In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4 The Years of the British When the news of the French defeat in Montreal in 1760 filtered back to the Wisconsin forests, a certain foreboding and uneasiness gripped the Indian communities. Perhaps only among the Potawatomi did grief over the French military defeat exist. Other groups, amazed and disheartened with French military tactics, demonstrated little commiseration for the French situation. Even before the war, dissatisfaction with French administration of the fur trade led the Menominee and some others into open confrontation with them at Green Bay. The enthusiasm for war at a distance was not high. The arena of conflict was too far east to elicit much response from the Indians in the Green Bay area.! Concern among the Wisconsin Indians in 1760-61 proved not to be for the French but for themselves, and it focused on rumors regarding the practices of British fur traders and government agents. French rumors that the British would treat the Indians "meanly" circulated in the Wisconsin forests, and it was with some trepidation that Wisconsin Indians awaited British arrival. They did not have long to wait. In September 1761, Captain Belfour was ordered to take possession of Fort Michilimackinac and the posts at St. Joseph (Michigan) and Green Bay. At Green Bay, Belfour left Lieutenant James Gorrell to rebuild the old fort, which Gorrell renamed Fort Edward Augusta, and to administer affairs at that post. Gorrell found only one family of Indians, presumably Menominee, in the Green Bay village.2 Other groups, away on their winter hunt, would not return until early spring. In May, Gorrell began to receive visitors from different Wisconsin Indian communities. They wanted "to know how they would be treated, and were agreeably surprised to find that we were fond of seeing them, and received them civilly, contrary to the account given them 78 Copyrighted Material The Years of the British by the French."3 Throughout the spring and summer, official delegations from the Menominee, Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox communities arrived in Green Bay to receive gifts and formalize their relationship with the British representative. The war had produced hardships in their villages, and they were anxious to press requests for trade goods and especially for a gunsmith to fix their guns. The Menominee extended a warm welcome and expressed their hope that British traders would come among them because they had discovered that British goods were less expensive than French goods and often of better quality. This desire was echoed by the Winnebago, Sauk, and Fox delegates.4 The Indians also demanded gifts. This posed a dilemma for Gorrell. He not only lacked the requisite supplies to carry out the duties of his office , but also had orders to limit gifts to the Indians, giving only those "necessary to keep them in ternper."s This last was partly a British move to cut the costs of Indian administration. Gorrell realized that the large number of Indians dependent on his post were accustomed to receiving lavish gifts from the French and would quickly grow dissatisfied with British economic measures that gave French rumors greater weight. Gorrell remembered that Sir William Johnson, superintendent for Indian Affairs north of the Ohio River, cautioned him that, unless he did his "best to please the Indian," he better not go to Wisconsin. Although he did his best to comply with his orders to limit gifts, the growing necessity to counter French rumors forced a desperate Gorrell to request more presents from his immediate superior in Detroit, Captain Donald Campbell . Campbell refused, reminding Gorrell of his orders to hold back on presents. "These orders made me uneasy, as I was assured I could not keep so large a body of Indians in temper without giving them something , as they had always been used to large presents from the French; and at the same time, if I did not give each nation the same [as] I had given those that had been to see me, all would be lost to me and the service ."6 Gorrell's orders came from Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander-inchief of British forces. Amherst had an intense dislike for Indians and believed the French system of gift-giving was ineffective, merely a system of bribes to keep Indians under control. In his enmity for the Indian, Amherst found a sympathetic accomplice in Henry Bouquet, commander at Fort Pitt. Restless tribes, Amherst believed, should be sternly rebuked and punished. "Could it not be contrived to send the Small Pox among...

Share