*143

*142 BIA, 234-321, frames 0504-0505. *143 There is a stron~. similarity in the struggle between Bonduel a~d Bruce, and between Frederic Baraga and the government agent on Lake SuperIor to remove the Chippewas from LaPointe.-See Verwyst, op cit, 169. 105 x. RETURN TO THE FRONTIER

After his trip to Washington City, as the national capital was often referred to, Bonduel returned to his post at Lake Poygan, Wisconsin. He was returning to a Catholic mission school where he served as superintendent, but since he now had become something of a watchdog for the Menomini Indians, perhaps the word "post" is more appropriate. It can only be assun1ed that he can1e back with the Indian delegation. The sub-Indian agent, William H. Bruce, appears to have delayed a short time before returning to his office in Green Bay. It was not long after he returned that he received a letter of complaint from Bonduel, not about the whisky runners, but about an Irishman who set fire to a house owned by an Indian family, fortunately none of whom was at home at the time. He said all the Christian chiefs, eight in number, were asking that the sub-agent should come to Lake Poygan "to settle the difficulties created by that act of most co~sumate malace!!!,,*144 As a nota bene, he writes, "Jean Baptiste Desmond(?) is at present in town [Green Bay] & saith that the articles bought at Suydam's [store] for our pupils could be given for his care and brought here." This is followed by another N.B~ in which he writes: Ten days ago another house in which [number illegible] Indian families live was also set on fire. The chiefs think that it was also put on fire by another pious Irishman! Besides the above, five houses have been lately broken into. The settlers took everything away from the poor Indians!! His mind jumps from arson to school supplies and back to more arson. He exaggerates the number of "Christian" chiefs. There were nine chiefs of bands in the tribe, at least three of whom lived on the Oconto, Peshtigo and Menominee rivers, not on Lake Poygan. He

*144 Bonduel to Bruce, Lake Poygan, Dec. 26, 1850, BIA, 134-320, frames 0014-0015. 106 probably should have said there were eight Christian chiefs and sub-chiefs, the latter usually sons or brothers of band chiefs. After receiving Bonduel's letter, Bruce addressed a letter of his own to Colonel Francis Lee, battalion commander at Fort Howard [Green Bay], bringing his attention to the arson charges and enclosing Bonduel's letter. He said he would be pleased to have the colonel make any suggestions he might have in regard to the matter, and if he thought it advisable, he would proceed to the mission to make an investigation. He also assures him that he would be pleased to have one of the "gentlemen from your command to accompany me, as my instructions require me to consult with the military in case of difficulty...,,* 145 The letter Bruce sent to the colonel must have been delivered safe-hand because Colonel Lee replied to it on the same day. But the colonel was not thinking of meddling in the affair even though admitting that "certain outrages" had been committed. He told Bruce to make an enquiry himself and if the facts warranted, he should make a formal complaint to the civil authorities who would bring the offenders to "immediate justice," but if military force was necessary "it will be immediately furnished from my command at the call of the proper civil authorities." This was not necessarily a matter of passing the buck. It seems related, rather, to an old dilemma: if an Indian had a complaint to make against a white man, to whon1 should he look for justice, the sub-agent, representing the federal government, or the county sheriff? Bruce was not very sure of this either or why would he want an officer from Lee's command, instead of the sheriff, to accompany him? Whatever his confusion, Bruce decided to do his duty as he saw it and left to make the investigation without the assistance of the army or the sheriff. He arrived at the Payground on Lake Poygan on December 30th, not a pleasant time of year for traveling. After he returned to Green Bay he addressed a letter to the commissioner of Indian affairs. *146 He says he called a Council of the chiefs of th"e Catholic band residing on Lake Poygan to hear their complaints which were lodged n10stly against certain Irish settlers who were burning Indian shanties, stealing clothing and farm tools from the Indians when they were away on hunting trips, and

*145 Bruce to Francis Lee, Green Bay, Dec. 28, 1850, BIA, 234-321, frame 0023. *i4-6 Bruce to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Jan. 11, 1851, BIA, 234-321, frame 0010. See also Bonduel to Bruce, January 17,1851, BIA, 234-321, frames 0017-0018. 107 destroying their capacity to make maple sugar by carrying off kettles and troughs found in the sugar bush. Bruce also told the commissioner that the Indians could not understand why they should be subjected to such unwarranted abuses, and even after the Indians had tracked two of the alleged violators and brought them before the civil authorities in Winnebago county, the charges against the violators were dismissed. The chiefs pointed out to Bruce that all their difficulties originated in the Irish settlement south of Lake Poygan around the present St. Thomas Catholic church. In this connection, Bruce had learned that "certain difficulties" had also arisen between Bonduel and "the Irish people belonging to his church." He had heard correctly. A fortnight later Bonduel wrote another letter to Bruce in which he has this to say: I have also frequently heard our Indians complain of the bad conduct of half a dozen of Irishmen who lived at Lake Poygan and who to their shame call themselves members of our church. Our Indians are generally well pleased with the German and American settlers by whom there have never been trouble except by one American only who stole a horse from an Indian...*147 The confrontation between the Indians and the Irish settlers south of Lake Poygan developed shortly after the treaty was signed in October 1848, for by the spring of 1849 the newcomers were eyeing the lands which the Indians would soon vacate, and the Indians, according to Bruce, were making side deals with the settlers to buy their "improvements," i.e. shanties and log cabins. Bruce also told the commissioner in his letter that the settlers had begun occupying the Indian land before he assumed office and that he had twice called the attention of the Indian department to these trespassers, but was told that "the question of the power to remove intruders from lands occupied by the Indians, and to restrain others from going there is one of great delicacy and inviting important considerations." The department, however, promised to provide Bruce with a more clear-cut directive "by the time the n1ilitary reaches the country,,,*148 no doubt a reference to Colonel Lee's battalion, but after the military reached Green Bay no one told Bruce, or Colonel Lee apparently, what they were supposed to do about the trespassers. It was an old story to be repeated often in the next three decades. The settlers were ahead of government directives from Lake Poygan

*147 BIA, 234-322, frame 0018. *148 Bruce to Luke Lea, Green Bay, Jan. 11, 1851, BIA, 234-321, 0011-0112. 108 to Lake Tahoe. Nor is there anything in the files of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to suggest that Commissioner Luke Lea took any action on Bruce's justifiable complaints against the settlers who were vandalizing Indian property. Meanwhile, as spring began to thaw out the icy w·aters on the lakes and marshes of Winnebago county, Florimond Bonduel's thoughts turned to Washington D.C. where he had spent a few days in September the previous year. He sat down and wrote a letter of thanks to a William Cleary Esquire,*149 expressing appreciation for -his kindness, as well as to a Mrs. Spaulding who had apparently entertained him "during my short stay in the Metropolis."*15 0 Bonduel also tells Cleary that the Honorable William G. Ewing of Indiana had visited him on the Payground accompanied by his son, William G. Jr. Since Bruce was absent, the two men had remained "here with us a few weeks longer than he anticipated." Apparently Ewing brought along some documents from Colonel Thompson, the attorney for the Menomini in Washington. Bonduel says the Indians signed the papers which gave Thompson "full power to transact their business with the government." This refers to a Council held on the Payground on February 10, 1851 when the Menomini chiefs, including those who had been in Washington and those who had not, ratified an agreement made by the chiefs who were in Washington to employ R.W. Thompson as the attorney for the tribe. Bonduel was one of the witnesses to this meeting held at Lake Poygan. In the next paragraph Bonduel refers to William Ewing as "Judge Ewing," who, he says, did not like to leave the Indian country until the documents referred to in the above had· been acknowledged by sub-Indian agent Bruce in the presence of the chiefs. "Mr. Bruce, after he came back from his long journey," Bonduel continues, "offered no objection to it as soon as he knew from the chiefs that they had signed the papers on their own accord." No attempt is made to explain where Bruce had bee11. Next, Bonduel tells Judge Ewing that he is sure that "they are fully co·nvinced now at Washington that the poor Menominee Indians have been cheated in the last treaty they n1ade with the government by Colonel Medii!." He was also sure, he said, that the Indians would

*149 BIA, 234-321, frame 0218. William Cleary, listed in the Washington directory for 1853 as a clerk in the government land office. He was also included in the 1846 and 1850 editions although no title indicated. *150 Mrs. Spaulding was probably the wife of Alexander Spaulding whom Bonduel had known, presumably at Oshkosh. 109 get a "big chunk of surplus money for the balance of their lands which in justice is not to be included in the last treaty and that they will get a better tract of land in lieu of Colonel Medill's marsh on the Crow Wing." To further enhance the image of the Menomini, he tells the judge that the citizens of Winnebago, Marquette, Dodge, Brown and Fond du Lac counties were petitioning President Fillmore to allow the Menomini to occupy a tract of land in northern Wisconsin. Whether or not petitions were being circulated in all five counties, the fact is that three petitions ~re preserved in the BIA files addressed to President Fillmore which urge him to provide "a future home" for the Menomini on the "headquarters (sic) of the Wolf, the Menominee and Wisconsin rivers...that country not being very desirable for white settlement" and where the Indians "greatly desire to live."* 151 One of these petitions was circulated in Oshkosh, since the first to sign it was George T. Wright. Other names in the petition which can be read without difficulty, are Edmund Wright, F.B. Webster, A.W. Keep, John V.C. Voorhees, August Rayn10nd, James Griffin, R. Parkinson, O.B. Reeds, A.S. Cowley, A.F. Dana, A.A. Austin, Chester Ford, John McVay, H."H. Reardon, L.P. Crary, Monoah Griffin, operator of Oshkosh House, DeWitt C. I-licks, Chester D. Close, Bradley Shepard, George Crary, Edward Eastman, W.H. Cottrell, L.B. Reed, Anton Vogt, John Hunter, G.A. Arnolds, Lucius Olcott, E. (for Edwin) L. Buttrick, Henry Hicks, John Forbes, David Johnson, C.D. Coon of Algoma, C. Collins, John Barry, David Robinson, Charles Bell, Charles Wolcott, Norman Chesley, Richard Kimball, S. Ripley, Hiram Hutchinson, S. Clark et ale *15 2 Another long petition was circulated probably in Poygan township since most of the names are Irish, namely: John Coughlan, Thon1as Flynn, Michael Kenedy (sic), Michael Costello, Dennis McGrath, Dennis Murphy, Michael McGinnes, Patrick Ryan, Edward Molroy, Francis Hulihan, Timothy Fitzgerald, Cornelius McCullum, Patrick Burns, John Slocum, Andrew Nolan, Jan1es Lynch, John Mulligan, Edward Hafner, W.W. Griffith, M.N. Bosworth, James McCall, Patrick McLaughlan et ale *153 The first nan1e on a third petition is C.E. Butler.*154

*151 BIA, 234-321, frame 0344. *152 Ibid. frame 0344. *153 Ibid. frames 0270-0271. *154 Ibid. frame 0342. 110 From other stray bits of evidence it appears that some people were of the opinion that the Menomini Indians were splitting up, that is, between pagan and Christian bands. This had already happened with the Stockbridge Indians east of Lake Winnebago and there was evidently a feeling an10ng son1e people, including the sub-agent, Bruce, that the Menomini were splitting on similar lines and the person responsible for it was none other than their pastor. But in his letter to William Cleary, mentioned earlier, Bonduel said that "as. far as I am concerned...I would prefer to see them all together, both the pagans and the Christians, located somewhere on the Minnesota river west of the Mississippi. In my opinion they would prosper better there than in the north of Wisconsin. Should they fail in securing a spot in our state, I shall then use all my influence to induce then1 to move peaceably west of the Mississippi." Here, he says, a new Catholic diocese had been created in 1850 under Bishop Joseph Cretin "for the special benefit of the Indian tribes of that district." He also told Cleary that it was the traders who wanted to keep the Indians in northern Wisconsin. But it was not his interest he said, to keep them there. "Our object is everywhere the same: to civilize the aborigines through the preaching of the gospel and by teaching them the arts of agriculture and domestic economy. Therefore the attack made on me last year by sub-agent Bruce was a gross mistake, replete with studied malice. He has since been brought here to repent for the past, and with his friend Morgan Martin to take a wiser course."*155 All this is rather mystifying. The year before he was striving to keep the Menon1ini in Wisconsin. Now, of all things, he was not objecting to the original policy of the government to remove them to the west of the Mississippi. Finally, Cleary is led to believe that Bruce had visited Bonduel "to repent of the past," etc. Morgan L. Martin is mentioned in the same breath although it seems doubtful whether he would ever "repent" of anything. It was now May 26, 1851 and the white bass were running up the Wolf river. Bonduel was again busy with his pen writing a letter to his friend, George Ewing in Washington. The latter had written twice to Bonduel in April and May, both letters reaching him on the same day, and in reply, Bonduel makes reference to funds allotted for professional service to some unidentified sources. This is left unexplained. He also says that the Indians were gratified that Colonel

*155 Bonduel to Cleary, April 2,1851, BIA, 234-321, frames 0218-0219. 111 Thompson was taking such a "warm and friendly interest in them," and that the Indians likewise reposed great confidence in James Duane Doty "as a friend, and as such they have allowed his claim as specified to them by Your Honorable Brother [William] notwithstanding." It may be that Judge William Ewing, who visited Lake Poygan in February that year as a house guest of Bonduel, had suggested to someone in the Indian department that a certain claim Congressman Doty had against the Menomini should be paid. Was this an honorarium for some favor Doty had done for the Menomini such as interceding, perhaps, on their behalf with the President to bring the chiefs to Washington in 1~50? As to the Ewing brothers, George and William, they were attorneys and traders and it is difficult to imagine why William and his son had come to Lake Poygan in the dead of winter that year unless it had something to do with furthering the interests of the trading firm. There is also a strong hint that George Cown's interest in collecting the $12,000 from the Indians was not his alone. When this account was first noted in the department files, it seemed rather remarkable that a small trader like Cown could carry $12,000 on his books over a period of several years-an account equal to several times that amount in today's exchange, and, from everything that is known about him, there seems .little reason to believe that he had that kind of money to back him. This probably explains Bonduel's actions. He was ostensibly upholding the claim of an old friend who had given him a place to stay when he first came to the Payground in the fall of 1846, but he must have been aware by now that Cown was not his own master and that the real claimants to the $12,000 were probably the Ewings, one of whom had recently been his guest when he came to call on the chiefs. There was one person around the Payground who was against paying the Doty claim, namely John Jacobs, a local interpreter whom Bonduel accuses of being a "little jealous of the good of others." Continuing, Bonduel writes, inter alia: ...all of us concurred in encouraging their [the chiefs] liberal disposition in order to secure a full third for Colonel Thompson of the whole amount which government may feel disposed to allow. But the Honorable Judge [presumably Ewing] positively declined to accept so much. Therefore, in order to encourage Mr. Jacobs, Mr. Cown and Talbot Prickett to use their influence in the matter, your honorable brother thought it proper to secure out of the third of the amount that may be allowed by government 112 with the (sic) which third he seemed very pleased, one per cent for each of the above named individuals; and he also desired to connect my name and interest with theirs in that matter so as to have each of us an equal share if allowed. I myself thought that course very prudent and advised Judge Ewing to carry it to effect in order to create confidence and satisfaction on every side. However, it was only after the Honorable Judge had declined to accept 40% for Colonel Thompson that the other measures were proposed by Mr. Jacobs who seemed all the time determined not to labor in vain. Still, such as it was, your honorable brother appeared very much satisfied. He therefore left a written agreement here with me to that effect. But more of it hereafter." It would probably take a biography of the Ewing family to clear up the above passage. There seems little doubt, though, that Bonduel thought it no more than "prudent" that he should share a one per cent cut out of some fund with Jacobs, Cown and Prickett whose only claim to the money, it seems, may have been for services as interpreters for the Menomini on one occasion or another. Whatever services this one per cent represented, there is no evidence that Bonduel ever got anything from the Indians beyond expenses for tripB to Washington and Madison, or anything from the government beyond his contractual salary of $420 a year and this was for teaching, not preaching. Later, in leaving Lake Poygan to accompany the Indians to their new home on the upper Wolf river, Bonduel says he was personally out of pocket 20,000 francs [$4,000]. He probably had to sell the chapel-house on the Payground to some settler for half it~ value because the buyer knew that the seller had to leave, and he may also have figured the cost of building a new house and a new chapel in Keshena in this figure. Sharply aware of his financial status at all times, he nevertheless seemed less interested in money per se than in personal prestige and titles. He can1e of a bourgeoise family in Flanders, and in America he was, as his'letters reveal, much in his element when he was writing to or entertaining Very Important People whether bishops, politicians or traders. In the penultimate paragraph to his letter sent, presumably, to George Ewing, he tells him that he was personally gratified with the appointment "of myoId friend," George Lawe of Green Bay as sub-Indian agent. Here, for the first time, it is learned that Bruce is no longer the sub-agent.*15 6 The Indians were not entirely happy with the appointment of George Lawe as sub-agent, Bonduel tells his friend, and would have

*156 U.S. House Reports, 36th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 514. 113 preferred George Wright of Oshkosh. A few months later Bonduel had occasion to write to Lawe and remind him that "Bruce, your predecessor in office, has retained the mon,ey due to me for my services as a teacher of the male school. ..for the last quarter of year 1850 amounting to contract of $105." Bonduel had known the Lawe family, father and son, since his first residency in Green Bay, and the above letter reveals that he had recently been a house guest of George Lawe and family in Green Bay.*157 One of the last letters Bonduel wrote to the Ewings is dated August 14, 1852, not long before he moved with the Indians to the reservation.* 158 He salutes his correspondent as "Honorable and Dear Friend." He is replying, he says, to letters dated April 12th and 28th which he had faithfully and "in appropriate terms" communicated to the chiefs concerning some Indian business in Washington. This may have been a reference to an appropriations bill before the U.S. Senate. Bonduel thought the failure to get this bill through the Senate was unfortunate for "our generous friend, Colonel Thompson [and] especially for the Menominees who would feel so happy to see their devoted friend Colonel Thompson handsomely rewarded for the in1mense services rendered by him to their tribe." It was probably just as well that Bonduel was in Europe when Thompson attempted to collect what had been promised him by the chiefs. When Bonduel later learned how the chiefs had resisted payment of the "Thompson claim," he was disappointed, and he apparently never realized that the real reason for the objection to the payn1ent of the claim came from the new superintendent of Indian affairs, Dr. Francis Huebschmann, who replaced Murray in 1853, and also from George Manypenny, the new commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington. Huebschmann influenced the younger chiefs at Keshena to oppose the clain1 and the older chiefs went along with it, apparently, because they did not wish to risk the displeasure of the younger men. The Indian bill before the Senate would have awarded additional annuities to the Menomini which Bonduel felt they had coming after the error (or deception) that was n1ade in reference to the total number of acres which Colonel Medill tabulated as Menomini lands in the treaty of 1848.

*157 Bonduel to George Lawe, Nov. 22,1851, BIA, 234-321, frame 0486. *158 The envelope is missing on this letter and no given name appears in the salutation-Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. 114 But Bonduel blamed Senator William Seward of New York for part of the difficulty in getting the government to award the additional funds. He said Seward was being influenced by the president of some New York trading firn1 who was unfriendly to Thompson. He got this impression from "the said gentleman" when he met him at Green Bay the year before. But the antecedent of the "said gentleman" in the text is not clear. Perhaps it was the president of the New York firm who was in Green Bay, not Seward. In any event, when Bonduel learned that the said gentleman was going to Kaukauna to see George Lawe, the sub-agent, he left Green Bay ahead of him to warn Lawe "against the insinuations and views of that gentleman!" .Summing up, he was confident that the Ewings would soon bring to Lake Poygan the happy news of a satisfactory and final settlement of their business. "All that we have to do at present," he says, "is to anticipate the pleasure of seeing you at my house with our honorable friend Colonel Thompson. The Honorable Elias Murray will be here with us. The ladies and myself shall neglect nothing to make our honorable friends comfortable and happy under our rural and humble roof. We shall have long and short, quiet and animated conversations, modified with elegance and taste by the introduction of my favorite tune which I have composed in honor of two distinguished Roman personages: Sullustius Scriba, and the much celebrated Lucillus."*159 He closes by admitting that his pen "in obedience to the dictate of my mind, is becoming too garrulous.,,*160 However, it does not appear that his friends ever got to Poygan that year to hear the special flute rendition in which the Ewing brothers were probably compared to the noble Romans!

*159 No doubt Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 B.C.) and Lucius Licinius (110-57 B.C.), both Roman generals and administrators. The latter is included in Plu tarch 's Lives. *160 Bonduel to ? ,Aug. 14, 1852, in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. 115 XI. WILLIAM BRUCE'S LAMENT

It would seem from events immediately preceding, when Bonduel was expecting important people for dinner and composing special flute renditions in honor or Roman Generals, that life had taken on a less serious turn for the pastor. But this peace and quiet soon gave way to a storm that arose like the November wind racing across Lake Poygan when the white caps bare their teeth and defy the ducks and Canada geese to sit down on their crest. Waiting in the wings to take his place on the stage of history was William H. Bruce, deposed sub-Indian agent, who had been removed from office for a shortage of funds. He vowed that it was oversight in the collection of his vouchers that had caused his books to become unbalanced and, in an effort to extricate himself, he appealed to his friends, A.G. Ellis, Morgan L. Martin and others in Green Bay for character references. In addition, he appealed to Howard Anthony of the Corps of Topographical Engineers in Washington. Anthony wrote to A.H.H. Stuart, secretary of the interior, to say that he had known Bruce for more than ten years and would "most cheerfully bear his testimony to his unspotted reputation as a gentleman of well known and undoubted integrity.,,*161 Dangling at the end of the umbilical cord of authority a thousand miles from Washington, a man did not have much chance to defend himself either, and all the character references in Wisconsin were unlikely to impress the Second Auditor's office of the Treasury Department. But Bruce believed that it was not only the shortage in his account that had brought·about his dismissal from office; it was a conspiracy hatched in the brain of a certain clergyman and others residing on Lake Poygan. Eventually, he went to Washington and there wrote a long communication to Luke Lea, the new

*161 Anthony to Stuart, Washington D.C. May 7, 1851, BIA, 234-320, frame 0209. 116 conlmissioner of Indian affairs, filling page after page with one of the most scorching bill of indictments probably ever made by a former office holder against a minister of the Gospel. The communication was accompanied by affidavits, depositions, documents, etc.* 162 What did he hope to accomplish? He had been removed from office six months earlier. Certainly he did not expect to get his job back, or was he trying to say that he was the victim of a conspiracy? Whatever it was, he definitely wanted to vindicate himself and let posterity know what he thought about one Florimond J. Bonduel as well as several other nlen associated with Indian affairs in Wisconsin. Luke Lea probably did not read through this mass of material but handed it over to one of his assistants. Within a few days, Captain Murray, superintendent of Indian affairs at Sheboygan, re~eived the original letter from Washington and was instructed by Lea to investigate the charges. Bruce, in his opening remarks to Lea, said that he held it a s~cred duty which he owed to himself, to his family and to his friends to defend his character "with whatsoever energy and ability God has endowed me against the covert misrepresentations and insidious designs of a clique of evil and unscrupulous men." He also deemed it his duty to "protect the Indians" as far as lay within his power "from the aforementiqned nlalign and poisonous influences which have for years been rapidly destroying them independent of my position as official guardian." He then gives the names of the people he is going to discuss in his long communication, namely, Bonduel, George Cown, Richard Chute of Ewing, Chute & Company, W.G. and G.W. Ewing-the latter all grouped together as "traders"-followed by the names of Alex Spaulding who had allegedly connived to get Bruce's job, and David Jones, a former sub-agent, who was also trying to get his job. Most of Bruce's case against Bonduel is based on the so-called "Council" held on the Payground on May 29, 1849 at which time the chiefs, although not all the chiefs by any means, agreed to allow the $12,000 claim of George Cown. Bruce seemed to be under the inlpression that the $12,000 claim was something largely dreamed up by Cown or his alleged partners, the Ewings, and he apparently never got to see the document in the BIA files which details exactly how much every Indian was owing Cown going back several years. *163 There are at least 310 names in the account, most of the larger

*162 Bruce to Luke Lea, Oct. 8, 1851, BIA, 234-321, frames 0037-0095. *163 BIA, 234-320, frames 0703-0710. 117 Indian artifacts believed collected by Bonduel, preserved in diocesan ar­ chives at Green Bay and now in collection of John B. Gehl and others.

118 GROOVED "AXE" LATE ARCHAIC

POSSIBLE CHISEL OR ADZE OLD COPPER CULTURE

BLADE OF COPPER \ ~ QO 0 60(jd SIDE NOTCHED PROJECTILE POINTS ~NDSCRAPER

r-'\ SIDE 6QHED 00 W SCRAPER 66 0 END FOX VALLEY STEMMED PROJECTILE POINTS FOX VALLEY STEMMED0PROJECTILE POINTS n V SCRAPER

UNKNOWN "POSSIBLE JEWELRY"

PLAIN VIEW PROJECTILE POINT C.7000-2000B.C. CONCENTRATING· ? . WAUBESASTEM 0 Q 0

BROWN'S KNIFE oVALLEY LEAF-SHAPED C, 6000 B.C.

KNifE TRIANGULAR POINT A.D. 800-1500 ~~~~~~~~~~C 000Q0 WOODLAND . ' .

ARCHAIC TO

RADDATZ SIDE WAUBESA NOTCHED PROj ECTILE ffiNTRACTING WAUBESA WjAUBESA PR~~~i~iE ::~7;:~LE 000~~;:::::::D POINT, C. 1000-100 B.C. .00POSSIBLE STEM / / __ POINT PLAINVIEW C. 3000-1000 B.C. (EARS BROKEN OFF) POINT ( MIDDLE WOODLAND WITH BROKEN C. LATE ARCHAIC THRU LATE PALEO-INDIAN BASE MIDDLE WOODLAND RARE IN WISC. IDENTIFICATION USUALLY FOUND IN ASSOCIATION

C. 6000 B.C.? NOT POSSIBLE WITH THE OLD COPPER CULTURE

119 amounts owed by chiefs and sub-chiefs. There is even a charge of seven dollars to "Oshkosh son-in-law," no doubt a reference to John DuBay who maintained a trading post on the upper Wisconsin river. Bruce was also concerned with two affidavits sworn to by Bonduel regarding the "Council" held on May 29th. Superintendent Mur.ray read through this material and decided to hold a hearing. He asked Bonduel and Bruce to meet him at the sub-agency office in Green Bay on December 6, 1851. He also asked the attendance of Chiefs LaMotte, Carron, Oshehena'nieu, Shopodock, Little Wave, and the U.S. Interpreter, William Powell. To make things easier, Murray had summarized the charges made by Bruce into a sort. of bill of particulars in which Bonduel was charged- · ..with premeditated falsehood in a memorial from the Christian band of Menominee Indians sent by said Bonduel to the Indian department. · ..with forfeiting all confidence and rendering his statements on all subjects utterly untrustworthy by affixing the name of a chief, Aiame'tah, to the memorial. · ..with rendering himself unworthy of all trust as a gentleman, a clergyman, or an honest man, by placing the name of said chief in said memorial. · ..with constructive forgery by signing or causing to be signed the names of absent Indians, and distorting the language of those present so as to subserve his own views and gratify his own evil passions of hatred and revenge and avarice. · ..with being guilty of perjury in his affidavits of October 9, 1849 and April 29, 1850 provided his letter of June 1850 was true. · ..with aiding George Cown in obtaining a claim of $12,000, in part fraudulent, and employinf Talbot Prickett, an interpreter, who could not read manuscript writing.* 64 These charges were followed at the hearing by this anonyn10us comment in the minutes: In reference to the foregoing charges, Mr. Bonduel proves by the testimony of LaMotte, Carron Glaude and Shopodock, chiefs of the Menominee nation of Indians now present at this investigation, that the sentiments of the memorial were prepared by the Menominee chiefs, and that they who signed it were all present except Aiame'tah, and the witness Shopodock, who is Aiame'tah's son, says that his father authorized his name to be signed to the memorial. Replying to the first charge, Bonduel admitted the authenticity of the Memorial written to James Duane Doty, although it is not clear

*164 BIA, 234-321, frames 0421-0422. This particular document also appears in the Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library, but with a summary of the hearing conducted by Captain Murray and recorded by his son, JUlius, as clerk-secretary. 120 from this what communication is being referred to, probably the original Memorial of May 29, 1849 which was sent to Doty to pass on to the President of the United States. To the second charge of falsehood, etc., Bonduel admitted that he wrote the Memorial of May 29th, stating that the facts set forth in it came from the Indians present at the hearing. At this point, Bruce asked permission to furnish a copy of the original Memorial of May 29th, but Murray said this was not necessary. The question was then put to the chiefs, LaMotte, Carron and Shopodock, whether they had authorized Bonduel to write the Memorial to the President and they admitted they did. But Powell, the interpreter, failed to explain to the Indians what the contents of the Memorial were, and Murray's son, acting as clerk, was not being very helpful either when he recorded this statement because the reader is left to wonder when Powell failed to explain the contents of the Memorial of May 29, 1849. The third charge of perjury made by Bruce stemmed from BondlJ.el's reply to him regarding a "Council" held on the Payground May 29th. Two affidavits by Bonduel were also read at this time'l Bruce's letter requesting information on the "Council" was not read. Murray, however, asked Bonduel to explain certain discrepancies in the letter to Bruce, and one of the affidavits, and he answered that his letter to Bruce was not an affidavit, and asked permission to answer. This was granted and two days later he handed in his reply. It was true that Bonduel's letter to Bruce was not an affidavit. But he did make an affidavit on April 29, 1950 in which he discussed Cown's claim and flatly says that "he was present at the Council of the Menominee chiefs at the time the arrangement was concluded with said George Cown to pay him $12,000," etc. Yet, in his letter to Bruce earlier, it will be recalled, he said: "As far as I know, there was no Council and consequently I was not secretary for the deliberation of a Council that had no moral existence for me..." This seems to be what Murray was alluding to when he asked Bonduel to explain the discrepancies, that is, between his letter to Bruce, denying that he was at a Council, and his affidavit of April 29th in which he says he was present at the Council. ..*165 As to the charge made by Bruce that Aiame'tah's name was signed to the Memorial without his knowledge, Bonduel told Murray that

*165 Geo. F. Wright, notary pUblic, affidavit of Florimond J. Bonduel, April 29, 1850, BIA, 234-320, frame 0143; see also BIA, 234-320, frame 0422. 121 Shopodock gave his father the substance of the Memorial and that his father authorized him to sign his name to it. At this point, apparently, Powell, the interpreter, asked Shopodock if this was true and he replied that it was. Bonduel also denied that he wrote Aiame'tah's name to the petition but thought that "he may have written all the names at the request of the Indians." This is not clear. Perhaps Murray's young clerk failed to grasp the meaning.. In any event, this concluded the hearing on Bonduel, and charges made by Bruce against Cown and others, including Alexander Spaulding, were then taken up. In his original communication to Luke Lea, Bruce had referred to the letter he got from Bonduel about the "Council" as an example of "jesuitism." Here, then, is Bonduel's reply:*166 HONORABLE ELIAS MURRAY: "Dear Sir-Permit me to thank you for the facility that you have afforded me in furnishing me with the desired instrument to reply to the odious charge of falsehood and perjury n1ade against n1e by William H. Bruce, Esq., ex-sub-agent at Green Bay for the Menominee tribe of Indians, which he has embodied in written documents containing other charges made against me, and contained in said documents, which you read before me and before other individuals present at the office of Indian superintendency at Green Bay, who, like myself, are implicated in the same charges, TO BE FALSE: and as such they are totally rejected by me with all the contempt that they so justly deserve. ','A part of those charges has already been fully refuted by ll1e in my answer to William H. Bruce's letter written to the Right Rev'd. Bishop Henni of Milwaukee in the spring of 1850, in which said Bruce specifies asa sufficient reason for my immediate ren10val from my mission, the unauthorized use of my influence with the Indians under n1Y charge against the instructions of the Indian Department for their removal to the Crow Wing river, west of the Mississippi. "In my answer to said letter, I most urgently pressed Right Rev'd Doctor Henni to forward immediately to the Indian Department the many strong proofs that I gave him against the erroneous statements and false charges made against me by W.H. Bruce, on that subject. I feel confident that government has been fully satisfied with the manner I have repelled said charges. "Last summer, a year ago, when at Washington City, I have (sic)

*166 This communication is found in the IDA files, 234-321, frames 0431-0434, as well as in a printed copy found in the Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. 122 transmitted to the Honorable D.C. Goddard, the acting secretary of the interior, a letter of the Right Rev'd. Bishop Loras, of Dubuque, in which agreeable to my request, he gave me jurisdiction to exercise the functions of the Holy Ministry in Minnesota Territory, and specially at Crow Wing river where the Menominees at that time were supposed to be removed. "That statement made to you this morning at your office, Honorable and Dear Sir, by the Christian Menominee chiefs in which they declared that they were the authors of the documents sent to the President on the subject of their grievances, is yet fresh in your memory. In order to impress you with the full conviction that they are virtually the authors of said documents and of other documents of the same character, they made use of the beautiful following expression:-'We used our Father's hand,' speaking of me, 'to put on paper what we had prepared in our minds to say!!!' Their statement stands before the government and before the world as a full refutation of the odious charges made by W.H. Bruce against me, when he says that said documents are the work of my own fabrication, the Indians having no knowledge of the nature of their contents. I shall therefore not trouble myself about refuting again said charges, which by the candid statement of the Indians, prove to be the fruit of malice and revenge. "But among those charges, there is one Honorable and Dear Sir, to which my attention is specially called: and which affects my honor as a man, as an American citizen, as a Christian and Pastor of a Christian community, in its most tender parts. I allude to the horrible crime of falsehood and perjury William H. Bruce charges me with, who pretends to discover in the affidavit that I have before G. [George] Wright,Esq. of Oshkosh, a clashing statement of facts which he says I deny in my letter to him, when I confess the existence of the same in my affidavit made by me before said Mr. G. Wright. He then goes on to argue in the following manner. If there was a Council at Mr. Cown's at the time specified in the letter, then, says he, I was guilty of falsehood when I said that there was no councils there. But if there was no Council at Mr. Cown's, at the time specified in the above said letter, then, says he, I was guilty of perjury in giving affidavit before Esquire Wright, that there was a Council at Mr. Cown's at the time referred to, both in my letter to Mr. Bruce, and in my affidavit. I pronounce the above two propositions thus expressed by Mr. Bruce, in that dilemma, totally false. "I did not positively state in my letter to him that there was no 123 Council at all at Mr. Cown's, but I spoke in a manner as if I had some doubt about it. The words of my letter to Mr. Bruce are as follows: 'Whether there was a Council or not, I do not know anything about it.' I might have added, I do not care about it; because the certificate that I gave him does not bear at all on the existence or nonexistence of a Council there, but on the statement of the Indian chiefs to pay George Cown, Esq., $12,000. Now, the quotation of n1Y letter n1ade by Mr. Bruce to substantiate his charges against me conveys a meaning which I did not intend to convey; therefore no inference can be made against me: therefore his charge of falsehood against me is false. His first proposition is also false, because no parity can be established between the simple statement of a fact supposed to exist or not to exist in the first proposition, and the solemn act of an oath, taken in presence of the Supreme Being, whose most holy name is never to be called upon without fear and trembling! In the former case I am not requested by the moral law, or by the rules of Christian· prudence, to be so much on my guard in the statement of a fact, as I am in the latter. Therefore again no inference could be made therefrom against me, because there is no parity in the two cases expressed in the two pro·positions. Therefore the charge of falsehood imputed to me by W.H. Bruce is essentially false, and returns back against him. "Secondly. His second proposition is also false when he says that I gave my affidavit declarative by itself of the existence of a Council at Mr. Cown's. There is no such meaning in the affidavit, nor was it my intention when I gave it that it should essentially bear on the word Council, but rather, and virtually so, on the fact that the chief's expressed a desire to pay Mr. Cown's $12,000. The word Council in the affidavit is neither the subjectum nor the predicatum of the proposition, and consequently it cannot convey the meaning therein discovered by the sagacity of Mr. Bruce. Therefore his assertion is false, made against the rules of sound logic and the principles of truth. Therefore the charge of perjury, which he so kindly puts on my back, is a n10st daring act of calumny, increasing in guilt in the sight of G.od and man, in proportion as it makes individuals acquainted with its existence. It is a social crime that breaks asunder the most sacred ties of friendship and social intercourse between members of the same community and family. It is a violation of the natural law, professing no regard for the feelings of others. A monster doomed by the solemn declaration of the Divine Will to fall back into that dark chaos where he was conceived and born!! "Again. Supposing that my affidavit bears directly on the word 124 Council, as Bruce wishes to have it, it does not follow either that I have been guilty of a falsehood, because in my letter to Mr. Bruce on the same subject, I n1erely state that in my opinion there was none. No such inference could be made therefrom because the nature of the case is essentially different. It does not require much effort of the mind to answer in the negative a question put by somebody in matters which to the person interrogated on the same may appear indifferent at the tin1e the question is put and the answer made. "But it is not so in the other case. The gravity, the solemnity of an affidavit, for an honest man, for a Christian, requires of him a n10ral act of the mind of a purer and more elevated character than for the simple statement of the individual who unwillingly makes a mistake in his staten1ent. It is therefore most evident that there is no parity whatever in the nature of the two propositions contained in the famous dilemma of Mr. Bruce in the case now before us. "Therefore again, under the circumstances as above stated, I could say without being guilty of a falsehood that in my opinion there was no Council at Mr. Cown's; and that without incurring the guilt of perjury, also under the circumstances above stated, I could make an affidavit that there was a Council at Mr. Cown's because there is no parity in the premises; and therefore, according to the principles of sound logic no inference therefrom. 'A disparitato sententiae nihil concluditur.' [Divided opinions lead to no conclusion.]*167 And tlierefore the charges of falsehood and perjury n1ade against me by Bruce are essentially false, and I in my turn charge him with the most abominable crime of calumny!!!" After concluding the hearings, Captain Murray wrote a report to Luke Lea, his superior in Washington, in part as follows: "In reference to the foregoing charges Mr. Bonduel proves by the testimony of LaMotte, Carron Claude and Shopodock, chiefs of the Menominee Indians now present at this investigation, that the sentiments of the memorial were prepared by the Menominee chiefs and that they who signed it were all present excepting Aiame'tah, and the witness Shopodock who is Aiame'tah's son says that his father, Aiame'tah, authorized his name to be signed on the memorial. .. "The above witnesses further say that the said Menominee Indians borrowed the hand of Rev. F.J. Bonduel to convey their sentiments to the Indian Department at Washington. "Rev. F.J. Bonduel further proves by the above witnesses that

*167 If this is Latin, it should have been disparata sententiae. 125 George Cown's claim was allowed by the Indians in Council as a just claim and that they wished it paid out of the $30,000 that was to be paid to the chiefs. "Rev. F.J. Bonduel further proves by the certificate of William Powell that Talbot Prickett who acted as interpreter can read manuscript writing. "The charge of forgery and perjury are answered by Rev. F.J. Bonduel in his own handwriting herewith enclosed." In this manner Murray closed the investigation, a11d sent the documents on to Washington. In a covering letter, referring to Bonduel's refutation, he also says: "I venture to bespeak for it a careful perusal. The denunciations were excusable."*168 Captain Murray made no attempt to explain Bonduel's line of argument. But Murray must have been mistaken when he says that the "denunciations were excusable." Both the denunciations and the sarcasm were inexcusable. However, when Bonduel says he could prove there was a Council just as easily as he could prove there was not a Council, he seems to be saying that he is more concerned with a "moral act of the mind." Four times he uses the word "moral" in his refutation, while insisting that Bruce read into his letter a meaning he did not intend. One trouble was' that he allowed himself to be quoted in an affidavit saying that he had attended a Council on the day in question. But this affidavit of May 29th was written by another person and there is no assurance that Bonduel even read it. Finally, the affidavit of October 9, 1849, to which Bruce also refers, does not appear to be available in the BIA microfilms. Thus what Bonduel's involvement in this affair was, and how justified was Bruce's "lament," remains unresolved. As to the hearing conducted by Captain Murray, the evidence suggests that he was not an impartial judge. The chiefs who attended the hearing were all members of the so-called Christian Party, that is, friends of Bonduel, and none of the pagan chiefs was present. Bruce was removed from office some time in April 1851, not for insubordination, as might be expected, but ostensibly for a shortage of funds amounting to $11,514.17. The treasury department then moved to sue his bondsmen, John Bruce, no doubt a relative, and

*168 BIA. 234-321, frame 0430. 126 William Phoenix and George D. Dousman of Milwaukee.*169 In April 1853, judgment was rendered against the sureties on the bond. "Mr. Dousman, being the only responsible defendant," reads a report by the House Committee on Indian affairs, "paid the judgment amounting to $13,037.71 of which amount $2,583.46 was for interest.,,* 1 70 Since Bruce had been paying interest on the shortage for two years, it seems that he had attempted to raise the money to clear up his account, but had been unable to do more than pay the interest which was running at 10 per cent per annum. He had disbursed $150,000 in the two years he served as sub-agent. The evidence suggests that he had been careless in collecting his vouchers. In addition, the auditing officer of the Treasury department had rejected $473.75 of his disbursements. What Bruce was doing between the time that judgment was made against his sureties in 1853, and 1855, is not clear, but in January 1855 he was on his way to Washington with more vouchers in the hope of clearing up his accounts when he became ill and died. Meanwhile, Dousman asked for relief and the House Committee in 1860 allowed him $2,841.70. This reduced his payment to a little less than the original amount of the shortage. The committee was inclined to favor Bruce's claim "repeatedly asserted in his lifetime, that on a fair settlement with the government, he would not be found to be much, if any, in arrears." But the committee also feltit could not grant the prayer of the petitioner [Dousman] in full "in the absence of vouchers or proper accounts verified."

*169 John Bruce of Darien is mentioned in the History of Walworth County (Chicago 1882) 432, 733, 735. A William Phoenix of Delavan township is also mentioned in the same source, 436, 714. George D. Dousman is listed in the Milwaukee county census of 1840: 325 and probably repeated in the census of 1850: 222, but with the middle initial as "G". He is not included in the Milwaukee city directory, and apparently left the county before the census of 1860. *170 U.S. House Reports, 36th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 514. 127 XII. A VISIT WITH SOLOMON JUNEAU

When not pitting his strong will and pen against the powers of the federal bureaucracy which he accuses of "persecuting" him, Florimond J. Bonduel was busy with the usual affairs of a priest, baptizing the children, marrying the young, and administering last rites to the old and dying. Between times, he watched the overflights of the thousands of ducks and geese that frequent the marshes and lakes around Poygan, Butte des Morts and Winneconne, and he takes note of the "most beautiful and romantic scenery of Lake Poygan," and "the smiling flowers" and "sweet notes of country birds," He probably could have expressed himself better in French on these pastoral subjects, but this is the way he explained it in English to his god-daughter, Emily Jenkins, of Prairie du Chien. Meanwhile, he was traveling whenever he could get away fronl his school work, and managed to establish several new missions among white settlements within a radius of 40 miles. In a letter to the Prefect of the Propaganda written in 1855, he says he founded missions at Fond du Lac and Oshkosh in 1846. I-lis expense account also shows that he spent 1500 francs [$300] for a piece of land and for building a chapel in Fond du Lac in 1847. According to the baptismal records preserved in the diocesian archives at Green Bay, he performed two baptisms in the town of Byron, eight miles south of Fond du Lac, in April 1848. These entries and most of the others in the record are written in Latin, but in an N.B. to the baptismal entries referred to above, he reverts to English and writes: I was the first clergyman that sang High Mass at Fond du Lac. This occurred on the 16th of April anno Dui [Domini] 1848. The Right Reverend Monsignor N.L. Gross, a former pastor now living in Appleton, believes that if the first chapel was built where St. Joseph Church is presently located, then it lay on the northeast 128 corner of Second and Marr streets in Fond du Lac.* 1 71 In addition, Bonduel founded a mission at Eden, a few miles southeast of Fond du Lac, and here he tells his superiors a hillock [monticule] was named for him called "Bonduel's Mound." He did not spend any money on this mission, however. During his residence at Lake Poygan he also founded a mission at Byron, and one at Lake Butte des Morts and one at Winneconne. Since Butte des Morts and Winneconne are not far apart, it does not seem that any permanent mission church resulted fronl his visit to Butte des Morts, once a trading post on the north shore of the lake.*172 In Item 19 of his expense account, he says he founded an 'anglais', i.e. American mission, in 1849 to the south of Lake Poygan. This was no doubt in Poygan township on or near the present site of St. Thomas Catholic church and cemetery. He refers to it as 'anglais' probably because services were conducted in English-Latin. Most of the parishioners were Irish, as evidenced by the names on the stones in the nearby cemetery. The baptismal and marriage records kept by Bonduel for the years 1848-1852 while at Poygan provide some of the earliest documentary evidence available on Winnebago and Fond du Lac counties. The register he kept is simply headed, in English, "Memorandum" and he leads off in English with this statement: "Administration of the sacrament of baptism to persons living out of the limits of the Indian mission at Lake Poygan." But he later decides to include the record of baptisms and marriages performed at the Indian mission as well. He also made two visits to Bay Settlement. On the first occasion he baptized Joseph Laframboise, 60, and his wife Veronica, 55. Ludwig Carboneau and Charlotte Teanveau were the sponsors for Joseph, and Jean Baptiste LaPlante and (first name illegible) Larishe, sponsors for Veronica. He fails to give a date for these baptisms. On a later page he records two marriages, both involving Indians, one performed at Bay Settlement on March 12, 1848 and a second on September 12th at Lake Poygan. Instead of Latin he here records the entries in English. Of the first he says: On the 12th day of March 1848 I married Joseph LaFramboise and Monique Kosaewkwe, both Indians of the Menomini tribe. .

*171 Msgr. Gross to John B. Gehl, Appleton, WI, Aug. 8, 1974. *172 An historical marker of stone on Highway 110 north of Lake Butte des Morts calls attention to the site of the first trading post nearby which was established by Augustin Grignon and James Porlier. 129 In the second entry he writes: On the 10th of September 1848 I married John Ozawaniphived(?) and Josette Windebononkwe(?) in the presence of Michael Ticko [Tako] and Theodore Little Wave. Both Tako and Little Wave were chiefs of the Christian bands among the Menomini. But why did Bonduel make these entries in English and not in Latin like most of the others. He wrote in English when he entered his claim to fame in singing the first mass at Fond du Lac. Was he associating the Indians and Fond du Lac with something distinctly American? On April 2, 1848 Bonduel came to "Theresa Town," as he writes in his Memorandum book. This was Theresa, Wisconsin, a village laid out by Solomon Juneau and named for his eldest daughter. The main highway between Fond du Lac and Milwaukee once passed through here and early car drivers usually had difficulty negotiating the seemingly high hill on the south side. But there was nothing to stop for except gasoline and few people seemed aware of the interesting association with the past that lingers here. The village was founded by Juneau after he left Milwaukee in 1847 to start an Indian trading post on Rock river. In 1849 he executed the first plat, a plat presently on exhibit in the "Juneau Homestead" which stands on Highway 175 at the top of the hill. The one-time Juneau residence has been moved about 150 feet from its

130 original setting but it has always stood between two streets, one called "Bonduel" and the other "Henni." It is easy to imagine, after coffee in the evening perhaps, that Juneau, speaking rapidly in French, told his old friend that he was going to execute a plat of the village and jokingly suggested that he might name the first street to the north of the house after him, to which Bonduel laughed and said, "In that case, do me a favor and name the first street to the south after my bishop [John Martin Henni]." The fact that these two streets are recorded on the plat of 1849 suggests that the Juneau homestead was already being lived in at the time of Bonduel 's visit, and it is quite possible that the small bedroom on the northeast corner of the second floor is where he slept on this rather festive occasion, since he had come not merely to visit, but to baptize several grandchildren of the Juneau's as well as other members of the family. One of the first to be baptized that day, or the day after, was Narcissus Kosmoss Juneau, 30, presumably the eldest son of Solomon and Josette Juneau. It seems difficult to understand why he had not been baptized before, but if he was 30 in 1849, he was born around 1819, probably at Mackinac where there was no permanent Catholic mission at the time. Narcissus, no doubt, was the same son who had been something of a problem to his parents when he was young. Two elderly people were baptized that day in Theresa, namely, Josette Margaritte Menan, 60, and Lawrence Wabiquet, 60, both probably mixed-blood relatives of Mrs. Juneau. Several younger people, probably grandchildren of Solomon Juneau, were also baptized that day, namely Madelena Wabiquet, 20, Rosalie Wabiquet, 14, Theresa Witta, 12, Julian Nadjitabikwe(?), 12-probably twins-and Paul Mdaminens(?), 13. The godparents were Solomon Juneau aJ.ld Magdalena, presumably the wife of Narcissus. The surnames of the children suggest that the parents were honoring someone on the Indian side of the family. The name Wabiquet, although spelled differently, still lingers on at Keshena. In the entries on these baptisms Bonduel signs his name at the right, below the name of the person baptized, while the names of the sponsors appear at the left accompanied by the abbreviation L 'bus, which is Latin for levantibus, a word meaning godparents. A plaque in the Juneau Homestead gives the names of the living children of Solomon and Josette Juneau as Narcissus, Paul, Theresa, Frank, Harriet, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Margaret, Eugene, Mathilda, 131 Ellen, Marie, Isabell, Bonduel, and Louis. One died in infancy. Bonduel, obviously named for Father Bonduel, was born in 1844 and died in 1915. A brochure on the Juneau family prepared by a local historical society says that Josette, the wife of Juneau, was in failing health and anxious to move away from Milwaukee. She came to live in Theresa in 1852, but by 1855 her health had deteriorated further and she returned to Milwaukee for medical attention and died there. Her husband followed her a year later while attending a "payment" of the Indians at Keshena in 1856. A big funeral was held for him by the Indians and he was buried nearby, but two weeks later the coffin was removed to Milwaukee where another big funeral was held at St. John's Cathedral, followed by intern1ent in an early Catholic cemetery on Spring street. Later the coffin was removed to Calvary cemetery.*1 7 3 Bonduel must have left Theresa the day after the baptismal cerelnonies. On April 4th, he appeared in "Delhi" to perform the baptism of Louis Beaupre, a legitimate child of Ludwic Beaupre and Angelica Belchere, both of French-Indian descent. The community of "Delhi" lies about half way between the villages of Omro and Eureka on county trunk E in Winnebago county. There is still a community here but no longer identified with the nan1e "Delhi" which no one ever pronounces except as "Del-high," not as "Del-lee." Apparently some retired English officer from the British Indian Army came to settle here and for some reason wanted to be reminded of his younger days with the Raj in India. Omro itself was largely settled by Englishmen, one of the few communitie3 :1n the state where they came first. In 1850 Bonduel returned to "Delhi" to perform a marriage which he records in English: On the 5th day of November Anno Dui. as above, I have joined in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony John Wiley of Delhi and Miss Elizabeth Dousman of Green Bay in presence of David Lefevre Esq. of Delhi and Luco(?) Laborde, of the same place, as witnesses. John Wiley, a part time doctor, married the daughter of Rosalie Dousman. They later lived in Shawano. There are several more pages of baptismal and marriage entries in the "Memorandum" but the last one, dated January 10, 1852, records the baptism of John D. Wiley, legitimate child of John Wiley and Elizabeth Dousman, born SepterrLber 22, 1851. The sponsors

*173 Evening Wisconsin (Milwaukee), Nov. 26,1856. 132 were Chief Claude Carron and Rosalie Dousman. On the day he celebrated the first holy mass in Fond du Lac, Bonduel also baptized several children, and on the same day he drove south eight miles to Byron where he baptized four more, including Marian Broadrick, a daughter of Patrick Broadrick and (wife's name omitted). The boy, born March 15th, may be one of the ancestors of the extensive Broderick relationship still found in this area. Several are buried at St. Thomas cemetery south of Lake Poygan. A number of Christian marriages were performed between Indians and mixed-bloods at Lake Poygan during this period. On these occasions it can only be assumed that the pastor presented both parties with the brass finger ring with the initials IHS [Greek for Jesus] inside. These rings were made especially for Indian marriages by the church. One is preserved at the diocesian rectory in Green Bay. It cost little to manufacture but the missionaries probably felt the ring gave the marriage a more "civilized" touch, while the Indians were happy to get them. But all was not peaceful with Bonduel. He was not immune to accident or disease. While at Lake Poygan, probably in the summer of 1850, he was expecting company one day and Mrs. Dousman, who lived with her children in a small frame house near the girl's school not far away, came over to the Chapel-house to help the pastor prepare for his guests-two couples from Green Bay. Noting that there were not enough chairs in the living room, she asked the pastor if there were not more chairs available. He then climbed a rickety ladder to his bedroom over the living room to bring down more chairs. As he prepared to descend, holding one chair, the ladder slipped and he rode it full length to the floor, cracking two ribs and suffering injuries to his spine. He said he "nearly expired." Mrs. Dousman stood by, petrified with fear, but the Indian kitchen woman came to the rescue and together with the help of a male student, David Shopodock, they lifted the patient to a couch where he .was "bled" by an Indian named Takwagoine(?). The practice of bleeding was still widespread in Europe and America and it is doubtful whether Takwagoine learned it from the Indians. The practice was apparently based on the belief that blood was evil and it seems to have been a cure-all for all kinds of maladies, broken ribs included. The miracle seems to be that Bonduel survived. He also suffered another tragedy during his mission to the Menomini. Visiting the Indians in their smoke-filled wigwams from time to time was more than his eyes could take. In a letter written later to a superior in Rome, he said he had lost the sight of one eye. 133 XIII. THE CHILD OF TWO MOTHERS

In a letter to George W. Lawe written from Lake Poygan in June 1852, Bonduel tells him "everything is very quiet here now."* 1 7 4 But, for the past five months, the Indians had been in a state of great agitation over the abduction of one of their children by members of the family of Alvin Partridge who lived on "Ball Prairie" northwest of Oshkosh. There were several families of the Partridges living in Winnebago county at this time, all in Vinland township. Alvin settled on a farm in section 5, and his father, Wakeman, and brothers Fred, George and William in the south of the township. Wakeman also acquired a forty of land in Clayton township to the north of Vinland, about five miles from Alvin's place. There was a grove of maple trees here which the family was using to tap maple sap and make sugar, a commodity which was an important harvest of nature in spring. On April 19, 1850 Alvin and his wife Lucia Partridge, together with three children, Loretta, aged five and a half, Caspar, four, and Lucinda, two, went to their sugar camp to make vinegar. This may sound like a contradiction in terms, but this was probably boiled from old maple sap or even from the sap of the yellow birch. The regular maple sap run was, in all likelihood, finished by April 19th this far south in Wisconsin. No one knows for certain what the parents were doing at the time, but suddenly it was -realized that Caspar was missing. All efforts to find him that day failed. In the next several days a small army of people came from far and near to search without success for the lost child. By the end of the fifth day most of the whites were convinced that the boy had been stolen by the Indians although there was no evidence that the Indians were in the vicinity.

*174 Bonduel to Lawe, Lake Poygan, June 1, 1852 in collection of the Reverend Leitermann. 134 ~ 25 Miles to '\ Waupaca Falls Partridge i *Sugar Bush

*Alvin Partridge

VINLAND TOWNSHIP

-:l-"Payground" and * 'll"George Partrid e Indian Mission Fred Partridge if Wakeman Partri ge

WINNEBAGO COUNTY 1850

Map of Winnebago County, 1850.

In December 1850, a boy answering somewhat to the description of Caspar Partridge was seen among some Menomini Indians camped on Shadow Lake near the new settlement first called "Vermonters Camp," later "Waupaca Falls," and now as Waupaca. The boy was forcibly taken away from Nahkom, the Indian mother, washed and allegedly identified as the boy Caspar by Mrs. Myron Boughton, a sister of Alvin Partridge who lived with her husband two miles north of the settlement on what was later known as the "old John Ware farm." Alvin Partridge was sent for. He arrived by sleigh team a day later accompanied by a younger brother, Fred, and several neighbors. When the boy was presented to him he failed to make a positive identification, but he was overruled by his sister and by Fred. Meanwhile, the Indians had sent a runner named Kosko'shekau, better known to the white settlers as "Big Peter," to the Poygan mission to tell Bonduel what had happened and to implore his aid. The Indians knew they could not reach George Lawe, the sub-agent in Green Bay in time to be of any help and moreover, there is every reason to believe that they had more confidence in what Bonduel might do than in what Lawe might hesitate to do. 135 Bonduel immediately wrote a strong letter of protest to the -abductors of the boy in Waupaca and t.hreatened, it appears, to bring a civil action against them if they did not release him at once. The letter was carried back by "Big Peter" and presented to the leaders of the Waupaca settlement. It had a sobering effect. Although the leaders never admitted what made them change their minds, a bargain was struck with the Indians to pay the n1embers of the Indian family of Nahkom three dollars a day if they would accompany the whites to Winnebago county to give Mrs. Partridge an opportunity to look at the boy. It was further agreed that if she did not identify him, no further efforts would be made to hold him. When the child was shown to Mrs. Partridge, she too failed to recognize him. The Indian family remained with the Partridge family for nearly two days, owing to the extreme cold, and were then driven by sleigh and team to the Payground where Nahkon1 had a sister living near the Catholic mission. A few days later, under pressure from the other members of the Partridge family, as well as from neighbors, many of whom had searched for the lost child two years earlier, Alvin and Lucia Partridge changed their minds and took the position that this was their child. A mob came to take the child away from Nahkom who had taken refuge in the Catholic church where Bonduel shielded her and warned the mob to leave. A few days later, however, Fred Partridge swore out a complaint against Nahkom although it was signed not by Fred but by William Partridge, a younger brother who had no visible assets and therefore was thought to be less liable in the event that the Partridges lost their case. Meanwhile, Nahkom and the boy had escaped to the west around Pine river, but the constable's posse tracked her in the snow and she was brought to Oshkosh with the boy pending trial in circuit court. Nahkom was allowed her freedom but the boy was placed in custody of the sheriff. So great was the interest in the case by this time that the court room in the first court house was not big enough to hold the "g.reat concourse of poeple," as the newspapers described the situation, and a continuance was asked by counsel for both sides until mid-February when larger accommodations might be found. The courts decided on the newly-completed Methodist Episcopal church which then stood on the northwest corner of Church and Division streets, and here, for nearly six days, fascinated spectators listened to 33 witnesses for the complainants, the Partridges, and 30 witnesses for the defendant, Nahkom. Several Menomini chiefs and sub-chiefs testified, in addition to mixed-bloods such as the 136 Grignons, and traders and white men, including the sheriff of Winnebago county who was convinced that the boy belonged to Nahkom. Bonduel was not called as a witness although he was present, apparently every day of the trial, and so was George Lawe representing the Indian departmen~. Bonduel may have hinted to defense counsel not to call him to the stand because of the animus which had arisen against him among the whites for the letter he wrote to the Waupaca people, and for the attempt he made to shield the mother and child at his mission when the mob from Ball Prairie first came there without a warrant. Judgment in the case was deferred by Commissioner Edwin L. Buttrick until five weeks later when he finally awarded custody of the boy to Nahkom, the defendant. A summary of the testin10ny appeared in the April 9th issue of the Oshkosh Democrat together with the court's decision. The original transcript of evidence is missing from the court records of Winnebago county, probably removed by one of the Partridges. Angered at the decision of the court to give the child to Nahkom, white neighbors of the Partridges abducted the boy and took him out of the state. Three days later Alvin Partridge and his family fled the state after first deeding his farm over to his father, Wakeman Partridge. In a letter to Luke Lea on the subject, Captain Murray said that the Partridge claim to the child was "utterly absurd" and that "the Indians have an unbroken chain of evidence that the child was born in their camp and lived continually among them." He thought the boy could only be restored to the Indians through the agency of the federal government and he begged for instructions whether to proceed "to restore the child to its [Indian] mother..."*175 In a later letter, Murray called the abduction "not only a momeJ;1tous trespass, but a crime of the greatest magnitude."* 176 Almost three years later the bones of a child were found near the Medina Marsh, east of Winchester. The Oshkosh Courier on June 18, 1853 carried a story on the discovery and assumed that the bones were from the Partridge child. In 1855, Dr. Francis Huebschmann, the new superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern district, took action to recover the boy. With the approval of the Indian department, he went first to

*175 Murray to Luke Lea, April 11, 1852, BIA 234-321, frame 0527. *176 Murray to Luke Lea, May 15, 1852, BIA, 234-321, frames 0548-9. 137 Trumbull county, Ohio, the original home of the Partridges, but failed to find them. They had moved to a farm near Orland, Indiana, but the "lost child", now ten years old, was not with them. He was living with the family of Ashel Thompson, a brother of Lucia Partridge, in McHenry county, lllinois.

Shawano as a young man, chief of Oconto river band of Menomini Indians, posed for this oil painting by George Catlin probably in Green Bay in 1830s. Eagle feathers in hair de­ note "coups" against enemy, and rounded medal may be decoration for military service awarded by British or American governments. He holds sword as symbol of office as chief. --Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

138 The boy was brought to Milwaukee by Dr. Huebschmann who then nl0ved for a new trial on a writ of habeas corpus, and "in a letter to the commissioner of Indian affairs, he advised him of the upcoming trial, adding this significant comment: "We have succeeded in finding the bones of a child which were found in the place where the Partridge boy ought to have been searched for and I believe will present evidence which will satisfy every reasonable man."* 1 7 7 The d-ay before trial was to begin, other members ofth~ Partridge family, secretly aided by a lunatic fringe of abolitionists in Milwaukee, spirited the boy out of county jail, apparently with the connivance of the jailer's wife, and took him across the state line. And .that ended the quest for the "Child of Two Mothers." The Indians were unable to pursue the matter any further because they had nl0ved to Keshena and had no funds to cover an emergency like this. Dr. Huebschmann, or the Indian department in Washington, decided to drop the case. The Milwaukee Sentinel which at first seemed interested in justice, suddenly lost interest and failed even to report what became of the Indian mother who had come to Milwaukee from Keshena with several of the Menomini chiefs to testify at the second trial. In June, 1852, a few weeks after Nahkom's boy was abducted, Julius Murray, the son of Elias Murray, was on the Payground on an errand for his father. Here he met Bonduel, as mentioned earlier, and he inspected the school for Indian boys and heard them sing. Later, at the chapel-house, he was visiting with Bonduel when Nahkom came to the door to ask whether he had any new information on the whereabouts of her son. Murray describes it this way: The woman that had the children (sic) taken from her came in. I shook hands with her and then read the copy of the letter you [his father] sent to Commissioner Luke Lea, and had it interpreted to her, and anyone who had seen her weep all of the time must have been bereft of reason not to have believed that she was the mother of the child. I told her that you felt contident that her child would be restored to her and that you would use every exertion to accompUshed it.. ,,*178 Shortly after Nahkom's visit. most of the chiefs of the tribe came to the house to shake hands with young Murray. Bonduel apparently introduced hinl as the son of their father. The last thing Bonduel said to Murray before he left that day was that "it [had] done him two hundreds dollars worth of good that [the superintendent] had sent

*177 Huebschmann to George Manypenny, BIA, 234-321, frame 0579. *178 Julius Murray to Elias Murray, June 9, 1852, BIA, 234-321, frame 0565. 139 me' up to see them [the chiefs] . He says it pacifies them..." *1 7 9 In the first trial held at Oshkosh in 1852, the Partridges posted $2000 bond for the temporary custody of the boy, a rather remarkable arrangement concluded with the court commissioner on the third day of trial. When the child was abducted, Alvin was not only in contempt of court but liable for the $2000 bond. He avoided both by fleeing the state. In the second trial, the judge in Milwaukee failed to hold anyone in contempt. The child was raised by his foster parents and given the new name of "Joseph W.", probably for Joseph Wakeman. He attended Hillsdale College in Michigan in the fall and winter of 1864 but in February 1865 went off to join an Indiana volunteer regiment where he served as a bugler. He was mustered out in West Virginia, and died in 1916, at Canlp Douglas, Wisconsin where he is also believed to be buried in the village cemetery. In the latter part of 1854, Bonduel returned to Belgium to visit his parents after a long absence. While in Belgium he wrote an account in French of the story of the "lost child" which he called Nakam et son fils Nigabianong ou I'enfant perdu [Nakam and her son Nigabianong, or the Lost Child] which was published in Tournay. He was rather pleased with his own work, for when he was later granted an audience with Pope Leo IX in Rome, he took pleasure in presenting his Holiness with a copy of the 44-page booklet, illustrated with several sketches presumably done by Belgian lithographers. Bonduel's booklet begins with a recapitulation of the highligllts of the story which is jumbled badly and which must have bee-n a source of puzzlement to his readers. But the main part of the story holds together fairly well. He presents it in the form of a drama and introduces two men, one of whom tells the story to the other. It is filled with Catholic sentiments which were meant, no doubt, to edify. He was not·in Wisconsin at the time, but he says he learned of Nahkom's death from a friend in Milwaukee. According to his version, she died in the arms of a passing priest on the banks of the Milwaukee river. The Milwaukee newspapers failed to mention it. Aside from the rather poetic denouement, Bonduel's version of the story from the years 1850 to 1852 agrees substantially with the testimony taken at the trial held in Oshkosh, although incredibly, he keeps repeating that William Partridge was the father of the lost boy, whereas, as already explained, William was a younger brother who

*179 Ibid. 140 swore out the complaint.*180 Chief Souligny's speech at the trial, quoted by Bonduel, is verified briefly in the condensed version of the testimony which appeared in the Oshkosh Democrat. There is reason to believe that Bonduel could follow the Menomini language without the aid of an interpreter by this time, and perhaps for this reason he was able to understand the nuances of Souligny's speech better than the spectators who listened to the English translation from the court-appointed interpreters who almost surely condensed the speech in translation. Bonduel uses a number of Menomini words and expressions in his booklet. These are explained by the authors in the footnotes based on Baraga's

Bonduel's conception of Wisconsin found in book published in Belgium, 1855, on story of "Lost Child". Name Wapake (today Waupaca), usually pronounced by early settlers as "Waupackee". "R. des Rennrds" is French for Fox River, "La Baie verte" for Green Bay, and "R du Loup" for Wolf river.

*180 See Nahkom: The Woman of Waupaca, a fictionalized account of the incident by Malcolm Rosholt (Rosholt, WI, 1974). 141 dictionary of the Chippewa language published in 1878. The trial held at Oshkosh in 1852 may be unprecedented in the annals of American jurisprudence. Indians, who were not considered "persons" under the law yet, were nevertheless allowed to testify in a United States court of law against the testimony of the white man. And here, temporarily, all the bickerings between the Indians over claims to traders and treaty signing were shelved, and they forgot whether they were Catholics or pagans; they became once again menlbers of an extended family, and what concerned one concerned all. Chief Oshkosh was at the trial but for some reason was not called as a witness. Four other chiefs of bands, including Souligny,. swore under oath that they had known the boy before Caspar Partridge was lost on April 19, 1850. And Augustin Grignon, defying the white man's displeasure, testified on behalf of the Indian mother's claim. A translation of the Bonduel story on the "Lost Child", less the first few pages of introductory material, appears in the Appendix. The speech given by Chief Souligny at the trial, as recorded by Bonduel, is'probably the last great speech given by an Indian orator in Wisconsin and its appearance here is probably its first in the English language.

142 XIV. MIGRATION TO KESHENA

On October 31st or November 1, 1852, or both days probably, the Menomini Indians living in their scattered villages on the west bank of the Wolf river, and their pastor, moved north 60 miles to the first falls of the Wolf river, later known as Keshena Falls. Many of the Menon1ini families by now were mixed not only with white men's genes, but with Chippewa and Potawatomi and Winnebago although they were all counted as one within the Menomini family. The authorization for their removal came to Captain Murray in a letter from Washington dated September 24, 1852.*181 This would have given the Indians ample time to get under way before the geese began to fly, but the migration did not get under way until the snow and ice already covered the land. Perhaps the delay in getting started ·earlier arose over a technicality. The government was still negotiating with the Indians over the provisions of the 1848 treaty, and therefore no funds had been deducted from the treaty payments for their removal to a reservation. The treaty stipulated that $25,000 was to be deducted, but until the treaty was approved ~by the Senate, who was going to raise the $25,000 so that the migration could get under way? R.W. Thompson, the attorney for the Indians, said he hurried about Washington to arrange for a temporary loan from the banks, and thanks to the endorsement of the Ewing interests, he got it. In a letter to the Oshkosh Democrat~ Captain Murray said that the contract for moving the Indians and providing them with food was awarded to Messrs. George W. Ewing and R.W. Thompson, and this appears to be correct. Thompson said he had insisted, however, that Ewing should oversee fulfillment of the contract personally.*182 Murray says his office had no part in the removal except to "see the

*181 Murray to Bonduel, Oct. 4, 1852 in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. *182 Senate Executive Documents (1856), 300. 143 contract faithfully fulfilled."* 18 3 Murray and other officials of the Indian department, and traders, also made the journey to Keshena. Commenting in retrospect on the Menomini migration, Thompson wrote: I have always looked upon this operation with satisfaction, for although the profit turned out to be no object, yet we succeeded in less time than such a thing was ever done before, and an inclement season of the year.. .in removing this whole tribe-men, women and children, and every article of property they possessed, to the place of their present residence, without the slightest accident and without the loss of a single valuable article. We subsisted them, furnished them with medical attendance, and with 3500' bushels of com, 425 barrels of flour, 15,500 pounds of beef, after they reached their new homes, transported at our expense, and erected a warehouse suitable for the safe keeping of said provisions...,,*184 Nowhere does he say what mode of transportation was used. Was it possible to travel by ox or horse team through the wilderness? It seenlS unlikely. Murray gives a clue to the .mode of transportation used when he says that the Wolf river froze over just after the Indians reached Keshena and he was forced to abandon his own boat to return to Sheboygan on foot through "a wilderness without roads." In short, if he had planned to go down stream, he must have come up stream either by Durham boat or Mackinac boat from Lake Poygan. The food supplies and household goods of the Indians were probably shipped up the river by these larger boats as well, and some of the Indian chiefs may have used Durham boats, but the majority paddled their own canoes. Yet, it seemed symptomatic of the white man's indifference to the Indians that the editor of the Oshkosh Democrat did not find space in his newspaper to mention this movement in history. The Sheboygan Mercury carried a brief account of it which the Milwaukee Sentinel copied. Without naming his informant, the editor of the Mercury said he had been talking to a "friend" who had just returned from the upper Wolf river. Since Sheboygan was the head office of Captain Murray, the editor no doubt had been talking to him, or one of his assistants, who did not wish to be quoted. From the story which appeared in the Mercury, readers of the paper learned that "no sickness or accident occurred among the Indians and everything necessary was provided for their comfort." (R.W. Thompson must have read the same article.) The Mercury,

*183 Oshkosh Democrat, Oct. 22, 1852. *184 Senate Executive Documents (1856),301. 144 admitted, however, that owing to the early freeze-up, "a large amount of provisions designated for the subsistance of the Indians for the winter were unfortunately frozen in the river some 25 or 30 miles below their camping ground." The Mercury did not think this delay would be felt so much by the Indians as by the contractors "as the country abounds in game and the provisions can be taken up by land."* 185 There seems to be some misunderstanding on the part of the editors of the Sheboygan Mercury. The forest did not abound in game. Wherever there was heavy timber, there was a dearth of game. Advance parties of the Indians and, presumably the white officials who accompanied the nligration, arrived on the reservation on November 2nd, and on November 3rd, nl0st of the chiefs had arrived, apparently 24 in number, some from Lake Poygan and others from the northeastern part of the state. Murray apparently had sent out Indian heralds to bring the chiefs together on November 3rd because he had important business to attend to. He wanted them to address a letter "to Our Great Father, the President of the U.S." This is what they "touched their pens" to: We, the chiefs & headmen of the Menominee nation of Indians thank our Great Father because he had thought of us, when we were so far off. He has heard our voice and has kept us from being sent to the Crow Wing river, and our hearts are made glad. We are now at our new home on the Wolf & Oconto rivers, and we feel happy. We will try to learn (sic) our young men to work the land, that they may raise provisions for our families. We will try & obey our Great Father's voice, in all things, because we know he is our friend. We have just been removed from our old homes. and everything has been done to our satisfaction. We have been gratified at the manner in which we were removed and thank our Great father for sending our friends to remove us, as we had requested him to do.*186 The nanle of Chief Oshkosh heads the list, followed by Aiame'tah, Souligny, Keshena, LaMotte, Carron et ale At least one chief was not present to sign this whitewash, namely, Waukechon. Oral tradition holds that he was shot and slightly wounded by two Chippewa assassins somewhere on the left bank of the Wolf river in the township later named after hinl in Shawano county. The letter to the President was signed in the presence of Murray, George Lawe, the sub-agent, Charles Grignon, Bonduel, Harvey L. Murray, a son of the superintendent, and three others. Murray says he left the Indians at Keshena on November 15th and went on foot since navigation on the river closed the day before. He

*185 Sheboygan Mercury, Dec. 4, 1852. *186 BIA, 234-321, frame 0505. 145 MENOMONI-INDIAN.

(NORTH AHERICA.) l1t£u. ~l. 1. i3onbuel, in SlJca'~ U it)if;t. of QI:atl}. ,!Nisf>ion5." Nhonnina\v kishiko epian. Nhanshtchiaw kaieteh\vitchika­ tel{ ki wishwan. Nhanslltchiaw katpimakat kit okimanwin. En­ enitaman nhanshtchia\v kateshe­ kin, tipanes kishiko hakihi {}e min. Mishiame ioppi kishixa nin pakishixaniminaw eniko eweia fJanenon kaieshixa. Ponikiteta­ wiame min ka eshishnekihikeian, esh ponikitetawaki8wa ka ishish­ nekihiameOwa. Pon inishiashi­ arne ka kishtipeni8wane. Miak­ onamanwiame (Je meti. Nhan­ shenikateshekin.

128 finally reached Sheboygan and "seized" the earliest moment, in his own words, to "apprize" the Indian department that further supplies were needed to sustain the Indians through the winter because of th,e . loss of supplies. There were 2,002 people around Keshena, he said, one-fifth of them children., and there were rations of flour for 53 days only, and meat for less than ten days. Murray thought the government would not want to leave them in a "vigorous climate without a reasonable subsistance" and he was therefore solicitating the Indian department to authorize him to purchase and issue "say half rations of flour and one-fourth rations of pork" which, "with 146 . the aid of wild game, would make them comfortable."*187 Contrary to the bland assurances later made by Thompson that so many barrels of flour and so many pounds of meat reached the Indians, it seems all too clear that the provisions did not reach them on time, and that the meat and other perishables were spoiled. The sub-contractors probably waited until the river froze solid enough to drive a team of horses on the ice. This could have been December

Map detail shows Wisconsin and location of Menomini Indian reservation reproduced. from Fourteenth Annual Reportofthe Bureau ofEthnology, Smithsonian Institution, 1892. Blank space in southwest comer of reservation slows location of Stockbridge Indians who were awarded area by consent of Menomini in 1856. 15th or later. The contractors, Ewing & Thompson, did not come to Wisconsin "to superintend" the migration of the Indians, but left it up to sub-contractors who could have been Solomon Juneau and Augustin Grignon. Captain Murray's request for more food apparently was never seen by Thompson or he probably would have been less pleased with his own virtue. As for Murray, his plea for more food was a gallant one, but the Great Father could not hear his children very well so far from Washington. As a result, many of them died or contracted terminal diseases that winter, and the disastrous effects of the first winter were felt sharply into the second when more died prematurely of malnutrition and related causes. Apparently Bonduel had asked Murray before he left Keshena for an exact description of the Menomini reservation, and the day after

*187 Murray to Luke Lea, Sheboygan, WI, Dec. 18, 1852, BIA, 234-321, frames 0603-4. 147 --Courtesy Indiana State Library.

the· Council was held on .November 3rd, Murray addressed a letter to him in which he describes the tract of land as "beginning at the southwest corner of Town 28 on the range line between 19 & 20, thence west 30 miles, thence north 18 miles, thence east 30 miles, thence south 18 miles to the place of beginning." He concludes his 148 letter to Bonduel with this comment: "And in obedience to instructions...1 have caused the Menominee Indians to be located on said tract of land.,,* 188 But now a new threat had arisen against the Indians. Since they had been assigned a tract of land on the upper Wolf by the federal government, it might be assumed that that would have ended the matter. But no. The question of states' rights suddenly reared its two heads and there were reports that certain counties in Wisconsin were going to petition the state legislature to have the Menomini removed to the west of the Mississippi river. After building a small frame house with 6000 feet of lumber which he says he hauled from the river and carried on his own back to the building site, Bonduel left on foot to petition the legislature in Madison on behalf of the Indians. "In my journey," he tells a friend later, "my little cloak was the only cover that I could use to protect myself against the cold of the night that I spent on the bank of the Peagon [Pigeon] river where there was already six inches of snow!! ,,* 189 He probably had an Indian youth to carry his luggage, at least as far as New London, but why' no blanket? Was he in such a hurry to leave that he forgot it? Nevertheless, as a result of exposure to cold, he arrived in Milwaukee a sick man. For nearly six weeks he remained there and it was not until the beginning of January 1853 that he felt strong enough to continue his journey t6 Madison. Here, he said, "I stood before the legislature...asking the government of our state to allow my Indians to remain on the tract of land set apart by President Phi/more [Fillmore] for their home." The Assembly referred the matter to a select committee of five where Bonduel says he was oppos~d by a Judge? (name not clear, but it was probably Mathew Roche of Dane county). But he carried the day and "the honorable gentleman was defeated by me. The committee reported favorable (sic) to the house and a joint resolution of both houses passed unanimously on behalf of my Indians." It was signed February 1, 1853 alld then he boasts: "I saved my dear Menomini for the third time." Word had gone ahead to Keshena of Bonduel's success and as he approached the reservation, many of the tribe came down as far as Shawano Lake to nleet him. To compound his own joy, he says that

*188 Murray to Bonduel, Keshena, Nov. 4, 1852 in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. *189 Bonduel to ? March 26, 1857, Propaganda Fide microfilms, UNDA. 149 forty families asked for instructions leading "to conversion and baptism. Many abandoned their magic "bundles" and other objects sacred to them by tradition. Some of these objects he later presented to a museum in Rome. But he did not tell his friend the whole story of his trip to Madison. Apparently underestimating the costs of travel and accommodations, and forced to remain in Milwaukee much longer than he had anticipated, he found himself in Madison without funds. In a letter he later wrote from Keshena to George Ewing, this is the way he itemized his expenses on the trip to Madison:*190 Food and lodgings $ 92.00 Provisions for household before leaving Keshena 123.00 Expenses while ill in Milwaukee 75.00 New cloak $35, and new overcoat $20, purchased in Milwaukee 55.00 One new pair pants 6.00 One new silk vest 4.50 Two pairs of boots 8.00 One pair leather overshoes 2.50 Half dozen shirts and collars 13.50 Letter paper, envelopes, two bottles of ink and sealing wax 1.25 At Madison, to Mr. Brown, for printing 30 copies of Joint Resolution 2.00 To three friends, two from Milwaukee and one at Fond du Lac, $20, each to use their influence with the members of the House and Senate up to the passage of the-bill 60.00 $542.75 In explaining the last entry, he says that a Mr. Jones [probably David Jones, a former sub-agent] "employed somebody or some persons" in opposition to the bill, but he did not want this information about Jones or his own efforts to buy support for the bill to leak out.*191 He obviously had his own reasons for not wanting it to leak out, but it should also be borne in mind that lobbying in this manner was not illegal at the time. But legal or no, he failed to add right. The total expenses, according to the above

*190 Bonduel to George Ewing, Keshena, WI, March 13, 1853, in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. *191 Bonduel to George Ewing, Keshena, March 13, 1853 in Ewing Papers, Indiana St~t~ Library. 150 figures, should have been $442.75, not $542.75. According to a memorandum he handed Dr. Huebschmann, the new superintendent of Indian affairs, he said he left for Madison from Keshena on November 15, 1852 and returned on February 19, 1853, which he computed at 94 days.*192 He said his traveling expense "and those which the nature of my business had created have amounted to $5.77 per day." If he was gone 94 days, this would have come to $542.38 although in his memorandum to Huebschmann he enters the figure of $470. However, there were three additional charges in the memo to Dr. Huebschmann, unexplained, one for $47, one for $23.50 and one for $1.88 which, added to the $470, brings the total to $542.38. The letter to Ewing was written in March; the memo to Huebschmann in October. Expense accounts can be problems and Bonduel must have thought of some additional expenses between the time he wrote to Ewing and when he handed in his bill to Dr. Huebschmann on October 17, 1853. There was also a difference of $27.25 between the actual amount computed in the letter to Ewing, i.e. $442.75 and the amount mentioned in the memo to Heubschmann before the additional charges were computed. It seems a bit puzzling that he went into so much detail about his expenses to Ewing. The Indians were paying the bill, not Ewing. Dr. Heubschmann came to Keshena for the first time that fall in 1853 to disburse the Indian. annuities and at a Council called the day before the "payment" was to be made, there was a discussion among the chiefs of all claims held against the tribe by traders and others. One of the first that can1e up was Bonduel's claim for his trip to Madison and this was allowed in full. In his own correspondence to Washington, Dr. Huebschmann said the services "for which the Rev. F.J. Bonduel's account is made up were no doubt performed, and the Menominees are under deep obligation to him for his services on their behalf."* 193 It was also about this time that Bonduel became very concerned with a bill before the U.S. Senate which would increase the amount of money the Indians were to get as a result of the error made in computing the number of acres in the "Menominee Purchase." He seemed to think that it was Senator Isaac P. Walker of Wisconsin who was blocking passage of the bill in committee, and in his letter to Ewing he tells him that while in Madison he had discussed Walker's

*192 BIA, 234-322, frame 0353. *193 BIA, 234-322, frame 0343. 151 political future with Edward McGeorge.* 194 It is not clear from his letter whether Senator Walker was in Madison or whether it was his brother who was there when Bonduel appeared before the committee on behalf of the joint resolution. In any event, Bonduel says he told McGeorge that unless Senator Walker changed his course, he "would take care of him in two years hence, in the House and in the Senate at Madison, when his time would be out in Washington." Until passage of the 17th amendment to the Constitution in 1913, U.S. Senators were elected by the legislature, not by popular vote, which accounts for Bonduel's intentions to make it uncomfortable for Walker in the legislature when his term expired. It seems that McGeorge agreed and got word to Walker, or his brother, about Bonduel's displeasure. "And the day I left Madison," Bonduel writes, "Mr. Walker of Milwaukee treated me with all the polite attention imaginable. I understood that he swallowed the Pill (sic), and that the medical effect would be felt abroad, as well as at home..." He goes on to tell Ewing that he has left nothing undone to "secure everything here and at Washington in a full scale." Since he was ·writing from Keshena, he probably means that he had done everything in his power to bring about a happy conclusion to passage of the bill before the U.S. Senate granting increased benefits to the Menomini for their lands under the treaty of 1848. Further on in· the letter he tells his friend more about his experience in Madison. Writing in a humorous vein, he says: As I was short of money and having no friend in the city of Madison to whom I could with confidence explain the pecuniary embarrassment of my purse, I regretted very much that our friend Mr. [George] Wright left the city in [a] hurry and almost~ a l'incognito! I was ready on the battlefield with [Marshall Ney at Waterloo in sight of Lord Wellington when our frlenrOUCler· d G . *195 0 f Oshkosh made his appearance. He took' a view of the position of the belligerents on both sides. He immediately understood that I would have a better success than Napoleon Bonaparte. He therefore did not care a fig about Bucher*196 and he went off north, with his caissons full of power!! I was therefore obliged, when in the city, to sell for the sum of $200 a most beautiful and valuable property that I had bought 10 years ago at Patch Grove...Five times I have refused to sell it for cash at $15 an acre...

*194 Edward McGeorge? *195 Grocier (?), probably Albert Grusier, listed in the 1850 census for the town of Oshkosh, Winnebago county. *196 Bucher, no doubt a reference to Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher (1742-1819), a Prussian field marshal who helped the English allies defeat Napoleon at Waterloo. 152 To compound his losses, he found, on returning to Keshena, that an Indian had accidentally shot his horse, "a fine animal" that cost $85 and which was impossible to replace for the same price. "You see, my friend," Bonduel continues, "I have not the chance as many others have, of getting fat in traveling, but rather of getting thin and poor!!" This is patently a reference to an old custom known, far and wide, as "padding" one's expense account. As a postscript he adds this concluding paragraph: I have just received a letter from Mr. [John] Jacobs. In his letter he requests ~e very urgently to send him a copy of a certain agreement. Last year he asked me the same thing. I spoke of it to Mr. Thompson [who] told me that I did well not to have given him a copy of that instrument because it was given to me in trust! Perhaps, my dear friend, it would be well for you to quiet him about it, to drop a few lines to him on the subject, with good deal of circumspection and prudence. Because that matter is exceedingly delicate. Please write immediately to me about it. It would [be] very imprudent without necessity to see our names carried about concerning that matter which is of a most private character. It seems that there is a lack of confidence in him towards the persons, our friends, who are entitled to enjoy it so long as their conduct shows to be what it has been. I shall write to you about certain matters of the most delicate nature in which both yourself and myself are concerned. Please present my best regards to ColonelThompson and receive for yourself the assurance of my sincere regards, in all sincerity, your friend in Christ, etc. Nowhere else does there appear to be any clue to these "certain matters of the most delicate nature." Who was involved? It could not have been Bruce since he was already out of office. Meanwhile, in one of his earlier letters to Ewing, Bonduel called the treaty of 1848 a "fraud." Since this was written in English, there could be no doubt about its meaning. The Indians had been defrauded, and some person, or persons, had made money on the deal, hinting mainly at Colonel Medill, the commissioner of Indian affairs who came from Washington to Lake Poygan to negotiate the treaty. Colonel MediII later admitted that he had made an error in determining the boundaries of the Menominee lands in Wisconsin b·ut blamed it on a map which was furnished to him by the attorney general's office. The error hinged on the location of a certain lake which had been wrongly located by the government surveyors. This, if corrected, would have increased the number of acres which he was authorized to recognize as Menomini land to about fOUl million.*1 97 *197 Senate Reports, 2nd Session, 32nd Congress (1852-53) No. 410,2. 153 Senator Walker, in his report to the committee of Indian affairs of the U.S. Senate, professed amazement at the "enormity of the difference" between the estimated and actual quantity of land ceded by the Menomini, and between the price authorized and the price actually paid to them. Well might the senator be surprised, for this was probably one of the reasons Bonduel thought there had been fraud on the part of MediIl. Yet, there is no positive proof of fraud, only that MediII was trying his best to beat the price down as much as possible. The government's instructions to him to offer the Indians the same price per acre as they got at the Treaty of the Cedars must have been unfair, since land values between 1836 and 1848 in Wisconsin had, in many cases, doubled and tripled. The Senate committee on Indian affairs recognized that the treaty was unjust and finally reported out a bill in 1853 to increase the total amount to be paid the Menomini. This is where Colonel Thonlpson entered the picture. As their attorney in Washington, the Menomini asked him to get as much as possible for them and he accepted the lobbying effort on the understanding that whatever increase the Congress might make over the original sum fixed by MediII, he would share 30 1/3 percent of it, and if the Congress voted down the amendment, he would get nothing. Just how much lobbying Thompson did, cannot be assessed, but it was Thompson who wrote the Memorial to the Congress on behalf of the chiefs asking for the additionalcompensation. In this he also took MediII to task in no uncertain terms, but offered no proof of fraud, only hints of dirty tricks and withholding of information. Not only did Thompson assist the Menonlini in meeting with the President in 1850, but he was actIve in presenting the Menomini case against their removal to the Crow Wing river. In fact, he even takes credit for blocking the local effort in Madison to have the Indians re,moved to the west of the Mississippi. Dr. Francis Heubschmann of Milwaukee, the newly-appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, charged that Thompson had nothing to do with the passage of the joint resolution in Madison, but Thompson says he had agents there and that "they remained there some time, untiI the resolution was passed, at nlY expense.,,*198 If Thompson did have lobbyists in Madison, they must have been elsewhere than in the legislature, for certainly they would have made

*'198 Thompson to Secretary of Interior, Jan. 19, 1855, in Senate Executive Documents (1856), No. X, 75. 154 themselves known to Bonduel who was there for the same purpose. The latter, in turn, might have gone to one of them for help when he found himself stranded and had to sell a piece of land he owned near Prairie du Chien for a third of its value. Even more remarkable, Thompson, three years later, did not seem to know that Bonduel had ever been in Madison. Nevertheless, Bonduel recognized the debt, moral and financial, .which the Indians owed to Thompson, and he apparently never doubted that they would pay it. Perhaps it was just as well that he took a holiday at this time because he had scarcely left Keshena before recriminations began over the payment of the "Thompson claim." Those opposed to it, as mentioned earlier, were led by Dr. Francis Huebschmann, the newly-appointed superintendent of Indian affairs. After Congress passed an act to pay the Thompson claim on behalf of the Indians, the. bureaucrats in the Indian department began to use their hatchets, and managed, for the time, to subvert the will of the Congress by a series of delaying actions and unproved charges of corrupt practices against Thompson. But his accusers had not reckoned with their opponent who was just as handy with a hatchet as they were. According to Thompson, Dr. Heubschmann tried to implicate Bonduel in this n10rass, charging him with trying to bribe someone in exchange for a promise to influence Chief Carron to agree to the payment of the Thompson claim. Thompson called this "a most reckless stab at the reputation of an honest man."* 199 Bonduel apparently never heard anything about this and Thompson vindicated the pastor by saying that he was in Europe when the alleged offense took place. All this suggests how bitter the in-fighting had grown between the Department of the Interior and Thompson. But there can be little doubt that both Huebschmann and George Manypenny, the commissioner of Indian affairs in Washington, as Thompson alleges, were out to prevent payment of Thompson's claim against the Indians. In the end, he collected, and this unpleasantness seems to have been the main reason for Heubschmann's removal from office in 1857. The Milwaukee Sentinel came to Huebschmann's defense and said he had been removed "because he dared to do his duty," meaning, probably, that the Sentinel also believed that payment of

*199 Senate Executive Documents (1856), 293. 155 the Thompson claim was unjustified.* 200 A perusal of the Thompson claim, in all its 300 pages, would suggest that Thompson was more right than wrong and obviously the Congress agreed with him.

*200 Historical Messenger of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, Winter, 1972,125. 156 xv. FAREWELL TO THE MENOMINI

The winter of 1852-53, a cruel and merciless winter for the Menomini Indians, must have also been a trying period for Florimond J. Bonduel. There had been serious problems of readjustment for the Indians and there had been a scarcity of food. Almost surely the pastor was finding it increasingly difficult to bring his people to church on Sunday, and he must have wondered more than once whether the time and effort he had spent among them was worthwhile. His primary concern was for their souls. To die without knowing the sacraments would be a tragedy, for he had come half way around the world, suffering personal disconlfort and losing the vision of one eye, to bring them the message of salvation. However, if the majority of the Menomini did not always believe ill his religion, they did appreciate his help in chartering a course, a bit arcane at times, which had made it possible for them to remain in their old hunting grounds in Wisconsin where they could still trap game, fish, gather wild rice in season and make maple sugar in spring. There could not be any doubt, either, that he took a certain personal satisfaction from his work among the Indians. When he came to lecture to the Paris Council in 1855, he told the members that it was the force of grace which had triumphed among the Indians, and especially since it was only a few years earlier that these people were "committed to magic and to all the superstititions of paganism and even to the influences of the demons [but were] now, for the most part, models of virtue and Christian piety worthy to be emulated.,,*201 He was speaking, no doubt, of the "Christian Party" among the Menomini. But they were still in the nlinority, not the majority represented by the bands under chiefs such as Souligny, Akine'bui, Keshena and others who would continue to resist both

*201 See Appendix for text of lecture. 157 the culture and the religion of the Christians until the day they died. . Nothing that Bonduel ever said or wrote suggests that he learned anything from the Indians themselves. He came with his assumption of .European superiority to be heard, not to listen. He had been called [appele] by God- to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Indians. That was his primary mission as he saw it, and he apparently never wavered or entertained any self-doubts or "crisis of faith." While it may be said that in his religion he found tranquility, in his relationship with men he continued to have his problems. Julius Murray, the young man who had come to visit Bonduel at Lake Poygan the year before to consol with the Indians over the abduction of Nahkom's boy, had moved with his two brothers to Shawano county after the Menomini migration. On the evening of March 10, 1852 Murray arrived in Keshena very drunk and in this condition thought it would be amusing to make a spectacle of himself in front of Bonduel's house. Assuming that Murray had mistaken his own residence, Bonduel went out and took him by the arm and, with considerable difficulty, managed to walk him over to the house of Harvey Murray, an older brother. Two days later Julius returne.d to apologize. "I spoke very calmly to him," said Bonduel "and told him that unless he would reform, he would make his father suffer the sad consequences of his improper conduct."* 202 The youth had just gone when an Indian woman came to Bonduel to tell him of a quarrel she had had' with Harvey Murray "in consequence of remarks that he had made both against me and against Mrs. Dousman in which remarks my moral character and Mrs. Dousman's character were attacked in their most vital and sensible points." Harvey had teased the In.dian woman about her pastor's virtue. "He's no better than I am," he allegedly said, and then repeated and distorted the incident at the Mission on Lake Poygan three years earlier and said that Bonduel had been caught descending from his bedroom after having had an affair with Mrs. Dousman. The Indian woman had become furious and cried bitterly to hear her pastor thus maligned, as well as the character of Mrs. Dousman "the lady whom all the Indians revere like their mother." Bonduel says he made preparations to go down to Oshkosh to have Murray "put in a good winter cage, unless he would find

*202 Bonduel to George Ewing, Falls of the Wolf River, March 15, 1853 in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. 158 securities for $20,000," apparently for damages to Bonduel's good name. At this point, Captain Powell, the government interpreter, who in a sense was an employee of the youth's father, that is, Superintendent Murray, came to Bonduel to beg for mercy on Harvey's behalf. Later, Powell brought the youth in person to the pastor's house to face the woman who had repeated what Harvey had said. Powell pleaded with tears in his eyes and asked Bonduel to drop the charges. After some consideration, Bonduel said he would be willing to forget the incident although his heart was "big with anger and indignation." It may be recalled that Bonduel had gone to his bedroom in the chapel-house at Lake Poygan to bring down some extra chairs when he lost his balance on the ladder and fell, breaking two ribs. The

-....., \ I ? f\ [KeShena ( *ryr; . ~ ~~ay ;Settlement " /1 /e Greer Bay \ • "ShCfnty Town" 1a~ POyg~~ *tTwo Rivers C--,V'; *.' shkf"\sh */Manitowoc. ,11 Itaygr unaW' it \ "~~T~'-Onras I < .~~ *;Fond du Jl,ac \ .' *'B/*Eden /1 ;~ )' . yron

*}S.!~E.?9.'/ ( ,.. ~Yt~irie du Chien \ i~Patch Grove *rqilwaukee

\ ~ .Mineral Point \t "",\~ ~ " hK h "X__• l enos a

* Missions founded by Florimond J. Bonduel in Wisconsin. Congregations served in Wisconsin.

159 . near-fatal. accident was understandably twisted to suit local gossip and the person who allegedly started the slander was Charles Carroll, the son of one of the leaders of the Catholic or "Christian Party" among the Menomini. The BIA files show that Charles Carron was a problem to his father and in trouble with the law in Winnebago county before he moved away, although apparently not to Keshena. But Harvey Murray, no Indian, was considered by Bonduel to be "the greatest villain in the state" and a "very dangerous man [with] the tongue of a snake." Despite these personal problems, there seems to be no clear clue to Bonduel's decision to leave the Menomini. There were no doubt several reasons and one of the nl0st powerful was his desire to see his own family. It was 23 years since he had left home-a long time to be away. A document in the diocesan archives at Green Bay, written in Latin sometime in 1880, gives another reason for his departure. Since the Franciscans took over the Mission at Keshena. in later years, they were the closest to the early history of the mission. The author of the document says that "owing to grave difficulties and dissensions" Bonduel decided to' leave the Keshena mission. For one thing, friction had developed between the younger chiefs and the older chiefs after the tribe moved to the reservation. Some of this was probably inspired by Dr. Heubschmann in connection with the "Thompson claim" which the younger chiefs did not wish to honor. But some of it could have been a reflection of the difficult process of adjustment to reservation status which the Indians were forced to accept for the first time in their history. There was no fence around the reservation, but everyone knew where the boundary stakes were because the surveyor had placed them there, one to a mile. The Menomini could hunt north of the reservation, but in this heavily timbered area there was a paucity of big game, and those who wanted to farm on the reservation itself found that the forest was difficult to clear and the soil quite sandy. The Menomini at this time were preparing to sign their final treaty with the government to correct the inequities of the treaty of 1848 which Bonduel had worked so hard to realize. The signing took place on May 12, 1854 and all the principal chiefs "touched the pen" to the treaty except Oshkosh and Keshena. It seems clear that they were under the impression that the government had not lived up to its promises again. In a new amendment approved by the U.S. Senate that summer, the Menomini finally got additional annuities and at a Council held in Keshena on August 22, 1854, all the chiefs, including 160 Oshkosh and Keshena, signed the final treaty. Bonduel, who had been a witness to the treaty of 1848 must have realized that if he left now he would be missing these historic events, but it seems that nothing could stop him, although there did not appear to be any open break between him and the chiefs because three years later he was back in Keshena as a special guest of the entire. tribe. If he left Keshena in March of 1854, as it appears he did, then he had served the mission St. Michael Archangel, which he founded, for a year and a half. Earlier in 1854 he had written to his good friend, Charles Grignon, to tell him- that he was planning to leave for Europe and that he could not think of crossing the Atlantic without giving his blessing to ,a "free America" and without presenting Grignon's eldest daughter with a copy of the [name illegible] as a feeble mark of his Christian regard for her and' her family. He signs this brief letter "Missionary Priest, In partibus infidelium,"* 203 a Latin phrase which suggests a priest or missionary working in a pagan environment. When he arrived' in Milwaukee, there was both a vacancy in St. Gall's parish*204 and an epidemic in the city, apparently another outbreak of cholera, and Bishop Henni prevailed upon the traveler to postpone his journey until the first of November. Since St. Gall, an English-speaking congregation, was without a pastor, Bonduel said he could not throwaway an opportunity like this to do good for his fellow man and he therefore "most cheerfully went to the vineyard" among his fellow workers "in obedience to the Divine Call." Much of his time was taken up with visiting the sick and dying in the wake of the epidemic, and once again he was spared. In the latter part of September-he returned to Keshena, probably to straighten out some personal matters and to explain to the Catholics that a new pastor, Otto Skolla, would take his place very soon. Before departing for Europe, he also wrote a short letter to Frances Grignon and told her of his work in Milwaukee "every minute" of which he had "devoted to the cause of humanity." But

*203 Bonduel to Charles Grignon, Falls of the Wolf, Jan. 12, 1854 in Grignon Mansion, Kaukauna, WI. *204 St. Gall's church stood at the corner of 2nd and what was then Sycamore street in Milwaukee, today 2nd and Michigan. It was finally razed and replaced at 12th and Wisconsin by the present Gesu church which, on December 16, 1894, was dedicated in honor of St. Gall and the Holy Name of Jesus, its former parishes. The present St. Gall's Congregation on North 3rd street was named by Archbishop Messmer who wanted to resurrect the name as a tribute to an Irish missionary in Switzerland. 161 now he was looking forward to a" holiday in Europe and planned to return to the United States in the spring "hoping to die in peace on the American continent."* 2 0 5 En route to Europe he paused in New York long enough to make out his wilL He was a man of property by now, for despite the fact that he had donated much land to the diocese, he still held some in his own name, and though the increase in land values had not made him rich, he probably was better off than most clergymen of his age. Arriving at Ostend from New York in December 1854, he probably went first to visit his parents at Comines in West Flanders. One of his sisters was entering a religious order at this time and he was no doubt anxious to see her and tell her about his experiences among the American Indians. And it was here, perhaps, in his spare moments or on shipboard crossing the Atlantic that he wrote the story of Nahkom and the "lost child" which he published at his own expense, dedicating it to the students of the boarding schools and colleges of Belgium, the proceeds of which allegedly went to charity. He also composed a lecture which he gave in April 1855 to the directors of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris entitled Tableau Comparatif entre la condition morale des Tribus Indiennes de I 'etat du Wisconsin, Consideree sous l'influence du paganisme, et celie de leur etat actuel envisagee sous l'influence du Catholicism, ou Memoire Partiel de I 'etat des missions Indiennes du diocese de Milwaukie [A Comparative Description of the Moral Condition of the Indian Tribes in the state of Wisconsin under the influence of paganism and in the present situation under the influence of Catholicism, or a Brief Men10ir of the state of Indian missions in the Milwaukee Diocese. ] In a letter written later from -Green Bay to the Boston Pilot he says he delivered the" above lecture in one of the chapels of the church of St. Roch in Paris. Another pamphlet which he had printed, running to 27 pages, illustrated by several lithographs, touches on aspects of Indian anthropology apparently forgotten by the Menomini in this generation, namely, the totem plaques once in use by the tribe. He refers to them in French as planche, literally a board, but the word "plaque" seems more agreeable. His theory of the Egyptain origin of the Indians of North America n1ust have startled his listeners. But he could not refrain from reverting to his European tradition as he stood before his superiors of the Catholic church and told them what they wanted to hear, Le.

*205 Original letter in collection of the Reverend Leitermann. 162 that the Indians were a forsaken people and only the saving grace of Jesus Christ could rescue them from barbarism. When he was later granted an audience with Pius IX in Rome, he found satisfaction in presenting him with a copy of the Nahkom story as well as a copy of the lecture he gave in Paris. A translation of the lecture as it appears in the printed version, together with reproductions of several lithographs, appears in the Appendix.

163 Xl. A PLEA FOR MORE SCHOOLS

Aside from speaking to the directors of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris, Bonduel, on April 25, 1855, wrote a long letter to them, summing up his experiences in the mission field and making suggestions for future operations of the Catholic church in America.*206 While repeating briefly his experiences during the cholera epidemic in DetroIt in 1834 "when there were many conversions," he can not forget how badly he was treated by officials of the United States government for his efforts to protect the Indians "against injustice." His main concern, however, is with the paucity of schools for Catholics which he considers tragic because he views all public sch.ools as "essentially Protestant and infidel." He describes the An1erican school system on the grass roots level as supporting not less than four schools per township, and, since there were at that time, he says, 1000 townships in the state, he infers there were 4000 public schools. This appears to be an exaggeration. Most of northern Wisconsin was still a wilderness in 1855 supporting no schools. But he presses his point and says that according to Wisconsin statute, there could even be as many as ten or even 35 "Protestant [public] schools" in each township. The big spread is not explained. Apparently he was comparing the rest of the state to Milwaukee where he says there were 12 schools in the city "which is only a part of the township." He perceives a "moral evil" in the American system "which can only poison our 500 missions which have cost us so much courage and so many sacrifices unless you send Bishop Henni. ..the sum needed to found three schools for the poor in the three most important parts of his diocese, namely, 1) Milwaukee for the parish of St. Gall, "the poorest parish in Milwaukee (although I

*206 Bonduel to Paris Council. April 25, 1855, UNDA. 164 consider 111yself happy to have served as its curate"; 2) Fond du Lac, and 3) Green Bay." To drive home his point with the people who controlled the purse strings, he tells them that the Methodists have just built a "magnificent college" called Lawrence at Appleton, Wisconsin. But he has more problems for them to solve. "In 1853," he cOiltinues, "there was a population of 87,000 Catholics in the Milwaukee diocese. Since then the number had increased by more than two-thirds." He repeats that he founded the "mother mission" in Milwaukee in 1837 "when there were then only three Catholic families-two Canadian and one Irish." Now there were n10re than 20,000 Catholics, he says "who attended our six beautiful churches, including the Cathedral [St. John's] which is one of the most beautiful religious structures in the West..." In addition there are four German and two English churches, and 85 missions "all filled with the spirit of God, ceaselessly visiting our glorious missions in all parts of the diocese." When Bonduel left for Europe he was authorized to recruit forty priests to fill the needs of the diocesian missions. Apparently he met with difficulties, although whether in France or Belgium, or both, is not clear, but he refers to the fact that the priests have to "give up all to combat the efforts of the socialists who are trying to prevent Christian teaching." It is not clear here whether he is referring to European or American socialists, but he also accuses 30,000 "communists", in Wisconsin, of joining forces with the Protestants against the interests of the church in temporal "and even spiritual matters." Although he fails to identify the "communists," he may have been referring to the Fourierites at Ripon. If true, he wildly exaggerates their numbers. . Next, he takes to task the dioceses in the East for not rendering more help to the dioceses of the West, and openly accuses them of thinking only of their own selfish intersts. "Delicacy forbids me to push the comparison further," he adds, but he wants the directors of the Society to know how hard the Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul at Milwaukee have worked to help the orphans in that city and also at the hospital, while in New York and the big cities of the East there were "inexhaustible resources of all kinds." He was certain that if funds were not found for the education of Catholic youth, there was nothing to save them from the "shipwreck of their faith." He assures the directors that money placed in the hands of the missionaries would not be wasted and that everything would be put to good use under the wise direction of their own superior. He says that 165 the "Missionary who follows a life of continued martyrdom can not keep from groaning over the errors perpetrated by people in high places-people who have a better understanding of what is right and who should be able to make it less difficult for men of God to walk in the narrow path of a missionary's life." Speaking of St. Gall's church which he served briefly in Milwaukee in 1854, he says the church possessed only a few ornaments borrowed from the bishop, otherwise there was no chalice, no monstrance, and no holy ciborium, and then adds, "And I, after 20 years of the most painful labors in the missions of the northern states, have no books nor ornaments because all have become spoiled in the cabins of the Indians fronl smoke and dampness. " Not only had he lost books and religous relics, but he had lost the use of his right eye "like the hero of Cannae.* 207 There is the difference, however, between Hannibal and me," he remarks, "the general lost his eye for passing fame: I lost nline in honor of the memory of the Savior who will give it back to me more brilliant on Judgment day which my soul awaits with holy impatience." In the last paragraph he wishes to commend the attention of the directors to the great work of Mrs. Dousman as a catechist among the Indians for many years and he hopes something can be done to "console her in her isolation in the wilderness of the north." He also urges that a monument be raised to her "for her noble and generous devotion to the cause of religion and humanity...a lady of great merit...and still busy teaching the English language and the principles of our religion to the Indian children of Shawano Lake..." Mrs. Dousman died around 18~0 and since all early records at St. Michael Archangel church at Keshena were destroyed by fire, there appears to be no information on her death or her burial place. A few days before Bonduel left Ronle he donated a number of Indian artifacts to the museum of the ''Propaganda. "He does not say the Vatican Museum but this is probably what he meant. One artifact was a totem plaque, described in the appendix, plus two small plaques, in addition to the statuettes and pieces of birch bark on which were engraved the 101 figures, all of "great historical value," he says. * 208 Bonduel was in Ronle a second time in the fall of 1855. Why he

*207 Cannae, in BE Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Romans 216 B.C. *208 Bonduel to ? Rome, Italy, April 16, 1855, UNDA. 166 was delaying his trip back to the United States is not explained. On November 20th that year he was again writing to someone, probably Alessandro Barnabo, secretary to Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the Propaganda Fide. *209 Here he tells how he founded 27 "mother missions" with the help of Heave11 since 1834 in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnizotta Territory "for which I sacrificed 86,000 francs [$17,000] building churches and schools on land which I bought with my own funds and donated to the most worthy bishop in fee simple to advance the work of God...while nourishing myself only on the bread of sorrow and affliction." He thought this background of sacrifice entitled him to a favor. Recounting that Bishop Henni had offered to make him vicar-general of the Milwaukee diocese more than once, he said he had turned down these offers becasue he was still in charge of the important Indian missions and he could not,without hurting his conscience "abandon n1Y poor Indians whose father I had become." This last statement seems somewhat hard to explain. He was not in charge of any "important Indian missions" any longer and circumstantial evidence suggests that he left them of his own accord with no intention of going back. Continuing, he says that Bishop Joseph Cretin, the first bishop for the St. Paul diocese, had offered to make him coajutor in charge of all Indian missions in Minnesota Territory. He forgets to mention that he was also placed on the terna (list of three names sent to Rome) as a candidate for the new bishopric to be created west of St. Louis in 1855. Bishop I-Ienni, however, arranged to have his name removed from the terna because he felt that Bonduel was desperately needed among the thousands of Belgian newcomers who had settled in Brown, Door and Kewaunee counties. "I have then, the right to say," Bonduel tells his friend, quoting a French proverb, qui pent plus, pent moins. [He who is capable of more, is capable of less] . In other words, he wanted his friend to intercede with the Vatican to have him named "Missionary Apostolic to the Menomini Indians," especially since his request was based on "the most pure of motives, namely, to advance the Glory of God in Europe and America." If the prayer of the petitioner were granted, he probably saw his new position and title as one that wo·uld be less arduous than his former pastorate and for this reason quotes the French proverb mentioned above.

*209 Bonduel to ? ,Rome, Italy, Nov. 20,1855, UNDA. 167 In addition, he wanted to found a retiren1ent home for n1issionaries in the northern part of the United States and he said that the privileges attached to the title "Missionary Apostolic" would be helpful to him in accomplishing this purpose. He thought a retirement home would "cut greed at the roots and bring an effective remedy to an infinity of evils found in our missions in North An1erica," and that one retirement home should be located in Wisconsin and another at St. Louis for the southern states.

168 XVII. THE TWO SMALL LOTS OF MME. VINDEVOGHEL

During his lifetime, no one probably caused Florimond J. Bonduel more personal anguish than Marie Frances Vindevoghel, a high-born lady of Ghent in Belgium who, though independently wealthy, was allowed to join the order of the Colletine Poor elares of Bruges, a charitable and educational cloister of the Catholic church, on the understanding that she would use her own means, as far as practicable, to advance the aims of her order. Mme. Vindevoghel and another sister, Maria Victoria DeSeille, sailed from France in 1826 to establish convent schools of the Poor Clares in America. They went first, at the request of Father Stephen T. Badin, to Cincinnati where an academy for girls was founded. Lacking staff to carry the increasing work load, the two sisters left in 1828 and moved to Pittsburgh where they were permitted to open a temporary convent with adjoining school on land west of Allegheny Town, since known as "Nunnery Hill" in Pennsylvania. The two sisters were presently joined by more of their order and despite growing misunderstanding between the order and the diocese, Mme. Vindevoghel went to Detroit in 1833 to open a new convent school on land she had purchased through Frederic Rese, vicar-general of Cincinnati who in 1833 became bishop of the new diocese in Detroit. Through San1uel Mazzuchelli, who was visiting Detroit in 1833, Mme. Vindevoghel also purchased two small lots* 210 in "Shanty Town," south of Green Bay, and sent two sisters along with Mazzuchelli to open a school. After nearly four years in Green Bay, one of the sisters caused personal embarrassment to the order and both were recalled, leaving the Green Bay house unoccupied.

*210 C of Deeds, Brown County, 13-14, 34; M of Deeds, 595. See also letter of Mazzuchelli to Cardinal Barnabo, Benton, WI, Feb. 27, 1856, in Propaganda Fide microfilms, UNDA. 169 From here on begins a tale of woe and tribulation for nearly everyone who had anything to do with the Poor Clares. They quarreled an10ng themselves and they quarreled with their bishops whether in Detroit, Pittsburgh or Cincinnati. Their mission in the United States was dissolved, finally, and by 1839 those who had not already returned to Europe were urged to do so. * 211 Bonduel's troubles with Mme. Vindevoghel started over some property, actually two small lots, she once owned in Brown county overlooking the old Military Road in "Shanty Town." The records on these two lots are extremely complicated, but complicated as they may be, there can be little doubt that somewhere along the line, they were picked up for taxes by the county. What is more, another tract of 108.4 acres, lying nearby in Private Claim 16, also went for taxes about the same time and it is not impossible that an error was made, that is, that the two sn1aller lots were thought to be one of a piece with the 108.4 acres lying in Private Claim 16. This is speculation, but no matter how it happened, Mme. Vindevoghel felt cheated and who would not? COasting about for someone to blame beside herself, she turned her wrath on Bonduel who had moved to "Shanty Town" in 1838, the same year the two Poor Clare sisters left. For some reason, Mme. Vindevoghel was under the impression that the local missionaries were occupying her property and would therefore pay the taxes on the two lots and the run-down house that stood on the one lot located on the west side of the Military Road [Highway 57]. In 1855 when Mme. Vindevoghel learned that Bonduel was in Europe and about to be received by Pius IX, she came to Rome herself, found him in his hotel and demanded that he bring this and other business matters to the - attention of His Holiness, while indirectly blaming Bonduel for much of her troubles. Fortunately, he says, he had a document in his possession to defend himself against the charges of this irate woman. The information appears in a letter he wrote to Barnabo, soon to become a cardinal, to explain what had taken place between himself and the former abbess. He also enclosed a copy of the document for

*211 The story of Mme. Vindevoghel's difficulties has never been fully researched although there are fragmentary references to it in Catholic histories. See John H. Lamott, History of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati (New Yark 1921); Andrew Arnold Lambing, Foundation Stones of a Great !Jiocese (Wilkinsburg, Pa. 1914); Diary and Visitation Record of Bishop Francis Patrick Kenrick (Lancaster, PA, 1916); and Robert Frederick Trisco, rphe Holy S('(' and the Nascent Church in the Middle lVestern LJnited States 1826-1850 (Rom~, Italy, 1962). 170 his eyes.'t'~12 Bonduel's letter to Barnabo may be translated from the French, in part, as follows: "God has granted, Monseigneur, that I should not have lost the document which will put an end to the bad impressions Mme. Marie Frances Vindevoghel has so cunningly insinuated to our very illustrious superiors by making them believe that her property at Green Bay is large enough (sic) to build a monastery on. Now, Monseigneur, here is what that large property (sic) consists of!! 1) One acre of ground situated not in the city of Green Bay, as Mme. Vindevoghel seems to suggest, but in the little village of Shantee (sic) Town,*213 two and a half miles to the south of Green Bay in Private Claim No. 17. This was purchased from Paul Ducharm for $100 in 1833 by Father Mazzuchelli of the Order of Dominicans on behalf of Mme. Vindevoghel. On this acre of ground there is not, and never has been any house or other improvement. 2) Another small lot situated almost opposite to the one mentioned above, bounded on the west by the Fox river, lies in Private Claim 16 and contains about two and a half acres. This was purchased from Henry Baird, a lawyer at Green Bay, in 1832 or 1933 by Father Mazzuchelli for the sum of $450 at Mme. Vindevoghel's request.* 214 On this small piece of ground there is a n1iserable little frame house, 24 feet square, a story and a half high, half of which is used for the dining room and the other for a kitchen. On the north side is a sort of lean-to, 16 feet wide and 24 feet long, badly built and going to ruin. This served as a bedroom for several years. "There, Monseigneur, is all of the property, the Great Property owned by Mme. Vindevoghel at Shantee Town near Green Bay! !! In 1833 property values were high, in the Bay area because it was believed that this was goin'g to become the comn1ercial capital of the Mississippi Valley, but instead, Chicago took the lead and the inflated prices of Green Bay real estate fell considerably. Moreover, the city of Green Bay which at that time was expected to develop around Shantee Town, where Mme. Vindevoghel's two little lots lay, has developed two and a half miles further down at the mouth of the Fox river [at] 'Navarino.' "In 1838, Bishop Rese asked me to leave my mission at Mackinac to take charge of the Green Bay n1issions. After the nuns of the Poor

*212 Bonduel to Alessandro Barnabo, Dec. 12, 1855, UNDA. *213 Early documents use the spelling both as "Shanty" or as "Shantee" Town. *214 Actually purchased in 1833 for $400. 171 elares left Green Bay (alias Shantee Town) in 1838, the frame house built on the small lot was occupied by different parties who sometimes paid rent to a Robert Ebert, a merchant in Navarino. I say 'sometimes' because one Mr. Plante, having refused to pay the rent on the house which he had occupied a year or two, was hauled into court by Mr. Ebert to force payment.*215 Now this H. Plante, better known as 'Little Plante,' was not able to pay either the rent or the court costs, so I took it upon n1yself, out of the generosity of my heart, to prevent the sale of Mme. Vindevoghel's little property by putting up $50 to save it!! "From 1839 to 1843, at which time I was ordered to report to Detroit by Bishop Lefevre, the small property of Mme. Vindevoghel, falling into neglect, was in11abited only by some poor people whom I allowed to live there without paying rent in order to protect the property from animals that would have been kept there to the great detriment of the nearby mission property which I had purchased myself and which I later deeded to Bishop Henni. These poor people, however, chopped down our timber in the winter and also burned the fencing around the property every spring when they burned the grass. This fence was always rebuilt with wood from the property of our n1ission. "Out of kindness to this generous lady, I paid the taxes on her two lots up until the time I left for the Straits in 1843 [presumably the Straits of Mackinac]. In 1844 Bishop Henni came to the Straits and ordered me back to the Wisconsin missions. I was at that time serving as secretary for Bishop Lefevre in Detroit. From then on, this house was occupied by poor people and very often by no one. "The missionaries at Green Bay who were sent there after me, being strangers to Mme. Vindevoghel, and considering these two small lots as a personal matter and in no way property of the church, often did not take the trouble to pay the taxes. Now, there is a law in Wisconsin, Monseigneur, which authorizes the county to sell at public auction any property delinquent in taxes. And there you have it in a nutshell. Since the missionaries who followed me failed to pay the taxes, these lots were sold by law for payment of the tax!! "This poor lady, having wrongly imagined that our missionaries at Green Bay had occupied this little frame house as their permanent residence, wanted them to give an account of the rent, or at least pay the back taxes.

*215 Bonduel fails to explain how Ebert became involved in collecting rent on a building presumably still owned by the Poor Clares. 172 "I now state as a fact in defense of the Green Bay missionaries. the Jesuits, and all the other religious who have conducted the holy n1inistry there, that Mme. Vindevoghel's little house was never occupied by any of these reverend gentlemen!! "Mme. Vindevoghel, having visited me before I had the honor of being introduced to the Most Holy Father, nagged me to death to speak to him about the difficulties she was having with Bishop Lefevre concerning her property in Detroit, and she also asked me to speak to him about her property at Green Bay, not to mention other business affairs in An1erica. When I positively refused to meddle in any of this, either in Rome or in America, without the authorization of my superiors, she seemed much displeased and spoke badly about the fathers of Green Bay whom she accused of culpable negligence. She also spoke disrespectfully of the bishops of Detroit and Milwaukee concerning the properties in their respective dioceses, carrying her bad humor so far as to suggest that I was not sincere in my statement concerning the present condition of the Green Bay lots. "After returning from my audience with the Most Holy Father, she visited me here again, and, when I told her I had not spoken to His Holiness about her affairs, she left my room with the threat that her relatives at Ghent might tak.e legal action against those who had taken her properties!! "A few years from now Green Bay may become, by a dispensation of the Most Holy Apostolic See, the seat ·of a new bishop, and the Mountain which has been in labor since 1838 will give birth to a mouse which could cause more trouble for a bishop unaware of this petty affair. "Two years ago, Bishop Henni wrote to me about the property. It seems that someone had written to the bishop of Pittsburgh, seeking information about the value of the property. After several years a second letter came to me [from Henni] asking the price which the sale of the land might bring. I replied in a suitable n1anner and advised him to buy the two lots himself for $75, which was top dollar at the time. Surrounding lots at Shantee Town, or Green Bay, are presently selling, at the highest, at $12 an acre. Mme. Vindevoghel's two little lots...would bring, if sold at auction, not more than $42! ''Two years ago I again advised my worthy bishop to purchase the two lots because they lie quite near the larger property which I purchased for $6,000 in 1838, including improvements which I made 173 on the land-improvements which a big fire in 1845 wiped out.* 216 Mterwards I donated the land to Bishop Henni for religious purposes.*21 7 The circumstances of my property and proximity to the two Vindevoghellots suggested their purchase to further enhance our mission aims, but the bishop failed to agree. His Eminence did not wish to have anything further to do with Mme. Vindevoghel either because she has the reputation in America of being a little mixed up [brouillone ] or because the offer which he could reasonably Inake did not satisfy her speculative ideas... "All her conduct in this affair shows that she is more anxious to speculate than to sell anything for religious purposes which she makes so much noise about. On her last trip to America why did she not go to Green Bay and take a good look at her two great lots, talk to the local missionary about them, and find out what their true value was, and sell them through an agent? Qui vult Finem, vult et media [He who wills an end, also wills the means] . That is what she should have done. But not her. Although those two lots are just two heaps of red clay, they had to wait a few years according to her speculative ideas, before being metamorphosed into a coal mine representing the entrails of those mountains, filled with coal, which surround Pittsburgh! "In this manner, under the guise of religious zeal, this poor woman reveals the impulses of a humiliating passion which may also become fatal to her eternal salvation because of the injury she does to others by her unfair attacks! Let me explain: a few days before I had the joy of being introduced to the Most Holy Father she tried to persuade me that one of her backers enjoyed the confidence of His Holiness and was a person of great influence.* 218 Using this as an

*216 The word "improvement" in pioneer times referred to buildings, not land use. Since Bonduel paid only $1345 for the five pieces of land which he consolidated into one tract under his name between SE}ptember 1, 1838 and February 18, 1839, it can only be assumed that the balance of the $4655 was for buildings, probably house, barn, woodshed, etc., although there is a ~trong suspicion that this too may be exaggerated. The 26 acres, more or less, whIch he purchased during this period may be found recorded in K of Deeds, Brown county, 277; 343-345; 373-374; 513-514; 466-467-468. *217 M of Deeds 593 in Brown county, seems to include the lots which Bonduel sold to the bi~hop for $1000. If Bonduel paid $1345 (see previous footnote) for these several parcels of land, he was probably making a contribution to the diocese of $345, not to mention all the legal work he had done. *218 Bonduel had not been in Rome very long or he probably would have known who this mysterious backer of Mme. Vindevoghel was, namely, the Prefect of the Propaganda, Giacomo Filippo Fransoni. He died a few months after this letter was written. 174 indirect threat, she pressed me in all imaginable ways to bring up the matter of her real estate investments in An1erica to the Most Holy Father, especially as it concerned her affairs in Detroit. When I positively refused, she left 'from my room' [de ma chambre] in high dudgeon.*219 "Now, Monseigneur, as soon as I was introduced to the Most Holy Father by Monseigneur Borron1eo,* 220 His Holiness asked me whether I was a Belgian and whether I was acquainted with Mme. Vindevoghel. I replied, respectfully, that I was a Belgian and knew the lady. Then I showed him some of my Indian antiquities and offered him a copy of my Nahkom story and another called A Comparative Description of my Indian missions. I then had the honor to present a petition to His Eminence in which I very humbly begged him, before I was to sail for America, to authorize me to give his holy benediction to my family of whom some members have entered the religious life in France and Belgium 'at Orleans and at Dottignies. ,* 221 I was then intending to return to my flock in the parish of St. Gall at Milwaukee. His Holiness refused to sign my petition although he verbally granted me this favor and gave me His Holy Benediction. It was all over in ten minutes. "My reception by the Most Holy Father was extremely cool. I left the interview heartbroken, asking myself in silence for God's guidance and help, wondering whether this was all the consolation I was to get for the cruel struggle I had waged for seven years against the tyranny of the United States government on behalf of n1Y poor Menominee Indians, and for the 24 years of painful labor in the forests of North America where I often went without bread or shelter. Nevertheless, I worshipped, from the bottom of my heart, the impenetrable ways of Heaven toward me. "Mme. Vindevoghel came to see me at the Minerva Hotel and wanted to know what had transpired in my audience with the Pope. I replied that he had authorized me to give his benediction to my family. That was all I said to her and all I wanted to say. She replied, with an almost cat-like grin and air of triumph, 'His Holiness grants everybody that kind of benediction!!!' "The above, Monseigneur, should be sufficient to understand the purpose of this letter. I have no absolute evidence that Mme.

*219 "De rna charnbre", apparently an allusion to the fact that she had violated his hospitality by bringing up business in his private chambers. *220 Later Edoardo Cardinal Borromeo. *221 It is not clear why the quotation marks are used here. 175 Vindevoghel instigated any maliciousness against me with the Pope, or that she warned him against me, either by letter or otherwise. I am content to set forth the case as it is, leaving you free to draw your own conclusions. It is, however, my desire, if you should consider it fitting, that this document or a summary of it should be shown to His Eminence, Cardinal Fransoni, as well as His Holiness, Pius IX, our most venerated, most beloved, most august pontiff, supreme pontiff of the universal church and the worthy and legitimate successor of St. Peter!! "This affair has affected me deeply and with the consent of my very worthy bishop [Henni] I intend to leave the holy ministry in America and to spend a few years in Rome, writing, at the foot of the Tomb of the Martyrs, a biographical sketch of my life over the last twenty-four years of privation· and suffering. This will be infinitely better than seeing the last moments of a long and honorable career constantly threatened by ungrateful remarks of a person who makes a career of piety and whon1 we once assisted in Detroit by teaching a class in French... "If Mme. Vindevoghel can ever recover the two lots at Green Bay which she lost by her own fault, and if she would give the sale contract (in fee simple) to the bishop, I will give her $100 myself, and if the condition, or situation of these two lots is not such as I h.ave described them, I will double it." [end of letter] . It seems easy to imagine the feelings of a man who had endured the smoke of Indian wigwams, the loneliness and isolation of missionary life and the "martyrdom", as he says, at the hands of the "United States government;" when being received by Pius IX was met with the cold stare of a man who seemed more interested in his financial statement and his relation to a lady named Vindevoghel tl1an in his work as God's messenger. She had truly done her worst. But Bonduel's threat to retire and write his memoirs, whether a put-on or not, must have prompted Barnabo and other chamberlains of the Vatican to take some action to correct the bad impression created by his first audience with Pius IX. On the very day that he was leaving Rome to return to the United States, a second audience was arranged-a most extraordinary' concession. His Holiness may have realized that he had been rude to the zealous missionary and agreed to make amends. Bonduel describes it:

In the second audience.. .I was introduced to His Holiness by the pious 176 and amiable Msgr. G. Hohenlohe,*222 an angel of the Vatican...Having been permitted to kiss the richly embroidered cross set on His Holiness' left foot, I knelt down and did it with the utmost veneration. 1 then received his pontifical blessing...I took the liberty of expressing to His Holiness the desire of obtaining a medal of the Immaculate Conception for the lady teacher en1ployed in educating the Menominee Indian youth in Wisconsin. The Holy Father immediately took a beautiful pair of his own prayer beads, blessed them and most graciously presented them to me for Mrs. Rosalie Dousman...*223 Bonduel left Rome after a residence of five months, during which time he visited "the immense libraries· and magnificent galleries of the Vatican, its sacred, profane, antique and modern monuments whose wonderful interest absorbed all my attention..." He carried with him, when he left, a pontifical blessing for the Menomini Indians as well. He took passage on the steamer Atlantic from an unidentified port in Europe on June 11, 1856, bound for New York. * 224 In a letter written to his friend Barnabo from Mineral Point in November that year he explains that he is building a new church and that he has never asked for a din1e from anyone in Europe to help build anything, but if Mme. Vindevoghel would make a gift of 20,000 francs [$4000] to his church, its construction would be measurably speeded up and "this donation by her, made in a spirit of true penitence, might lead God to forgive her for the black and unmitigated calumny she has heaped upon me..." He goes on to say that Bishop Henni did not know whether to laugh or cry when he was told about the encounter with Mme. Vindevoghel in Rome. As for himself, Bonduel says, he had never been able to understand how His Eminence, Cardinal Marini,*225 without evidence, les procedit ex facto [the law proceeds from the fact] could tolerate anyone in his presence with slandering a missionary who had sacrificed more than 100,000 francs of his own money to found 27 missions in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Territory. It was a mystery which nearly led to his death in Rome, he continues, since these malicious accusations indirectly linked him to fraud in the presence of a superior who, by his willingness to listen, lent the story a semblance of truth.

*222 Gustavo Adolfo d'hohenlohe, later a cardinal.-La Gerarchia Cattolica e la Famiglua Pontificia (Rome, 1873), 84. *223 This information appears in a letter published in the Boston Pilot, Aug. 1, 1857, dated Bay Settlement, June 27th. *224 1'Abbe Messiaen, op cit, 490. *225 Peter Cardinal Marini, cardinal deacon of St. Nicholas in Carcere.

177 But he was willing to forgive everything in principle and, to please God, he said he would, if it were possible, even wipe out the memory of this outrage which his friends and others had resented as much as he had.*226

*226 Bonduel to Barnabo, Nov. 4, 1856, UNDA. Robert Frederick Trisco says of the Vindevoghel affair: "It is difficult to form a fair opinion of the Propaganda's part in this whole regrettable episode. Surely it acted hastily at the beginning by believing one side without hearing the other."-op cit, 342. 178 XVIII. THE "APOSTOLIC MISSIONARY"

Florimond J. Bonduel was a rare combination in the clergy of any faith, for he was both business m.an and clergyman, and aside from Stephen T. Badin who pioneered the Catholic church in Kentucky, there were not many of the early missionaries who took a long range view and made such good investments in real estate for the church. Earlier, Bonduel says he spent 100,000 francs [$20,000] of his own money to found twenty-seven missions. As noted earlier, he was not one to bother about details, and while it is difficult, if not impossible at this distance in time to verify the amount of money he allegedly spent of his own funds, one thing that can be varified is the value of his estate after his death in 1861. A year later, two appraisers found six parcels of land in Brown county which totalled 155 acres, in addition to a house and lot in Greenberg [Greenville?] which, all together, were appraised at $2,835.* 227 In addition, there may have been four lots in the Darling Addition of Fond du Lac. There is a notation on this in the probate papers but it does not seem that these lots were ever appraised as part of the estate. Money to Bonduel was a means to an end, namely, to further the aims and dogma of the Catholic church. But he also wanted a little recognition for what he was, doing. And what he/wanted more than anything else at the nl0ment was to be given the title of "Apostolic Missionary to the Menomini Indians." Only the Vatican could grant this, and while in Rome in 1855-56, as already noted; he had begged one high church official to intercede with Pius IX on his behalf. Naturally, he knew that this could not be accomplished overnight, but he left Rome, probably disappointed that it had not. On his return to Milwaukee, apparently in July 1856, he spent a

*227 Bonduel File, Probate Court, Brown County, WI. 179 few weeks assisting Bishop Henni. He also attended an ecclesiastical retreat at St. Francis Seminary on Milwaukee's south side. In August he was sent to Madison, probably to speak to a local congregation which had just finished building a stone church. Twelve miles to the east, he says he organized 250 families scattered through the townships of Fitchburg, Oregon, Dunn and Rutland. Here Irish Catholics had, at his urging, donated about $1000 to the building of a church. Later that month, apparently, he went to Fond du Lac and Oshkosh to visit the two mission chapels he founded in 1846. In Fond du Lac he met The Reverend Mr. John vVilliam Norris, an American who got his doctorate in theology at the Propaganda College in Rome in 1851.* 228 Recalling the time he founded the two n1issions at Oshkosh and Fond du Lac, Bonduel says that in 1846-it would have to be November or December-there was only one house in Oshkosh and "five or six shanties in Fond duLac [but] these two places are now beautiful little cities with a population, together of 20,000 people, one-fifth of this number in Fond du Lac Catholic, and one-seventh in Oshkosh.* 229 From Milwaukee, .Bishop Henni sent Bonduel to take charge of the congregation and building progran1 of St. Paul's parish in Mineral Point, located' in the center of the former lead mining region in Wisconsin's southwest. He apparently arrived there on September 28th* 230 and it was here that he began to think how nice it would be if Mme. Vindevoghel would take an interest in the church he was building and send him $4,000 as a mark of penitance for ·past error. In a letter dated November 10th from Mineral Point, he tells one of his friends in the church hierarchy, somewhere in the United States, that on the previous Tuesday he had gone to the polls "boldly casting my vote there against the Know Nothing Party, your old political enemies and ours." He was sure they would be defeated in the general election because a party like that was "bound to fall before long," followed by the Latin quotation: violentia non Durant, [violence is not enduring] . But while he baptized and catechized the children at Mineral Point, he had not forgotten his other quest to be nan1ed Missionary Apostolic to the Menomini Indians "among whom I have labored for

*228 Peter Leo Johnson, Crosier on the Frontier (Madison, WI, 1959), 89. *229 Bonduel to ? ,Mineral Point, WI, Nov. 10, 1856, UNDA. *230 The Reverend Mr. Lawrence Clark, Mineral Point, WI, Jan. 16, 1974, notation in ministerial record, 23, St. Paul congregation, to the authors. 180 Photo by Lawrence Clark St. Paul's Catholic church at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Building in upper right begun by Bonduel in 1856 and always referred to after as "Bonduel's church" a1thou~h he did not complete it. It was razed in 1910 to make room fOT present SL Paul"s (upper left). "Old rock church" built in 1842 by Father John Causse can be seen at right of "Bonduel's church". Lower photo shows"old rock church" as it appears today, one of oldest in Wisconsin. Bonduel probably held mass here when construction began on his church in 1856. the space of 30 years, deo adjuvante [with God's help] with much success as their teacher, their superintendent, and their pastor." He was writing to someone this time in English whom he addresses as "My Lord," a man apparently in close touch with Barnabo, newly-created cardinal and old friend. Bonduel wanted this person to know that at the time he worked among the Indians, Wisconsin was 181 "a perfect wilderness," that the cardinal had no idea of "the anl0unt of sufferings and privations of every kind that I have undergone, besides the seven years of the most cruel persecution that I had to bear on the part of the Indian bureau at Washington for no other reason but because I attempted the protect my Indians..." He vows that had he not stopped the government from sending the Menomini to the Crow Wing they would have been tomahawked by their enemies, the Sioux, the Winnebago and Chippewa, and that in order to save the tribe "from utter destruction" he wrote letters. to President Taylor and to the secretary of the Interior through Congressman James Duane Doty. Actually the first "letter" is a reference to the "Memorial" which he composed at Lake Poygan on May 29,1849 and which was signed not by Bonduel but by some of the chiefs of the tribe. To further bolster his case, he says that in these "memorials," he gave a full account of the wrongs and injustices "which my poor Menomini Indians had suffered in the last treaty that they made with the government," and that he went with them to Washington in 1850 where he defended "their cause at the Indian bureau [and] where their enemies and mine were completely defeated." The day after 'his enemies in the Indian bureau bit the dust, they were also defeated at the White House. In an interview Bonduel had with President Fillmore, he was assured "after a kind hearing on this subject...that my Indians would get justice from the general governnlent.,,* 231 [Fillmore succeeded Taylor on the death of the latter on July 9, 1850.] Although now separated from the Indians, Bonduel still felt that he was their "bosom friend and father" whose temporal and spiritual welfare he had, in order to please God, sacrificed everything that was dear to the human heart. As a final clincher he says that after the Paschal Season he was going to join the Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem at Bay Settlement where "I have lately given a very valuable property to the fathers of that order..." Confident that His Lordship would cheerfully advance his case with Pius IX, h'e assures him that if the new title is granted, it will "change the many and most weak thorns in my early life on these missions into an abundance of sweet roses, glorious emblems of my triumphs against the devil, the flesh and the world in North America." Just why was the title "Apostolic Missionary" so important to

*231 Bonduel to ? Mineral Point, WI, Mar. 26, 1857, UNDA. 182 him? It could not have' been money although the title did carry with it the promise of a small stipend on retirement. But had he retired as a bishop, which he said he could have made, he would have had additional emoluments, too. In his original approach to Barnabo on the subject, he said he had been offered bishoprics in several new dioceses, or vicar-generalships with promise of succession, but he had turned them all down. Thus, he had started his career, anxious to be remembered as the first to be ordained in Detroit. Now he wanted to end it by being called "Apostolic Missionary to the Menomini Indians." It seemed like an extraordinary request, particularly in view of the fact that he was no longer a missionary to the Indians. Was he the good friend of the Indians that he pretended to be? The evidence suggests that he saw his work among them as his most important mission. He had gone to great lengths to help this minority. Aside from his efforts to equalize the injustices of the treaty of Lake Poygan, he had gone out of his way to make a desperate dash to Madison shortly after the tribe reached the reservation, undermining his health in the cold, and, after a period of recuperation in Milwaukee, he had pressed on to Madison, short of funds and forced to sell a piece of land for less than half its value in order to maintain himself long enough to complete his mission. He says he lost $4000 in moving with the tribe to Keshena, which seems a bit exaggerated, but even half of this would have represented a serious economic loss. He did not mind losing the money, it appears, but he did wish his superiors would take note of it. He ~anted to assist the Indians and apparently saw the office of Apostolic Missionary as a means to this end. He thought the only way to help them, in the long run, was through the white man's education and religion, more particularly the Catholic religion, for no matter how much the Indians might wish to resist or put off the white man's ways, their options were now limited. They were a people surrounded and they might be destroyed entirely if they did not learn to compete with the white man through the education he had to offer and by the adoption of a written language, just as the European newcomers had to learn to compete with the Americans in the language of their adopted land. The acculturation process was vastly greater for the Indian than it was for the European, yet the problem was basically the same. Where the white man erred was not in his efforts to give the Indian a written language but in his forced deracination, and the attempt to destroy both his language and his culture. 183 Bonduel could sound a bit arrogant at times, such as when he was lecturing to the Paris Council, or when writing about Indian myths, but when he was in the United States he seemed to feel differently about the Indian. Much of this feeling perhaps came from his study of the Chippewa and Menomini languages over the past decade, for by 1852 he was probably preaching without the aid of an interpreter and, furthermore, he had created the beginning of a written language in Menomini which he used in writing a Catholic prayer book called Souvenir Religieux d'un Mission Indienne, first published in Belgium in 1852. It includes the Lord's prayer, prayers for evening services, the Magnificat, etc., in addition to an explanation of the Menomini alphabet w~ich he believed was composed of the English equivalents of the letters A, C, E, H, I, K, M, N, 0, P, S, T, and W. In one of his letters to a friend in Rome, Bonduel almost runs ahead of himself to prove what he has accomplished among the Indians on a personal, or practical basis. He cites the case of a Joseph Langlais, an Indian carpenter he had trained and who had built a parsonage for the Reverend Canon F. de Vivaldi,*2 3 2 "the best house that was built in Piopolis."* 2 3 3 Earlier, this Langlais had built a boat on Lake Poygan, allegedly the first of its kind, and he was "only one out of h.undreds of other Menominee Indians whom we have civilized through the holy instrumentality of the Gospel." Here he was definitely equating "civilization" with the Gospel.*2 34 However, there was probably another compelling, although private reason, why he wanted to be named "Missionary Apostolic." The Italian missionary-priest, Samuel Mazzuchelli, had already been named "Missionary Apostolic" and though he had arrived on the mission field in Wisconsin a little earlier than Bonduel, it was only a matter of a few years, and both were contemporaries in the field for many more years. In short, Bonduel probably felt it would be unfair, under the circun1stances, to deny him the title he coveted. In May 1857 the newly-created Cardinal, Barnabo, wrote to Bonduel from Rome to tell him that his application had been approved and enclosed the necessary papers authorizing him to sign himself "Apostolic Missionary," etc. He at once wrote back to

*232 Pioneer missionary at Cassville, WI. *233 Piopilis is probably an early name for a town in Kewaunee county but all efforts to identify it have presently proved unavailing. *234 For more on this see Michael E. Stevens, "Catholic and Protestant Missionaries Among Wisconsin Indians: The Territorial Period", in Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 58, No.2, Winter 1974-1975,140-148. 184 express his appreciation, and said he had also written an article for the Boston Pilot using his new title "which the Most Holy Father has so graciously awarded me..." He left Mineral Point that same month, that is, in May, to move to Bay Settlement near Green Bay where he was looking forward to spending a year as a novitiate in the Order of the Holy Cross. And he was also planning to return to Europe the following year to publish the Christian statistics "on our beautiful peninsula" [Door county?] He was certain that this part of Wisconsin was destined to play a leading role in the growth of the church, but in order to protect the faith of the large Catholic population found on the peninsula and surrounding islands against the influence of Protestantisn1, it would be 'necessary to establish missions on a large scale, and also to establish Christian schools to instruct the many young people "confided to our care." On his portended tour of Europe he wanted to confer with some bishop in Belgium and "to ask him to assist in the work of founding religious institutions for the Catholic education of young women who have come from Belgium with their parents."* 235 To suggest education for young women among the immigrants at this time was practically unheard of. Bonduel was ahead of his time. But why had he not returned to Keshena to minister unto the Indians instead of allowing himself, on his return from Europe, to be sent to Mineral Point? One reason, probably, was the growing demand for more pastors in the burgeoning Catholic communities in the southern part of the state. Another may have been his health. He was not a young man any longer and, as already noted, he had lost the vision of one eye. Yet, his health as a whole could not have been so very bad either, for earlier that year, with the temperature at 30 degrees below zero, he had left Mineral Point to get to Green Bay as quickly as possible in order to transfer ownership of his land at Bay Settlement to the Holy Cross fathers. In a letter written [in French] apparently to Barnabo, Bonduel says that the Reverend Mr. Edward Daems, the father provincial at Bay Settlement, wanted to buy 107 acres of his land as a center for the order. Bonduel had already donated three acres nearby on the so-called "Limestone Ridge" to the Milwaukee diocese for church­ and school purposes. He also donated part of the materials for the first church built there. But he was not quite ready to turn over the rest of the land to the Holy Cross fathers on the san1e basis. He told

*235 Bonduel to Barnabo, Bay Settlement, WI, July 13, 1857, UNDA. 185 Father Daems he wanted to join the order and after a year of novitiate he could have the property in exchange for a stipend of $200 a year for the rest of his life. *236 Daemsapparently agreed to this although Bonduel never collected on it. The order itself was dissolved not many years later, leaving Daems, ironically, holding the property in his own name. Bonduel said the combined tract, that is, what he had given to the diocese and what he deeded to Daems had cost him 12,000 francs [$2400] and that the property would now, Le. in 1857, be worth 50,000 francs. * 237 It seems clear, then, that at this stage of his life, Bonduel was thinking not of new missions to be founded, or of old missions to be perpetuated, but of a monastic life of physical labor, comtemplation and prayer. He was 57 years old. The fathers of the Holy Cross order were Belgians and Hollanders. Explaining their background, Bonduel has this to say: Three years ago there were at Bay Settlement and vicinity about 4,000 Belgians and Hollanders. Father Daems arrived at Bay Settlement from Belgium last autumn with a colony of 12,000 persons. These families bought land to the east of the mission as far as Kewaunee on Lake Michigan, covering an area of 18 to 20 square miles in Kewaunee and Brown counties,. The Catholic population of this district is about 24,000 souls. The Belgians are most numerous followed by the Hollanders, Germans, Irish, Canadians and my good and dear Menominee Indians, converted and civilized, who had bought good land between Bay Settlement and to the south of Piopolis. Before entering upon his novitiate at Bay Settlement, Bonduel had another matter to attend to. Hearing that he had returned to Green Bay, the Christian Party on the reservation wanted him to come and visit them and he agreed despite the difficult travel arrangements. To reach Keshena at this time it was necessary to take a steamboat up the Fox river to Oshkosh, which he refers to as "the Queen City of Lake Winnebago," and from there apparently by steamboat up the Fox and Wolf rivers to New London where a smaller b~at of some kind would take him upstream at least to the

*236 Bonduel to ? ,Mineral Point, WI, March 24, 1857, UNDA. *237 The Bay Settlement property was purchased by Bonduel in two parcels in 1843 and 1844, and two parcels later in 1857 and 1858. M of Deeds, Brown county, 415-416; N of Deeds, 179-180; I of Deeds, 147-148. In the above Bonduel is referring to the first two parcels purchased in 1843-44 which actually total 108 acres, more or less, instead of 110 as he indicates in a footnote to his letter. The first two parcels cost $300 and $100; a ten-acre piece purchased in Decelnber 1857 cost $80 and a 30-acre piece purchased in the same area in January 1858 cost $200, for a grand total of $680. 186 Shawano Lake outlet. But this was the first week in June and the Wolf river was jammed with logs being driven to mill. No boat could bypass them. Bonduel was therefore obliged to walk the rest of the way. Fortunately he met an American who kindly offered to carry his carpetbag. There was a tote road between New London and Embarrass which was so bad that travelers preferred to walk than to ride in a vehicle of any kind, and no one, apparently, had a saddle horse to spare. His American companion knew the sawmill owner at Embarrass, most likely Captain Welcome Hyde, and here the two men were hospitably received the first night. The next day they went on to Shawano, the county seat of a new county of the same name, and here the two men amicably parted. Bonduel spent the night at the home of an old friend, John Wiley whom he had joined in wedlock to the daughter of Rosalie Dousman a few years earlier at Lake Poygan. The next day he continued on foot to Keshena. Father Otto Skolla who had succeeded Bonduel at the mission St. Michael Archangel, announced that Bonduel would celebrate mass on the following Sunday which, in fact, was Trinity Sunday. Describing this experience, Bonduel writes: The whole of the Christian party, numbering between 1200 and 1500 was inside and outside the church... When divine service was over they all knelt down, and in a most prayerful and devotional attitude, they recieved the Apostolic Blessing of His Holiness [the Pope] through my hand. Then I distributed to everyone of them medals and rosaries which the Holy Father had condescended to bless for them when I was in Rome. Those poor Indians were so delighted, and felt so happy on account of the precious gifts they had received, that they pressed me to bless them all again in the afternoon after vespers. *238 After this outpouring of emotion, Bonduel was urged to remain in Keshena until the feast of Corpus Christi on Thursday, which he agreed to do. At eight o'clock in the morning on Thursday, the large square that had been cleared in front of the church was crowded with Indians who made a road around the premises of the mission compound for a procession. They had also built four temporary chapels or reposairs for the Blessed ·Sacrament. Bonduel also noted that the rude cabin he had built five years earlier where he celebrated his first mass on the reservation on November 12, 1852, was still standing, "a most eloquent and imperishable monument that will in due time gladden the pages of

*238 Letter to Boston Pilot Aug. 1, 1857, dated Bay Settlement, July 29. 187 history...How different it looks around Keshena in 1857 than it did in 1852 when 2300 Indians were camped on that wild, inhospitable spot, and already covered with six in'ches of snow...Everybody had to pick out a spot for himself in order to put up a temporary cabin, pitch a tent, or build an Indian wigwam...the very picture of disorder, confusion and misery..." After nearly two weeks as a guest of the Indians, he returned to Green Bay, but this time he went cross-country over the rolling hills and down the valleys that separate Shawano Lake from Green Bay. With a Chippewa youth carrying his bag, the two men walked the first day as far as the cabin of a J. Wardenton who lived south of the lake. Wardenton was a mixed-blood married to a full-blood Indian, both Catholics and, according to Bonduel, "very pious." After resting here two nights, the travelers continued east, following an old Indian trail which had fallen into disuse and was scarcely visible in some spots, especially where it was covered by water, or where the grass had grown. Bonduel even noted that a bird had made a nest in the middle of the trail containing five blue eggs. Although he had nothing to carry but his cane and umbrella, he soon found that his boots were an embarrassment to him, unlike the Indian youth who was wearing moccasins. Unable to see sometimes because of the' heavy underbrush and clouds of mosquitoes, he fell on his face three times that day, hurting his hands. Finally, approaching Duck Creek, he found the river flooding its banks and a storm brewing overhead. He stopped to pray for n1ercy to the Immaculate and most Holy Virgin, he says. It rained a little after he finished and the lightning and roar of thunder in the distance receded. The two travelers then made a shelter for the night from the bark of trees and brush. They built a fire and warmed their tired feet before eating. After kneeling for prayer, Bonduel also sang the Salve, Regine* 239 to the Blessed Virgin. At that moment they were probably quite happy in the company of one another, enjoying the comfort of the fire and eating what little they had with appreciation. Arriving at Green Bay the next afternoon, Bonduel says he embraced his Chippewa guide as a brother, blessed him and sent him back, as grateful to him as he was to God. In the years that followed, the word spread about Bonduel's

*239 A hymn to the Virgin Mary sung from Trinity Sunday to Advent, the words Salve, Regine being an abbreviation of Salve Regina misericordiae [Hail Holy Queen Mother of Mercy J• 188 hazardous journey through the wilderness from Shawano Lake to Green Bay. When the first road was being laid out between these two points, a post office was to be opened a few n1iles south of the lake to accommodate the many new settlers to this area, and people must have recalled Bonduel's journey or something about the rude shanty where he slept. Perhaps it was George W. Lawe, an old friend in Shawano who suggested to the postal authorities that the new post office should be named "Bonduel." It opened April 26, 1864.

189 XIX. END OF THE TRAIL

Again there was a delay in entering upon his duties as a novitiate in the Order of the Holy Cross. Bishop Henni had invited Bonduel to an ecclesiastical retreat at the newly-completed St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee beginning on the evening of August 24, 1857. In a letter to the Boston Pilot he says the retreat was held at Nojoshing, apprently an Indian name first used to identify the area around the present St. Francis, Wisconsin. *240 Thirty-six visiting clergymen were given rooms in the new dormitory while the 43 seminarians enrolled at the seminary were probably away on vacation. Of these future clergymen Bonduel says: .. .like us, they will be the benefactors of the human race; they will visit the sick, protect the orphan and the widow; console the afflicted, instruct the ignorant, and gave alms to the poor. They will fearlessly announce the justices of the Lord to the.ends of the earth, recall the sinners from their evil ways, give joy to the repenting heart by the grace of salvation, and break the bread of life for the millions that are ~erishing and famishing in the wild desert of schism and infidelity!!. ..,,*24 The last day of the retreat on August 26th began early in the morning with a communion service celebrated by Bishop Henni for the visiting clergymen. After the service, the bishop acted as a guide, pointing out the sacred and mundane features of the new seminary and convent, and from there the group was invited to dinner at the rectory, presumably at St. John's Cathedral in Milwaukee. "May God bless all his [Henni's] efforts with success," Bonduel concludes, "and give to those of our people on whom the Lord has bestowed most abundantly the goods of this world, a proper and true

*240 Boston Pilot, Oct. 10, 1857, dated Bay Settlement September 1st. The editors of the Pilot may have been unable to make out the correct spelling of the name "Nojoshing" used by Bonduel in his letter-head. It bears no resemblance to any word in the Baraga dictionary. *241 Ibid. 190 This photograph probably lifted from daguerreotype of Bonduel appears in book on "Lost Child" published in Belgium in 1855.

Christian spirit, to concur with him in building up for our great and glorious diocese the golden edifice of the holy priesthood which is to sanctify and save from eternal miseries our present Catholic population of 140,000 souls in Wisconsin, and hundreds of thousands that will be born out of them within a very limited space of time." He was using the Boston Pilot to edify the church, but indirectly 191 to plead for more funds from those "whon1 the Lord had bestowed most abundantly the goods of this world," a reference, no doubt, to Luke 12:48: 'For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.' After Milwaukee, Bonduel returned to Bay Settlement to enter upon his duties as a novitiate in the Order of the Holy Cross which was organized that same year by Father Edward Daems, a man originally from the Monastery of the Crusade Fathers in Uden, Holland. There was already a church and paroc~ial school at Bay Settlement, both built under the leadership of Daems. There appears to be a blackout of information on Bonduel's career for the year 1857-58. It is known only that he assisted the Holy Cross fathers in organizational work among the thousands of Belgian and Holland newcomers. Presumably, he lived with his fellow workers in the rectory at the Settlement. Sometime in the spring or summer of 1858, he was ordered by his bishop to take over St. John's parish in downtown Green Bay fron1 the Reverend Mr. Bonfiglio Baldi. The first baptismal entry he makes is dated July 21, 1858. Aside from serving St. John's, the parish included the St. Ignatius mission church at DePere, St. Peter's mission at Oconto and, when time permitted-, visits to other Catholic neighborhoods at Menominee, Pensaukee and, no doubt, Duck Creek. The original St. John's Evangelist church, built in "Shanty Town" in the -early 1830s, burned in 1847, and, learning that the Methodist church in Green Bay was for sale, it was purchased by the Reverend Mr. Anth0l?-Y Godfert. Here Catholics continued to worship until this too was destroyed by fire in 1872. A new building was begun on the same site and stood until 1907 when it also burned. The year 1857 is remembered as a time of financial panic in the United States, and Green Bay was no doubt affected by it, but how much it affected Bonduel's parish work a year later is a matter of conjecture. Some of his personal real estate must have dropped in value, however, But there is little else to report on the years between 1858 and the time of his death in 1861. He was no longer a missionary, despite his hard-earned title of Apostolic Missionary, and he was therefore reporting to his bishop, not to anyone in Paris or Rome. In July 1860 he got a letter from his old acquaintance, George W. Ewing, who had arrived in Keshena, obviously on Indian business, and he wanted Bonduel to join him there if possible. A road had been opened between Green Bay and Shawano by this time and 192 Bonduel .writes to tell his friend that he will leave on Monday morning, July 16th, and travel to Keshena "where I hope to see you in good health, and in good spirits..." Whether or not he made the trip is uncertain. He signs this letter "l'abbe F.J. Bonduel, Missionary Apostolic to the Menominees."* 24 2 There was a small matter to attend to before he left for Keshena concerning his 37-acre farm at DePere. A memorandum, under date of July 16th preserved in the family of the late Eva McGill of Green Bay, a grandaughter of John Welch, has this to say: Mr. J. Welch is hereby authorized to seed my farm at DePere now occupied by William Bolton. The shares shall be half and half, and an understanding shall be between Mr. J. Welch and said Bolton, before my own hay be put in the bam, my own barn. F.J. Bonduel. He probably remembered the new horse he had to buy after the last one was shot on the reservation. He needed the horse, since he now served a city parish as well as mission churches outside the city, and especially to drive down to DePere on the old Military Road, once described as "the most traveled road Olit of Green Bay [and] the worst.,,*243 And every time he drove to DePere he probably saw a doppleganger hovering over the two small lots of Marie Frances Vindevoghel. In th~ spring of 1861 the Civil War broke out, and Bonduel, like many others, was probably not too enthusiastic at first about supporting the Union cause because the Catholic church had people in the ·South as well as the North. His more positive stand may have begun after he read President Lincoln's message to Congress on July 4th which appeared on the front page of the Advocate. In it, Lincoln told the Congress that it had become necessary for the government "to resist the force employed for its dissolution by a force for its preservation."* 244 After the battle of Bull Run, military correspondence and personal letters from servicemen began to fill the columns of the Green Bay newspaper. There are oral accounts of Bonduel's participation in patriotic rallies, of throwing his clerical hat in the air at one rally, of erecting the first public flagpole in front of his church, and of assisting Union recruiting officers to track down draft dodgers among

*242 Bonduel to George Ewing, July 11, 1860, in Ewing Papers, Indiana State Library. *243 Green Bay Advocate, June 13, 1861. *244 Ibid. July 11, 1861. 193 the recalcitrant Belgian newcomers, but there is nothing about this in the Advocate or any correspondence presently available. One of the delightful stories that has been preserved through oral tradition comes fron1 the late Monsignor Joseph A. Marx who repeated it to Robert F. Gulig, then a seminary student.*245 The annex congregation at DePere had never learned the Gregorian chant and Bonduel on his visits to DePere, perhaps once a month, taught the chant with the aid of his flute. After reciting the Kyrie he gave the Gloria and then faced the congregation to lead the singing with the flute. The musical accompaniment continued through the Credo while the ren1ainder of the n1ass was chanted without accompaniment. Early in December, Bonduel was listening to confessions for an inordinate length of time and then conducting mass in the partially rebuilt new chapel at DePere-which was perhaps unheated. Before he realized it, he felt a chill pass through his body. By the time he drove home that cold December day, he was ill with a fever and as the hours advanced, he became worse. A few days later he died on Friday, December 13th. His death certificate says he died of typhoid and congestion of the lungs, no doubt pneumonia. On the day before he died the Green Bay Advocate ran this brief story: Father Bonduel, French Catholic priest of this city, and for many years missionary to the Indians, is now lying dangerously ill of a fever following a severe cold, and we are pained to hear that he is not likely to recover. He has resided in this state 35 years, and is highly respected by all, whether of his creed or not. Several years earlier, while in route to Europe, he had stopped in New York City where he made out his will on November 20,1854. He named as his executors Alexander Johnson and Garett Barry, both of Milwaukee. Barry he had known since 11is days at Prairie du Chien but he had "departed this life," as one document in probate expresses it, a victim of the Lady Elgin disaster in 1860. As a result, Johnson was appointed by the court as sole executor and this delayed the liquidation of the estate. The deceased bequeathed all his personal property to Mrs. Rosalie Dousman. He gave his real estate at Fond du Lac, Madison and Green Bay to the "Male Orphan Asylum of the Parish of St. Gall" in Milwaukee. In the seven years since the will was made out, he may have sold whatever land he once held in Madison because there is no mention of it in the appraiser's report which referred to land located

*245 Personal communication, Appleton, WI, Oct. 19, 1975. 194 in Brown and Outagamie counties only. There is a reference in the probate papers to four lots in Fond du Lac but they are not included in the appraisal. As mentioned earlier, the total value given by the appraisers to the real estate in Brown and Outagamie counties was $2,835. There were bills to be paid to individuals, expenses of the funeral, and the executor's salary and expenses to be deducted. The court allowed Johnson $1,008.02 and the residue was assigned to the other subjects in the will. Just how much the sale of the real estate actually brought is not recorded in probate. \Vhatever the amount, the directors of the orphan home in Milwaukee tried desperately to get the court to speed up the liquidation of the estate, but Judge D. Agry was in no hurry and the affair dragged on for years. The records show that t'W·o appraisals were made of Bonduel's personal effects and chattel, one on June 3, 1862 by William Powell and Alva Smith, and a second by Charles Rapity and the Reverend Mr. Daems. Both appraisals contain the same items but one leaves out what the other includes. It seems that Powell and Smith may have made an appraisal of the property left in Keshena, while the other included items found in the rectory at Green Bay. Personal effects listed by Daems and Rapity were 11 trunks (sic) valued at $11, one pair of boots $4, one pair of shoes $2, clothing $3, tableware $30, new books $7, library $50, one chalice $15, two arm chairs $2, one table $1, one wash stand $1, one bedstead $1, five pictures $4, one silver watch $10, one flute $5, money $77.36, a draft on Northern Bank(?) $181.82, a note of the Reverend Mr. John C. Perrodin $80,* 2 46 sundry articles $5, and sundry articles separated [word illegible] office $2. The records do not show how much of this Mrs. Dousman actually got. It seems clear, though, that she was worried about it. John Dousman, one of her sons, was in Green Bay in 1862 and wrote to Judge Agry, begging him to speed up liquidation of the estate because "those clothes [and] books are not safe of rats, mice and many other ways, those things may all be worthless by the time mother gets them. " Bonduel is buried in Allouez cemetery in Green Bay. The marble obelisk erected over his grave cost $175. But the engravers made an error in his age. He was 62 years old, not 52. This is being corrected. There were four marble posts charged to the estate costing $30, and a 72-foot chain and four drapes costing $10. Both the chain and

*246 Perrodin was a pioneer pastor at Fond du Lac. 195 posts have been removed, according to cemetery association policy. Four years before he died, Bonduel attended a religious retreat in Milwaukee and marched to a local cemetery with fellow clergymen to pray for the souls of two pioneer pastors. He hoped then that future members of the clergy would "be mindful of us when our remains shall be deposited, and lie cold..." Mindful indeed were a host of mourners at his last rites in Green Bay. But time has a way of forgetting its lesser heroes and today the name of Bonduel is practically unknown in Wisconsin except as a city. Yet, he too was a necessary man in the American pantheon who stinted neither of his time nor his money to bring the Gospel to the Indians and to the European immigrants of his adopted land-this "free America," as he once called it, which he had come to love. l'Abbe Florimond Joseph Bonduel was granted his wish, for he died "in peace on the American continent," the Apostolic Missionary to the Menomini Indians.

196 APPENDIX

MEMORIES OF AN INDIAN MISSION--NAHKOM AND HER SON NIGABIANONG, or, THE LOST CHILD By Florimond J. Bonduel

Translated from the French by Margaret Rosholt

This account of the misfortunes of Nahkom and her son, the young Nigabianong, is told by Charles to his friend and companion, Edward, on the basis of a story told to him by a Reverend Missionary Father before the students of Courtrai College on March 5, 1855 during the absence of Edward from school. *1

CHARLES: Oh! How my heart has been troubled, my dear Edward, since a Reverend Missionary Father arrived here from Am~rica where he has spent more than twenty years as an evangelist among a people without knowledge of God. He has told us about an Indian mother whose tears continued to fall for three years because of the loss of her child and in the end, she died of grief, no longer able to mother the child she had conle to love so much. I feel deeply the need to tell you about this very touching incident, first told to us by the Reverend Missionary to the Menomini Indians, concerning the grief of this unhappy mother. I want especially to tell it to you, my dear Edward, absent from college when the Reverend Father honored us with a visit, for you, whose heart is so compassionate, would have been moved by the deplorable condition of this poor mother. Oh! That I might have lent her some comfort. It is so sweet for a Christian, my dear Edward, to sympathize with the unhappiness of those who must suffer.

EDWARD: What then, my dear Charles, is the name of this Indian mother? What is her story? Tell us exactly what the Reverend Father said. I will pay close attention, and I love so much to hear about those people whom our zealous

*1 Bonduel here uses the modest form to say that the story was told to Edward by "one reverend missionary", meaning himself, but the translators consider it better to say it was written "by him". The story that follows is based on his recollection of events between 1850 and 1852, but he was not in Wisconsin in 1855 when the boy was abducted a fourth time, in Milwaukee. Since he was writing a "drama", he uses both factual and fictional materials, although the fictional appears to be confined to the last three pages in which Nahkom accepts baptism in the Catholic faith and dies. There appears to be no official record of her death either in Milwaukee or Keshena. 197 Memories of an Indian Mission NAHKOM & Her Son Nigabianong SON FfLS NIGAUIANONG or The Lost Child

I,·E\L\.'iT PI~l\ll(J; With an historical preface, and dedicated to the students of the ...... 1:1.I:H:~ ..t:m.u:I;K~ rrl'':.:lll: 11'1 '1: \lHIU: lIl'rUllh!n:. l:r 1Il.lIlt: II'.'> Ilf$ colleges and boarding schools of lll:~ u 1"\."l1,\\\r.; IIF.I.t Rf.Ua(,lI'E. Belgium I.' II. P. FL,-.l.IIO"!)l'EL. """ltl",m, by I"~ "iv-~.., 01< 11,1- .~ .... t.". 'I' : 1., II" ···t. "~, i.'~: r",_ .k· rl"""~ll'" .:" \'''': u·iN....~1Ut ,1,-, "W';" li.·.""•. I~ b I,ll.., \I,.,:._ .. ,~ ... '1.:1.' :....),\ 'lu Wi...... ;,.. ~, .d" il. '''''h' ",:." ~~ ,. 1'"". , l.;.~ .1" S""I ,;.. 11,' '4;1>..".;.., The Reverend Father Fl. J. Bonduel, Missionary in the diocese of Milwaukee, state of I. Wisconsin, United States of America, formerly superintendent of the Indian School for the Menomini Tribe in Wisconsin, presently pastor of the English Parish of Saint Gall, Milwaukee. With portrait of the author.

TOUIINAI TOURNAI Printed by J. Casterman & Sons ---=lPOGR.lPll1l Ui J '~\'"'II\IA\ U' FILS, LIDRAlnHs ElIl r. Ult~ Booksellers - Editors -la55- 1855 l ------. __.._--_.

Cover of Bonduel booklet published in Belgium in 1855. This was copied from an original version held by the Ayer Collection; Newberry Library, Chicago.

missionaries have gone so far to find in order to bring the gospel to them, even to the ends of the earth despite a thousand dangers.

CHARLES: Nahkom, or "the promising woman," is her name, my dear Edward. Although born of an illustrious family of the famous tribe of Menomini Indians, she fell into extreme poverty because of the persecutions and corruption committed by the government agents against her tribe and all the other tribes of her race. Every autumn, as winter approached, she was obliged to leave the home of her parents and go with her husband and children to the dense forest to make her livelihood. It was in the late autumn of 1951 that Nahkom came to build her wigwam on the banks of the Waupaca river, a river which flows east into the Wolf. As was the custom of these nomadic people, she was accompanied by all her relatives, that is, her husband, two of her brothers, and her uncle, Kashagashige, one of the chiefs of the Menomini. By this time the deer were moving, making tracks and trails everywhere across the dazzling white snow. Our hunters of Waupaca are inspired by noble impulses, 198 and one can see them chasing through the forest, confiden~ of tracking down their game. Their steps, so light and rapid, leave hardly an imprint in the snow. Suddenly there is a flash of light from their weapons against the sky, and the air resounds as the bullets whizz through the openings to strike the heart of the fleeing deer dead in the gully below. Our hunters hurry to lift this precious burden on their shoulders. Later they lay it down with joy in Nahkom's wigwam, eagerly waiting for her to prepare a bowl of water mixed with herbs to sooth the aches and pains of their tired limbs. Meanwhile, her husband sits cross-legged, staring at the earth, the mother of all humanity, while he ponders the source of all goodness. He strikes a drum, an old relic handed down to him by his ancestors, chanting a hymn of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit which echoes through the hills to proclainl the love and good fortune of himself and his family. (At that very moment, my dear Edward, as you begin to understand my story, Nahkom, her husband and relatives are all sitting in death's shadow. But the Lord bears in mind the day appointed by his Providence. Like the women of the wilderness in the days of Hagar, Nahkom had the good fortune to be visited by a heavenly vision at the hour of her distress and agony. In the final moment of her great sorrow, she appealed to Heaven, and the Lord heard her. He sent an angel of the church to comfort her and to restore her and her family to the fold of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.) With such a favorable beginning, it was assumed by the parents of Nahkom that she would spend a happy winter in the vicinity of Waupaca. Everyone had expressed his best wishes to her family when they left Poygan. At Waupaca the children of Kashagashige and of his niece Nahkom played together in the snow-covered hills around, sliding on little sleds down the ravines amid shouts of laughter. Suddenly their innocent games are interrupted by the Americans who descend upon the seven-year old boy of Nahkom like famished wolves and seize him from the arms of his mother. Despite her cries and pleas, mingled with the tears of the young Nigabianong, she is not able to delay their barbaric intentions for one moment. The brothers of Nahkom shout with indignation and make a desperate effort to save their nephew from the hands of the Americans, but when the Americans hold a pistol to the boy's breast, they yield to the repeated entreaties of their sister who fears for their lives. The brave Kashagashige, deeply grieved at the sight of the outrage committed against the son of his niece, could have quickly sent a sharp spear into the heart of these cruel abductors who had So brazenly disturbed the peace of his family in its most sacred sanctuary. But with true nobility, he who had never in his life retreated in the face of the enemy, laid down his weapons, for his name alone could still have struck fear into the hearts of the Sacs and the Fox whom the Menomini once chased to the other side of the Mississippi river despite the coura£!e of so eminent a warrior as Mekate pakaakwe, better known as "Black Hawk".*2 But Kashagashige had already begun to nourish a secret desire to embrace the Christian faith and to prepare himself for his conversion. With this in mind, he sought to control himself by a spirit of humility which he knew to be one of the special attributes of a Christian. He approached Nahkom, his niece, with respect, and embraced her affectionately before taking leave of her according to the ancient custom of his fathers, calling on the Great Spirit to protect the family in his absence.

*2 . Mekatepakaake, In Baraga as Mekate, for black;pakaakwe for a cock or hen. 199 . Facing east in an attitude of supplication, he addre5sed his pralers to the divinity of his ancestors, Kijemanitow Kossinan Gijiojong ebid, etc. 3 and said, "0 thou, spirit, who reigns in the heavens, thou who has created all things and gives to earth the fruits that she produced and of which you are the source, thou whom I have never called upon in vain in my religious devotions, a respect mixed with awe before your presence with the most righteous men of our tribe looking on, holding in my hand this skin of an otter which I have inherited from my fathers containing the precious medicine responsible for saving the lives of so many of our people, obvious tokens of your providence and benevolence to mankind, observe now, my grief, and hear my prayer. Observe also the grief of my family, struck by the Evil Spirit at the hands of these two men, the Big Knives ('Schimokomanag'),*4 who forcibly took, from the arms of my niece, the child that the Good Spirits, protectors of our homes, saw at birth in his wigwam next to the large kettle containing the flesh of the black bear (Mackwa) *5 which our tireless hunters, relatives and friends of Nahkom shot with their arrows and brought to her in order to celebrate the birth of her son .and to give him a name. Put an end to our grief and lead me to the Black Robe on Lake Poygan who all the Menomini revere and adore like a father, and whom they have always consulted when they are in trouble because he is Wise and powerful through prayer: Bekadisid sa, Meno enamiad gaie. ,,* 6 . Thus spoke Kashagashige. Then bowing low, he pressed Nahkom's trembling lips to his breast and implored her assistance at the same time bestowing on her the sweet name of mother. He quickly leaves now and plunges into the forest to make his way to the Catholic .mission on Lake Poygan, and soon covers the distance that separates his lodge from the huml>le dwelling of the Reverend Father Missionary. Happily catching sight of the mission in the distance, he

*3 Kijemanito(w) Kossina~ Gijiojong ebid: in Baraga Kije-Manitow for "I am God": K'oss for father; gijiojong, probably from gititowin, for "speaking", ebid, probably Ina (nind ina) for "I tell him" or "I call him". *4 The expression Bonduel uses: frappee par la main de ces deux hommes a Grands Couteaux 'Schimokomanag,' etc., could be translated as "struck...at the hands of two men with big knives," but when he adds in quotes the word Schimokomanag this does not seem to be the meaning. What he is probably saying is that the Evil Spirit used two white men-Big Knives-to commit this evil deed. The word Schimokomanag for Big Knives, more commonly as Long Knives, is variously spelled, e.g. Chimokiman, Kechemocoman, Kitchimokoman, and even "Smokiman". The present Menomini spelling, mo 'hkoma'n (pronounced mo-co-mon) drops the prefix. Reuben Gold Thwaites says it was a term applied by the Indians to the Virginia borderers, as early as 1770.-Collections, Vol. XIII, fn. 98. Captain Pipe, the Delaware chief, in a speech delivered to the British commandant at Detroit, ca. 1780, referred to the white man ~s the "Long Knives."-Samuel G. Drake. The AborilJinal Races of North America 15th Edition (New York, 1880), 562. *5 Mackwa, meaning bear, in Chippewa becomes Makwa, a name later spelled Mukwa by the first white settlement on Wolf river in Waupaca county. Hoffman says the Menomini word for bear is Owa'sse, and that the Chippewa word is no 'ke, but this does not agree with Baraga who gives nojek for a she bear. *6 Bekadisid sa, Meno enamiad gaie: in Baraga Bekadis means "I am quiet, meek, forbearing"; sa particle used in answers, perhaps "because" or "for"; menD ijiwebisid, "He that behaves well," Enamiad, "one who prays," I.e. a Christian; and gaie the conjunctive for "and" or "also". 200 crosses the lake with the lightness of a deer, leaving hardly a trace on the snow covering the ice "because it is winter time." After reaching the south shore, all the Menomini chiefs in the area are informed at once of his mission and they hurry over to the house of the Reverend Father to hear the tale of woe from Kashagashige. The old men in the group listen with deep interest, while pale, livid colors spread across their gloomy faces as they bend their heads to the groun~ to show their empathy for the misfortunes of their friend. Suddenly breaking their silence, they rise to their feet and tell the Reverend Father that all that Kashagashige has said about the birth of the young Nigabianong and his mother is true, that the boy was born on Poygan in the autumn of 1844, and that he is the son of Nahkom, an Indian woman of the Menomini tribe and not of the wife of Alvin Partridge who is American, and that the name of Nahkom's son was announced by a herald of the tribe on the day of its birth. Chief Souligny, grandfather of the young Nigabianong, the most distinguished warrior among the Menomini, standing in the middle of the assembly, points vigorously to the Reverend Father and to the Persian spear which he brandishes, his voice rising, directing his attention to the spot where his nojishin (grandson) was bom.*7 Meanwhile, the Reverend Father, after listening closely to the nature of the evidence given by th~ chiefs in favor of the young Nigabianong, draws up a document requested by Kashagashige to obtain the release of his young nephew. He hands it to him with his best wishes, encouraging him and at the same time placing in his small bag of elm bark and elm roots some corn for his journey back to Waupaca. Kashagashige, in taking leave of the Father, bowed respectfully to him, and thanked him with all his heart while extendin~ his best wishes for his good health. ''Migeutch Mekate wkwanaie, MigeutchJ" 8 The warriors and the chiefs then accompany him to the ,shore of the lake and watch as he crosses with the same agility as he came several hours earlier, striking their mouths with the flat of their hand as a sign of approval, calling from an echo that becomes lost in the distance after having been repeated a thousand and one times over these self same hills bordering the lake, saying to Nahkom that the chiefs greet her, kakina ogimag Nahkom anamikawawan, ki gad-d-inanJ*9 Scarcely had the name of Nahkom ceased to echo in the air like a gentle breeze when Kashagashige appeared in Waupaca, holding aloft in one hand his spear which reflects the soft light of the stars of night on his footsteps, and in the other the letter from the Missionary Father which he now hands over to the Americans to read, everyone anxiously waiting to bring an end to this tragic affair. The letter had the desired effect at once although the Americans yielded not by principle but through fear, as they handed the young Nigabianong over to his mother. She wept with joy and covered her son with her kisses!

*7 Nojishin: in Baraga as Nojish. *8 Migeutch lIvlekate wkwanaie, Migeutch: In Baraga as Migwetck for "thanks"; Mehatewikwanaie for "black robe" Le. priest. *9 Kakina o~ima~ Nahkom anamikawawan, hi gad-d-inan; in Baraga as kakina for "entirely, all,"; ogima for "chief"; and mikawa for "I salute him"; hi, for thou, we, you, they, our, you; ga or gad, particle; inan for "mother" = "all the chiefs salute our mother Nahkom." 201 Nahkom now left this unhappy place and pronounced a curse upon it for the outrage committed against her maternal affections, and went back to the mission of the Reverend Father in order to place in his care the youngest of her children. She then went off with her dear Nigabianong, although the boy had to double his own steps to keep up with his mother. As soon as she arrived among her own people, she told her great aunt, the mother of Kashagashige, the story of her woe. Tears fell from the eyes of relatives and friends and they consoled her while bestowing on her the affectionate name of 'sister': Nimise, Nidangue. *10 The pagans gave thanks to the Great Spirit for the protection given to their friend who had obtained the release of her son and had returned him to the bosom of her family, manifestly by the providence of the Great Spirit. The Reverend Father and his Christian Menomini also congratulated her on her happy return to her family. Together they thanked the Lord and his very holy mother who had granted the cause of justice and humanity a resounding triumph. Everyone was edified by this touching scene in the humble home of the Reverend Father. From there they went to the mission chapel where they spn with feelings of deepest thankfulness the beautiful hymn Mamoiawamada 1 r etc., a song of thanksgiving that converted Menomini Indians repeat with religious enthusiasm at all the festivals celebrated by the Roman Catholic apostolic church. The young Nigabianong was not entirely a stranger to what was going on at the home of the Reverend Father. He listened in silence to the praises which his parents lavished upon the missionary, the man who, by the hand of Providence, had become the instrument of his own release. Impelled by a strong sense of appreciation, he threw himself on his mother's neck, embraced her tenderly and asked if there was not something he could give to the Reverend Father for his kindness. "My son," she replied with a sigh, "I would really like to but we are poor. We have nothing to give." The young Nigabiamong quietly stole away, and wrapped a small shawl around his head in the shape of a turban after the manner of the Potawatomi chiefs who still retain this oriental custom. Then, like a wolf, he moved stealthly upon a rooster perched near the cabin of the missionary. With great dexterity he seized the tail of the domestic bird in his right hand and pulled out three feathers, one of which-the most beautiful-he placed in the hat of the Reverend Father, meaning by this, according to custom, he was adopting the Father as a member of his family with whom he would share all that he possessed, even his life if required. The young Nigabianong then took a second feather for hinlself and attached to his own turban and, this done, he threw the third feather into the fire. This scene, so significant and meaningful among the Indians, lasted twenty minutes and passed in profound silence, leaving to the poet and painter the leisure of revealing new mysteries to us. But this happy homecoming was not to last long. The pagans had heard the cawing of the crow that flew in from the north across Lake Poygan in its flight

*10 Nimise, Nidangue: in Baraga as nimisse for "my, thy, his younger sister"; nidangue as nindangwe for "my sister-in-law, my friend, my companions." Only a female would use this to another female. *11 Mamoiawamada: in Baraga as Mamoiawewin, for "thanksgiving". 202 from Waupaca, turning east to where the Partridge family lived, the guilty perpetrators of crimes against Nahkom. It was sufficient to cast a pall of doom and forecast a bleak future for Nahkom and her son. The Christians among the Menomini also saw a very dark future for Nigabianong and his mother. But better informed than their pagan brothers, they traced the cause of their misfortunes to the unfair passions of the Americans of Waupaca and Ball Prairie who seemed to have vowed the day of doom for Nahkom and her son as well as the entire Menomini tribe together with the Catholic mission of the Reverend Father, their benefactor and chief supporter. They knew that the greed and fanaticism of the Protestants was playing a large role in this affair, that the Partridges were money hungry, while land speculators were out to dispossess the Menomini from the state of Wisconsin, and the politicians and Protestant heretics wanted to suppress the Catholic mission in order to humiliate the Reverend Father who for seven long years had so courageously struggled against their unjust and oppressive practices. The Indians were still filled with these unhappy memories when all of a sudden they saw the Partridges approach Lake Poygan, accompanied by thirty people from Waupaca and Ball Prairie. They went immediately into the house of the Reverend Father where the young Nigabianong had taken refuge with his mother. People came from all around to see what the outcome of this confrontation was going to be, and they took sides among themselves, arguing and quarreling, while the Partridges renewed their own efforts to take away the son of Nahkom from the house of the Reverend Father. The attitude of the pe"ople who accompanied them in this disgraceful 8:ffair was menacing, and their actions filled with hatred and a desire for vengeance. The Reverend Father remained calm in the midst of the diverse passions agitating the intruders. He protested firmly against the pretended right of the Partridges to take the child and demanded protection for him until such time as the matter could be adjudicated in county court and according to the manner prescribed by law. The Partridges, realizing that their efforts had been thwarted, left Lake Poygan in a rage, and returned to Oshkosh to arouse the people against the Menomini Indians, representing them as a threat to national security and a people to be removed from Wisconsin without delay. By this ruse they managed to get the civil authorities to issue a warrant for the young Nigabianong. At the same time and with the same speed as they left, they now returned to Poygan. But Nahkom, taking advantage of their absence, had gone with her son to the hills west of the lake to get away from her pursuers. But nothing could stop these mad people, for it was no difficult matter to follow Nahkom and her son by the footprints in the snow. The boy was seized and as he was being torn from the arms of his nl0ther again, he cried in a manner that would have moved the most hard-hearted people in the world. The strangers placed the boy in a sleigh and started back to Oshkosh while the boy's sweet and harmonious voice called to his mother in accents of his native tongue: Nigia! Nigia! anipi nimadja?* 12 "My mother, my dear mother! Where are they taking me?" The echoes in the surrounding hills repeated the pathetic calls of Nahkom's son to the desolate

*12 Nigia, Nigia, anipi nimadja: In Baraga, Nigia for "I give him birth", or "mother"; anipi as anindi "where"; nimadja as gini-madja, with gi as prefix signifying past tense - "He is gone away" or "Mother, mother, where are they taking me?" 203 shores of Lake Poygan and the melodious accents of his childish voice faded in the distant wilderness with the cries of his heart-broken mother who, followinj in the distance, called in a high-pitched voice, Niguis, Niguis! anipikidijaian?* 1 "My son, my son! How is it possible that you have been separated from your mother? Sh-h-h! Ni korshkandam! 0 shame! You cruel Americans! Why are you tearing mt. heart to pieces and taking away the son who once suckled my breast?"* 4 However, the spirit of darkness continued its work of evil. The people, biased against the Menomini by the Oshkosh Democrat which saw no shame in presenting the Menomini in an unfavorable light in order to further its own political fortunes at their expense, now came from all parts of the county to see the young Nigabianong. Blinded by their malice and irrationality, they began to call him 'Caspar,' the name of the child of Alvin Partridge who perished two years earlier in a swamp through the criminal negligence of his parents. His Indian clothing, a possession as dear to him as pure gold, was taken away from him, and they cut his long black hair, the symbol of freedom among the nomadic people of the New World, and which the son of Nahkom loved to fl¥ in the breeze when he went deer hunting with his father, the hunter [gaossed] 15 following the deer on light feet through the forests and vast plains watered by the Wisconsin river. The people had also washed the young Nigabianong and dressed him in new ciothing, even whitening his face to erase-if that were possible-all the features of his family and of his race which he still possessed to a remarkable degree. He was also made to sit at the side of the young daughter of" the Partridges, and the mad crowd surrounding him called loudly, "Caspar! Caspar!" The young Nigabianong, struck by the newness of this sound, so different from his own, made an involuntary movement in response, while the spectators, blinded by their passions, cried in one voice, "Oh, look here. He speaks English! Yes, yes, it is Mrs. Pa 'tridge 's little boy! Poor mother'" The old women added to this ridiculous scene by encouraging the young daughter of Partridge to embrace the son of Nahkom. But our little martyr turned away and tapped the cheek of his pretended sister with a light touch. This scandalous arrangement continued for several days at Oskhosh even in the presence of the Menomini chiefs who had come to share the burden of Nahkom and to guard her as a witness for the forthcoming triaL They wanted to let the judge decide from the evidence who was right in the dispute, and above all, they wanted to uphold to the public the honor of their tribe, long known for its honesty and morality but now under fire from the plotters of Waupaca and the Partridge families, not to mention the editor of the Oshkosh Democrat.

*13 Niguis, Niguis, anipi kidijain: In Leonard Bloomfield The Menomini Language (Yale University Press, 1962) as neki qus for "my son"; in Hoffman as Nikis; anipi in Baraga as anindi for "where?"; kidijaian probably from ba keidiwin in Baraga for "separation of persons", using the ba as a particle prefixed to verbs or substantives signifying "approaching, coming on". *14 Ni Korshkandam, in Baraga as nia for "Alas!"korshkandam askashkendam for "I am sad, afflicted," etc. . *15 Gaossed: here Bonduel's spelling for a hunter is practically the same as in Baraga, i.e. gaossed. 204 The Reverend Father was deeply conscious of the concern, the pain and the humanity which stirred side by side in the hearts of the Menomini Indians. Oh! That it could have been different, since he had until now sacrificed himself to save the Menomini from their inevitable ruin by standing up for them in 1850 before the government at Washington D.C. when their inalienable rights were so unjustly denied to them by the insidious stipulations of the Treaty of Poygan in 1848. He had spied on the movements of the opposition in Oshkosh, and attacked, in a letter to the Green Bay Spectator, all the accumulated lies which had appeared in the Oshkosh Democrat against the Menomini. By this means he had silenced the newspaper and created in the public conscience a moral reaction which favored the Indians. As for the Indians, they were still certain that in the end truth and justice would prevail. The day finally arrived when the two parties in the dispute were notified by the legal authorities to present themselves in court at Oshkosh, attended by their witnesses, to prove who was the real mother of the young Nigabianong now claimed by Nahkom and by the wife of Alvin Partridge. The trial was held in the Methodist church. The Partridges employed a clever lawyer to represent them, and the Menomini, for their part, left nothing undone to assure the success of their own case. The court heard the witnesses of both defense and claimants. The merits of both sides were discussed with considerable heat and agitation. The Partridges were certain of getting one-hundred thousand francs for damages against the Menomini tribe for the loss of their nephew who they were now attenlpting to identify with the son of Nahkom. Every effort was made by them to influence the court in favor of their brother's wife, and the blackest lies, based on hate and passion, were leveled at the Indians. The enemies of Nahkom affirmed, without shame and remorse it seemed, that the young Nigabianong, whom several had never seen, was the son of Alvin Partridge despite the outward appearances of the boy who clearly resembled Nahkom. He had an olive skin and all the looks of his Indian mother, in strong contrast to the wife of Partridge, a blond of the Anglo-Saxon race. Throughout the fifteen days of discord, which in its burlesque and frustrations wore down the patience of the court commissioner, the foes of Nahkom, armed with hate, larded with sarcasm and greed, attempted by political chicanery and here~ to close in on Themis both by intimidation and by threatening looks. *1 But Judge Buttrick, who had Nahkom sitting next to him, was guided only by his own judgment. He fully understood the discordant voices and passions which raged at the foot of his court and he knew how to penetrate this storm cloud and see through the biased views of the people who so callously were attacking Nahkom and her son. In a calm and dignified manner, he finally asked the Indian mother if she recognized the young Nigabianong? How could a mother, and above all an Indian mother, not recognize her child, the same that she had carried and nursed at her breast? And she had said to him: "This American woman in court went three days before she recognized my son from the one she lost through negligence. As to the rest, I pray Monsieur Judge

*16 Themis was the goddess of order and justice, mother of the seasons and the Fates.-Bergen Evans, Dictionery of Mythology, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1970), 239. 205 Kibakonigeinini, *1 7 ask my parents and the chiefs of my people who are here and they will tell you where my son was born, who his mother is, the day of his birth, where he has been living, and the distinctive marks upon his body by which he can be identified from all other children, Indian or American." All the [defense] witnesses interrogated on these different questions responded with great conviction and an air of assurance which never left any doubt in the mind of the honorable judge that Nahkom was the real mother of the young Nigabianong. Friends of humanity present in court rejoiced with the poor Indian mother who was now looking forward to an end to her unhappy experiences. But the Partridges, who had so haughtily invoked the protection of the law a few days earlier, now trampled it under foot when justice and humanity supported a decision not in their favor. Realizing that their prey was about to escape them, the enemies of Nahkom and of the Menomini people indirectly suggested that they would take up arms if the court was to force them to return the young Nigabianong to his Indian mother. Then Chief Souligny, a close relative of Nahkom, already an octogenarian but a warrior renowned for his bravery in the last war against the Sacs and Fox, rose to testify. He had lost an eye from an arrow aimed at him by the fearless Black Hawk, but he rose with great dignity, an imposing figure, his hair whitened by the passing years, his head shaded by a large eagle feather that the younger warriors of the tribe had always seen waving in the field of honor. His brow was wrinkled by dark cares and the burden of battle, and his numerous scars commanded respe~t. A profound silence filled the court room, and people were anxious to hear the old chief because his pale and livid face showed that he had something important to say. In his left hand he held a large pipe of redstone, richly decorated with feathers ofbirds and ornamented with ribbons of many colors. This was the great calumet of the Indian tribes, the symbol of peace, which he pressed with tenderness against his heart. He turned with a gracious movement of his right hand and began to speak- "My friends we want peace, you want war. If you will study the history of our tribe in relation to our conduct with you and of your consideration for us, it will be sufficient to ascertain the truth of what I am saying, and as evident as the rays of light which shine upon our eyes". "The great and vast state of Wisconsin which is watered by the clear river of the same name and runs its rapid course from north to southwest, was in the past the home of our ancestors. The city of Oshkosh which borrowed its name from the leader of our tribe and who sits here in court today, will inform our grandchildren that the Menomini were, a few years ago, the "peaceful possessors of this vast domain that you now occupy. "This land we acquired by force of arms, pushing back the terrible enemies of our tribe, the proud Fox and Sacs, beyond the Mississippi river. For many years these tribes had lived along the shores of the river that still bears their name. You can see this river which in fact irrigates the gardens of your city and continues on to mix its waters with the great body of water called Lake

*17 The name Dibakonigeinini given by the IVIenomini apparently to Commissioner Buttrick probably stems from the Chippewa debwe for "I tell the truth". 206 Winnebago which is also visible from here. It was from this. lake that our indominable. warriors chased the great tribe of Winnebago which also left its name and its history here. "Our tribe, like that of these people, will never die because it is linked with the Menominee river, a name dear to our heart and so closely identified with our tribe. It was along its steep banks, on the top of the high hills which march along the shores of this meandering stream, that our ancestors lived for more than three hundred years. And along the banks of that river lie, in the shade of our thick forests, the sacred remains of our people. We have sworn to the Great Spirit, who governs this universe, to protect their ashes against all profane sacrilege even at the risk of our own lives and all that we hold dear in this world. Our heart and the hearts of our children are always turned toward this sacred river, for it was here that our ancestors and all our tribe left glorious and immortal memories. It was here, in all our solemn festivals, that our fathers, and we after them, implored, with faith, the assistance of the divine guardians of our people to chase away from our borders the Fox, the Sacs, the Winnebago, the Chippewa, and the Potawatomi. "See for yourselves if these divinities have not heard our voice and if we have not responded with great courage, inspired by them. For the snow which covers our wilderness and the summits of our mountains in white will never be tread upon by the feet of these enemy tribes, who now, together with the Sioux and Assiniboins, follow the couger and the bison in the great plains of the West. "This vast domain belongs to us by right of conquest. Its borders, marked by nature, were faithfully traced in miniature on the sand by one of the arrows of our chiefs in the Treaty of Great Butte des Morts concluded between Governor [Lewis] Cass and our tribe in 1827 and ratified in the same year by your government in Washington. Then we were powerful and you were weak, since you did not even hold a foot of ground to plant your corn on. You sensed this weakness and came to us very humbly, asking, as a favor, for a few acres of ground to settle the Abnakis and Iroquois on near Green Bay.*18 Whether by blindness, whether from natural goodness, we consented and that day marked the beginning of our downfall. Children of nature that we are, we did not know when we signed the treaty all the ruses and detours of a people who call themselves civilized and with whom we have been in contact by treaty.· But if I myself had not been a madman, I would have been able to avoid the great misfortunes that now weigh upon my tribe. If I feared that my memory might npt. serve me, I should have written on a birch bark the number of times that a crow flew around my cabin, calling me in its noisy way, filled with the voice of doom, sometimes to the north, sometimes to the east, always saying to me that our tribe was about to suffer great misfortunes at the hands of the people who would come to these lands, not from the South inhabited by the Mekatewisiag (Negro),* 19 but from the East where evil has always originated. 0 profound

*18 Souligny refers in his speech to the Abnakis (also written Abenaqui) and Iroquois. Actually the tribes that moved to Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s were the Stockbridge, Brothertown, Munsee, and Oneida Indiana. The Abnaki of Canada were a tribe linguistically allied to the Menomini, and the Oneida, who came from the East "are called by the Algie tribes A bnakis, the name applied to the most eastern of their own clans."-Collections, Vol. III, 136. *19 Mekatewisiag: in Baraga as Makatewiiass, for "black flesh". 207 blindness which came to me by this mysterious bird flying around my cabin so many times. The fool! It wanted, you know very well, to heap injury on misfortune. Why does the bird not come again and soar over my head so that my arrow, which has never been drawn in vain against the enemy, might put an end to its sinister cries, pierce its heart and send it to a death so justly deserved! Nevertheless, without thinking of the future, we sacrificed our dearest interests in order to keep the peace, a peace that had cost us so much because of the long wars we had to fight against our enemies. We wished then to maintain this peace with you, and with your government, by ceding the lands which you needed to extend the border of your territories, and to facilitate your commerce. By protecting you and by giving you evidence of our good faith, we have drawn down upon us the wrath of all the other Indian tribes who harrassed your frontiers because we helped you to push them back to the remote regions of the West. The blood of our ·children and our own blood has soaked the soil of America in the struggle for the liberty and happiness of some among you here who were not yet born when our arrows pierced the savage enemy constantly threatening to cut the throats of your mothers in the silence and darkness of the night! "0, that the powerful wind of the West nlight carry my voice to Washington to ask Senator Dodge, who was then our general, if my tongue, in all that I say, is forked? Following the treaties which we made with your government we were plundered in nearly all parts of our land, even those sections where the ashes of our fathers and children repose. We have religiously observed the terms of these treaties because we revere the Great Spirit, Ke 'se 'maneto, and because we love equality and justice. But you have not reciprocated. You bought our land from us for so little money that a child born yesterday could hold it in the hollow of his hand, and the little you pay us annually loses its weight en route to our borders as though the government agents have used a file on the gold and silver that passes through their hands. "In all the treaties that we have made with the President of your government, our father in Washington, and yours, Kossiwa, his agents who represent him among us speak to us constantly about making us civilized, providing education for our children, making us give up hunting in order to make farmers out of us, to worship the Great Spirit of the Christians with the love of all our heart, to pray, and sing his praises. With the exception of several Menomini families, and mine is one of them, we did all this willingly, encouraged more by the zealousness and devotion of our very dear father, Kossinan Mekatewikwanaie [Black Robe] *20-who is present here than by the means which your government has often promised to use but which it rarely carried out, in fact, never. "Now look towards the shores of Lake Poygan, where the Menomini Catholic Mission is located, and to the humble lodge of the Black Robe, their Father, who is also our Father; ask what became of the heavy forest ranging across these thousands of acres of land and which the Menomini Christians (Enamiadjig) *21

*20 Kossinan Mekatewikwanaie: in Baraga k 'oss for "thy father", and Mekatewikwanaie (identical to Bonduel) for a prie~t or one that wears black clothes. Hoffman, however, gives noq ne for "father", and noqne for "my father". *21 Enamiadjig: in Baraga as enamiad for "one who prays, a Christian", and enamiadjig, plural of Christians. 208 and the Reverend Father himself cleared by the sweat of their brow in the short space of four years! You will learn that all this heavy forest disappeared under the repeated blows of the axe and that a hundred families each cultivate their own small piece of land, ten acres of which annually produces enough for a living. But, ask also what happened to the many houses which the Christian Menomini built with their own hands under the direction of their Father Missionary, and which formed along Lake Poygan one of the most beautiful and flourishing Indian villages in the Northwest? The whites, the Europeans, the people who talk about civilizing us and praying like them, destroyed a part of the village and by night set other houses on tire in order to force the Menomini to leave Poygan before the expiration date set by President [Millard] Fillmore in the presence of the Black Robe, our Father, on our last trip to Washington in September 1850. These acts are too well known and too recent for you to ignore. The tire which devoured the homes of the Menomini Christians, fanned by a strong wind from the northwest, told the people of Oshkosh, like the sound of an evil trumpet, of the great catastrophe that had befallen the Indians-men, women and children. We were left without shelter in the middle of the night in the dead of winter! Has the government, or the Indian Bureau shown any sympathy, or has the government agent, the man who is supposed to support and protect us, shown any interest? Has anyone among you spoken of reparations for the great loss which our people suffered, or told the authorities who was responsible for this cruel act of arson? Not at all. The government remained silent in the face of this atrocious act, and its agent in Green Bay, who recognized the spirit behind this act against our people, would have profited even by our misfortune if he had had his way in removing us to the other side of the Mississippi river under the pretext that the whites disliked our tribe, but in reality to distribute, at his own discretion, the $40,000 specified in the treaty of 1848, and to effect our removal to the Crow Wing river in northern Minnesota where he knew the sad fate that would await the rest of ourtribe at the hands of the tomahawks of our enemies. "Seriously, if you look for the motive which prompted the Partridges and their virtuous associates from Waupaca into this unhappy quarrel, is it not the result of greed, to get rich at our expense rather than the mere possession of the young Nigabianong whom they claim so unjustly? Yes, they know at the bottom of their heart, that the son of Nahkom, who is my nojishin (grandson) and who I often carried in my arms on my return from hunting, tired and anxious to relax in his tender caresses, is not the son of that pale-faced American. They know, 1 repeat, that the truth is in my heart much more than upon my lips, unless this one eye of mine, which can still clearly see the sunlight, despite my age, should not be able to discern the features of those whom a person should never forget. But if they know I speak the truth, they can not ignore the fact that our people have large sums of money deposited in the hands of the government in Washington. This is money due us by the terms of the treaties we have made. Knowing this, our enemies on Ball Prairie now plan to claim an indemnity of twenty thousand dollars against us for the alleged kidnaping by Nahkom, a woman of our trib~. And they will do this unless the court commissioner avoids the snares that have been set to trap him despite his wisdom and integrity! "By all that I have said, it is evident that not only do the whites wish to take our land away from us, but even the money which the government owes us for the purchase of our land, or rather for the gift of it which we were obliged to 209 make. They oppress us, they wish to despoil us, and in order to succeed, they will use any means, fair or foul, direct or indirect, flattery, base adulation, and even violence to gain their end which is all too evident from: what I have already told you. "Now then, is it not obvious to the eyes of all reasonable men that you want war, and that we have done everything possible to maintain the peace which we agreed to honor forever, in the presence of the Great Spirit, certified by the peace sign engraved on the silver medal over my heart which I received from the President in Washington? Alas! We must keep the peace with you, now that we are so weak. We do not possess more than a small piece of land in northern Wisconsin and death has harvested the most noble of our tribe. "If we protected you when we were many and powerful, and you were weak and without resources, would we be stupid enough to attack you now that you have become strong and we as weak as young shrubs whose tender bark in spring is nibbled by the rabbits ofthe forest? It is therefore utter nonsense, empty of all logic, that blames Nahkom for having stolen the child of Alvin Partridge. Our Indian mothers and especially of our tribe have been stripped of all they own by the government. This is all too evident by the rags which covers us all here in court today. We have scarcely bread enough to feed our own children, therefore how could we give nourishment to the children of your American mothers? "Yes, I repeat, it is a miserable trick that you have perpetrated against us, unworthy of the people and even the name 'American' with which you dignify yourselves, for the whole world knows that you want war for the inhuman pleasure of attacking a defenseless people and tranquility which is our only happiness! "Gwaiak nan ni gi-ikit, nind-ogimanminagog?"* 2 2 [meaning] "How about it, my friends, warrior chiefs and nobility of our tribe present here today? Have I not told the truth?" the chiefdemanded in a voice, shaking with emotion. "Gwaiak! apitchi ki-gi-ikitsa, Gwaiak,"* 2 3 [meaning] "Yes yes, entirely," the chiefs responded. After this public testimony of affirmation, the Indian speaker wrapped himself in his long woolen blanket and quietly took his seat. He bowed his head toward t~e floor and remained silent, and later filled his long redstone pipe with 4 kinikinik 2 which he got ready to smoke after the court called a recess. The speech by Chief Souligny had a marked effect on the audience and it set

*22 Gwaiak nan ni gi-ikit nind ogimanminagog: gwaiak in Baraga, an adverb or adjective for "just, straight, correct'" etc.; nan ni becomes nan nind for "I"; gi a particle or prefix signifying past tense; ikkit with nind becomes "I say"; ogimanminagog (not identified). *23 Gwaiak apitchi ki-gi ikitsa, Gwaiak: in Baraga gwaiak, spelled the same as in Bonduel, meaning an adverb for much, entirely, absolutely, etc; ki for "thou, we, you,"; kidji signifying similarity or equal quality, in this case probably "every"; ikkitowin for ikitsa, meaning a word or saying, thus: "Every word you have said is the absolute truth." *24 Kinikinik: the spelling used on maps of Milwaukee county is Kinnickinnic which is the name of a river and one of the earliest street names in the city. The word is variously spell.ed and pronounced among the Indian nations and means, generally, to mix objects of different kinds, mostly in reference to tobacco which was made from various fibres. In Wisconsin the dried bark of the red willow was the most common source. 210 at rest many of the preconceived notions held against the Indians by the whites. It also made it easier for Judge Buttrick to pronounce sentence in favor of Kashagashige's niece. The honorable judge knew by the nature of the testimony heard before him that Nahkom was the mother of the young Nigabianong. Who could describe her joy when she was told that she would have her son at home with her once again, the one she loved more than all her other children and who she had come to think of as lost forever? At the same time, who could adequately describe the fury of the Partridges and their plotting companions when they were ordered to turn over to the civil authorities in Winnebago county the child of Nahkom who had been staying at the Partridge home for the past month? However, they were not about to give up the child, by no means, for in their blind fury they had vowed never to return the boy. They trampled under foot the same laws which they had made and whose protection they claimed only when it favored their own unquenchable rage. In effect, they created a means to violence by attracting a large number of people to their side. These people then intimidated the civil officer who came to take Nahkom's child from the Partridges, on order of the court, and forced the officer to give him back to the Partridges. They then placed the boy on a horse and drove with him across Wisconsin into Illinois where the laws of Wisconsin were powerless to reach him. During the flight one could hear the young Nigabianong cry from the moment he realized that he was again being taken from his mother. He called to her with all his might as he was being dragged away by the enemy auxiliaries who once before had taken him from the place of his birth. The news of these unexpected events reached Nahkom on the wings of the wind and threw 'her into deep despair. In a delirium, she trudged wearily toward the graves of her 'fathers, bowing with respect to the earth where their last remains lay: buried, her tears flowing, as if she were begging the spirits watching over the sleep of her ancestors to bring certain vengeance against the people responsible for all these outrages. At times she went into the heart of the forest where the hunter, in his chase, might see her from a hill, alone and without any witness to her grief, like the timid dove which likes to coo sadly in the kind shade of a big willow tree because it has been wounded by the cruel hand of the hunter and robbed of the first fruit of its tenderness. In this manner Nahkom spent two years in the depths of despair which led imperceptibly to her grave. But Heaven, touched by her sorrow, wished to recompense her maternal affection by arranging for her to see her son once again before she departed this life. Owing to the interest of a friend, the young Nigabianong was discovered living in Illinois and brought back to Milwaukee. The barbaric manner with which the boy had been treated in exile could be seen on his features. Sympathetic friends were indignant at the manner in which he had been treated by the people who were responsible for all these outrages.*25 The reports of these new developments quickly reached northern Wisconsin where Nahkom and all the chiefs of the Menomini Indians were now living. Everyone shared the joy of Kashgashige's niece and made preparations to sail down the Wolf river by canoe and rush on to Milwaukee where Nahkom might

*25 This statement is based on hearsay, since Bonduel was not in Milwaukee at the time. 211 be reunited with her son, the one she thought lost forever. All her relatives and the principal chiefs of the tribe also went along on this long and perilous journey not only in deference to Nahkom but because they too wanted to see the young Nigabianong again. Traveling day and night, they hastened to cover the one-hundred leagues which separate Shawano Lake, where the Catholic mission to the Menomini is located, from the city of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan. As they neared the city they could see in the distance the pyramidal steeple of the great cathedral of Milwaukee which dominates the Lake Michigan shore line, and across the hills that surround this queen city of the American West. The cross of the Savior which shines with brilliance at the top of the steeple is the most beautiful ornanlent on the cathedral. At the sight of that adorable symbol ofsalvation for man, the Christians [among the chiefs] who were part of the group that came down from Shawano Lake, bowed with respect and religiously kissed the cross. which they carried over their heart. And now, with great joy, they entered this big and beautiful city of the Far West. Their hearts were filled with the desire to see the features of the august pontif, the same who had cultivated, with so much enthusiasm, the young vinyard planted by the Reverend Father Missionary in 1837. The pious prelate had since harvested a rich crop from this vinyard. The Indians landed on the shores of the Milwaukee river where the river empties into the lake. They tied up their canoes and, according to their national custom, advanced slowl¥ up the hill to the house of the first pastor of that church [the Cathedral]. 26 Seeing the illustrious Pontif, they approached him in an attitude of respect and kneeled to receive his benediction. From this they experienced a sense of relief after their long and tiresome journey. After completing their religious devotions joyously, they went to rejoin Nahkom who, for an hour no'w, had been holding the young Nigabianong. The boy was overcome with joy at seeing his mother, his relatives and all the Christian chiefs from the mission of St. Michael Archangel who had come this long way to see him. Nothing would have been lacking in the fulfillment of her maternal affections had she been able, from that moment, to take her son directly back to the reservation above Shawano Lake. But a sense of honor, which was ingrained in her, impelled her to file a new suit in Milwaukee against the Partridges in order to prove to everyone, once and for all, that the judgment pronounced in her favor at Oshkosh by the honorable Judge Buttrick was based on truth and justice. All preparations were then made for a new trial at Milwaukee which would affirm or deny the judgment of the lower court at Oshkosh. The Partridges, too weak or rather too criminal to risk the danger and consequence of a second trial before an impartial judge, now became even more criminal by having recourse to a trick 'which was to make the laws of Wisconsin meaningless. It was assumed that everything was in readiness for the opening of court when someone came to Nahkom to teli her that her son, temporarily in the custody of the sheriff's department, had been carried off again by the friends of the Partridges on the night which must have preceded the verdict! How does one describe the indignation which this insane act, this utter contempt for the law and public sentiment, produced in Milwaukee among the

*26 St. John's Cathedral was dedicated Sunday, July 31,1853. 212 friends of order and civil rights? And who could express the indignation of the relatives and friends of Nahkom, frustrated by the cunning of their enen1ies, when they saw themselves cheated again in their hopes, and forced to return to their reservation covered with shame and confusion after the abduction of the young Nigabianong for the fourth time? Nahkon1's grief was desperate, but she refused to leave the city, running through the streets and crying. In vain she called again and again to her son who, in her delirium, she imagined was just around the comer. Now and then her cries and moans were halted to give ear to strange vibrations ringing in the air which she thought were the voice of her son responding to her own pleas. But it was all an illusion, the mistaken hope of a mother for her son, for now she was never to see the object of her love again. The entire city of Milwaukee participated in this moving drama, mothers and widows mingling their own tears with Nahkom's. They followed her in silence to the shores of Lake Michigan where she hoped to discover some trace of the son so suddenly taken from her. There the unhappy Nahkom mixed her tears with the waves breaking against this ancient shore. She gazed out to sea across the great waves building up for a storm which rolled in at her feet. One could see her studying the routes taken by the lake steamers, and asking the sailors around if their ship might have brought her son back to port, or whether the young Nigabianong, standing on the bridge of an enemy ship, had given one of them a farewell message to his mother. Strangers to her language and strangers to her sorrow, they could not reply to the puzzling questions put to them by this distraught mother. She understood then that all was lost and she listened, overcome with love, to the last sounds which the wind and the waves seemed to be carrying into shore from her much beloved son. Nigia! Nigia! please help me, Deliver thy son, for why must he perish? Dragged far from you to another shore He will die of unhappiness in the arms of bondage. Such was the voice of sorrow which the breeze carried back to her from far-away shores. Her motherly love responded in aching terms to the affection she felt for her son who henceforth would not be able to live near his mother.. She sang, but her song was a song of sorrow, and she announced to the mother Earth, and to her son, that she was also going to die upon these shores which had been witness to her sorrow. Niguisl Niguisf 101 ogimadjitonawawan. Nigius! Nigius ganibo! 10f Nikaskendam apitchi. Niganibo sa gaie. *2 7

*27 Niguis, Niguis, 10, ogimadjitonawawan. Niguis, Niguis, ganibo, 10, Nikaskendam apitchi, Niganibo sa gaie: It seems possible that Bonduel has not given the full sentence. Niauis in Bloomfield appears as neki'quis for "my son, my son"; 10 in Baraga becomes lno for "he is, it is, it is so"; ogima (nind) ~'I have her for a mother", or "she is my mother"; the last part of the word jitonawawan probably suggests a land beyond the salt sea; ganibod replaces niganibo, meaning the deceased, the late, etc. Ni, a particle giving the accessory signification of departure, of going on, says Baraga, and kashkendam (nin) meaning "I am sad, afflicted"; apitchi for "much, entirely", etc. niganibo probably as niganis (nin) in Baraga for "I am foremost, from nig (nin), "I am born"; sa, particle used in answers, and sometimes as because or for; gaie, meaning for, and/or also. 213 o day of sorrow. My son has a father no more! On foreign soil he perishes of misery He hears my sobs, counts all my sighs And understand his mother must die with him. Thus sang Nahkom, thus sang her son, both innocent victims of the passions of man. Meanwhile, her voice grew weaker and, becoming pale, she fell on her knees by the shore. Presently a venerable old missionary approached the desolate mother. The crowd in the background remained silent at the sight of this touching scene. The missionary tried to comfort her, speaking of a life in which she would forget her misery and where she would see her son again.if she consented to receive the holy baptism of the Savior with faith and religion. Nahkom, seeing the pious missionary, called him by the worshipful name of 'Father' and said calmly that she had wished to become a Christian a long time ago. She said she had been instructed in the doctrines of the Catholic faith by the Reverend Father [Bonduel] at the mission of St. Michael Archangel, but that she never had had the courage to follow the good exan1ple of her relatives, all of whom had embraced the faith. She said she would wholeheartedly sacrifice her son to God if she might have the good grace to receive baptism before dying. Then the Reverend Missionary advanced to the shores of Lake Michigan and, like John the Baptist, forerunner of the Savior on the River Jordan, he asked Nahkom to lift up her heart with love and to repent to the Lord while turning her eyes towards the sanctuary of the Catholic cathedral, image on earth of heaven where she would soon enter. The Reverend Father invoked the names of the very holy Trinity and poured on her piously bent head the holy water, the perceptible symbol of the invisible grace which purifies from all sin. Hardly had the holy words been spoken when one could hear the neophite saying with piety and ineffable sweetness these last few words: "Lord, I give thanks for all your blessings." Then, having invoked the holy names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, she died, and her soul, purer than the lily, passed from this earthly shore, where she had fallen, to the shore of Eternity where she would enjoy, in the bosom of God, the happiness so long denied her on this earth. **********

This, my dear Edward, is the touching story that was told to us by the Reverend Father Missionary about the misfortunes of that Indian mother, but everlasting thanks be given to the Lord, who took pity on her. In her last hour he blessed her by imparting the precious gift of faith, and he let her pass to the seat of glory where she sings God's praises and prays for her dear Nigabianong while she waits for him to join her in heaven. Let us go to the chapel together, my dear Edward, to thank the Lord for this great favor and join our prayers with those of Nahkom. But the bell rings, my dear Edward. It calls us to study. We must part. Farewell until this evening.

214 A COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE MORAL CONDITION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES IN THE STATE OF WISCONSIN By Florimond J. Bonduel

MONSEIGNEUR: Too little time has been given me today to describe in detail to Your Grace and to the honorable members of the Parochial Committee of Paris, gathered in this holy place for the work of the Propagation of the Faith, all my work as a missionary with the Indian tribes which I have evangelized. I shall, therefore, confine myself to one main point which will reveal the plight of the nomadic people as I saw it before their conversion to Christianity.

A COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION of the Bonduel's book on Indian moral condition. Moral Condition of the Indian Tribes in the state of Wisconsin Under the Influence of Paganism and in the present situation under the TABLEAU COMPABATIf.' influence of Catholicism. or LA CONDITION MORALE DES THIBUS INDIENNES

A BRIEF MEMOIR o!': L'i~T,\:1' nu WISCONSIN,

Of the State of Indians Missions CO~SIDgREE SOUS L'l~FLUEN'CE DU PAGAN['3.\JE, in the Milwaukee Diocese

ENVISAGI~E Given in the Catechist Chapel, in the SOUS L'INF.LUENCE DU CATIlOLICISME: Church of Saint-Roch, Paris, 22 May 1855 before the parochial committee M(~llOlnm PART1EL assembled for the work of the Society DE L'ETAT DES MISSIONS INDIENNES for the Propagation of the Faith presided over by Monseigneur Sibour, DU DIOcESE DE !liI LWAUKIE I ht d3n~ I. Chdpdlc des l:nlrcl,isllIcs ,dans I'c~trse dc Sainl·noch, it I'aris. Ic ~~ ~bi IS~) • CII pre'" rf ,1ft Bishop of Tripoli, in partibus f;omilc9p.rois,;auxrcunis pourl'ccllnedu 10 Propas.lioll dela "'ei,1")u~IAprcsidenteuc~I:;r. Sibour, Infidelium,and the bishop's assistant l!r~1Ue Ul'· Tripoli 1 illj,arlibll' 1"{l,I1'1;"," , el 6vl·'lue au\ilbire de ~I~r. SH,oor , ar<·h;·\·~·llll' ,Ie !'aria; to Monseigneur Sibour, the Archbishop of Paris LE R. P. Fr,,-J, BONDUEL, MISSION~AmE \ by The Reverend Pastor Fl. J. Bonduel, Missionary of the Milwaukee Diocese in the state of Wisconsin, the United States of North America, superintendent of the school for Menomini Indians in Wisconsin and presently parish priest to the English parish of Saint-Gall in Milwaukee. TOURNAI TYPOGHAPHlE DE J. CASTE1UL\!'\ ET FILS, TOURNAI L 1U1\ ,\ l1U; S -I~ DIT ~ U 1\ S. Printed by J. Casterman & Sons Publishers and Editors 1855 215 I shall perhaps have sufficient time later to explain the astonishing progress the Indians have made in religion, customs and civilization since they have had the good fortune to embrace the Faith. A general description of the important needs, and the plight of the numerous European and American missions which we have founded in .the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota prior to. 1834, has been transmitted to one of the principal directors of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris to be published in the Annales. The reading of these three documents, so distinct the one from the other in character, will give a full and complete idea of the progress made, physical as well as spiritual, of all our beautiful and numerous missions in the Milwaukee diocese where I have recently come from. It will be enough to get a correct idea of the magnitude of the immorality that afflicted these savage people whom I worked among more than twenty years in the Northwest of the United States and to visualize for a moment the hideous objects which they used to worship before they have had the good fortune to come to the true God. These objects, Monseigneur, I have brought here to Paris as a glorious trophy to the grace of the New Testament, as well as new proof of the truth of our Holy Faith. They afford a new element of encouragement and of unrestrained joy for all the people whose zeal and holy piety have so generously and enthusiastically supported the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. One understands much better how great is the force of grace and the extent of its triumph when one realizes that these people, who a few years ago were committed to magic and to all the superstitions of paganism, and even to the influences of the demons, are now, for the most part, models of virtue and Christian piety worthy to be emulated. These objects of which I speak are carved in wood, some of an Egyptian type, others of Chinese design, suggesting by their distinctive features the route which these nomadic people followed in their migration from Egypt to America and to their present location. Some of these figures have hands and arms; some have arms but no hands; others have no arms or hands. The shape which the Indians give to them is determined by the degree of power which they believe has been commun'icated to them by a superior or inferior divinity represented by the figure. They are always red. Most of them have a hollow in the lower part of the stomach which is filled with medicines. They imagine that these medicines, when placed in the stomach of the figure, are endowed with power to shield them in time of stress, or to obtain from the divinity represented by that figure a special favor in relation to domestic affairs, or when they go hunting wild game or go to war against a neighboring tribe. Some of these figures represent the god of war, while others, smaller in size than the previous ones, are attired around the torso with two small sacks which contain chemical substances, or simply herbs, all of which suggests the criminal influences which they allegedly exert. Here we have small bows and arrows, weapons made by the hand of fatalism, and, though the Indian discharges the arrow by chance, the arrow, directed by the breathe of the divinity he invokes, will strike a tree, or will kill the people who are the objects of his hatred or vengeance. There are hawks carved from wood, painted completely red, and supplied with tobacco hanging from the neck and tied to a string. This tobacco is offered 216 to the gods of which these hawks are the symbol. The pagan Indians always carry them in their travels. They are religiously deposited on large, strange looking stones which, by their shape, are looked upon as divinities and upon which the~ perform their unctions. These stones are the Bethel of Asia and Europe.*2 Although sensible to tradition, it is a distortion of the religion and faith of Jacob. These are feathers and beaks of birds which the Indians display on their head in their ceremonies or when they leave to fight an enemy tribe, since they are sure then to be victorious. /'-

Although the figures in this lithograph are numbered, Bonduel fails to use the numbers in his identification but refers to them only in a general way. Perhaps --_the.lithograph was made after the manuscript had gone to the printers. . *28 Probably a reference to a sacred area or to Jacob's dream. 217 The eagle is to these people the bird of thunder, adored as a divinity of a superior order. The speed of its flight, as it leaps from the cliff to seize its prey which its eyes have marked for the kill, is a faithful ernblem of the speed of lightning flashing through the clouds, or of the thunderbolt that follows, striking and tearing to pieces everything in its way. There is also the skin of serpents which they use as head ornaments to pay homage to the Great Serpent, Ketch Kinebick, *2 9 which their ancestors once worshipped in the Orient and where, they believe, their ancestors came from. Their religion is referred to as Wabianong. The worship of the Great Serpent by their ancestors, of whom they have kept memories which they still imitate in their religious ceremonies, holding sacred the skin of this reptile, is in their mind only one remnant of the tradition of the Fall of Man presel·ved among their people and hidden under the guise of a criminal cult created through fear and ignorance. There is the tail of an animal, perhaps that of a snake, shaped into a semi-circle. This is placed on the high forehead or on the top of the head and sometimes even at the end of their long black braids of hair representing, at its extrenlity, the shape already described. It is impossible for me now to give it a name or to specify the kind of religious veneration which these people profess for the reptile or for the animal which that object represents. I will say this, however, that they attach an undue amount of importance to it. I will now continue with the details of my lecture. These are the shell fish which they swallow in order to vomit, with great effort, the small stones which they have in their stomach in order to diagnose the illness of a patient they seek to cure. There are two kinds of medications, each containing different types, used by the two classes of medicine men known among all Indian tribes of North America under the name of "good medicine men," and "bad medicine men," Meno Mash kiliininiwag, and Ma tchi Mash kikiininiwag, which is to say, those of the first class are actually proper medicine men, as we think of them, while those of the second class are those who in our language we would call sorcerers or magicians. The two classes of medicine men are clearly defined by specific skins of animals they use in ceremonial, religious or magical dances. This will require a little explanation. The good medicine men generally use the skin of an otter on these occasions. Into this they deposit every kind of medicine which they have any knowledge of or, if one wishes, roots, or herbs, or minerals whose properties are known to them. In order to become a member of this Medicine Lodge, it is necessary to undergo an examination by the faculty of medicine in the tribe. Upon taking this examination, the candidate receives a small wooden brooch painted red with the upper part crowned by a small white feather. This is his diploma, and women as well as men may aspire to this honor, not to mention children at least ten years old and men up to seventy years old. In this Council the men, women and children dance and sing in unison. They

*29 "Temple mounds and isolated burials alike, the length of the [Mississippi] river, contain carved stone effigies of the plumed (or horned) serpent. His likeness is engraved on pottery and shaped in shell and wood..." Alice Marriott and Carol K. Rachlin, American Indian Mytholigy (1972), 71. 218 discuss, they offer grace to imaginary gods, they implore their assistance while they blow their breath towards the earth. They invoke the spirits by words and breathing. They imitate the cry of the otter while holding the skin of the animal in their hands in a position slightly inclined toward the ground, suggesting the movements of this animal, and chanting more or less in these words: Thawh! heifheifheifhei!Thawh! Thawh! ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho, and then throwing the skin of the otter to the ground. Then, having picked it up again, a sense of calm is restored to the Council. The bad medicine men, that is, the sorcerers or magicians, also attend these Councils. They generally occupy a distinJ!uished rank because everyone fears the effect of their wrath which can be fatal to the well-being of a family. There are persons in charge at these meetings, maintaining the right decorum in the ceremonies, and being responsible for starting the songs and leading in the execution of the dance. The musical instrument used on these occasions consists of a dry stick which they call suchet. A large package of dried bones is attached to the upper part of the stick. These bones make considerable noise when rattled. More harmony is achieved by 'shaking a tambourine which has been carefully painted red-a condition regarded as essential to produce the right effect. The animal skin u~ed by the sorcerers, or as we would call them "magicians," is not that of an otter but of the tiger-cat or, the grizzly bear, since these animals represent a character of cruelty and ferocity which these wicked men take pleasure in imitating. They hide all their instruments of magic and necromancy, and the various poisons which they use against their enemies, in the belly, or the paw, or even the head of these animals. So there it is, Monseigneur, the cause and effect of that distinction which I have just explained. The latter are those who invoke the demons, not in Council, but when they are alone in their own cabins, twelve to fifteen feet high, which they have built for themselves. Here they invoke the demons, or the particular demon which they have a preference for and to whom they are entirely committed. The lower part of their cabin rests on the ground but is not fixed to the ground. The Indians, or rather the magician who secludes himself here, invokes the demons by calling forth in a mighty chant the words well known to him. He calls upon the demon and all the powers that be by chanting and at the same time striking a red tambourine with a stick surmounted by the figure of an animal. The musical pitch is mournful and solemn, mostly, I believe, in A-minor, and the words he harmonizes with this chant suggest that he must have seen the infernal monster thus invoked, since he designates him and calls him in these words: "Oh, thou who art armed with ten claws, come and descend upon my cabin." Memidasweganji, memidaswe-ganji, Memidaswe-ganji! Undas oma, abian, Undas Oma, abian; undas oma, abian. The magician continues his chant thus until he is either visited by the infernal spirit, or spirits, which he has invoked. The irregular movements of his cabin, balanced by a real but invisible power so that the top of the cabin tilts almost to the ground without toppling over, announces the approach of the spirits of darkness. The cabin then shakes. The ear at once perceives the effect of the consequence of a fall at the center of this den of iniquity, and a conversation takes place which is only understood by people initiated into these somber mysteries! I have actually been a witness to these events and their authenticity 219 can be vouched for by all the missionaries who have studied the customs of the Indians they have evangelized, and who have themselves been a witness to a host of events similar to those which I have just described. I shall not discuss here all that I have seen in this respect. To go into it here would lead too far, but I do wish to add, however, that these magicians sometimes act similarily to those which people call Werwolfs. They cover their head and part of their body with the skin of a bear, the grizzly, of which I have already spoken, and they fasten to their ears big metal plates of yellow copper to which they attach a large number of small bells of the same metal in order to better imitate the hideous dress of the demon. It is in this costume that they walk in isolated spots during or at the approach of night, strolling along the shores of the lakes and rivers. Sometimes they drive into the earth, forming a circular or triangular shape, sticks of red brooches into which they have bored a hole and filled with medicines such as in the hollows of the statuettes. These performances of magic are made most frequently in an arid, lonely spot, in the center of a large prairie or at the edge of a muddy swamp. The magicians choose these spots in preference to others because they have greater ease to dig a hole in the ground, in the center of a circle or a triangle, from where they call forth the devil to bring death upon someone, or do injury to ~ person they have chosen to de'stroy. Oh! What sinister acts I could describe here to show the power of the demons against the evil doers.*30 But I am obliged to limit myself. The magicians themselves, as if it were the proper punishment for their blindness, end their crimes in a most deplorable manner which leave no doubt that they have become the victims of the very fury of the pitiless monster that seduced them. The subject which occupies us now becomes more and more interesting for religion and for history by the distinctive traits which characterize some of the objects not yet mentioned. I am in a hurry to treat this last part of the subject with all the attention it deserves because its development could be an aid to historians and antiquarians in determining the origin of the Indian tribes before they set out on their migrations, to set the time of migration to North America, and to explain what the religion of their fathers was when they first left their ancestral homes. Now I wish to take up the matter of the Totem or Egyptian coat of arms found among the objects which have been given to me by the Menomini Indians converted to Christianity. The Totem is an oblong board plaque, eighteen inches long and ten inches wide with the two rounded ends. In the center of the plaque, on both sides, is a pictograph, and at the outer rim of each pictograph appear the heads of two lizards touching and facing each other. The other part of the body in each lizard runs along the rim of the plaque in the longest part and is directed toward the tail of those lizards whose head is turned toward the east, and the tail toward the north. In the same manner, two other lizards appear on the other end of the plaque with their heads turned toward the west and the tails facing each other, one to the north and the other to the south. O"ne side of the Totem plaque presents two other figures, namely, a tortoise and a tapir, back to back. The head of the tortoise points due north and the

*30 There appears to be something missing here in the French text. 220 Les lieux faces du 'rOTEfi'I Atahique ou £&yptien. d.eslgnees dans Ie corps du fecit qui en exp1ique la. si~nific ation tapir south, each looking in the opposite direction at the heads of the two lizards which find themselves placed like a family in front of them. The tortoise does not have any distinctive markings, but the tapir has red claws, with the lower part of the spine, the ears and the snout, also in red. One may notice to the left side, opposite the heart, the mark of a mortal wound received by the tapir. This wound extends to the lower jawbone of the animal where the mouth between the opening seems to be vomiting blood. This indicates certain death. Each of its paws is equipped with four long, sharp claws. Inserted in the middle of the belly is a small mirror three inches long and two and a half inches wide. The Indians use this to diagnose the illness of people who consult them as doctors, and to predict the future by examining the palpitating entrails of the animal which has been sacrificed, a circumstance easily seen by the wound in one represented on one of the sides of the Totem. The mirror, added later, is an object of modern usage, but the Totem itself is of great antiquity and leaves one with the conviction that the people who have transmitted it to them were of Egyptian origin. The other side of the Totem plaque reaffirms my conviction, so much so as to make me believe it is a fact, that the figures on this side alone trace their origin to the gods of Egypt although our North American Indians have never seen or heard of them, the memories of which have been faithfully preserved and transmitted to them by their ancestors down to the present when the light of the Faith came to shine into their eyes. There is also present on the Totem a crocodile which looks toward the heads of the two lizards facing each other at the ends of the plaque. Behind this crocodile and also in the center may be seen the body of a siren or mermaid. which seems to reign over the sea between two big, four-cornered rocks. The lines that define their form and mark their position are in red. The siren has long hair,*31 two small hands with four fingers on each hand, one small leg and a long tail which is forked. She occupies a place apart because she is a separate divinity from the crocodile which reigns supreme in his own empire, that is, the great river of the Southern Region, in the muddy swamps and ponds, while the siren maintains an independent empire in the high seas. It is for this reason, though she gazes toward the crocodile, the limits of her empire clearly establishes a distinction between the nature of her kingdom and that of the crocodile whose tail is turned toward the border of the empire held by the siren which he can never cross, whereas the tail of the siren projects itself into the domain of the crocodile, probably to show to this divinity of Egypt that the waters and rivers where the crocodile reigns at his pleasure must enter into the domain of the siren and that the god of the Nile must render homage to a power superior to his own. The domain of man on this earth is also shown on these Totem plaques by the position and attitude of the two Indians who stand a short distance away from the siren. They are by no means turned toward the heads of the lizards or the siren; they seem to be mutually satisfied with their own good fortune, since they occupy a prominent place among the gods of this earth, that is, among the Manitous, good or bad- sorcerers or magicians. They are seen to be dancing and it

*31 The artist who reproduced this pictograph for the author left out the hair, but it was apparently visible to the latter. 222 seems that one can hear them singing to express their joy to have a higher rank among those of their race, an office which is expressed by the two long, vermillion sticks they hold in their hands. This plaque, Monseigneur, vividly suggests a Totem or the Egyptian coat of arms indicating the gods of each class held together by their manners and customs. I call them gods because this title and this honor, if that may be considered as one, are giv~n to them bv all Indians before they have been converted to Christianity. Thus, we first notice on this plaque the three domains connected to three different classes of beings; first the animals, the crocodile and lizards, the tapir and tortoise. Second comes the siren who, living exclusively in the sea, occupies a separate place, and finally comes man who has nothing in common with the other two classes. One must observe, however, that the tortoise has a common interest with the lizards, but not with the crocodile, nor with the tapir, while the tapir has a common interest with the lizards but not with the crocodile, nor with the tortoise. Finally, the crocodile which has a common interest with the lizards, does not share any interest with the tortoise or the tapir. In this manner, then, we note how the Indian families not yet Christianized or civilized use and apply these symbols. An Indian who takes the pictograph of a lizard for his Totem or what one might call his coat of arms, a form among the pagans which serves as a symbol of the guardian god they have adopted, would by that act be associated in his relations with all the other Indians, wherever they might be, who have adopted the same Totem or symbol of the divinity which they have chosen for themselves or those who have adopted the tortoise which is associated with the lizard. But the Indian makes no association in this respect with those Indians who, instead of taking either the tortoise or the lizard for their Totem, have adopted the crocodile or the tapir as the symbol of their guardian god or divinity. In this manner, those Indians who have taken either the tortoise or crocodile, or the figure of the tapir for their Totem, contract a private and religious affinity with all other Indians who honor the lizard for their Totem without having by that contracted the same affinity with those Indians who have adopted the sign of the last three mentioned divinities for their Totem or coat of arms. One may understand by that, Monseigneur, how certain Indian tribes are associated by common ties. For example, if the great tribe of the Ojbiwas were to adopt the figure of the tortoise for their Totem or coat of arms, that tribe would be in private and religious, as well as military alliance with all other tribes who have adopted the lizard and, in time of need, would make common cause to repel any enemy tribe from their border. Thus, in order to support and acconlplish all the advantages of private and domestic life, they invoke on them the protection of these fantastic gods in which their symbol forms a point of unity for the two tribes. This explanation gives us a key to a very mysterious science for Europeans, it is true, but perfectly known to the Indian tribes that I have evangelized. I do not know whether the Indians of North America have ever adopted the figure of a siren or the crocodile for their Totem or coat of arms. All this has a simple explanation. The Indians of North America have never seen a crocodile, nor a siren. They have never even heard that these creatures exist, whether in the rivers or in the seas of South America. For more than four hundred years the 223 Menomini Indians lived on the banks of the river which bears their name and which empties into Green Bay sixty miles north to the mouth of the Fox River in the state of Wisconsin, the two rivers creating a grand reservoir of water. The Indians revere these objects of their ancestors and preserve them with great veneration, passing them on from father to son, family to family without having any knowledge of their origin or history. For it is, generally speaking, only magicians who keep and use these objects of superstition. It was a very interesting event, which I shall mention elsewhere, that brought me into possession of these objects and which was the result of the incalcuable services I have rendered to the Menomini Indians, whether pagan or Christian, an event well known in America and associated with a multitude of other facts which are a credit to religion and to humanity. It was these events that persuaded the Indians to give up objects dearer to them than life itself.*32 I am confident that the explanation of these pictographs on the plaque-this Egyptian Totem actually-will please men of science and antiquities. I could call it the grand Totem or the national coat of arms in this sense that in remote times one large tribe in Egypt, or on its borders, may have adopted a collection of partial Totems, or the symbols of individual divinities which they represent without even excluding the man who associates himself with them for his own protection as tutelary divinities (?) *33 Two other plaques eighteen inches long and three inches wide, one of which is especially of great antiquity, offer further interest to the scholar in that the figures which they represent differ essentially from those traced on the large plaque already exanlined. One of them represents the Totem of each Indian family, but with figures of animals which are not present on the large plaque except for the tortoise. These are figures of flying serpents, of bears, pigs, elk and eagle. But the most remarkable aspect about the plaque is that here one sees, on the one side, the figures of three Indians who appear completely enraptured by the divinity of their Totem represented by the figures of the animals. Two of the individuals occupy either end of the plaque. One is standing, a line traced over his head in circular form, whereas the figure at the other end seems to hold himself upright in an attitude of triumph in the center of an inverted curve .. He wears two feathers of a hawk on the top of his head, a symbol of his dignity, and an o"mament not worn by the other Indian. The third figure who occupies the center of the plaque and seems to be the Matchi Manito ~ 34 the great magician of the tribe.. He stands upright in the cabin in an attitude which betrays an air of agitation as though he were under the influence of an infernal spirit whose figure he is pointing to seemingly anxious to raise him up inside his cabin .. The lower part of the figure probably belongs to a human being. The head, equipped with horns or with large ears, is huge. The magician is touching the extremities of the lower left hand, lifting the figure

*32 He may have been referring to the role he played in Washington in 1850, or in Madison in 1852 to convince the federal and state governments to permit the Menomini to remain in Wisconsin. *33 The French text is not clear in this. *34 In Baraga matchi manito becomes an evil spirit, or devil. 224 slightly, and seems to be saying to someone, "Look, here is my God!" Wabas. Nin Manito Mabam! The third figure also has the same two horns on his head. The grizzly bear and the eagle are on both sides of the cabin forming the symbol of the Totem of the most famous coat of arms among the Indians. For that reason, it occupies the center of the plaque showing the superiority of his grade to that of other chiefs and, as chief himself and great magician. I shall emphasize later the historic meaning as well as moral and religious, or let us say superstitious meaning of this plaque. But I cannot pass without saying a word about the doctrine of Metemphsycose [transmigration of souls] among the pagan Menomini which forms one of the central tenets of religious belief among them, and from whom I obtained these objects. One can say the same about the pagan Chippewas and Ottawas. It is one of the points oftheir creed that man, after life, passes into another substance, animate or inanimate, into a good or evil being depending on whether he has been good or evil in life. Thus, in the hour of death, the pagan manifests a desire to be changed into the animal or bird or reptile which he has chosen for his Totem during life. From this also comes the same desire that the magicians express to become after death what they were in life, that is, Ma tchiamitowag*3 5 or magicians, but magicians nourished on falsehoods, duplicity and the most heinous crimes, not to mention cruel demons for tormenting men after death much worse than they ever had it in life. Nothing to me is more plain than the knowledge that the doctrine of transmigration exists and is practiced by all the Indian tribes of North America, which further proves that their ancestors came from the Orient. It is true that Pythagoras taught this doctrine in Asia Minor, but he had studied it in Egypt, or the neighboring countries, from whence the people of Asia Minor originated. Finally, who could challenge a truth based on facts? I speak here only of facts which I have witnessed myself, facts which one sees recorded in miniature on this same plaque and which have provided the basis for this slight digression. But who will reveal to me the mysterious secrets of paganism which are revealed by the attitude of that series of diverse figures engraved on the other plaque? That plaque contains two rows of figures: one above and one below. The figures above are divided by three parallel lines, in the middle of which appear figures of a different nature, each occupying a position which distinguishes it from its neighbors. These are the Indians' human hearts placed on altars, and the figure of Manitou or demon placed on a tripod or pedestal. The lower part is divided by four parallel lines, between which are symbols of a different kind, actually circles which, pushed and set into motion by the magician, seem to denote the circular and perpetual revolutions of the earth and stars, or of the entire globe for that matter. These are triangles, curved lines, tombs and the figure of a siren or of a sphinx. At one end of the plaque one may also see the numeral figure X. But what is most surprising here is that one sees on the other side of the plaque the figure of the cross raised to the top of an object which seems to have

*35 The prefix matchi is associated with anything evil, but the last part of the word is obscure. 225 the shape of a hexagon. There is a remarkable analogy between the facts just cited and those represented by a group of Egyptian figures which hold a cross in their hand when they approach the place of sacrifice during the religious cerenl0ny at which they assist or preside over. Although I do not intend to give the meaning of all the signs engraved on this plaque, the last one that I shall explain today, however, the little that I have said about it, together with what has been explained already on this matter, will further demonstrate the extent and force of satan's empire among these unfortunate people. These are men misled by the force of habit, by ignorance and by the presumption of education, and above all by an all-powerful desire for a. supernatural assistance which they have not found on earth to alleviate their plight and to show the way to happiness. Further, they look to the stars which they worship as guardian gods and from whom they adopt names in spite of a voice that rumbles in the heavens, or as it has been said: Ipse fecit nos, non nisi nos [He made us. We did not make ourselves]. Yes, it is God who has created us, not we who have created ourselves! Witness these names of the constellations, of the stars, the winds, the lightning, the storms, the thunder, the clouds in their various forms and colors which the pagan Indians give to their children on the day of birth, namely, Anango Kwei, "Woman Star", Abitawaban, "Break of Day", or Ozwawanakwat, "Yellow Cloud Man," and a thousand other similar names. It was not enough for the pagan to unite with the terrestrial world, giving to his children names after wild animals, birds, reptiles or fish, such as those mentioned above, and others like Namewkwe, "Female Sturgeon," Makkwah, "Man Bear," Animosh, "Man Dog," Kokokoho, "Man Owl," Mekatebinenshi, "Man Blackbird," and Kinebick, "Man Snake!" but these wretched people, pressed by inexplicable blindness, have to worship, even in heaven, the Infernal monster in front of whom they had prostrated themselves so many times on this earth. It is on the same zodiac of the people, Monseigneur, that I have brought back from my Indian mission to Paris, and which is part of the objects already mentioned, that this cruel enemy of humanity appears in all his satanic majesty in the midst of the constellations surrounding him. And it is from this lofty position, where he reigns as a tyrant, that he attracts to him people, wrapped in darkness, who should be paying homage to God alone, the father of all men who has the right to expect this of his children, created by Him in the heritage of his much beloved Son. I give thanks to the Lord who has given me the courage to fight against his enemy and the enemy of our brothers, and our enemies, Messieurs. Yes, I thank God, especially as the end of my days approach, for having been able to confuse the empire of satan and to have given him extreme displeasure, rendering speechless his oracles, assisting in the overthrow. of his altars at the peril of my health and my life, and bringing back in triumph, to the midst of the camp of Israel, the 7000 Indians that Satan had carried away from the heritage of the Good Shepherd.*36 These men are the conquest of grace, and they are our brothers in Jesus Christ. The progress v/hich they have made in religion and in their morals since

*36 A footnote by the author says that this figure includes converts made in Michigan. 226 their turn to God will show, Monseigneur, if time pennits me, to explain to the faithful, either in speech or in writing, that the work of the propagation of the faith is a very holy undertaking. The work of God is one of the most powerful ways which the Father Eternal serves himself to extend the limits of the kingdom of his divine Son. I must conclude but and I cannot do so without obeying the voice of my heart which begs humbly to God to bless all the members of his saintly congregation, and all the pious and zealous directors who manage with wisdom, and who pray fervently to the Lord that he will deign to send one of the princes of the celestial court to bless the angel [Monsignieur Sibour] of the metropolis of Tripoli who was willing to preside over this Christian assembly. Would that I might receive from his hand, consecrated by the holy unction, one of the abundant benedictions which constantly flow from his fatherly heart. Amen.

227 NOTES AND REFERENCES

Baraga, Frederic, A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, 1876, (reprint, Minnet:lpolis, Mn. 1966).

Bolton, Harry, Centennial History of St. John's Cathedral, 1847-1947-, (Milwaukee, Wi. 1947).

Bonduel, Florimond J., Souvenir d'une Mission Indienne, Nakam et Son Fils Nigabianong ou l'Enfant Perdu (Tournay, Belgium, 1855).

Bonduel, Florimond J., Tableau comparatif entre la condition morale des tribus Indiennes de l'etat de Wisconsin (Tournay, Belgium, 1855).

Bonduel, Florimond J., Souvenir Religieux d'une Mission Indienne ou Recueil de Prieres (Toumay, 1853).

Borden, Morton, "To Educate the Natives" in American History Illustrated (January 1975).

Buck, James S., A Pioneer History ofMilwaukee (Milwaukee, 1876).

Butterfield, C.W., The History ofSauk County, Wisconsin, (Chicago 1880).

Cassidy, Frederic G., The Place Names of Dane County, Wisconsin (American Dialect Society, 1947).

Catlin, George, North American Indians, two volumes (New York, 1973).

Collections, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Cope, Alfred, "A Mission to the Menominee, "in Wisconsin Magazine of History, in four parts, 1966-1967.

Dewey, Freman Dana, Early History of Waupaca (np) ca. 1889.

Drake, Samuel G., The Aboriginal Races of North America, 15th Edition (New York, 1880). 228 Deer, John (Fire) Lame, and Erdoes, Richard, Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions (New York, 1972).

French,. Bella, History ofBrown County (Green Bay, Wi., 1876).

Griese, Orville, In His Vinyard 1868 to 1962 (Pulaski, Wi., 1962).

Heilbron, Bertha L., The Thirty-Second State (St. Paul, Mn. 1958).

Heming, Harry H., History of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin, (Milwaukee, 1896).

Hodge, Frederick W., ed., Handbook of the American Indians North ofMexico, two volumes (Washington, D.C., 1907·1910).

Hoffman, Walter James, "The Menomini Indians" in Smithsonian Institution, Bureau ofEthnology 14th Annual Report (1892).

James, Edwin, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner, 1830, (reprinted, Minneapolis, Mn., 1956).

Johnson, Peter Leo, Crosier on the Frontier, A Life of John Martin Henni (Madison, Wi., 1959).

Johnson, Peter Leo, The Life of Martin Kundig, Priest 1805·1879, (Milwaukee, 1942).

Johnson, Peter Leo, "Milwaukee's First Mass," in Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 27, 1943·44; "Documents" in The Salesianum, St. Francis, Wi., April 1956 and April 1959; "Centennial Essays" in The Salesianum, October 1929, January, April, July, October 1930; January and April 1931.

Kessing, Felix M., "The Menomini Indians of Wisconsin" in the American Philosophical Society (Philadelpha, Pa., 1939).

Keesing, Felix M., "Leaders of the Menomini Tribe", typed manuscript in State Historical Society of Wisconsin, dated·January 19, 1930.

Kenrick, Francis Patrick, The Diary and Visitation Record of Francis Patrick Kenrick, (Lancaster, Pa., 1916).

Lambing, Andrew Arnold, Foundation Stones ofa Great Diocese, (Wilkinsburgh, Pa., 1914).

Lamott, John H., History of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, (New York, 1921).

Lawson, Publius V., ed., History of Winnebago County, (Chicago, 1908).

229 Marriott, Alice & Carol, Rachline K., American Indian Mythology, (New York, 1972).

Marsh, Cutting, Diaries of Cutting Marsh, 1849-1853, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Martin, Deborah B., History ofBrown County, (Chicago, 1913).

Mazzuchelli, Samuel, Memoirs Historical and Edifying ofa Missionary Apostolic translated by Sister Mary Benedicta Kennedy D.S.P., (Chicago, 1915).

Messiaen, l'Abbe L.J., Historie Chronologique, Politique et Religieuse des Seigneurs et de la Ville de Comines (Courtrai, Belgium, 1892).

Messmer, S.G., "The Reverend Florimond Joseph Bonduel, Wisconsin Pioneer Missionary" in The Salesianum, April 1924 and January 1925, (St. Francis, Wi.).

Moquin, Wayne, and Van Doren, Charles, eds., Great Documents in American Indian History, (New York, 1973).

Pare, George, The Catholic Church in Detroit, (Detroit, Mi., 1951).

Plimpton, F.B., The Lost Child, (Cleveland, Dh., 1852).

Rezek, Antoine Ivan, History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette (Houghton, Mi., 1907).

Rosholt, Malcolm, ..\Tahkom: The Woman of Waupaca (Rosholt, Wi., 1974).

Schaminger, Herman J., Stephen T. Badin, Priest in the Wilderness, (Milwaukee, 1956).

Schoolcraft, Henry R., Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States Vol. II, (Philadelphia, Pa., 1852).

Shea, John Gilmary, The History of the Catholic Church in the United States, four volumes, (New York, 1886-1892).

Skinner, Alanson, "Recollections of an Ethnologist Among the Menomini Indians" in the Wisconsin Archaeologist, Vol. 20,1921.

Smith, Alice E., The History of Wisconsin: From Exploration to Statehood (Madison, Wi., 1973).

Spindler, George and Louise, Dreamers Without Power, the Menomini Indians, (New York, 1971).

230 Trisco, Robert Frederick, The Holy See and the Nascent Church in the Middle Western United States, 1826-1850, (Rome, Italy, 1962).

"The First Chicago Church Records" in Illinois Catholic Historical Review (Chicago, April, 1921). . '

The French in America 1520-1880, (The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1951).

Turner, Katherine C., Red Men Calling on the Great White Father, (Norman, Ok., 1951).

Verwyst, P. Chrysostomus, Life and Labors of Rt. Rev. Frederic Baraga, (Milwaukee, 1900).

Ware, John M., History of Waupaca County, (Chicago, 1917).

Wood, Edwin 0., Historic Mackinac, two volumes, (New York, 1918).

Woodford, Frank B. & Hyma, Albert, eds., Gabriel Richard, Frontier' Ambassador, (Detroit, 1955). ******* Extensive use was made of the Bonduel correspondence found in the Propaganda Fide microfilms, especially the Baraga collcction and Detroit Papers held by the University of Notre Dame archives. About three-quarters of this material is in French, the remainder in English and Latin. Second to the Notre Dame materials is the correspondence in the National Archives, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters Received, Green Bay Agency, 1834-1880. This is also available on microfilm. There are several pertinent letters in the Ewing Papers held by the Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, In., and in the Lawe Family Papers held by the Chicago Historical Society, and one letter to Martha Tanner in the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. Letters from Bonduel to the editors of the Boston Pilot, the Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati) and the New York Catholic Diary have been used in part. Newspapers consulted aside form these include the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Evening Wisconsin (Milwaukee), Oshkosh Democrat, Oshkosh Courier, Green Bay intelligencer, Green Bay Advocate, and the Sheboygan Mercury, all Wisconsin newspapers at one time or another.

231 INDEX

A Abolitionists, 139 ordination, 13 Affidavits on "Council", 121 death of, 13,14,194 Agry, D., 195 last will and testament, 162 Aiame'tah, chief, 79,90,91,96,101,120 Apostolic Missionary, 16,179,180 182 125,145 ' 183,184,192 ', Akine'bui, chief, 92,157 Correspondence with (See Kinepoway) Emily Jenkins, 64 Allouez cemetery, '13,14,35,40 Louis Grignon, 35 Martha Tanner, 25 26 127 American Fur Company, 22,39,87 Meers~nhoven Anthony, Howard, 116 Olislagers de 18 29 Aristi, Monsieur, 74 Paris Couincil, 29,30,32,33:37,157 (Agostin Haraszthy) Solomon Juneau 51 Disputes with ' Arnolds, G. A., 110 Federal government, 91,92,93 Ash'wani'pinas, chief, 101 103 Mme. Vindevoghel, 169-178,180 Assiniboia colony, 70 ' Athenaeum (college), 17 Partridge family 135-140 Atlantic (steamer), 177 William Bruce, 1'16-120 Atwood, Louis A., 64 Expense accounts Awful Disclosures, 34 to Paris Council, 17,18,23 Austin, A. A., 110 to Madison, 50,51 B Journeys to Badin, Stephen T., 27,169 Bay Settiement, 63 Badin, Vincent, 53,55,179 Cincinnati, 13 Baird, Henry, 171 Detroit, 18 Baldi, Bonfiglio, 192 Keshena, 143,144,186,187 "Ball Prairie", 134 Madison, 149,150 Barboncito, chief, 101 Mississippi River 61 66 67 Baraga, Frederic, 31,32,44,64 Pinery of the No'rth,'71:74 Washington, 101 103 104 105 Barnabo, Alessandro, 59,170,171,176, Litigation ", 177,181,183,185 Bonduel vs. Kensler 46 47 Barry, Garret, 65,194 Memorials written ', Barry, John, 110 ~o. the .President, 91,92,94,96,97,182 Beaupre, Louis, 132 MInIsterIal acts Beaupre, Ludwic, 132 Baraboo River, 71,74 Belchere, Angelica, 132 Bay Settlement, 129 Belgians at Bay Settlement, 186 Byron, 128,133 Bell, Charles, 110 Delhi, 132 . "Bellview" cemetery, 40 Fond du Lac, 73 "Big Peter" Minnesota Territory, 70 (See Koshko'shekau) Meetings with Bires, Mary, 11 Chief Oshkosh, 87 Black Hawk, 48,95 Pope Pius IX, 140,163,170,175,176 Blantz, Thomas E., 11 179,182 ' Bleeding practiced, 133 Boheme, Ghislenus Jr., 17 President Fillmore, 104 Bolton, William, 193 Mme. Vindevoghel 170 Bonduel, John Baptist, 15 Missions founded ' Bonduel, Florimond Joseph Bay Settlement, 56 birthplace, 13 ' Byron's Settlement, 73 128 129 Detroit, 18 " birth certificate, 15 232 Duck Creek, 57 House Committee Report,127 Eden, 129 Reply of Bonduel to Bruce, 122-125 Fond du Lac, 73,128 Removal from office. 126 Green Bay, 56 Bruge (Belgium), 18 Kenosha, 38 Bucher (Gebhard Leberecht von Kickapoo River, 60,66 Blucher), 152 Lake St. Croix, 70 Bureau of Indian Affairs L'Anse, 73 (see Indian Department) Milwaukee, 37, 72 Burns, Patrick, 110 Oconto River, 56 Butler, C. E., 110 Oshkosh, 128 Buttrick, Edwin L., 110,137 Patch Grove, 60,66 C Stillwater, 61,68 Carabin, Peter, 63 St. Helena Island, 23 Carboneau, Ludwig, 129 St. Ignace, 23,31 Carron, chief, 79,81,92,101,103,120, St. Michael Archangel, 161 121,125,133,145,155 St. Thomas (Lake Poygan), 129 Carron, Charles, 160 Two Rivers, 57 Cathechism of the Council of Trent, 30 Winnebago Portage, 60 Catholic population in 1853, 165 Naturalization application, 55 Catholic Prayer Book in Menomini, 184 Post Office Catholic Telegraph, 17,59,61,62 Named, 189 Cass, Lewis, 31,33 Views on Cecilia (steamer), 64 Catholic schools, 164,165,185 Chant Democrate, 48 Catholic needs, 19 Che'quetum, chief, 91,101,103 Federal government, 128,164,175, Chesley, Norman, 110 182 "Child of Two Mothers", 139,197-214 Indian religion, see appendix Christian (or as Catholic) Party, 82,92, Liberty, 30 96,103,106,107,120,157,186,187 Mission work,33,56,168,180 Cholera outbreaks, 18,161 Newspapers, 34 Chute, Richard, 88 Protestants, 25,29,30,62,164,165, Clark, Lawrence, 11 185 Clark, S., 110 Bonduel as Cleary, William, 109,111 anthropologist,82,162,166,184 Close, Chester D., 110 author, 140,162,184 "College of Green Bay", 56 lecturer, 162 "College of St. Francis Xavier", 17 poet, 48,146 Colletine Poor Clares, 18,19,20,21,169, school teacher, 20,75,78,94 170,171 "Bonduel's Mound", 129 Collins, C., 110 Borromeo, Edoardo, 175 Comines (Belgium), 15,162 Boston Pilot, quoted, 56,162,185, "Communists" in Wisconsin, 165 190,191 Comparative Description of the Moral Bosworth, M. N., 110 Conditions of the Indian Tribes in Boyd, James. 55 the state of Wisconsin, 162, 215-227 Brass rings, 133 Coon, C. D., 110 Brehm, David M., 11 Cope, Alfred, 79,81,82,84 Broadrick, Patrick, 133 Corps of Topographical Engineers, 118 Broadrick, Marian, 133 Costello, Michael, 110 Broek, Theodore van den. 38 43 44 Cottrell, W. H., 110 61,62,75,76 ',, Coughlan, John, 110 Brown, D. E., 43 Cowley, A. S., 110 Brown, Orlando, 99,100 Cown, George, 77, 87,88,90,92,94,101, Bruce, Charles, 69,70,71 102,103,104,112,113,120,121,124, Bruce, John, 126 126 Bruce, William H., 81,84,92,93,94,96, Crary, George, 110 Crary, L. P., 110 97,99,100,101,102,106,107,108, Crescent (Appleton), 85 109 111,113,114 Cretin, Joseph, 64,111 Indictment of Bonduel, 116-120 233 Crow Wing River, 14,80,81,101,104, Fort Howard, 81,82 110,122,145~154,182 Fort Snelling, 61,74 , D Fourierotes, 165 Daems, Edward, 185,186,192,195 French Republic, 15 Dana, A. F., 110 Fronsoni, Giacomo Filippo, 176 Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul, 165 "Delhi", 132 Densmore, James, 85,97 G Department of Interior, 100,155,182 Galena Gazette & Advertiser, 33 DeSeille, Maria Victoria, 169 General Brooke (steamer), 64 DeSmet, Peter, 16 Goddard, D. C., 123 Desmond (?), Jean Baptiste, 106 Godfert, Anthony, 192 Desnoyers, Francis, 101 Green Bay Advocate, 14,82,84,194 Dodge, Henry, 48 Green Bay Democrat, 55 Domestic and Foreign Missionary Green Bay Intelligencer, 55,97 Society, 43 Green Bay Spectator. 85 Dominican Order, 171 "Grand Kokelin (Kaukauna), 47 Door record, 44 Great Spirit, 70 doppleganger, 193 Green Island, 23 Doty, James Duane, 35,38,112,120, Griffin, James, 110 182 Griffin Manoah, 110 Dousman, Elizabeth, 132 Griffith, W. W., 110 Dousman, George D., 126,127 Grignon, Augustin, 47,82,86,87,142, Dousman, Hercules, 60 147 Dousman, Jane, 44 Grignon, Charles, 47,86,101,103,105, Dousman, John, 44 145,161 Dousman, John,Jr., 195 Grignon, Mrs. C., 60 Dousman, Kate, 44 Grignon, Elizabeth, 35.47 Dousman, Rosalie, 44,78,84,98,133, Grignon, Frances, 161 158,166,177,194,195 Grignon, Louis, 35,47 DuBay, John, 81,82,84,120 Grignon, Peter B., 84 Ducharm, Paul, 44,45,171 Grignon, Robert, 84 Duck Creek (mission), 57 Gross, N. L., 128 Dunlap, J. W., 85 Groucier (?), 152 du Serpent Antique, 78 Gulig, Robert F., 194 Duvosquel, Jean-Marie, 11 E H Eastman, Edward, 110 Haetcher, Francis, 43 Ebert, Robert, 172 Hafner, Edward, 110 Ellis, A. G., 75,76,86,87,92,97,98,116 Episcopaleans, 34,43 Hannibal, 166 Haraszthy, Agostin Ewing, George, 88,89 90,104,111,143, t (see Aristi) 150,151,192 Ewing, Thomas, 99 Henni, John Martin, 18,56,59,62,63, Ewing,William,88,89,104,109,112,113 64,66,67,71,72,75,99,100,122,131, Ewing,William Jr., 109 161,172,173,174,177,180,190 F "Hero of Cannae", 166 Falls of St. Anthony, 67,70 Hicks, DeWitt C., 110 Falls of the Wolf River, 78 Hicks, Henry, 110 "Fence Viewer", 61 Hillsdale College, 140 Fenwich, Edward, 17,18,40,44 Hohenlohe, G., 176 Ferguson, D. W., 11 Hollanders at Bay Settlement, 186 Ferry, William F., 23,30 Holy Cross Order, 182,185,186,190, Fillmore, Millard, 101,104,110,149,182 192 Fish, Arthur, 11 House Committee of Indian Affairs, 127 Fitzgerald, Timothy, 110 Huebschmann, Francis, 14,137,139, Franciscan document, 160 151,154,155 Flemish missionaries, 16 Hulihan, Francis, 110 Flynn, Thomas, 110 Hunter, John, 110 Forbes, John, 110 Hutchinson, Hiram, 110 Ford, Chester, 110 Hyde, Welcome, 187 234 I Juneau, Eugene, 131 "Indian agents, 76,86,89 Juneau, Frank, 131 Indian burian in trees, 19 Juneau, Harriet, 131 Indian Department, 99,107,108 137, Juneau, Isabell, 132 139,146 Juneau, Josette, 52,131,132 Indians in Wisconsin-Michigan Juneau, Louis, 132 Brothertown, 43 Juneau, Magdalena, 131 Chippewa, 23,33,79,182 Juneau, Margaret, 131 Fox, 19,76 Juneau, Marie, 132 Huron, 23 Juneau, Mathilda, 131 Munsee,43 Juneau, Narcissus, 52,131 Oneida, 43 Juneau, Paul, 131 Ottawa, 23,27,33 Juneau, Solomon, 37,38,52,65,84, Outagamie, 19 130,131,132,147,151 Potawatomi, 22,23,44,76,79 "Juneau Homestead", 130 Stockbridge, 43,111 K Winnebago, 23,62,76,182 Indians, Menomini Karol, Bernard, 11 Christians, 75,77,78,85,87,92,103, Keep, A. W., 110 111,123,150, Kelly, Patrick, 44 Claims against, 87,91,92,102,103, Kenedy, Michael, 110 104,112 Kensler, Charles, 46,47 Culture, 79,82,84,95,157,163,183 Keshena, chief, 79,.91,101,103,157, Difficulties with Irish, 106,107 160,161 - Diseases, 77 Keshena Falls, 78 Education, 75,76,78,86,87 Kimball, Richard, 110 Farmers, 79,85,160 Kinepoway, chief, 91,192 Leaders, 79 Know Nothing Party, 180 Letter to President, 145 Kosaewkwei, Monique, 129 Migration to Keshena, 78,143,145 Kosko'shekau, 135,136 Mixed-bloods, 81,82 Kundig, Martin, 18,20 Pagans, 111,126,157 Population, 78,79,81,146 Relations with Catholic Church,75, L 79,82,95,111 Laborde, Luco (?), 132 Relations with Government, 81,84,85, Lady Elgin disaster, 65 96,98,101,102,104,114 LaFramboise, Joseph, 129 Reservation described, 148,149 Lake St. Croix, 70,71 Resolution in Legislature, 149,150 la Mission D ~Oconer, 18 Treaty ofthe Cedars, 76,88,154 la Mission de la Riviere Rouge, 18 Treaty of Keshena, 160 LaMotte, chief, 79,82,89,92,96,101, Treaty of Lake Poygan, 80,84,85, 102,120,.121,125,145 88,90,96,98,101,102,114,153, Langlais, Joseph, 184 183 LaPlante, Jean Baptiste, 129 Indians as non-persons, 142 l'Arbre Croche, 19,23,27,28,53 Irwin,Robert, 40 Larishe (?), 129 "Laughing Hyena" J (see Che'qui'tum) Jacobs, John B., 105,112,113,153 Lawe, George, 78,104,113,114,115, Jean de la Fontain quoted, 33 134,135,137,145,189 Jenkins, Emily, 64,65,128 Lawe, John, 47,61,82 Johnson, AJexander, 194 Lawe, Rachel, 47 Johnson, David, 110 Lawe, Maria M., 55 Johnson, Peter Leo, 37 Lawrence College, 165 Johnson, Sister Dorothy, 11 Lea, Luke, 137,139 Jones, David, 76,150 Lee, Francis, 107,108 Juneau, Bonduel, 52,132 Lefevre, David, 132 Juneau,Charlotte, 131 Lefevre, Peter Paul, 29,53,54,57,59, Juneau, Elizabeth, 131 172,173 Juneau, Ellen, 132 Leitermann, C. Luke, 11 235 Leopoldine Association, 16,29 Mix, Charles E., 101,102 "Limestone Ridge", 185 Mo'qkoma'n, 76 Lincoln's message to Congress, 193 Moore, John, 11 Little Wave, chief, 91,120,130 Mulligan, John, 110 Liquor traffic, 53,86,87,88,92,104 Murphy, Dennis, 110 Long Knives, 76 Murray, Elias Loras, Mathias, 52,123 As superintendent, 92,93,99,104,115 Lords Prayer in Menomini, 146 120,121,122,125,126,137,139 Lord Wellington, 152 In Keshena, 143,144 Loughery, A. G., 101 In Council, 145 Lucillus, 115 Requests food for Indians, 146,147 Lutun, Marie Katherine, 15 Murray, Harvey L., 145,158,159,160 Lynch, James, 110 Murray, Julius, 93,139,158 N M Nadjilabikwe (?), Julian, 131 Nahkom Machinac Island, 21,22,38 Madam Durant, 51 Abduction of son, 139 Madam Porlier, 61 Apprehended, 135,136 Madeline Island, 44,64 Court Trial. 137,140-142 Male Orphan Asylum, 194 Story given Pius IX, 175 Malroy, Edward, 110 Story of lite by Bonduel, 140 Manahan, Benjamin, 65,69 Nakam et son fils Nigabianong ou Manypenny, George, 114,155 l'enfant perdu, 140 Map of Menominee Reservation, 147 Napoleon, 15,78,152 Marie Monk, 34 Napoleon (schooner), 22 Marini, Peter, 177 Nechere, Leo de, 21 Marshal Ney, 152 New York Catholic Diary, 20,27,28,34 Martin, Morgan L., 97,98,111,116 "New York Indians", 43 Martin, Louis, 54 Neville Museum, 55 Marx, Joseph A., 48,194 Nigabianong,140 Mason, Stevens T., 31 Nolan, Andrew, 110 Mazzuchelli, Samuel, 26,40,43,44, Northwest Ordinance, 93 60,61,169,171,184 Norris, John William, 180 'McCall, James, 110 Nojoshing, 190 McCullum, Cornelius, 110 "Nunnery Hill", 169 McGeorge, Edward, 152 o McGill, Eva, 193 Oshehena'nieu, chief, 91,120 McGinnes, Michael, 110 Oshkosh, chief,76,81,82,86,87,90,91, McGrath, Dennis, 110 101,103,142,145,160,161,164 McLaughlin, Patrick, 110 Oshkosh Courier, quoted, 137 McVay, John, 110 Oshkosh Democrat,quoted, 85,137,141 Madamineus (?), Paul, 131 143,144 Meade, David P., 47 Oshkosh House, 110 Meade, Mary, 47 Ostensorium, 54,55 Medill, William, 81,86,88,89,90,97,98, Olcott, Lucius, 110 102,109,110,114,153,154 Ozawaniphevid (?), John, 130 Menan, Josette Margaritte, 131 Menominee Purchase, 80,151 p Meersenhoven, Olislagers de, 18,29, Partridge, Alvin, 134,135,136,137 53,59,66,75,78 Partridge, Caspar, 134,135,142 Messmer, S. G., 15 Partr~dge, Fred, 134,135,136 Methodist Episcopal Church PartrIdge, George, 134 (Oshkosh), 136 Partridge, "Joseph", 140 Military Road, 40,46,170,193 Partridge, Loretta, 134 Minerva Hotel, 175 Partridge, Lucia, 134,135,136,138 Milwaukee Sentinel, quoted, 38,80, Partridge, Lucinda, 134 139,144,155 Partridge, Wakeman, 134 Mission de St. Franciois Xavier en la Partridge, William, 136, 140 Baye des Puants, 54 Parkinson, R., 110 236 "Payground", 76,77,87,109,113,136, Salve Regine, 188 139 Sautelli, Toussaint, 53 "Payment time", 85,104,151 Schaeffer, Bernard, 37 Payment at Green Bay, 80,81,96 Schoolcraft, Henry R., 22,27,33,85,93 Pays d'en haut, 22 Schoolcraft, James, 27 Perjury charges, 123 Selkirk, Lord, 70 Perrault, John Baptist, 54 Seward, William, 115 Perret, Maurice E., 11 "Shantee Town" Perrodin, John C., 195 (see "Shanty Town") Perrot, Nicholas, 54 "Shanty Town", 13,35,39,40 43,44 Phoenix, William, 126 57,62,63,169,170,171 Pierce, Franklin, 26 Shawano, chief, 91 Pierce, John K., 26 Sheboygan Mercury, quoted, 144,145 Pig's Eye, 67 Shepard, Bradley, 110 Pierz, Francis, 26 Shopodock, chief, 79,91,120,121,122, Pipe Village, 63 125 Pope Gregory, XVI, 59 Shopodock, David, 133 Pope Leo IX, 140,163,170,175,176, Shu'nu'ni'u 179,182 (see Souligny) Porlier, Joseph, 61 Simpson, Helen, 11 Plante, H., 1 72 Sisters of Charity, 72 Powell, William, 81,84,98,101,105 Skolla, Otto, 161,187 120,121,122,126,159,195 Slocum, John, 110 Prefect of the Propaganda Fide, 59 Smith, Alva, 195 Presbyterian Home Mission Board, Society for the propagation of the 31 Faith, 16,18,57,72,162,164 Prickett, Talbot, 112,113,120,126 Solomon, Vitallus, 45 "Priest Woman", 78 Souligny, chief, 91,101,102,103,141 "Private Claims", 39,170 142,145,157 ProtoSacerdos Detroitensis, 26 South West Company, 69 Proust, Joseph, 43 Spaulding, Mrs., 109 Purcell, John B., 53 State Historical Society of Q Wisconsin, 55 Quaker Friends, 81 Stage line, 64 R St. Ann's Cathedral (Detroit), 13,18, Rapity, Charles, .195 54 Rapsaet (?), 18,29 St. Ann's Church (Mackinac), 22,23 Rauch, Joseph F., 11 St. Clare Academy, 18,20,26 Raymond, August, 110 St. Francis Seminary, 180,190 Reardon, H. H., 110 St. Francis Xavier mission (Green Redemptorist Fathers, 43,44 Bay), 40,45 Red River Mission, 67,70 St. Francis Xavier mission (Poygan), Reed, L' B" 110 76,79 Reeds, O. B., 110 St. Gabriel's Church (Prairie du Rese, Frederic, 18,20,21,26,27,29, Chien), 59,64 31,34,38,43,45,169,171 St. Gall's Church (Milwaukee), Richard, Gabriel, 19,23 161,164,166 Ripley, S., 110 St. Ignatius mission (DePere), 192 Robinson, David, 110 St. John's Cathedral (Green Bay), 132, Ropella, C. A., 11 165,190 Rolette, Deuve, 60 St. John's Church ("Shanty Town"), Roulers (Belgium), 15,16,53 13,40,43,47,55,192 Ryan, Patrick, 110 St. Joseph Church (Fond du Lac), 128 Ryan, Samuel Jr., 85,97 St. Joseph mission (Michigan), 19,45 S St. Mary's Church (Chicago), 37 Sacred Heart Center, 55 St. Michael Archangel (Keshena), 161, Saenderl, Simon, 28,143 166 Sa'Kituk, chief, 79,91 St. Norbert's College, 56 Sale of government lands, 35 St. Paul's Church (Mineral Point), 180

237 St. Paul mission (Minnesota Territory), Lake Poygan, 80,84,85,88,90, 67,68 96,101,114,153,183 St. Peter's Church (Milwaukee), 38 Ottawa-Chippewa, 33 St. Peter's mission (Oconto), 192 St. Peter mission (Minnesota V Territory), 67 Vatican Museum, 166 St. Philippi Collef;!e, 34 "Vermonter's camp", 135 St. Roch Church (Paris), 162 Veritas, quoted, 33 St. Thomas Church (Poygan), 108 Villa Louis, 60 Stevens, Jedidiah D., 30,31 Vindevoghel, Mary Francis, Stillwater (Minnesota Territory), 68, In Detroit, 18,121 69,70 In Rome, 169-178,180 Stone, William L., 34 Vivaldi, F. de, 184 Stuart, A. H. H., 116 Vogt, Anton, 110 Stuart, Robert, 22 Voorhes, John V. C., 110 Sugar camp, 134 Sullustius Scriba, 115 W Wabiquet, Lawrence, 131 T Wabiquet, Madelena, 131 Tako, chief, 91,130 Wabiquet, Rosalie, 131 Takwagoine (?), 133 Walker, Isaac P., 151,152,154 Tanner, John, 26,27 Wardenton, J., 188 Tanner, Martha, 25,26,127 War Eagle (steamer). 64 Taylor, Zachary, 81,87,101,182 Wa'ta'sa, chief, 91 Teanveau, Charlotte, 129 Waukechon, chief, 91,101,102,145 Temperance societies, 53,87 "Waupaca Falls", 135 "the Falcon", 27 Webster, 'F. B., 110 "the Indian land", 88,89 Welch, J., 193 White Pigeon, (schooner), 22 The Pinery, (Stevens Point), 97 Whitney, Daniel, 39 "Theresa Town", 130 Wild, J. C., 61 Thompson, Ashel, 138 Wiley, John, 132,187 Thompson, Richard R., Wiley, John D., 132 as attorney, 90,102,109,112,113, Williams, Eleazar, 43 114,115 on migration to Keshena, 143­ William Penn, 81 144 Windebononkwe (?), Josette, 130 on bill to recover "Thompson "Winnecone Settlement", 88 claim", 154,155,156,160 Wistar, Thomas Jr., 81,82,84,96 the "Thompson claim", 114 Wi tta, Theresa, 131 Tournay (Belgium), 14, 17,29 Wolcott, Charles, 110 Trading posts, 77,130 Wright, Edmund, 110 Treaties Wright, George T., 110,114,123 Cedars, 76,88,154 Writ of Habeas Corpus, 139 Keshena, 160

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