Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/63

 SECT. II.] ALGONKIN-LENAPE AND IROQUOIS NATIONS. 27 who were principally settled on and in the vicinity of an island in the river, where they exacted a tribute from all the Indians and canoes going to, or corning from, the country of the Hurons. It is observed by the same Father Le Jeune, that, although the Hurons were ten times as numerous, they submitted to that imposition ; which seems to prove that the right of sovereignty over the river, to which the Ottawas have left their name, was generally recognised. After the almost total destruction, in the year 1649, of the Hurons by the Five Nations, the Algon- kin nations of the Ottawa River generally abandoned their abodes and sought refuge in different quarters. A part of the Ottawas of that river, accompanied by a portion of those who lived on the western shores of Lake Huron, amounting to about one thousand souls, and by five hundred Hurons, after some wanderings, joined their kindred tribes, towards the south- western extremity of Lake Superior.* They were followed there in the year 1665, by the Mission- aries. Their principal missions in that quarter were at Cha- gouamigong on that lake, and at or near Green Bay on Lake Michigan. They enumerate all the Indian nations in that quarter, excepting only the Chippeways and the Piankeshaws ; and an uncertain tribe, the Mascoutens, is added. In every other respect the enumeration corresponds with the Indians now known to us there. The Sauks and Outagamies on the one hand, and the Miamis and Illinois on the other, are spe- cially mentioned as speaking Algonkin dialects, but both very different from the pure Algonkin. This last designation is dropped, with respect to all the Indians south of Lake Supe- rior, except in reference to language. The nation south of that lake, mentioned as speaking pure Algonkin, is uniformly called Outaouais ; and the Chippeways, by whom they were sur- rounded at Chagouamigong, are never once mentioned by that name. I It is perfectly clear that the Missionaries considered the Ottowas and the Chippeways, as one and the same people. Of the Potowotamies they say, that they spoke Algonkin, but more difficult to understand than the Ottawas. As late as the year 1671, the Potowotamies were settled on the islands called Noquet, near the entrance of Green Bay. But, forty years later, they had removed to the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, where we found them, and on the very grounds (Chicago and River St. Joseph), which in 1670 were occupied
 * Relations, F. Allouez, A. D. 1666. f Ibid. A. D. 1C6G-1671.