488 michelson: notes on the fox Indians 



that of the Foxes. If the Foxes had been driven out previously, 

 it is entirely possible small parties may have returned. But I 

 do not think the traditional statements of the Sauk, Fox, and 

 Ottawa,^'' locating the Foxes in the lower Michigan peninsula, 

 should be taken too seriously, for it may well refer to the later 

 raids, especially to the fight at Detroit. It would mean that 

 traditional history, going back practically 200 years, could be 

 relied upon. Similarly, traditional statements of the Foxes 

 having been driven up the Grand River from the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence or having had their origin near Niagara Falls, '^^ are 

 to be rejected, because we know the history of the area under 

 discussion for a time anterior to 1634. The construction that 

 I place on the statements is that the wars with the Iroquois and 

 Neuters made a deep impression, and that the geography is 

 mixed; that the Foxes often went to Montreal, and even fought 

 at Lake George; it is likely some children may have been bom 

 on such trips, and they may have been told their birth-place, 

 and passed it on. Thus also is to be understood the well-known 

 statement of Black Hawk. The Rhode Island origin of the 

 Foxes'^ is too absurd to combat seriously. I may refer briefly 

 to Tailhan's discussion of the early home of the Foxes. -'^ His 

 argumentum ex silentio falls to the ground, for the Relation of 

 i657-'58 says distinctly "you will see the names of the principal 

 Nations,""^ not "all the Nations." Kellog's paper suffers from 

 a wrong identification of the Outitchakouk (vide supra) , ignorance 

 of the fact that the Skenchiohronon was a synonym of the Fox 

 Indians, and from too great reliance on traditional history. 

 The reference of Re(o)bok to Shea's article,*'^ crediting the latter 

 with stating that Nicolet met the Foxes in Wisconsin in 1634 



5° Marston, apud Blair, 21: 146; A. Black Bird, Hist, of the Ottawa and Chip- 

 pewa Indians, 24. 



" Forsyth, apud Blair, 2: 183-184; Grignon, Wise. Hist. Coll. 3: 265. 



52 Atwater. Indians of the Northwest, 88; repeated by Green, The Mesquaki 

 Indians, Red Man 5: 47-52, 104-109; queried by Re(o)bok, loc. cit. 



53 Blair. Vol. 2: 250, 251. 



5* Jesuit Relations, ed. Thwaites, 44: 239. 

 55 Wise. Hist. See. Coll. 3: 124-138. 



