WISCONSIN MAGAZINE of HISTORY J the State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol
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WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY j The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 58, No. 1 • Autumn, 1974 ^^^^^^^^^^t^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K^^K *M ^^K «>f- THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN JAMES MORTON SMITH, Director Officers HOWARD W. MEAD, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President F. HARWOOD ORBISON, Treasurer ROGER E. AXTELL, Second Vice-President JAMES MORTON SMITH, Secretary Board of Curators Ex Officio PATRICK J. LUCEY, Governor of the State JOHN C. WEAVER, President of the University ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, President of the CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 197! E. DAVID CRONON JOHN C. GEILFUSS LLOYD HORNBOSTEL, JR. FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA, S.J, Madison Milwaukee Beloit Milwaukee SCOTT M. CUTLIP BEN GUTHRIE ROBERT H. IRRMANN J. WARD RECTOR Madison Lac du Flambeau Beloit Milwaukee ROBERT A. GEHRKE MRS. R. L. HARTZELL JOHN R. PIKE CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Ripon Grantsburg Madison Stevens Point Term Expires, 1976 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK L OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Madison Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Term Expires, 1977 ROGER E. AXTELL PAUL E. HASSETT ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MiLO K. SWANTON Janesville Madison Madison Madison HORACE M. BENSTEAD WILLIAM HUFFMAN MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Racine Wisconsin Rapids Milwaukee Rhinelander REED COLEMAN WARREN P. KNOWLES WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Madison Milwaukee Nashotah Baraboo Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary MRS. DAVID S. FRANK, Madison, President MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville, Treasurer MRS. CHARLES E. PAIN, JR., Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. GORDON R. WALKER, Racine, Ex Officio MRS. WADE H. MOSBY, Milwaukee, Secretary ON THE COVER: Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy strikes a characteristic pose during the October 2}, 1960, rally held at the University of Wisconsin Field House. In this (traniatically lighted picture, a Milwaukee Journal photographer has captured a sense of the tension and enthusiasm that attended the presidential camf)aigning of that year. Volume 58, Number 1 / Autumn, 1974 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of The Fur Trade in the Upper Mississippi Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Valley, 1630-1850 3 Distributed to members as part Rhoda R. Gilman of their dues. (Annual member ship, $7.50, or $5 for those over 65 or members of affiliated The Political Education of an American Radical: societies; family membership, $10, or $7 for those over 65 or Thomas R. Amlie in the 1930's 19 members of affiliated societies; Theodore Rosenof contributing, $25; business and professional, $50; sustaining, $100 or more annually; patron, The Ku Klux Klan in Madison, 1922-1927 31 $500 or more annually.) Single numbers $1.75. Microfilmed Robert A. Goldberg copies available through University Microfilms, 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, The Kennedy Image: Michigan; reprint volumes available from Kraus Reprint Politics, Camelot, and Vietnam 45 Corporation, 16 East 46th Street, Kent M. Beck New York, New York 10017. Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Book Reviews 56 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second- Book Review Index 64 class postage paid at Madison and Stevens Point, Wis. Copyright © 1974 by the State Wisconsin History Checklist 65 Historical Society of Wisconsin. Paid tor in part by the Maria Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth L. and Simeon Mills Editorial Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society 68 Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. Contributors 88 WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD EDITOR WILLIAM C. MARTEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOHN O. HOLZHUETER EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Wi"i"lJI«imi|ii " ^^yT--m^'' •y ./ <%.f' r •^ «• jMe Society's Iconographic Collectio A rare and hitherto unpublished daguerreotype of an unidentified Woodland Indian, wearing an otter fur turban. Details such as his peace medal and pipe were retouched at some time with gilt paint. The Fur Trade in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1630—1850 By Rhoda R. Gilman 'HE North American fur trade Although the sequence of events is shadowy meant many different things in and partly based on guesswork, there is reason different times and places. It was the first to believe that in the 1630's the Winnebago, economic Hnk by which Europeans reached a tribe of the Siouan language group, who out to grasp the weaUh of a new continent. were then the most powerful and numerous It was the first avenue through wliich native people in Wisconsin, refused to co-operate Americans adapted their traditional cuUures in the trading operations of the Ottawa and to deal with the technology and commerce possibly made overtures to the Iroquois.^ of Europe. And for more than two centuries A war resulted in which the Winnebago were it was the main channel through which these crushingly defeated by a coalition of tribes two widely different worlds came into contact. led by the Ottawa and Huron. At this time The vibrations set up by that contact travel or somewhat later a number of Algonquian- ed swiftly from the eastern seacoast to the very speaking groups from Michigan moved west heart of the continent. In the upper Mis ward into the central Wisconsin area formerly sissippi Valley the fur trade had begun to occupied by the Winnebago. They may have affect the lives of people long before any been drawn by the quest for fur or pushed Europeans reached the area. By the mid- by pressure from the Iroquois. Among them 1630's shiploads of beaver and other pelts were probably the Fox, Sauk, and Potawa- were regularly leaving the French ports of tomi.^ eastern Canada. These were supplied not In 1648-1650 the Iroquois attacked and by local trapping, but by Indian middlemen virtually destroyed the Huron and Ottawa who traded European goods for furs far into south and east of Lake Huron. The survivors the interior of the continent. The leading of these tribes scattered. Some joined forces dealers in French goods were the Ottawa and fled westward. At first they took shelter and Huron tribes. Their competitors, the with the Algonquian tribes near Green Bay Iroquois, were supplied largely by Dutch traders.^ " Emma Helen Blair (ed. and trans.). The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region ' For general discussions of the beginnings of the of the Great Lakes (Cleveland, 1911), 1:293. fur trade and the role of Indian middlemen, see " George E. Hyde, Indians of the Woodlands from Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada (Toronto, Prehistoric Times to 1725 (Norman, 1962), 95-102, 1956), 23-45; E. Palmer Patterson II, The Canadian 116-118, 127; Louise Phelps Kellogg, The French Indian: A History Since 1500 (Don Mills, Ontario, Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1972), 66-69; W. J. Eccles, The .Canadian Frontier, 1925), 82, 93-95; Emerson F. Greenman, The Indians 1534^1760 (Toronto and New York, 1969), 12-34. of Michigan (Lansing, 1961), 25. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1974 in central Wisconsin. A few stayed there, and woolen cloth; and a variety of decorative others pushed on, one group reportedly going materials—from venuilion ceremonial paint as far as Iowa. During the 1650's some of to glass beads.8 these bands gradually drew together and re Only , in a narrowly material sense did established their trading operations.** In 1654 their way of life become more European; and again in 1656 they sent expeditions to nevertheless there were other adjustments. Montreal that returned safely with supplies of The need for furs to exchange increased the European goods.^ By 1660 the Ottawa were importance of hunting. By its very nature located in a permanent village at Chequame- hunting involved a more roving life than gon Bay on the south shore of Lake Superior, agriculture. For farming tribes like the where the Huron soon joined them.^ Huron, who lived in permanent towns and Throughout the next decade this was the depended almost wholly on crops for a liveli fur trade center for the entire upper Missis hood, this required a major adaptation. sippi Valley and western Great Lakes region. Either they had to de-emphasize farming or Tribes from as far south as Iowa, as far north find sources of fur through trade with other as Lake Nipigon, and west to the edge of the groups. The Huron chose the latter course, plains obtained European goods through the and building upon a trade in furs and skins Ottawa. In 1659, 1660, 1663, 1665, 1667, and which no doubt existed long before the com- 1668 fleets of canoes loaded with furs jour ing of white men, they created a short-lived neyed to the St. Lawrence and returned with commercial empire.*" the firearms, fabrics, and metal tools that were Tribes whose subsistence was more evenly beginning to change the lives of Indian divided between agriculture and hunting people.'' might lengthen the hunting season and aban The new technology and the far-flung com don permanent village sites or move them mercial relationships that accompanied it had to take advantage of favorable trading loca a tremendous impact upon Indian society. tions. Northern tribes like the Chippewa The changes that resulted, however, repre and Sioux, whose economies were already sented adaptations by Native Americans, based largely on hunting, found the adjust rather than destruction or abandonment of ment easier than the rest, and as the impor their own cultures.* Indians were extremely tance of the fur trade grew, their influence selective in their demand for European goods.