Conflict and Colonization: The Fox Wars and French Expansion

The Fox Wars, spanning from 1701 to 1742, were a series of conflicts between the French colonial forces and the Fox (Meskwaki) people in the Great Lakes region of North America. Central to these wars was the Fox’s control over the Fox River system, a critical artery for the lucrative fur trade between French Canada and the vast North American interior. The strategic importance of this river meant that the Fox people held considerable power, which they leveraged to assert dominance over the region and its resources. The French, however, saw the Fox as a direct threat to their economic interests and territorial expansion.

The First Fox War (1712-1716) erupted after years of escalating tension, culminating in a dramatic siege laid by the Fox against the French fort at Detroit. The fort was a symbol of French presence and control in the region, and the Fox’s attack was both a direct challenge to French authority and an assertion of their own power. The French, with the aid of their Native American allies such as the Ottawa and Huron, managed to repel the Fox siege. The defeat of the Fox forces led to a temporary peace agreement, but it did little to resolve the deeper conflict over control of the trade routes. The Fox people, known for their fierce resistance, continued to oppose French expansion, leading to ongoing hostilities.

The Second Fox War (1728-1733) was a much more devastating conflict. Determined to eliminate the Fox threat, the French launched a series of aggressive military campaigns. These campaigns were marked by their brutality, aiming not only to defeat but to completely annihilate the Fox as a political and military force. The war culminated in what many historians view as a near-genocidal effort by the French, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Fox people. The survivors, decimated and broken, were forced to seek refuge among neighboring tribes such as the Sauk. This marked the effective end of the Fox’s power in the region.

The Fox Wars underscore the complexity of colonial-era conflicts, which were rarely just binary struggles between European powers and Indigenous groups. Instead, these wars often involved a web of alliances and rivalries among various Native American tribes, who were drawn into the conflicts for their own reasons. The wars also highlight the violent nature of colonial expansion, as European powers sought to exert control over Indigenous lands and resources at any cost. The destruction of the Fox as a political entity had lasting effects on the Great Lakes region, reshaping its demographic and power structures for generations to come.
Conflict and Colonization: The Fox Wars and French Expansion

Meskwaki History: Resilience and Preservation

Originating from Algonquian roots within the Eastern Woodland Culture regions, the Meskwaki people share a linguistic connection with the Sauk and Kickapoo tribes and actively work to safeguard their language.

In earlier historical periods in Iowa, the Ioway (located in northern, central, and eastern Iowa) and the Sioux (found in northwest Iowa) were the primary tribes. During the 18th century, with French assistance, the Ojibwa displaced the Sauk and Meskwaki from their ancestral lands in eastern Wisconsin.

Engaged in the Fox Wars (1701-1742), the Meskwaki resisted French forces, and by 1735, they had formed an alliance with the Sauk to repel European and other indigenous tribes. Following their displacement, they resettled along the Mississippi River in western Illinois and eastern Iowa. The forced relocation of the Sauk to the western side of the Mississippi River played a pivotal role in the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Despite the federal government's attempts to relocate them to a Kansas reservation alongside the Sauk, the Meskwaki resisted. In the 1840s, some chose to settle with the Pottawatomi in southwestern Iowa, while others remained in central Iowa along the Iowa, Cedar, and Skunk rivers.

By 1800, the Meskwaki had established a strong presence in Iowa but lost their land through a series of treaty cessions in 1845. Although the majority were relocated to reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma, some opted to remain concealed in Iowa.

On July 13, 1857, the Meskwaki officially acquired their initial 80 acres in Tama County, gaining formal federal recognition as the "Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi In Iowa." A decade later, in 1867, the United States government granted the Meskwaki residing in Iowa federal annuity payments for the first time.
Meskwaki History: Resilience and Preservation

Grand Canyon in modern history

Archaeological studies show humans have periodically settled the Grand Canyon, but no one resided in the canyon except during favorable climate periods. The first immigrants to the Grand Canyon area were ancestors of today’s Indian people. However, because of continual movements, the India groups near the Grand Canyon now are not thought to be direct descendants of earlier residents.

The first record of humans in the Southwest dates to about 9500 to 9000 BC. These people, known as Paleo-Indian, hunted wooly mammoths, camels, and other large grazing animals that flourish in the region at the close of the last ice age.

Europeans saw the canyon for the first time in September of 1540. Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado believed that seven cities of gold lay in the northern interior of New Spain and although several effort had proved fruitless.

John Wesley Powell’s journey inaugurated a wave of expeditions to map and explore Grand Canyon.  Between river trips Powell conducted scientific expeditions along the rim, but these excursions were only temporary.

Most of the South Rim’s early settlers were miners searching for riches in the depths of Grand Canyon.

Northern Mohave county was first settled by Mormon pioneers sent from Salt Lake City by Brigham Young in the 1860s. The early settlers overcame attacks by Paiute and other local Indian tribes and became firmly established on the lands.

Starting in the mid-1890s, people began arriving at Grand Canyon for no other reason than a visit, relax and take in the views.  The tourist era began with the completion of a railroad across northern Arizona. By 1882, railroad lines had spawned the communities of Flagstaff, Williams, and Peach Springs.

Before 1963, when Glen Canyon Dam closed, fewer than 100 people had boated through Grand Canyon. By 1967 some 2000 tourists were on the river, and by 1972, 16,400, the National Park Service found it necessary to regulate access with permits.
Grand Canyon in modern history

Shamanism in American Indian

North American Indian medicine men and shamans have played a large role in the older literature on North America. The nineteenth century saw the first anthropology description of American medicine men and shamans. 

By definitions, all shamans would be medicine man but to all medicine men would be shamans.

Shamanism means traditions of prehistoric origin that are characteristic of Mongoloid peoples, including the American Indians.

They believed and acknowledge one supreme, all powerful, and intelligent Being, or Giver of Life, who create and governs all things.

The Shaman functions in the chief place in all religious and ceremonial activities, thus making shamanism synonymous with religion.

It is the shaman rather than the priest who is called upon to treat the sick, to foretell the future.

Medicine power is often attributed to a fetish or charm adopted to typify a tutelary demon, or mystery guardian and the superior performance of one “juggler” over another is often attributed to the fact his medicine is the stronger.

Medicine is also associated with magic numbers. The usual sacred number among Indian is four, signifying the cardinal directions, but sometimes six, adding the up and down directions.

The Medicine bundle was perhaps the most important. In the thirties the medicine bundle cult still survive among the Potawatomis along with the more recent religion or drum dance, and peyote religion, as one of the three curing cults still extant.

The medicine bundle was usually made of an animal skin as deer tails, dried fingers, and often the maw stone of a buffalo.

Characteristically, the shaman is a healer, a psychopomp (who guides the souls of the dead to their home in the afterlife), and more generally a mediator between her or his community and the world of spirits (most often animal sprits and the spirits of the forces of nature).
Shamanism in American Indian