138 



In 1843, the county of Chippewa was organized out of Crawford, so as to 

 He between the latter and St. Croix, embracing ail the country which is watered 

 by the Chippewa River and its tributaries. And in 1851, the counties of La 

 Crosse aud Bad Ax were organized out of Crawford, which leaves the latter of 

 but a limited space, being from the middle of towns 1 1 north, to the Wisconsin 

 River south) and from and including range 3 west, to the Mississippi River. 

 The entire area of the county as it is now bounded and limited is about 558 

 square mjles. 



" The history and date of the first settlements, together with the present popu- 

 lation," is a more difficult question to answer, and requires more research than 

 the limits prescribed for this communication will authorize or justify. 



The first inhabitants of this region, included in the original county of Craw- 

 ford, of whom we have any knowledge, except from the ancient tumuli, were the 

 Dakota or Sioux Indians. The builders of those tumuli are so far lost in the 

 past, that no j^retence is made to a history of them, except in the pretended 

 visions of Joe Smith, in his so called Golden Bible. When the French mis- 

 sionaries and traders from Canada first visited the country south of Lake Supe- 

 rior, east of the Mississippi, and north and west of the Wisconsin, the Sioux were 

 the lords of the soil. 



I learned from the Chippewas at La Pointe, when I was agent for the U. S. 

 among them in 1842-43, that previous to their crossing Lake Superior to 

 settle upon its southern shores, the Sioux occupied the whole country south of 

 it, and as far east, at least, as Ke-we-wa-non Bay, then called Che-goi-me-gon ; 

 for there, in 1661, it seems they captured and killed the missionary Rene Mes- 

 Dard, whose cassock and breviary were afterwards found among the Sioux, kept 

 by them as amulets.* 



At what period the Chippewas began to occupy that portion of the country 

 south of Lake Superior, and within the ancient limits of Crawford County, it is 

 difficult to ascertain. Their first council fire within these limits, w^as kindled on 

 the Island of Magdalene, now La Pointe — but when, neither history or their tra- 

 ditions definitely inform us. Whenever it was, the Sioux occupied the main 

 land ; and I was shown points and places on the Island, as well as on the main, 

 where the severest of battles were fouofht between these warlike tribes. From 

 the best data I have, the Chippewas were on this Island in 1722, for about that 

 time a trading post existed there, and how long previously is not determined. In 

 1665, the Missionary Claude AUouez reached Kewcwana, and interposed his 

 influence in preventing a party of young warriors from going against the Sioux ; 

 from which it would appear that Kewcwana was then the western limit of the 

 Chippewas, on the south shore of that Lake,f 



• Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol 3, p. 147. t Ibid, p. 150. 



