La Baye was a small trading post established on the Baie des Puants in 1634 by Jean Nicolet. Nicolas Perrot, who was sent by Father Claude-Jean Allouez, continued the work that Nicolet had started. In 1671, the Jesuits constructed a mission. Fort La Baye was thus constructed in 1717. The town of La Baye was incorporated in 1754. At the end of the Seven Years' War, it went under British control in 1761 and was renamed Green Bay. [1]
By 1718, there were some Métis families in the very broad area of the fort, but no settlement focused on it specifically. Other families settled across the river from the fort in an area which was called Munnomonee, because of the Menominee native people that lived there.
It was not until 1763 that concerted civilian settlement by people with some European ancestry began in the area. The first settlement in that year was led by Charles de Langlade, who was the son of a French-Canadian father and an Odawa mother. Most of the families had come to La Baye from the Mackinac area. [2]
In 1816 La Baye had a population of about 40 families, who were virtually all Métis. [3] In the summer of 1820 La Baye was estimated by Henry Schoolcraft to have 500 inhabitants, all essentially Métis or at least in Métis families, that is even if they could be called clearly French, Odawa, or some other Native American group, their spouse was of a different group. [4]
The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued on into the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, rice, sugar, and furs.
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area, covering 4.35 square miles (11.3 km2) in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was long home to an Odawa settlement and previous indigenous cultures before European colonization began in the 17th century. It was a strategic center of the fur trade around the Great Lakes. Based on a former trading post, Fort Mackinac was constructed on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the site of two battles during the War of 1812 before the northern border was settled and the US gained this island in its territory.
Emmet County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,694. The county seat is Petoskey.
Isle La Motte is an island in Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont, United States. At 7 mi by 2 mi, it lies close to the place that the lake empties into the Richelieu River. It is incorporated as a New England town in Grand Isle County. Its population was 471 at the 2010 census.
Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is 581 feet (177 m) above sea level and 112 miles (180 km) north of Milwaukee. As of the U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2019 estimate, Green Bay had a population of 104,578, making it the third-largest in the state of Wisconsin, after Milwaukee and Madison, and the third-largest city on Lake Michigan's west shore, after Chicago and Milwaukee.
Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, born Antoine Laumet, was a French explorer and adventurer in New France which stretched from Eastern Canada to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico. He rose from a modest beginning in Acadia in 1683 as an explorer, trapper, and a trader of alcohol and furs, and he achieved various positions of political importance in the colony. He was the commander of Fort de Buade in St. Ignace, Michigan, in 1694. In 1701, he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit ; he was commandant of the fort until 1710. Between 1710 and 1716, he was the governor of Louisiana, although he did not arrive in that territory until 1713.
The Odawa, said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They have long had territory that crosses the current border between the two countries, and they are federally recognized as Native American tribes in the United States and have numerous recognized First Nations bands in Canada. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe and Potawatomi peoples.
Jean Nicolet (Nicollet), Sieur de Belleborne was a French coureur des bois noted for exploring Lake Michigan, Mackinac Island, Green Bay, and being the first European to set foot in what is now the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
The Métis are Indigenous peoples in Canada and parts of the United States who are unique in being of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry. In Canada, they are considered a distinct culture, and are one of three groups of Canadian Indigenous peoples referenced in the Constitution.
French Americans or Franco-Americans, are citizens or nationals of the United States who identify themselves with having full or partial French or French Canadian heritage, ethnicity and/or ancestral ties. On the French-Canadians see French Canadian Americans.
Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Detroit was a fort established on the west bank of the Detroit River by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701. In the 18th century, French colonial settlements developed on both sides of the river, based on the fur trade, missions and farms.
Nicolas Perrot (c.1644–1717), a French explorer, fur trader, and diplomat, was one of the first European men to travel in the Upper Mississippi Valley, in what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Nicolet, Quebec is the county seat of Nicolet-Yamaska Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 7,828. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nicolet.
Madeline La Framboise (1780–1846), born Marguerite-Magdelaine Marcot, was one of the most successful fur traders in the Northwest Territory of the United States, in the area of present-day western Michigan. Of mixed Odawa and French descent, she was fluent in the Odawa, French, English and Ojibwe languages of the region, and partnered with her husband. After he was murdered in 1806, she successfully managed her fur trade business for more than a decade, even against the competition of John Jacob Astor. After retiring from the trade, she built a fine home on Mackinac Island.
Louis-François Laflèche,, was a Catholic bishop of the diocese of Trois-Rivières, in the province of Quebec, Canada.
In 1666, the French built a fort, on Isle La Motte, to protect Canada from the Iroquois. The fort was dedicated to Saint Anne. Fort Sainte Anne was the most vulnerable to attacks by the Iroquois, because it was the last of five forts stretching along the Richelieu River going south. The other four were Fort Richelieu, Fort Chambly, Fort Sainte Thérèse and Fort Saint-Jean.
Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy had the forts built by four companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. The first three forts were built in 1665, and the other two in 1666. By the end of 1665, three of the five Iroquois Nations made peace in Quebec City. The Canadien Governor, Daniel de Courcelle, sent Tracy in the Fall of 1666 with 1,200 men, along with Hurons and Algonquins to attack the two Iroquois Nations resisting, the Mohawks and the Oneidas. The Mohawks ran away into the forest, and the following year, peace was made with the two Nations. The peace continued for seventeen years.
Fort La Baye was a French military post at La Baye, which was built in 1717, and occupied until 1760.
Nicolas Antoine Coulon, chevalier de Villiers was born in 1683, and died in 1733. He was an officer in New France.
Agatha de LaVigne Biddle (1797–1873) was a woman of Odawa and French heritage, who primarily identified with her Odawa kin. She resided on Mackinac Island during the fur trade era and after. She acted as a partner with her husband in running their fur trade business, and Biddle was known as a shrewd businesswoman and her kinship connections were an integral part of the Biddle business. She was pivotal in the negotiations of the 1855 Treaty of Detroit where she used her relationships with local Indigenous peoples and settlers to negotiate on behalf of the Odawa peoples. Biddle was also renowned for her charity, and the aid she provided to her community, including needy children. The home she shared with her husband, independent fur trader Edward Biddle, known as Biddle House, still stands on Mackinac Island and was the site of many local gatherings. Agatha Biddle will be inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on October 18, 2018.
