WHY NO ONE EVER TRULY CONQUERS THE FRENCH

The French first settled along the Detroit River in 1701. Sixty years later, Detroit was lost to the British and after the American Revolution it became part of the United States. Immigrants from all over the world flooded the region until French was no longer heard on the streets of Detroit. 

Yet those first French settlers are not gone. Their names dot the street map of modern Detroit––Beaubien, Campau, St. Aubin, St. Antoine, Charlevoix, Dequindre, Navarre, and hundreds more. Their 10th great grandchildren still carry their French names.

On the Canadian side of the Detroit River, many still speak French. According to Wikipedia, River Canard Ontario just south of Windsor, "... is home to one of the last vestiges of the French-speaking inhabitants of the Detroit River Region..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Canard,_Ontario

And the Virtual Museum of Canada claims that, "... vestiges of ancient eras remain, echoes of old Détroit that can still be heard in the folklore that was handed down through oral tradition for more than three hundred years." Who Are the Detroit River French?  

Occasionally the strange tales of the old French rise up to the streets of Detroit too, as every spring Detroiters are Chasing the The Nain Rouge From Detroit.

No one ever truly conquers the French. 

Vivian

MY PLACE FOR MICHIGAN HISTORY

The Mackinac Bridge joins Michigans Lower and Upper Peninsula

Everyone has heard of Mackinac Island. Situated between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas, it's been a tourist haunt for over a hundred years, famed for it's Grand Hotel, horse drawn carriages, jetboat ferries and fudge.

But tucked away under the Mackinac Bridge on the lower peninsula is my favorite place to discover Michigan history––Colonial Michilimackinac. According to the Jesuit Relations, the odd name derives from the Mishinimaki or Mishinimakinagog, an Algonquin tribe that first occupied Mackinac Island.  This fort and fur trading post first built around 1715, was reconstructed according to fifty years of archeological evidence.

From colonial women cooking real meals over an open hearth, to Native Americans sitting outside their lodge, to the redcoat explaining why British soldiers were required to have at least two teeth in their mouth, and the fur trapper explaining why beaver pelts were valuable and where the term "mad hatter" came from––Colonial Michilimackinac's historical interpreters are fun and interesting. It's a great time for all ages.

Here's a video from the  

Colonial Michilimackinac website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQC-V50dBSk&lr=1

My own photos are below, along with a map. 

Michilimackinac was lost to the British in 1761 after the French and Indian War, but life continued on for those settled there. Even after a surprise attack by the local Ojibwe as part of Pontiac's Rebellion in June 1763, marriages went on during the year the Indians held the fort.
Married at Michilimackinac

The British regained Michilimackinac, but in 1781 they removed all its structures to Mackinac Island and burned the remains of the fort. Today Archeologists at Michilimackinac, dig for bits and pieces of French Michigan history. 



Vivian

THE BLACK ROBES OF NEW FRANCE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette

Père Marquette and the Indians

Wilhelm Lamprecht (German 1838-1906) 

I once heard the Jesuit order of priests called the Marine Corp of the Catholic Church. In their quest to convert new souls to Christianity the Jesuits were always the first men on the beach, at the forefront of exploration all over the world.

Born in 1491 a year before Columbus discovered the New World, St. Ignatius of Loyola grew up to found the Society of Jesus in 1540. Shortly after, their priests were sent off to India, China and Japan. Jesuits were heavily involved in exploring North and South America and they figured heavily in Detroit and Michigan history. 

The first missionaries to arrive in New France were Recollet priests in 1615. However, their missions ultimately failed and ten years later the Jesuits arrived. They were hearty men of action and their zeal to gather the souls of the indigenous people to God took them into the Great Lakes region and Michigan's upper peninsula. Fr. Jacques Marquette founded a mission at Sault Ste. Marie in 1668 and St. Ignace in 1671. He later traveled by canoe down the Mississippi River with explorer Louis Joliet, almost to the Gulf of Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette
http://www.chroniclesofamerica.com/french/jesuit_priests_in_new_france.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_watershed_map_1.jpg

Besides their search for new souls to evangelize, the Jesuits tried to protect indigenous peoples from exploitation by the French traders--Brandy, for furs or prostitution among the native women, drunkenness and gambling destroyed the Jesuit's good works, leaving the local tribes in chaos. The Jesuit's public denunciations of these activities set them into trouble with the powers of commerce in New France, including Detroit's founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

"The establishment of Detroit (1701) by La Mothe Cadillac, the French commander at Mackinac, drew away the Hurons from the latter post, and (Fr.) Carheil could no longer remain there. He had, moreover, provoked the enmity of Cadillac, and also of the fur-traders, by his opposition to the brandy traffic, so prevalent at all the trading-posts, and so demoralizing to both French and Indians."
http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_50.html

Fr. Carheil was adamant in denouncing bad behavior at the French garrisons and called to abolish them. 

"CLXXVII. (Fr.) Étienne de Carheil, who has been long stationed at Mackinac, writes (August 30, 1702) to Governor Callières a long account and vigorous denunciation of the lawless conduct and licentiousness that Prevail among both the savages and the French in that region.

“the two Infamous sorts of Commerce which have brought the missions to the brink of destruction: . . . the Commerce in brandy, and the Commerce of the savage women with the French. Both are carried on in an equally public manner, without our being able to remedy the evil, because we are not supported by the Commandants. . . . All the villages of our savages are now only Taverns, as regards drunkenness; and sodoms, as regards immorality — from which we must withdraw, and which we must abandon to the just Anger and vengeance of God.”
http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_65.html

The Jesuits must have had successes with the native tribes because in 1728 the Hurons requested a "Black Robe" as they called the Jesuits, be sent to Detroit to minister to them. Fr. Armand De La Richardie, S.J came from Quebec to establish a mission among them. That mission eventually became Assumption Church in Windsor Ontario.
http://www.assumption.rcec.london.on.ca/history.html

In researching The Last Lord of Paradise, I found this seventy three volume set to be especially interesting. However it is now only available through a subscription.
The Jesuit relations and allied documents : travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791 : the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes / edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites..

This set is also available at http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/ though not all volumes are yet entered.

I know, it's a very long title, but these books contain first hand accounts of the earliest explorations and interactions of Jesuit priests with the indigenous peoples of North America. This collection of reports, letters, journals, reveals their sincere efforts to convert them to Christianity. Sometimes they were successful, often not, but they admit their disappointments and despair, along with their successes. Their deep faith in God and their religious zeal shows on every page.

From Lake Superior to Detroit to Little Traverse Bay, Jesuits are mentioned on fourteen historical markers that dot the state of Michigan.

http://www.michmarkers.com/pages/S0121.htm

The Society of Jesus exists today, a world wide community still in service to Christ and the Pope.

http://www.jesuit.org/

Vivian

FOOTPRINTS OF THE FRENCH

North America 1750

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_France

When I was in grade school many many ... many years ago, we studied the French and Indian War (1754-63) when Great Britain and France battled it out over their lands in North America.

The teacher explained how one British surprise attack on Quebec City, launched from the Plains of Abraham, won Great Britain all the French lands claimed in North America.  Then one bored and particularly impudent student quipped, "So what?"

The teacher walked down the row of desks and stopped in front of him. "Well...If the British had not conquered Quebec City that day," she said, pointing a finger at the boy, "You, would be speaking French right now." 

This Fourth of July we will think about the thirteen British colonies from our American history lessons, but French footprints are all over American history too.

Founded by the French in 1701, I thought the City of Detroit was old, but the City of Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's upper peninsula was founded in 1668. Both were brought to us by the same French who founded Montreal (1642) and Quebec City (1608) in Canada. By 1682 they had  explored and claimed the Mississippi River Valley for France. Then went on to found the City of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1718 and St. Louis, Missouri in 1763.

Stretching from the North Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, all of this land was called New France, the French cousin of Britain's thirteen colonies.

Vivian

PS: Please, feel free to leave comments or questions. I'd love to know what you think.

NOT REALLY A BLOG POST

How the Detroit River Shaped Lives and History

By Jenny Nolan / The Detroit News

FEB 10, 1997, 8:00 PM

This isn't really a blog post, I just ran across an interesting article about the history of the Detroit River and thought I'd post the link for you. 

From limestone bedrock that survived the glaciers to the Motor City ... Click and enjoy.

Vivian 

HOW THE DETROIT RIVER SHAPED LIVES AND HISTORY  The Detroit News, February 1997, by Jenny Nolan
http://blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1997/02/10/how-the-detroit-river-shaped-lives-and-history/

DETROIT, 311 YEARS OLD

The City of Detroit celebrates 311 years of settlement this July 24th. 

As a child, growing up near Detroit, I thought the river that ran between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie had always been lined with smokestacks, factories, mountains of coal, and warehouses. Eventually, genealogy sparked an interest in the history of Detroit.

Research led me to the Clark Historical Library's exhibit, "I arrived in Detroit" and Antoine de la Mothe's 1702 Report describing the Great Lakes and his new settlement at Detroit.

It is difficult to imagine the Detroit River in 1702.  Who would have thought fruit trees and grapevines once grew wild along its banks and that eventually it led to a prairie where bison, or wooly oxen as he called them, grazed. 

"On the banks and round about the clusters of timber there is an infinite number of fruit trees, chiefly plums and apples. They are so well laid out that they might be taken for orchards planted by the hand of a gardener.

On all sides the vine is seen; there are with some bitter and rough grapes, - others whose berries are extremely large and plump. There are also white and red grapes, the skins of which are very thin, full of good juice."

"But 15 leagues from Detroit, at the entrance to Lake Erie, inclining to the south-south-west, are boundless prairies which stretch away for about 100 leagues. It is there that these mighty oxen, which are covered with wool, find food in abundance."

http://clarke.cmich.edu/resource_tab/information_and_exhibits/i_arrived_at_detroit/cadillac.html

Grapevines and apple trees? Tall grasses with bison?  I thought about this description as I looked for a book cover.

The closest I could find to what Cadillac might have seen was the Nature center at Lake St. Clair Metropark, a marshland, and forest, and beautiful place to visit any time of the year. 

http://www.metroparks.com/metroparks/blog.aspx?ID=7

South of the lake, on the other side of the Detroit River in Windsor Ontario, is  the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve. I've made a note to visit there soon. It appears to have the tall grass prairie that Cadillac spoke of but sadly no buffalo. 

Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve

Below are some photos of the Detroit River today. I snapped these from the Canadian side during a visit to Windsor Casino.

 

Detroit River facing North, as it surrounds Belle Isle

Freighter heading south, down river

Detroit's Renaissance Center, now GM Headquarters, and downtown

Fireworks display during the w:Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival

Thanks to Vito Palmisano for this great photo

Amazing what 311 years can do to a place.

Vivian

ISLANDS OF THE DETROIT RIVER

View of Downtown Detroit from Scott Fountain on Belle Isle

 Mikerussell@wikipedia.org 

Looking over the map I posted below, I began to understand why I enjoy researching the Detroit River French. I like their modesty, their simple lack of vanity.

Modesty? There's a word we don't hear in these days of narcissistic celebrities and self glorifying social media. But the Detroit River French were a modest people––practical, hardworking, and down to earth as the river they settled. No ego on the banks of the Detroit River, not in 1701.

Detroit's founder, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a minor aristocrat, adopted many different names and titles to further his personal advancement. He had a grand plan for a new fur trading post on the Detroit River, yet he did not name his settlement Cadillac. He called it Fort Pontchartrain after the French Count who helped him gain funding for his mission from the King of France.

No one claimed the glory of discovering the Detroit River by giving it their own name. It was always called Rivière du Détroit, or River of the Strait. And that is exactly what the river is, a narrow, channel of water that connects two larger, bodies of water, Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie.

The French habitants named all their surroundings for just what they were. North of the fort was Presque Isle, (almost an island) and the Grand Marais (big swamp). In the river lay Isle de Cachon. Named Hog Island, because they used pigs to trample the many snakes there, today it is Belle Isle (beautiful island). Farther south on the river was Isle de Dindes (Turkey Island). The largest island was called Grosse Isle (Big Island).

There were few claims of glory among the first habitants of Detroit, at least for themselves. In their eyes only God deserved glory. French mapmakers called the northern lake that fed the river Mer Douce or sweet sea, until the French explorer René Robert Cavelier named it Lac Sainte-Claire in 1679. St. Anne de Detroit Church, the first log building in their settlement, was named after Ste. Anne, whose feast day fell on the date they landed in Detroit.

The hearts and struggles of Detroit's first settlers always belonged to God.

Click the link below to enlarge and explore a great map of the  Detroit River from 1812. Though it was made by a British engineer you can still see many of the old French names, from River Rouge (Red River) to Bois Blanc Isle (White Wood). 

And if you like historic maps check out the David Rumsey Map Collection at: 

http://www.davidrumsey.com/

David Rumsey Map Collection

There is also an excellent Wikipedia article listing all the islands of the Detroit River. I count twenty eight. How about you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_in_the_Detroit_River

Vivian :)