La Baye was a small

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

established on the ''Baie des Puants'' in 1634 by

Jean Nicolet Jean Nicolet (Nicollet), Sieur de Belleborne (October 1642) was a French '' coureur des bois'' noted for exploring Lake Michigan, Mackinac Island, Green Bay, and being the first European to set foot in what is now the U.S. state of Wisconsin. ...

Nicolas Perrot Nicolas Perrot (–1717), a French explorer, fur trader, and diplomat, was one of the first European men to travel in the Upper Mississippi Valley, in what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota. Biography Nicolas Perrot was born in France between 1641 ...

, who was sent by Father

Claude-Jean Allouez Claude Jean Allouez (June 6, 1622 – August 28, 1689) was a Jesuit missionary and French explorer of North America. He established a number of missions among the indigenous people living near Lake Superior. Biography Allouez was born in Sai ...

, continued the work that Nicolet had started. In 1671, the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

constructed a mission.

Fort La Baye Fort La Baye was a French military post at La Baye (today Green Bay, Wisconsin), originally built in 1684, remodeled in 1717, and occupied until 1760. One Commandant of the Fort was the famous Chevalier Jacques Testard de Montigny, Knight of the O ...

was thus constructed in 1717. The town of La Baye was incorporated in 1754. At the end of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, it went under

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

control in 1761 and was renamed Green Bay. By 1718, there were some Métis families in the very broad area of the fort, but no settlement focused on it specifically. Other families settled across the river from the fort in an area which was called ''Munnomonee,'' because of the

Menominee The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...

native people that lived there. It was not until 1763 that concerted civilian settlement by people with some European ancestry began in the area. The first settlement in that year was led by

Charles de Langlade Charles Michel Mouet de Langlade (9 May 1729 – after 26 July 1801)''Dictionnaire Généalogique Tanguay'' was a Great Lakes fur trader and war chief who was important in protecting French territory in North America. His mother was Ottawa and hi ...

, who was the son of a French-Canadian father and an

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ), said to mean "traders", are an Indigenous American ethnic group who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, commonly known as the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They ha ...

mother. Most of the families had come to La Baye from the Mackinac area. In 1816 La Baye had a population of about 40 families, who were virtually all

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

. In the summer of 1820 La Baye was estimated by

Henry Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnology, ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native Americans in the United States, Native American cultures, as well as for his 1 ...

to have 500 inhabitants, all essentially Métis or at least in Métis families, that is even if they could be called clearly French, Odawa, or some other Native American group, their spouse was of a different group.Trask, "Settlement in a half-savage land," p. 2

References

External links

* Kerry A. Trask,
Settlement in a half-savage land: Life and loss in the Metis community of La Baye
, ''Michigan Historical Review'' Vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 1989) (page 1). For the ''Michigan Historical Review'', please see

Michigan History magazine ''Michigan History'' is a bimonthly state history magazine published by the Historical Society of Michigan in Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1917 as a “magazine of Michigan history for Michigan people by Michigan writers.” Since then, i ...

{{coord, 44, 30, 48, N, 88, 0, 57, W, region:US-WI, display=title New France History of Wisconsin Brown County, Wisconsin 1634 establishments in the French colonial empire

See also

References

External links