Preliminary survey of the remains of the Chippewa settlements on La Pointe island, Wisconsin / by Philip Ainsworth Means.

  • Philip Ainsworth Means
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Preliminary survey of the remains of the Chippewa settlements on La Pointe island, Wisconsin / by Philip Ainsworth Means. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is the narrow sandy island which forms the northern side of Chequamegon, or Ashland Bay. It is now called Long Island; formerly it was a peninsula connected with the mainland. It runs at a right angle to La Pointe Island.1 Upon this rather unsuitable site the Ojibwa built their first settle¬ ment in the Chequamegon Bay region.2 The settlement took place, according to all authorities, about 1490. As the place was, at that time, a peninsula, it was open to the attacks of the Sioux and the Foxes, which tribes had replaced the Iroquois as enemies-in-chief of the Ojibwa.3 Accordingly, the Ojibwa moved their chief village to Mon-ing-wun-a-kaun-ing (place-of-the-golden-breasted-wood- pecker), now called La Pointe. There they established their principal village, though there were several other settlements along the shore of Chequamegon (Ashland) Bay.4 We may safely assume, then, that by or soon after 1500 a large Ojibwa town flourished on the area just indicated. This important community was menaced by the Sioux from the west and the Foxes from the south, but escaped destruction, and in the course of time numerous settlements wer.e established by the Chippewa on the mainland, which served as outposts to the main village at La Pointe. War against their enemies occupied much of the Ojibwas’ strength and time for generations.5 For about 120 years, from about 1500 to 1620, the Ojibwa lived uninterruptedly on La Pointe Island. About 1620, however, circum¬ stances arose which led them to desert the place. There are two theories put forth to account for this desertion. One is that the branch of the Ojibwa who remained at the Sault (or possibly their kinsmen the Ottawa) received firearms at this time from the earlier French settlers, and, passing them on to their allies on La Pointe, enabled the latter to drive off their hitherto formidable enemies by means of their powerful new weapons, and progress over the mainland to the southward and westward. The other theory is that a craze for human flesh grew upon the medicine-men of the Ojibwa at La Pointe to such a degree that they even made use of 1 See map 1, p. 3. J This island is flat, sandy, sparsely settled, and not too much forested, offering every advantage to the archeologist. Finds from the northwestern end of the island would date from a very early prehistoric and an early historic period. 3 Warren, 1885, p. 95; Verwyst, 1895, p. 430. 4 Verwyst, 1895, P- 43°. 5 Warren, 1885, p. 92.
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