the Lake Superior outlet into the St. Marys River in 

 1662. 



Iroquois military activity entered a new phase 

 after the English replaced the Dutch in the Hudson 

 River valley in 1669. Since they had dispersed or in- 

 corporated their immediate neighbors, Iroquois attacks 

 from northern New York in the 1670s next swept down 

 the Ohio River through Shawnee country to southern 

 Illinois, and followed the route south of Lake Erie, con- 

 tinuing overland to northern Illinois. Iroquois inflicted 

 a heavy blow on the Illinois village near the mouth of 

 the Illinois River in 1680, and struck Miami Indians 

 encamped near present Chicago in 1687. The series of 

 offensive actions ended in 1691 , when the Illinois and 

 their allies repulsed the Iroquois siege at Starved Rock, 

 on the upper Illinois River near present Utica, 111. The 

 intertribal community at Starved Rock, including resi- 

 dent Illinois, as well as Miami and Shawnee refugees, 

 had collected around the fort established by LaSalle 

 during his first trip downriver in 1682. 



Thereafter, western Indians allied to carry a 

 counter-offensive aided by French troops into Iroquois 

 territory. Under French auspices, a general peace treaty 

 took place in Montreal in 1701. An important provi- 

 sion of the treaty was the agreement that the Iroquois 

 could hunt peacefully in Canada, and the Ottawa 

 could pass undisturbed through Iroquois territory to 

 trade at Albany. Among the participants in the con- 

 ference were leaders from all the western Great Lakes 

 Indians: Huron, Ottawa, Ojibwa (Chippewa), Meno- 

 minee, Potawatomi (who also represented the Sauk), 

 Winnebago, Mesquakie (Fox), Illinois, Kickapoo, 

 Mascoutin, and Miami. The Kaskaskia village leader 

 from southern Illinois made the longest journey to 

 attend, though there were also representatives from 

 Temiscaming, on the headwaters of the Ottawa River 

 in northern Ontario. Closer to Montreal were the Indi- 

 an mission communities of Mohawk, Algonquin, Abe- 

 naki, and Huron located in the lower St. Lawrence 

 River valley. Only four of the Five Nations of Iroquois 

 participated in the Montreal peace conference: Sene- 

 ca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida. Later, the Mo- 

 hawk added their approval. In peace-making, as in 

 warfare, trade, and diplomacy, western Great Lakes In- 

 dians carried on constant intertribal activity, but the 

 Montreal council was a special event. 



Before the final peace treaty was signed in 1701, 

 adjustments began to take place in the western coun- 

 try. Miamis and Potawatomis began to leave Green 

 Bay, moving toward their home territory in southwest- 

 ern Michigan and Indiana. Largely because prices for 



furs declined drastically in European markets, the 

 French king ordered the cessation of licensed trading 

 and the abandonment of posts throughout the Great 

 Lakes in 1696. This decision forced Indian hunters to 

 deal with the illegal traders, the coureurs de hois, or to 

 seek distant English markets at Hudson Bay or Albany. 

 On the mission frontier, French missionaries shifted 

 southward to found a new center in Illinois at Cahokia, 

 on the east hank of the Mississippi 20 miles south of the 

 mouth of the Illinois River. This mission served nearby 

 Illinois Indian villages, Cahokia, Tamaroa, and Kas- 

 kaskia, and French habitants who began farming the fer- 

 tile Mississippi bottomlands in 1700. 



The significant new development following the 

 peace treaty was the establishment of a new French 

 base at present Detroit, Michigan in the fall of 1701, 

 when safe travel was assured from Montreal through 

 Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and the surrounding coun- 

 try. From this solitary outpost in the western Indian 

 country, the French commandant promoted the fur 

 trade in a new direction, the Ohio country. Leading 

 the Indians who came to settle at the new location were 

 the Hurons, who ended their half-century of wander- 

 ing at new headquarters on the Detroit River. Their 

 Ottawa friends and two groups of Potawatomi were 

 other long-term residents of the Detroit region. North 

 of Detroit, the St. Clair River district became the 

 home of Ojibwas from Sault Ste. Marie and the north 

 shore of Lake Huron. 



The period of shortages in European merchandise 

 was alleviated after a rise in the price of furs made 

 reopening the western Great Lakes trading posts eco- 

 nomically feasible. In 1715, new Fort Michillimack- 

 inac — Ojibwa name for the straits region — was 

 constructed on the south shore at present Mackinaw 

 City, Michigan. This site was the crossroads of com- 

 merce for the entire western Great Lakes region, the 

 summer gathering place for vo-yageurs, traders, and 

 thousands of Indians who joined in intertribal cere- 

 monies and celebrations. Subsidiary posts with mili- 

 tary detachments were later established as far south as 

 Fort Chartres, near the French and Indian villages of 

 southwestern Illinois, and westward along the Rainy 

 River route from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods 

 on the present Minnesota-Canadian border. 



For Indian people, French military posts offered 

 not only hunting supplies and foreign merchandise, but 

 also the services of blacksmiths and other artisans who 

 could produce metal tools, sharpen axes and knives, 

 and repair guns. Some traders spent the winters with 

 Indians when they dispersed to hunting camps, married 9 



