French Explorers

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French Explorers
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• We have already studied that the Earliest Native
  inhabitants of Wisconsin probably arrived in the
  region around eleven thousand years ago after
  migrating across the North America continent on
  foot.

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• Indians arrived in the Wisconsin area around 10,
  000 B.C. as the glaciers moved north into Canada.
  Many Indian tribes lived here when the French
  explorers arrived in 1634.

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Jean Nicolet

• In 1634, Samuel de Champlain (leader of the
  French colony of New France) sent Jean Nicolet to
  explore the area that today is Wisconsin and
  Michigan.

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Jean Nicolet

• Nicolet canoed along the Lake Michigan shore of
  Michigans Upper Peninsula. He was seeking a
  water route to the Pacific Ocean, but the waters
  took him only as far west as Green Bay,
  Wisconsin.

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Pierre Radisson and Sieur des Groseilliers

• In 1654,French explorers Pierre Radisson and
  Sieur des Groseilliers traveled to Wisconsin.
  They came to trade furs (pelts) with the Indians.

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Pierre Radisson and Sieur des Groseilliers

• After the French government upset Radisson and
  Groseilliers, they started selling furs to the
  English. In 1670, they formed the Hudson Bay
  Company. It became the largest fur company in the
  world.

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• Some of the Europeans to reach Wisconsin wanted
  to convert the Natives to Christianity. Many
  missionaries where sent to do religious work and
  attempt to persuade or convert the Native
  Americans.

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Rene Menard

• Around 1660 the Roman Catholic priest Rene Menard
  opened a mission on the Chippewa River with the
  hope of converting Hurons. When the Hurons moved
  away, Menard followed them he was never heard
  from again.

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Claude Allouez

• In 1665, after Menard, the next missionary to
  Wisconsin was Father Claude Allouez. Allouez
  built a good mission at a place called La Pointe
  near where the city of Ashland is now. Allouez
  celebrated the first mass in the Fox Valley.

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Nicholas Perrot

• Europeans also wanted to trade for furs with the
  Indians. For a time, only the Ottawa traded with
  the French. In 1671 Nicholas Perrot went to the
  Algonquian tribes and persuaded them to be loyal
  to France and to trade with him.

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Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet

• The governor of New France wanted to claim as
  much land as possible for France. He sent men to
  explore Louis Jolliet, a fur trader and Father
  Jacques Marquette, a missionary.

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Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet

• Marquette and Jolliet canoed into Green Bay in
  1673 and down the Fox River. They explored
  farther than any Europeans had before.

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Robert de La Salle

• In 1679, Indians near Green Bay saw a large
  sailing ship. It looked like a giant house
  floating on the waters of Green Bay. The ship,
  the Griffin, had been built by the explorer,
  Robert de La Salle. It could carry many more furs
  and supplies than a canoe could.

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Robert de La Salle

• La Salle explored the Mississippi Valley. He was
  the first European to travel down the river to
  the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed
  the lands on both sides of the river for France.

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Daniel Duluth

• Another French explorer in Wisconsin was Daniel
  Duluth. Duluth went by canoe down the St. Croix
  River to the Mississippi in the late 1670s.

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Daniel Duluth

• While exploring, Duluth made peace between the
  Sioux tribes and their enemies. They gave him
  some salt. Since ocean water is salty, Duluth
  thought that this might be the western ocean was
  looking for. No explorers yet knew about the
  Great Salt Lake in now Utah.

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The French Explorers of Wisconsin

• Now after knowing briefly about some of the
  explorers, you are now able to study these
  explorers in more detail.

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• Each student will choose 2 explorers or
  explorer partners to study. You will then select
  2 activities to complete. You will be responsible
  for presenting 1 of your activities to the class.

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Think about the following Guiding Questions
when working on your activities

• Who did your explorer meet?
• Who did your explorer travel with?
• Where did your explorer go?
• How did your explorer get there?
• When did your explorer travel?
• Why did your explorer come here in the first
  place?
• What was your explorers affect on the people he
  met?
• What happened to your explorer after his journey
  ended?

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• Have Fun!