NO. 3 SETH EASTMAN BUSHNELL 3 



Soon after Carver's visit a group of French, coming from Canada, 

 established the village of Prairie du Chien. A garrison was main- 

 tained in the vicinity for many years, but not until the year i8i6 was 

 the construction of a fort begun. A year later, on July 25. 181 7, Maj. 

 Stephen H. Long was at the post when returning from the Falls of 

 Saint Anthony, and that day entered in his journal : ^ " Spent the day 

 in measuring and planning Fort Crawford and its buildings. The work 

 is a square of 340 feet upon each side ; and is constructed entirely of 

 wood, as are all its buildings, except the magazine, which is of stone, 

 it will accommodate five companies of soldiers." 



Fort Crawford, with the nearby French village of Prairie du Chien. 

 soon became an important center, a gathering place where several tribes 

 received their annuities and conducted their trade with the Fur Com- 

 pany. The tribes who visited the post were the Menominee, Winne- 

 bago, and Fox, then occupying lands east of the Mississippi, as well as 

 some of the Siouan tribes from farther up the Mississippi. A small 

 Menominee settlement stood near Fort Crawford in 183 1 which was 

 the scene of a serious attack by some of the tribal enemies. About this 

 time Schoolcraft visited the fort and wrote : ' 



" While at Prairie du Chien, the murder of 26 Monomonee men, 

 women, and children, by a war party of the Sacs and Foxes, which 

 had transpired a few days previous, was the subject of exciting in- 

 terest. It was narrated with all its atrocious circumstances. A flag 

 waved over the common grave of the slain, and several of the wounded 

 Monomonees, who has escaped the massacre, were examined and 

 conversed with. This afifray, unparalled for its boldness and turpi- 

 tude, having occurred in the village of Prairie du Chien, in the hear- 

 ing of its inhabitants, and in sight of the fort, was made the subject 

 of demand by the government for surrendry of the murderers, and 

 produced the concentration of troops on that frontier, which eventu- 

 ated the Indian war of 1832." 



It is believed the picture of " Squaws Playing Ball on the Prairie," 

 a photograph of which is reproduced in Plate 3, represents a group of 

 Menominee, and possibly members of another tribe, in the vicinity of 

 Fort Crawford, and that it was sketched while Fastman was stationed 

 at that post, 1829- 1830. This would have been during the year pre- 

 ceding the massacre mentioned by Schoolcraft. The level prairie is 

 clearlv shown, with the river in the distance and the hills beyond. The 



^ Long, Maj. Stephen H., Voyage in a six-oared skiff to the Falls of Saint 

 Anthony in 1817. Coll. Minnesota Hist. Soc, vol. 2, pt. i, p. 56, i860. 



' Schoolcraft, Henry R., Narrative of an expedition through the Upper Missi- 

 ssippi to Itasca Lake, p. 13. New York, 1834. 



