The French were among the earliest Europeans to have held contact with First Nations people in what is

now Canada and North America. At the beginning of the 17th century, good relationships between the
two nations were vital to the survival of the fur trade, as it meant that both sides were benefitting equally.
France relied on the indigenous people heavily for survival and easy access to furs, and in turn,
Indigenous people traded with the French for European goods, as well as participated in the governance of
New France. However, the traditional opinion on the alliance between the two nations is greatly
romanticized in scholarship as a purely peaceful relationship, and by studying the Fox Wars, (1712-1716,
1728-1733), and examining the settler’s true motives, it was far more complicated and situational than we
are led to believe.
Both the Algonquin tribes and French settlers benefitted from this alliance, ​*how both groups
benefitted from this alliance in the fur trade, then how introductions to alcohol, weapons, and new
government affected the indigenous groups*
The Fox tribe, a longtime enemy of the French trading partner Sioux, signed the Grand Settlement
on August 4th, 1701, but many years of animosity with involved tribes made the peace treaty difficult for
The Fox and lead to the Fox Wars. In 1712, the Fox started attacking the French and their allies, but in
1716, the French failed to take down the Fox village on Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox ended the war
and agreed to be peaceful. However, neighboring tribes starting attacking one another and despite The
Fox’s efforts to be diplomatic, they were attacked as well and another war broke out. The French needed
access to the Sioux tribe for trading, so they attempted to resolve the war between the Sioux and Fox,
which was based on the Fox slaves that the Sioux were keeping; However, the governor of New France,
Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, who was leading the efforts to relinquish the wars, also owned Fox slaves.
“to avoid difficult questions, Governor Vaudreuil never mentioned to his French superiors that his
household, like scores of others in New France, was served by Fox slaves who had been captured in the
very attacks he claimed to oppose. For the previous ten years, these slaves had trickled into Canada as
allied Indians attacked Fox villages, making Fox men, women, and children the primary source of
enslaved labor in the Saint Lawrence River valley in the 1710s and 1720s.”1

*insert this?* closed the ports to the Fox River system, which the French needed to have
access to in order to trade from Green Bay in Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, causing a
great massacre in 1730 in which over 500 Fox were killed. “His Majesty is persuaded of the

1
Rushforth, Brett. "Slavery, the Fox Wars, and the Limits of Alliance." The William and Mary Quarterly,
Third Series, 63, no. 1 (2006)
necessity of destroying that Nation [the Fox] … It cannot keep quiet, and it will cause, so long as it
exists, both trouble and disorder in the Upper country.”2 The French were so invested in the

The popular method of educating this topic is to compare and contrast the French colonization to the
Spanish and English colonization. When looked upon in this way, the French seem to have a harmonious
relationship with indigenous people and are considered unblemished in a sense. In Wolfe and North
America, F.E. Whitton wrote “The native population shrank before the English as from an advancing
pestilence . . . on the other hand, in the very heart of Canada, Indian communities sprang up, cherished by
the Government and favoured by the easy-tempered people.” The main motives of the French colonies
were to trade rather than to expand their monarchy, which automatically meant they had to maintain a
solid alliance with the participating nation, but their relationship with the indigenous people was not
without turmoil.

What forms of government did your settlement/colony & indigenous socio-political unit have?
What were their primary features? If you can find evidence of any foundational documents or laws,
what do they tell you?
The French were under rule by the French monarchy, which later supported the Algonquin tribes that
helped the French colonists?
SUBCLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

QUESTION 2

2
Memoir from the king to the governor and intendant of New France, 14 May, 1728, Wisconsin Historical
Collections, 21.
How would you describe the economic activity of your assigned settlement/colony & indigenous
socio-political groups?
The fur trade between the French and the indigenous people was the driving force in their settlements, and
they both benefitted off of this agreement. The French had access to quality furs and fish without having
to do the work, and the indigenous people were given gifts and supplies from Europe.
SUBCLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

QUESTION 3
Describe the cultural features of your colony/settlement & indigenous groups? Religion?
Language? Cultural beliefs and practices?
The French made some attempts to convert the indigenous people to catholicism but it was not forced,
and they mostly just focused on creating good ties with each other so that they were a stronger force and
could have more access to the furs and land around them. The Algonquin tribes the French allied with
spoke Algonquin, except Hurons which spoke Iroquois, (interesting because Hurons/Wyandots were
enemies of the Iroquois..)
SUBCLAIM
EVIDENCE ​https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h560.html
Good info on algonquins culture

REASONING
​https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/search?search=fox+wars
http://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-145.html
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZibZNi7aEMI5YJAZ3Ak5VUwSgK1JBsp-6eTofc_oJ0U/edit
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1608champlain.asp
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nefBAlwjS-pdugZMNcPPX7bKQIx_WUo4COZkMBr5rn4/edit
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3491725?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1
124&context=etd
https://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1
124&context=etd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Wars#cite_note-Schmitz-2

https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=anthro_papers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Peace_of_Montreal
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-french-relations#CommerceandtheMtis
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/colonial-america/early-english-settlement/a/french-a
nd-dutch-exploration
https://www.granburyisd.org/cms/lib/tx01000552/centricity/domain/287/fact_sheet_u1_comparison_of_e
ng_fr_sp_col.pdf
http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1663/1663-05-fur-trade.html
https://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1036
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XIeDBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=natchez+frenc
h&ots=WUjZxnRllM&sig=q5EeXNyV4G1asucJPifvAXqMLvc#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Grande_Paix_Montreal.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_fur_trade#New_France_in_the_17th_century
https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h560.html

QUESTION 4
What is the “stock story” version of the interaction between the settlers/colonists and the
indigenous peoples?
The stock story is that the French were allied with all of the indigenous people from the beginning, and
were deeply interested and invested in the relations, and both lived peacefully side by side and together.
SUBCLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

QUESTION 5
Did you discover any evidence of a concealed story? What information surprised you?
The concealed story is that the French DID ally with some native groups but several they were enemies
with, and they allied in wars against other colonists and native tribes as well, where they fought
sometimes due to land claims but mostly because they were helping the algonquians. The French did
actually disturb some tribes and it wasnt always over the fur trade though.
SUBCLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

CONCLUSION