For almost three decades, the Fox Indians waged war against French settlers and against other Native American tribes, greatly destabilizing the Great Lakes region and hampering trade and diplomacy for all of that region’s other inhabitants.
Although the Fox people trace their own origins to the northeastern seaboard, they clearly emerged in Native American history in the late seventeenth century in the western Great Lakes region.
In 1699, Governor General Louis-Hector de Callières made diplomatic overtures in an attempt to make peace not only between France and the tribes of the western Great Lakes region but also among the tribes themselves. His goal was to increase profitable trade in a vast region that remained unpredictable because of recurring intertribal strife. The natives invited to Montreal were well-known tribes associated with the
Although the Foxes and Chippewas agreed to cease fighting each other in the Wisconsin area, Fox hostilities with neighboring Sioux
The shortcomings of these agreements were particularly evident to
Some Foxes, together with members of other Wisconsin tribes, did go to the
Most of the Foxes besieged in their fort on the Detroit River were massacred brutally by French-allied American Indians, despite the French commander’s assurance of safe passage upon surrender. Those who escaped sought refuge among the Seneca Iroquois. These violent events on the Detroit River were bound to have repercussions among the Fox tribes that had stayed behind in Wisconsin alongside their allies, the Sacs and Winnebagos. When the defeated Foxes returned to Wisconsin, new alliances were built. In the summer of 1714, they began to attack French traders passing from Detroit to Michilimackinac. These attacks were the opening salvos of wars that were to last for twenty-seven years.
In this first stage of the Fox Wars, some Wisconsin natives hoped that the French would seek an accommodation with the Foxes. As the situation deteriorated and trade became paralyzed, many American Indians began to call for a strong French military campaign against the Foxes. Before long, it appeared that the Foxes had long-distance ties with other allies in British territory, especially the Senecas. This complicated French strategy considerably, forcing the French to try diplomatic intervention far to the east of Wisconsin. Vaudreuil was unable to report any progress for at least three years.
Although Fox chieftains Okimaoussen and Ouchala agreed to de-escalate the conflict, warfare against the Foxes by their inveterate enemies, the Chippewas and Potawatomis, caused strife to spread into Illinois tribal areas in 1719. By 1721, the Foxes had even sealed peace with their former enemies, the Sioux, to have an ally against the Illinois. In 1725, the French reported that their own hopes to tap the Sioux fur market were seriously hampered by the Sioux-Fox alliance.
By the time of Vaudreuil’s death in October, 1725, King Louis XV himself sent orders to replace the French commander at Green Bay,
A major campaign was set for 1728. French forces of four hundred soldiers were joined by coureurs de bois (freelance French fur trappers and traders) and hundreds of western natives. The French claimed success, but in reality the Foxes had withdrawn into Iowa rather than risk a battle.
The next stage of conflict came when Fox chief
Governor General Beauharnois reported that the remaining Foxes no longer could consider resistance. Continuing reprisals caused Foxes under Chief Kiala to try to resettle peacefully on the north bank of the Wisconsin River and to send emissaries to Montreal. Kiala’s apparent failure to meet French terms tempted Beauharnois to allow Huron the Iroquois “volunteers” to pursue the refugee Foxes spread out in areas of Iowa and Illinois. Intertribal fighting continued until 1735, when two refugee groups separated, one going to the Rock River in Illinois and the other to the mouth of the Wisconsin. In 1736, White Cat, a friendly Sac chief, asked Beauharnois to grant a pardon. Beauharnois tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Sacs to gain peace by allowing the French to disperse the Foxes among other American Indian nations. Finally, in 1741, unable to hold out in the Rock River Valley against other Indians’ attacks, and fearful of massive French reprisals for Fox assistance to Sioux warriors near Lake Peoria who had killed French travelers in the area, Fox chief Mekaga agreed to accept French terms of forced relocation.
By the fall of 1741, the Foxes and Sacs were trekking to new settlements: Ten lodges moved to the Chicago River, three traveled to Milwaukee, and the rest made their way to their old homeland village on the Fox River in Wisconsin. The dispersal of the Foxes made them weaker, but it also made them more difficult both to protect and to control. Indeed, although the formal Fox War was over in 1741, their settlements still suffered from attacks by their Chippewa, Menominee, and Ottawa neighbors. In 1743, Beauharnois himself had to intercede to gain another joint pledge of peace.
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Edmunds, R. David, and Joseph L. Peyser. The Fox Wars: The Mesquaki Challenge to New France. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. The most complete study to date of the specific events of the Fox Wars. -
Hagen, William T. The Sac and Fox Indians. 2d ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980. A general history, including cultural and religious topics. -
Murphy, Lucy Eldersveld. A Gathering of Rivers: Indians, Metis, and Mining in the Western Great Lakes, 1737-1832. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. A history of the Fox and other Indian communities, as well as multiracial and mining communities, in the Western Great Lakes region in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Includes information about the Fox Wars. -
Parkman, Francis. Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV. 1877. Reprint. New York: Library of America, 1983. A pioneering work providing background on French interests in the Great Lakes area just before dealings with the Foxes became focal. -
White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Places the Fox Wars in a wider chronological and geographical context of French, British, and American Indian relations.
Tuscarora War
Walking Purchase
French and Indian War
Cherokee War
Pontiac’s Resistance
Indian Delegation Meets with Congress
Fort Stanwix Treaty
Little Turtle’s War
Code of Handsome Lake
Thanadelthur.