Into the Unknown Country:
Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet Journey down the Mississippi River, 1673-76
Isaac Wegner
Senior Division
Historical Paper
2499 Words
Introduction
Father Marquette raised his calumet as the expedition approached an unknown Indian
village. The peaceful intent the calumet represented did not seem to be working as the Quapaw
encircled his canoe and prepared to attack: “In vain I showed the calumet, and made them signs
that we were not coming to war against them. The alarm continued, and they were already
preparing to pierce us with arrows from all sides, when God suddenly touched the hearts of the
old men, who were standing at the water’s edge. This no doubt happened through the sight of our
calumet, which they had not clearly distinguished from afar; but as I did not cease displaying it,
they were influenced by it, and checked the ardor of their young men.”1 The calumet, or peace
pipe, saved the French. Without it, the expedition that opened the Mississippi to French trade and
colonization would have met a premature end in the muddy river. Fortunately for Jacques
Marquette and Louis Jolliet, it did not. Their encounters and exchanges with Native Americans
matter because their expedition was part of the broader contest for empire and wealth between
the Spanish, English, and French—all of whom wanted to control the vast wealth that flowed
down the Mississippi.
Europeans in Indian Country
In 1671, Governor Frontenac of Quebec declared that the Midwest was part of the French
Empire.2 Marquette and Jolliet learned of this edict at the Sault Sainte Marie mission. Marquette
and Jolliet discussed the possibility of an expedition down the Mississippi and were granted
1
Jacques Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage in Voyages of Marquette in the Jesuit Relations by Jacques
Marquette, ed. Reuben Thwaites (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1966), 151.
2
"Louis Jolliet 1673-1694, Virtual Museum of New France." 2014. 1 Mar. 2016.
http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/the-explorers/louis-jolliet-1673-1694/.
1
permission after Jolliet traveled to Quebec to talk with Governor Frontenac.3 They wanted to
explore this area to see its possibilities for French colonization. French empire-building
developed in contrast with the English but especially the Spanish, who had established an earlier
foothold in the Americas. According to the Black Legend, the Spanish were especially brutal
colonizers who used violence, enslavement, and rape as tools in their conquest of Native
Americans, especially the Aztec.4 During Spanish colonization, the cross accompanied the sword
as Franciscan missionaries attempted to convert native peoples to Catholicism. Priests
established missions in Central and South America, and California, where they tried to convert
Indians by resettling them, forcing them to adopt Spanish culture, and treating them as slave
laborers. Not all missionaries accepted these practices. Bartolome de las Casas advocated for an
end to the worst abuses by soldiers and priests, including enslavement and sexual exploitation of
Indian women.5
The Spanish crown also sent explorers—known as conquistadors—into North America.
These were heavily armed military forces led by men like Hernando De Soto, who went on a
violent rampage through the lower Mississippi River Valley, roughly the same area that would
be visited by Marquette and Jolliet. De Soto’s journey began in modern-day Florida and
proceeded through Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.6 De Soto and his army pillaged
countless native villages for food, clothing, women and slaves.7 De Soto’s men spread disease,
3
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 87.
William Carter, Indian Alliances and the Spanish in the Southwest, 750-1750 (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2009), 86-87.
5
Robert Jackson, and Edward Castillo, Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission
System on California Indians (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1995), 1-8. Stephen Hyslop Contest
of California from Spanish Colonization to the American Conquest (Norman: Arthur H. Clark Company, 2012), 1118.
6
Carter, Indian Alliances, 3.
7
Carter, Indian Alliances, 278-280.
4
2
causing massive depopulation of Native Americans.8 Although De Soto’s and Marquette and
Jolliet’s journeys were separated by 120 years, tribes like the Quapaw remembered De Soto’s
heinous acts, which made them distrust all Europeans, including the French.
The French took a different approach to Indian relations. In the early 1600s, the French
began to trade with native peoples in the Saint Lawrence River Valley, including the Abenaki,
Iroquois, and Huron. They attempted to build their New World Empire through the fur trade,
which became their main source of wealth. French fur traders—the courier du bois—set out into
the pays d’en haut, or Indian country, which included the northeast and Great Lakes, with trade
goods and guns to exchange for furs. Being a fur trader was a dangerous job because traders
travelled alone with little support from French colonial officials. They had to hunt and portage
their canoes to reach the interior, and many times they depended upon Indian guides for
assistance and protection. Some of the traders married Native American women, who provided
material support, companionship, biracial métis children, and kinship ties.9
The French adapted to Native American trade practices; economic exchange was seen as
a social transaction built on reciprocity and gift giving where each side incurred duties and
obligations that were used to create and maintain social ties and diplomatic alliances.10
Marquette’s partner on the expedition, Louis Jolliet was an experienced fur trader richly steeped
in these traditions. Jolliet proved to be very capable in creating ties with Indians, which earned a
8
Carter, Indian Alliances, 357-360.
Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounters in the Western Great Lakes
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001), 5; Sylvia Van Kirk Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade
Society, 1670-1870 (Winnipeg: Watson and Dwyer Publishing Ltd., 1983), 6.
10
Bruce White “Give Us a Little Milk”: The Social and Cultural Significance of Gift Giving in the Lake Superior
Fur Trade,” in Rethinking the Fur Trade: Cultures of Exchange in an Atlantic World, ed. Susan Sleeper-Smith
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), 118-120.
9
3
substantial profit for his brother, who funded his ventures.11 The French and Native Americans
created what historian Richard White called the middle ground, a physical space and type of
relationship that “depended on the inability of both sides to gain their ends through force. The
middle ground grew according to the need of people to find a means, other than force, to gain the
cooperation or consent of foreigners.”12 The middle ground was a place where French colonists
and Native Americans pursued their own interests through mutual negotiation for economic and
diplomatic success.13 Historian Brett Rushforth complicates the story by arguing that the FrenchIndian alliance was also built upon the gifting of Indian slaves, another object for alliance
building.14
The French also believed that saving Indian souls was an important part of colonization.
Instead of resettling Indians into missions, however, French Jesuit missionaries lived among
Native Americans in their villages. The Jesuits learned Indian languages so they could preach in
native tongues, and they established missions among the people. By integrating themselves, the
French believed that they would be more successful.15 Jacques Marquette proselytized in this
tradition. After his education among the Jesuits, he traveled to New France and into Indian
country, where he quickly learned six native languages, building close ties with the Native
Americans he sought to convert.16 During the conversion process, the Jesuits asked that Indians
change their clothing, language, and gender roles in a process known as “Frenchification.” This
11
"Louis Jolliet 1673-1694, Virtual Museum of New France." 2014. 1 Mar. 2016.
Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991), 52.
13
White, The Middle Ground, 52-53.
14
Brett Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 2012), 11.
15
Francis Parkman, France and England in North America, Vol.1 (New York: Library of America, 1983), 207.
16
John Donnelly Jacques Marquette (Chicago, Loyola University Press, 1968), 53. "Jacques Marquette Virtualology." 2007. 25 Feb. 2016, http://www.virtualology.com/jacquesmarquette/.
12
4
method of conversion was extremely common among the métis and Native women, who found
conversion most appealing.17
Into the Unknown Country
Marquette and Jolliet explored the Mississippi from 1673 to 1676 as part of French
empire building. They set out from St. Ignace in two canoes with five men. The expedition
traveled down Lake Michigan to modern-day Green Bay, where they met Menominee Indians,
who warned them to turn back.18 They proceeded down the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, which
took them to the Mississippi. Marquette and Jolliet made maps and kept journals about their
travels.19 They encountered countless Native American villages where they were given food,
shelter, and guides.20 Initially, Marquette and Jolliet believed that the Mississippi would lead to
the Pacific Ocean, but they learned that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Marquette and Jolliet were worried about encountering hostile Spaniards near New Orleans, so
they turned back in Arkansas.21 On their return trip, Marquette and Jolliet explored an alternate
route up the Illinois River to Lake Michigan, opening another area for French trade and
colonization, especially near modern-day Chicago (Appendix One).22 Their expedition was
considered a success because it spurred later ventures including one by Cavalier La Salle, who
set up trading posts to advance France’s colonial project.23
17
Sophie White, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians: Material Culture and Race in Colonial Louisiana
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 7.
18
Agnes Repplier, Pere Marquette: Priest, Pioneer and Adventurer (Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1929), 115.
19
The Library of Congress. "Carte de la overdecorate faite l'an 1673 dans l'Amerique Septentrionale /." Map.
20
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 106.
21
"Jacques Marquette - Virtualology." 2007. 26 Feb. 2016, http://www.virtualology.com/jacquesmarquette/.
22
Justin Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac Geographical Discovery in the Interior of North America in its Historical
Relations (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1970), 243.
23
Parkman, France and England, 912.
5
Strangeness on the River
Only Marquette’s journals survive, and he made numerous observations about the
geography, land, plants, animals, and native peoples they encountered. Marquette and Jolliet
described fertile land and abundant natural resources that would support French settlements.
Marquette noted the vast rolling plains on which the buffalo roamed, large ridges, heavily
wooded areas, and large sandbars.24 Jolliet stated that the ground was fertile with good land to
grow crops.25 Marquette also described encounters with wondrous animals: “from time to time,
we came upon monstrous fish, one of which struck our canoe with such violence that I thought
that it was a great tree, about to break the canoe to pieces.”26 Marquette and his men eventually
saw the creature and described “a monster with the head of a tiger, a sharp nose like that of a
wildcat with whiskers and straight, erect ears.”27 Marquette and Jolliet both described herds of
buffalo as well as raccoons, rabbits, elk, and deer.28 They were in awe of the bountiful land and
abundant resources.
Their most important encounters were with Native Americans. Marquette and Jolliet
encountered the Menominee, Illinois, Peoria, and Quapaw. Marquette’s journal is full of
observations about native peoples, including their appearance, food, gender roles, and religious
practices. He noted that many of the people dressed in clothing made from buffalo hides29 and
that women of the tribes covered themselves more than men.30 Most people ate fish, Indian corn,
24
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 113.
Claude Dablon, Claude Dablon’s Interview Notes (1674), 11.
26
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 109.
27
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 109.
28
Thwaites, Father Marquette, 192.
29
Dablon, 5.
30
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 127.
25
6
wild game, and fruits or nuts. The Native Americans worshiped multiple spirits that guided them
in every aspect of their daily lives, a practice that began in adulthood.
On their journey, most Native Americans welcomed them with offers of food, shelter,
and sometimes guides—all aspects of Indian hospitality. Among the Illinois, elder men
welcomed the explorers, stating “How beautiful the sun is, O Frenchman, when thou comest to
visit us! All our villages await thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace.”31 Following the
welcome, Marquette and Jolliet parleyed with the tribal elders about the French religion. After
the council ended, the Indians served a feast of sagamite, Indian corn boiled and seasoned with
fat, three types of fish, a large dog, and wild ox.32 In another extension of hospitality, Native
Americans gave them a tour of their village, presenting some of their prized possessions as gifts,
including ox and bear hides and belts.33
Not all of Marquette and Jolliet's encounters were friendly. As noted in the introduction,
when they neared the mouth of the Arkansas River they were threatened by the Quapaw. The
French probably received the hostile response because the Indians had earlier contact with the
Spanish led by De Soto, whose violent actions lived in tribal memory. It was probably the
calumet that saved the Frenchman's lives—that and the judgement of an elder.34 Jolliet and their
men were taken into the village where they were questioned about their purpose. After
discovering the intentions of the French, the Quapaw welcomed them in hopes of creating an
alliance against their own native enemies, and the Spanish, should they return to the area. 35 The
31
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 117.
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 123.
33
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 123.
34
Repplier, Pere Marquette, 170.
35
Kathleen Duvall, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 2.
32
7
French were worried about running into Spaniards, whose violent reputation had preceded
them,36 so the expedition returned to New France to report their discoveries.37
Commerce and Conversion
During their expedition, the French exchanged material goods and religion in the hopes
that they could establish economic and diplomatic alliances like they did in the north. Marquette
and Jolliet were given Indian corn, fish, and other game as signs of friendship,38 which proved
vital for exchange with subsequent tribes as they traveled downriver.39 The most important gift
given to Marquette and Jolliet was a calumet, a powerful symbol that assured all native peoples
they encountered that the French came with peaceful intent, unlike the Spanish.40 In native
culture, the calumet was more than just a pipe; it represented where a person had been, their
wartime accomplishments, their allies, and served as a symbol of peace.41 Native men carved the
story of their lives into the calumet and strung feathers to symbolize power.42 When Marquette
met the Illinois, he used the calumet and his knowledge of their language to gain food, housing,
and safe transport through their territory. During the calumet ceremony, native leaders provided
information about how to get to the sea, other tribes, and who was hostile.43 Through the
calumet, Marquette and Jolliet were able to open the pathway to good Indian relations so
necessary for later French colonization.
36
David Duncan, Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas (New York: Crown Publishers, 1996), 5-6.
Thwaites, Father Marquette, 202-203.
38
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 99.
39
Repplier, Pere Marquette, 130.
40
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 119.
41
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 137.
42
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 131.
43
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 119-121.
37
8
Within thirty years of their journey, France colonized the Lower Mississippi, specifically
Louisiana, despite a scattered Spanish presence. As the colonial economy developed, Native
Americans like the Quapaw became the primary agents in the exchange of Indian slaves, food,
animal oils, and skins for French guns, cloth, and metal cooking implements.44 Historian
Kathleen Duvall calls the trade economy the “native ground,” a place where Native Americans
dictated the terms of trade, especially in the Arkansas River Valley.45 Further south in
Louisiana, Native Americans, French settlers, and African slaves all contributed to what
historian Daniel Unser calls the “frontier exchange economy.” Usner describes the trade as
happening at “the interstices in which people exchanged small quantities of goods in pursuit of
their livelihood.”46 For Usner, economic exchange was a small scale process, but it led to the
development of both local and regional exchange economies between the French, Native
Americans, Africans, and Creoles.
Marquette and the Indians also exchanged ideas about religion. Marquette preached short
sermons. Many of the Indians interpreted Marquette’s explanation of God as a spirit they already
worshipped. Native Americans also told the French about their religious beliefs. When a child in
the tribe would start puberty, they would go into the woods and fast for four days. On the fourth
day, the person would see a spirit that would guide them throughout their life.47 On his return trip
through modern day Illinois, Marquette founded a mission named the Immaculate Conception.
44
George Waselkov, “French Colonial Trade in the Upper Creek Country,” in Calumet and Fleur-De-Lys:
Archaeology of Indian and French Contact in the Midcontinent, ed. John Walthall and Thomas Emerson
(Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), 37-40. Daniel Usner Jr., Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a
Frontier Exchange Economy: the Lower Mississippi Valley Before 1783 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1992), 1-9.
45
Kathleen Duvall, The Native Ground, 5-7.
46
Daniel Usner “The Frontier Exchange Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley in the Eighteenth Century,” in
American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, ed. Peter Mancall and
James Merrell (Routledge: New York, 2000), 219.
47
Parkman France and England, 386-387.
9
The mission shows that Marquette did have some success with conversion through the exchange
of religions ideologies on the expedition.48
Journey’s End
On the return trip to St. Ignace, Marquette contracted dysentery. The expedition stopped
at a mission near Green Bay, where Marquette spent the winter trying to recover.49 When spring
came, he held a feast to celebrate Easter and then departed for home.50 But he never made it. He
died51 and was buried in the upper peninsula of modern-day Michigan.52 His bones were later
collected by Native American converts and reinterred at St. Ignace.53 Jolliet’s journey did not
end so badly. Although he lost his records—and nearly his life—in an accident on some
rapids,54 he made his final report to Frontenac, telling him about the richness of the Mississippi
and possibilities for trade and settlement.55 Jolliet continued to work as a fur trader and explorer
in the far north of New France.56
Marquette and Jolliet’s journey matters because it made possible French colonization of
the Mississippi River Valley, especially Louisiana. It also illustrates that there were multiple
models of colonization in North America and multiple ways that Europeans interacted with
Native Americans. While the French were certainly interested in empire, they, more than the
English or the Spanish, believed that accommodation with Native Americans was central for
48
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 189.
Thwaites Father Marquette, 211.
50
Thwaites Father Marquette, 222.
51
Marquette, Marquette’s First Voyage, 159.
52
Thwaites, Father Marquette, 228.
53
Thwaites, Father Marquette, 228-229.
54
Repplier, Pere Marquette, 189-190.
55
Thwaites France, In America, 57.
56
"Louis Jolliet 1673-1694 | Virtual Museum of New France." 2014. 7 Apr. 2016
http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/the-explorers/louis-jolliet-1673-1694/.
49
10
success. Through the creation of the middle ground, the native ground, and the frontier exchange
economy, the French set a different political precedent for relationships between Europeans and
Native Americans. They repudiated the violent Spanish and English models and instead formed
economic and diplomatic alliances with native peoples built on gift giving and reciprocity—
mutually beneficial exchanges that enriched both sides. Indian-French alliances became the
foundation of French colonial success in North America until the Seven Year’s War destroyed
France’s foothold in North America, leaving the Native Americans at the mercy of the English
and the Spanish.57
Appendix I
57
Gilbert Din “Spanish Control over a Multiethnic Society: Louisiana, 1763-1803, in Choice, Persuasion, and
Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers, ed. Jesus De la Teja and Ross Frank (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 2005), 50-51.
11
Map of Marquette and Jolliet’s Exploration of the Mississippi River, 1673.
Museum Link – Illinois:
http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/hi_explore.html
12
Appendix II
The image above is a map drawn by Jacques Marquette illustrating the Mississippi River Valley
and its tributaries. The dots along the rivers and waterways represent the locations of Native
Americans villages.
Jacques Marquette, "Carte de la overdecorate faite l'an 1673 dans l'Amerique Septentrionale."
1673. The Library of Congress <http://www.loc.gov/item/2006629776/>.
13
Appendix III
Above is a depiction of a Native American smoking a calumet as a sign of peace.
Charles J. Balesi, The Time of the French in the Heart of North America (Chicago: Alliance
Francaise, 1991), 21.
14
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
Dablon, Claude “Claude Dablon’s Interview Notes.” 1 August, 1674.
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/39318
Dablon’s interview of Jolliet shows what both men contributed to the expedition. It also
helps me argue that Marquette proved to be helpful in establishing good relationships
with Native Americans because of his language skills and the calumet. Jolliet also
described their encounters with Native Americans.
Marquette, Jacques. "Account of the Second Voyage and the Death of Father Jacques
Marquette." The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit
Missionaries in North America (1610-1791). Edited by Edna Kenton with an Introduction by
Reuben Thwaites. New York: Albert & Charles Roni, 1925.
This account describes in depth Marquette’s final journey to the Illinois Country where
he returned to his mission that he founded and celebrated the Immaculate Conception
with the converts. On his journey back to St. Ignace, he died of dysentery. He told his
companions to bury him on shore and pray in the names of Jesus and Mary in the last
moments of his life.
Marquette, Jacques. "Carte de la overdecorate faite l'an 1673 dans l'Amerique Septentrionale /."
1673. The Library of Congress. 8 Feb. 2016. <http://www.loc.gov/item/2006629776/>.
This image helped me understand and represent how far Marquette and Jolliet traveled
down the Mississippi River. The map also shows where countless Native American
villages are located.
15
Marquette, Jacques. "A Discovery of Some New Countries and Nations in the Northern
America." Accessed through T.C. Wilson Library. University of Minnesota, Online Catalog. 8
February 2016.
Marquette describes in detail the geography, plants and the animals on his exploration of
the Mississippi River. He also describes his countless encounters with the Native
Americans. In these encounters, he and his men were invited to a feast where they were
given corn meal and game that the Native Americans hunted or caught.
Marquette, Jacques. "Marquette's First Voyage." The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents:
Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in North America (1610-1791). Edited by
Edna Kenton with an Introduction by Reuben Thwaites. New York: Albert & Charles Roni,
1925.
This personal account from Marquette depicts the first part of his journey down the
Mississippi River through the Illinois country. Marquette describes in detail the
encounters with Native Americans, specifically, how the French were taken in and were
given a calumet to ensure safe passage for the explorers. In addition, he also describes the
geography of the surrounding land like how the river was lined with trees and sandbars
jutted from the land.
Marquette, Jacques. "Marquette's Unfinished Journal Addressed to the Reverend Father Claude
Dablon, Superior of the Missions." The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and
Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in North America (1610-1791). Edited by Edna Kenton
with an Introduction by Reuben Thwaites. New York: Albert & Charles Roni, 1925.
In this uncompleted journal, Marquette goes into detail and describes his every
movement during his trip through the Illinois Country. For example, Marquette states that
16
during their travels down the Mississippi, their native guides would scout ahead and also
hunt game for the French. He also describes that their trek was long and tiresome due to
the inclement weather that they faced.
Secondary Sources
Balesi, Charles J. The Time of the French in the Heart of North America, 1673-1818. Chicago:
Alliance Francaise, 1996.
This book aided me in my argument that in their travels Marquette, Joliet, and their men
were invited into Native American villages. In the first three villages, Marquette and
Jolliet smoked a calumet or peace pipe with the indigenous leaders. They were also given
food for their voyage down the Mississippi River. Lastly, on their return journey, both
Jolliet and Marquette never made it back to their desired destinations.
Bilodeau, Christopher. "'They Honor Our Lord among Themselves in Their Own Way': Colonial
Christianity and the Illinois Indians." American Indian Quarterly Vol. 25, No. 3 (Summer 2001):
352-77.
This article argues that the religious culture of the Illinois Indians worshiped figures that
related to the sun and thunder. However, Marquette’s journey down the Mississippi in the
mid-1670s shows that the Illinois converted to Catholicism because they believed that the
Christian god was the spirit that they worshiped already. In addition, the chief of an
Illinois village begged Marquette to talk to god in hope that they would be given long
healthy lives.
Blasingham, Emily. "The Depopulation of the Illinois Indians Part One." Ethnohistory, Vol. 3,
No. 3 (Summer 1956): 193-217.
17
As the French began to explore the Mississippi River, specifically Illinois, they brought
disease with them. However, one of the main reasons for the fall of the Illinois is due to
the warring between them and countless other tribes like the Sioux and Fox Indians. In
addition, as the tribes warred, the Illinois begged to live with the French for both
protection and safety.
Blasingham, Emily J. "Depopulation of the Illinois Indians Part Two." Ethnohistory, Vol. 3, No.
4 (Autumn, 1956): 361-96.
This article further explains that in aiding the French in their wars, the Illinois destroyed
themselves and left themselves disheartened and struggling. It theses times, food and land
became scarce and countless Natives died.
Carter, William. Indian Alliances and the Spanish in the Southwest, 750-1750. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.
Carter’s book explains that not only were the Aztecs effected by the disease brought by
the Europeans, but the countless other tribes known to the Aztecs also joined the Spanish
to destroy their former enemies. In their hunt for gold, the Spanish also destroyed the
cultures of the Native Americans they encountered.
Din, Gilbert. “Spanish Control Over a Multiethnic Society: Louisiana, 1763-1803.” Choice,
Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers. Jesus de la Teja
and Ross Frank, editors. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
Din’s article argues that the French settlers of Louisiana did not accept Spanish rule.
Instead Creole people lives as they had under French rule despite Spain’s attempts to gain
control.
Donnelly, John. Jacques Marquette. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1968.
18
From Donnelly’s book, I am able to argue that Marquette was not interested in his
personal education but in exploring and seeing what else the world had to offer.
Marquette also jumped at the opportunity to go to New France because he preferred a
more active life in the field.
Donnelly, John. "Jacques Marquette." American National Biography Online. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.
<http://primo.lib.umn.edu/primo_library/libweb/action>.
From this webpage, I can argue that the Native Americans aided Marquette and his
companions on their trek down the Mississippi River. They did so by giving the French
food and other supplies as well as welcoming them into their villages. Lastly, Marquette
left behind detailed notes about his journey ranging from the peoples he met to the
geography around him.
Duncan, David. Hernando De Soto: A Savage Quest in the Americas. New York: Crown
Publishers, 1996.
Duncan argues that De Soto and his men were particularly brutal during their exploration
and quest to find gold in North America. They were disrespectful and frequently violent
toward the native peoples they encountered. This book helped me to see how much
difference there was between the Spanish and French models of colonization.
Duvall, Kathleen. “‘A Good Relationship and Commerce': the Native Political Economy of the
Arkansas River Valley." Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 1, No. 1
(Spring 2003): 61-89.
This article helps me argue that the tribes of the Arkansas River Valley built great
relationships with the French explorers like Jacques Marquette, by giving them access to
their village. The tribes were Quapaw Native Americans. They controlled the entrance to
19
the Arkansas River as well as passage to the lower Mississippi River. By controlling this
area, the Native Americans limited trade and gained prairie land to grow their crops.
Duvall, Kathleen. The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2006.
Duvall’s The Native Ground helps me argue that the Quapaw tried to establish good
relationships with the French to give themselves an ally against their Indian enemies.
Likewise, the French told them of god and religion, which the Quapaw accepted. Duval
also describes the development and growth of trade between the Quapaw and the French
in the years after Marquette and Jolliet’s expedition.
Eifert, Virginia. Louis Jolliet Explorer of Rivers. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1962.
Eifert stresses that Jolliet was a renowned cartographer and explorer after in trek down
the Mississippi River with Jacques Marquette. After exploring the Mississippi, Jolliet
explored the upper reaches of New France near Hudson Bay.
Healy, George R. "The French Jesuits and the Idea of the Noble Savage." William and Mary
Quarterly Vol. 15, No. 2 (April 1958): 143-67.
This article from The William and Mary Quarterly stresses that the Jesuits were not only
trying to convert Native Americans to Catholicism, but their goal was to change how the
Native Americans lived. However, many Native American tribes adopted the Jesuits'
beliefs but did not adopt their culture.
Stephen Hyslop, Contest of California from Spanish Colonization to the American Conquest.
Norman: Arthur H. Clark Company, 2012.
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Stephen Hyslop describes that the Spanish colonized California heavily for its resources,
particularly gold. As a result, the Spanish enslaved Native Americans to work in their
mines. The Spaniards also forced the Native Americans to adapt to Spanish culture.
Jackson, Robert and Edward Castillo. Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The
Impact of the Mission System on California Indians. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 1995.
Jackson and Castillo argue that the missionary systems of California were brutal in some
cases and less harmful for native converts in others. In many cases, the natives were
forced to don new clothes, change their language and culture in order to conform to the
Spanish way of life.
“Jacques Marquette 1673.” Virtual Museum of New France. Canadian Museum of History,
Web. 22 Feb. 2016. <http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/theexplorers/jacques-marquette-1673-1694/>.
Marquette spent much of his early time in Quebec and New France learning six different
Native American languages. He also founded St. Ignace Mission in the Upper Peninsula
of modern Michigan. Nearing the end of his journey, Marquette concluded that the
Mississippi would flow to the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Van Kirk, Sylvia. “Many Tender Ties”: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870. Winnipeg:
Watson and Dwyer Publishing Ltd., 1983.
Van Kirk states that the French fur trade was not an all-male profession. In fact fur trader
wives—including métis and French women—ran trading posts while the traders were
away and sometimes accompanied their husbands on expeditions.
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Kenton, Edna, Ed. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the
Jesuit Missionaries in North America (1610-1791). With an Introduction by Reuben Thwaites.
New York: Albert & Charles Roni, 1925.
Kenton uses primary sources to depict the journey of Marquette. For example, Marquette
described the geography as one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. In addition,
Marquette found that the land was rich and would prove to be useful for crops as well as
furthering fur trading with Native Americans.
Key, Joseph Patrick. "The Calumet and the Cross: Religious Encounters in the Lower
Mississippi River Valley." Arkansas Historical Quarterly Vol. 61, No. 2 (Summer 2002): 15268.
This article argues for the importance of the calumet, a symbol of peace in Native
American culture, in relations between French explorers like Jacques Marquette and the
Native American tribes they encountered. Since a calumet was a symbol of peace, the
Native Americans took in the Frenchman and exchanged ideas and aspects of their
culture in the name of peace.
Leavelle, Tracy Neal. "Geographies of Encounter: Religion and Contested Spaces in Colonial
North America." American Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 4 (December 2004): 913-30.
Leavelle helps me argue that in the six years he spent at the St. Ignace Mission,
Marquette learned six different Algonquin based languages. Marquette also showed in the
waning years of his life his unwavering faith in the fact that god would help him get
through the illness he had long battled. Lastly, in his encounters with the Native
Americans, he was able to convert many to Catholicism.
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“Louis Jolliet 1673-1694.” Virtual Museum of New France. Canadian Museum of History, Web.
29 Feb. 2016. <http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/theexplorers/louis-jolliet-1673-1694/>.
This Canadian Museum of History webpage delves into Jolliet's life as a fur trader up to
his time with Jacques Marquette. Jolliet became a well renowned fur trader in his early
career. He was also the first Canadian born explorer to make a great contribution to
France.
Lusted, Marcia. "Chasing a River to the Sea." Cobblestone. Print.
Initially, Marquette figured that the Mississippi River would lead to the Gulf of
California and the Pacific Ocean. However, he found out quickly that the River led to the
Gulf of Mexico. They traveled in canoes down to the mouth of the Arkansas River before
turning back due to hostile tribes and the presence of the Spaniards.
“Map of Marquette and Jolliet’s exploration of the Mississippi River, 1673.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/hi_explore.html
This map shows Marquette and Jolliet’s journey down the Mississippi River Valley. The
map give a sense of where they traveled on a modern day map and shows that where they
stopped and turned around in Arkansas.
O'Neill, Sean Patrick. "Conversion on the Frontier: Attitudes of Jesuit Missionaries and
American Indians toward Baptism in Seventeenth-Century New France." Ph. D. Diss.,
University of California, Santa Barbara, 1991.
O'Neill's dissertation helps me argue that the not all Natives encountered by Marquette
were converted. Many in fact accepted some of the ideas but did not fully convert to
Catholicism. In addition, Iroquoian tribes did not take kindly to exploration and
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instigation in wars of the French. Therefore, they began to war against other Native tribes
on this account.
Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America, Volume 1. New York: Library of
America, 1983.
Parkman argues that Marquette and Jolliet were welcomed into Native villages due to the
fact that they had acquired a calumet or peace pipe. The Native Americans invited them
to their village to feast and converse. Marquette and Jolliet were surprised that they were
treated so well.
Repplier, Agnes. Pere Marquette Priest, Pioneer, and Adventurer. Garden City: Doubleday,
Doran and Company, 1929.
Repplier describes Marquette's life and time in New France. He was originally stationed
at St. Ignace in the upper peninsula of modern Michigan. During his time in France, he
contracted dysentery, hindering him and eventually killing him only six years after
arriving. However, in his time in New France, Marquette explored the Mississippi
exchanging knowledge, culture, disease, and religion with the Natives that he and his
men encountered.
Rushforth, Brett. Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
Bonds of Alliance helps me argue that the French and the Native Americans not only
traded material goods but Native American slaves as part of their attempt to build cross
cultural alliances. The Native Americans did this to establish military, diplomatic, and
economic relationships with the French.
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Sleeper-Smith, Susan. Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounters in the
Western Great Lakes. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
Sleeper-Smith explains that Native American women married French fur traders during
the fur trade. They gave birth to mixed heritage children known as métis, created
families, and helped form a new culture. The Native American women and eventually
métis peoples became central to the fur trade because they served as guides, knew how to
do the work, and served mediators between native peoples and French traders.
Steck, Francis Borgia. "Father Marquette's Place in American History." The Americas, Vol. 5,
No. 4 (April 1949): 411-38.
Steck argues that despite being in New France missions for only six years, Marquette was
able to accomplish a great deal. Ranging from learning six different Native American
languages as well as writing about his encounters with tribes in Northeast Wisconsin and
the upper peninsula of modern Michigan, to creating the mission at St. Ignace, Marquette
accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time. However, he also states that
Marquette would have been able to do more if he had not fallen ill on his journey of the
Mississippi River with Louis Joliet.
Thwaites, Reuben. Father Marquette. New York: D Appleton and Company, 1911.
Thwaites’s book helps me argue that Marquette’s bones were eventually taken back to his
mission named St. Ignace. The book also helps me describe Marquette and Jolliet's
encounters with Illinois and Quapaw Native Americans.
Thwaites, Reuben. France in America 1497-1763. Westport: Greenwood Press, Reprint, 1970.
France in America describes how the French expanded their empire throughout the
interior of the United States. The Jesuit missionaries considered the Native tribes as
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“savages” that needed to be taught how to live. In the first exploration of the Mississippi
by Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, they found that many of the Native Americans
were friendly due to their acquisition of a symbol of peace called a calumet.
Usner Jr., Daniel. “The Frontier Exchange Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley in the
Eighteenth Century” in American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact
to Indian Removal. Ed. Peter Mancall and James Merrell. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Daniel Unser’s article helps me argue that the frontier exchange was not on a large scale,
but done on an intimate level by French colonists, Native Americans, and African
American slaves, who were trying to make a living in the lower Mississippi River Valley.
Usner Jr, Daniel. Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy: the Lower
Mississippi Valley Before 1783. Chapel Hill and London Published for the Omohundro Institute
of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia by the University of North
Carolina Press, 1992.
Usner’s book helps me argue that after the wave of exploration done by Marquette, Jolliet
and La Salle, exchange began in the Mississippi River Valley between the French, and
Native Americans. This exchange is described by Usner as the frontier exchange.
Waselkov, George. “French Colonial Trade in the Upper Creek Country” in Calumet and FleurDe-Lys: Archaeology of Indian and French Contact in the Midcontinent. John Walthall and
Thomas Emerson, editors. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
Waselkov’s article helps me argue that the French traded heavily in the lower Mississippi
River valley. The French and Natives traded animal products and food for guns, metal
cooking implements, and knives.
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White, Bruce. “’Give Us a Little Milk’: The Social and Cultural Significance of Gift Giving in
the Lake Superior Fur Trade.” In Rethinking the Fur Trade: Cultures of Exchange in an Atlantic
World. Ed. Susan Sleeper-Smith. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
“Give Us a Little Milk” emphasizes that gift giving was an integral part of the fur trade in
New France. It served as the foundation for economic and diplomatic alliances because it
was a central part of Native American culture.
White, Richard. The Middle Ground Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
The Middle Ground helps me argue that France was attempting to grow their empire in
North America through the fur trade. By trading the French built alliances with the
Native Americans, which helped them expand their empire.
White, Sophie. Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians: Material Culture and Race in
Colonial Louisiana. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
White’s Wild Frenchmen argues that the French not only wanted to convert Native
Americans to Catholicism, but they wanted to convert Indians to French culture as well.
Sophie White calls this process “Frenchification” and argues that this happened
especially through the exchange of material goods.
Winsor, Justin. Cartier to Frontenac Geographical Discovery in the Interior of North America in
Its Historical Relations 1534-1700. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1970.
This book helps me argue that during their expedition, Jolliet and Marquette encountered
countless Native tribes who aided them in their journey down the Mississippi River. In
addition, both men made maps of their journey to aid France in the expansion of the
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French empire. However, when Jolliet's canoe overturned in a patch of rapids, many of
Jolliet's papers were lost.
Woodburn, James A. "Pioneers and Pathfinders of New France." Indiana Magazine of History
Vol. 21, No. 4 (December 1925): 257-87.
Woodburn's journal argues the importance of Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet's
exploration of the Mississippi River due to their peaceful encounters with multiple Native
American tribes, as well as the exchange of language, goods, and culture between the
explorers and the Native Americans. He also explains the tragic ends to both Marquette
and Jolliet at the end of their journeys.
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