486 michelson: notes on the fox Indians 



but the Huron designation of the Meskwakies, as stated by- 

 Hewitt in the Handbook of American Indians. For Skenchioh- 

 ronon means "the Fox people," and the identification by Hewitt 

 rests also upon that made by Potier (circa 1750).^^ It should 

 be expressly noted that the Wyandot designation for the Mesk- 

 wakies, collected by Gatschet in 1881, namely, Skaxshurunu 

 "fox people," derived from skdxshu "the red fox," is more than 

 ample confirmatory evidence. Accordingly we know that Le 

 Jeune mentions the Fox Indians in the Relation of 1640/^ Now 

 since the Fox are cited in connection with the Sauk, Potawatomi, 

 Kickapoo, Winnebago, and Crane Miami we have every reason 

 to believe that their habitat at the time was in the vicinity of 

 the Green Bay region. For the identification of the Huattoeh- 

 ronon, Attistaehronon, Ontarahronon, Aoueatsiouaenhronon, 

 and Attochingochronon see the Handbook of American Indians. 

 [Hewitt's identifications are at least partially supported by 

 Potier.] Le Jeune adds "I have taken their names from a Huron 

 map that Father Paul Ragueneau sent me." It is not known 

 from whom Ragueneau obtained the map, though it is natural 

 to think of Nicolet in this connection, for Ragueneau had a 

 conference with Nicolet in the spring of 1641 near Three Rivers. ^'^ 

 As is known, Jean Nicolet was in the vicinity of Green Bay in 

 1634. Le Jeune (op. cit. 231) locates the Potawatomi and Na- 

 tion of the Fork^° as being in the neighborhood of the Winne- 

 bago, and adds (p. 233) "I will say, by the way, that sieur Nico- 

 let, interpreter of the Algonquin and Huron languages for the 

 Gentlemen of new France, has given me the names of these 

 nations, which he himself has visited, for the most part in their 

 own country." Now if the Potawatomi and the Nation of the 

 Fork were in the neighborhood of the Winnebago in 1634, it is 

 highly probable that Sauk and Fox also were at least in that 

 general vicinity. There is no argumentum ex silentio, for Le 



*^ Pilling. Bibliography of Iroquoian languages. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 6: 

 135, 136. 



*^ ThwaiTEs' ed. of the Jesuit Relations, 18: 235. 



^* Jesuit Relations, ed. Thwaites, 8: note 29, 9; 312. 



^ Rasaouakoueton : see article Nassauaketon in the said Handbook. 



