Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1858-06-05
TIE WEEKLY MINNESOTIAN
MORNING. JUNE s, 1858.
The commencement of History In Min
uesota.--The First white Men VINO
Exulored our State.

rallv ASK cRtH tnc nistoiy vi No"A! WV"
out apparent records except for these past
nine wears. could have commenced!
The reply to this question is, that Its his
tory should properly only date its origin, in a
civilized sense, from the period when the
6rd ,cltte 7pqn-the first human being who
was not savage-.prsssed tcih his footsteps
our soil?
Ii has been the generally received opinion,
that Father LOUIS HENSEpIN and his two
companions : Captain DACAN, whom he calls
MICHAEL Axe, who was the Indian trader LA
ArGrELLE Dr. GAY. a native of Amiens in
ricardy and n royageur; were the civilized
men who first laid their eyes upon the fertile
plains of Minnesota
The Fathers story of their adventures
or more particularly of bis own informs us
that with a canoe loaded with Indian goods,
they left LA SALES Fort of Crevcoeur on the
Illinois river, in March OF 1850, to explore
the unknown northern regions; and descend
ing that river to its junction with the Missis
sippi, then commenced the ascent of the
Great River, being the first time its current
was stemmed by civilized men, though MAR
QUITE had, seven years before, descended it
from tie Wisconsin
One bright morning, however, on the 1lth
Of April OF that year. Sioux war feet con-
si>,ing OF tlirty-three bark canoes, filled with
Mrdaywaukawntoan Dakotahs, arrested their
progress and finally made them travel with
them to their villages in the North. Still
keeping on the Mississippi, the party were
nineteen days before they reached the vicin
ity Of st. Pau where they left the river
and pr ceeGed overland and after five days.
walk arrived at the residence of the savages
at Mile Lac, or upon the river issuing from
that lake, which stream we call now by the
slirtei appellatinn of RUM Each of the
FGencl.men was taken to a separate Indian
village; and Father HENNEPIN himself, who
was Fleming belonging. to the Recollect
Order of Franciscan fr,ars, was conveyed to
an island in Mile Lac, two miles from the
main land, where AQuIPAGUETIN, the Sioux
Chief who had him in charge, lived with his
five wives and surrounded by his band.
1t mkt appears that scme time in July of
1850, as HENNEPIN was out with an Indian
hunting party, he met, proceeding to the
Dakotah village, a famous French Captain
named DANIEL GREYsoLoN DIT LuTH q native
of Lyons, who with four Frenchmen and one
Indian, in two canoes, had descended to the
Mississippi by tie Bois Brule and St. CroiX
rivers portage. The result of this encounter
was trading treaty with the Indians, under
the terms of which the latter permitted HESyE-
PIN, and his two companions to leave them
and accompany DU LUTH homeward.
For this Captain, the Jesuit writers, who
detcsted HENNEPIN as member of the rival
order of Franciscan Recolects, sought the
credit of having first visited the Dakotah
villages on Mile Lac. We do not think this
position we'll founded, though Mr. NELL in
his history seems inclined to countenance
such view.
But there is, however, another fact which
gives to the Seur DU LUTH, more unim-
peachable claim to have been the first white
man who visited Minnesota.
Of that portion of our State bordering
upon Lake Superior, he was certainly the
original explorer. 1t is clear that on the lst
ol September, 1913, Le left Quebec to explore
the country of the Dahkotahs and Assinc-
BONES. 1t is recorded, that the next year,
1919, on the I'd of July, he caused the arms
OF he French King to be planted ain the
great village of the Nadouessiour [Dahko-
tabs called kathiO where no Frenchman
had ever been: also at Songaskicons and
HouetoGtoas, one hundred and twenty leagues
distant from the former y though where this
great will ge" of "Kathio" pronounced
probably Kah-tee-o) was located, is yet
amongst the things undiscovered. 1t is fur
tier stated, that on the 18th of September
Cf the same year, " he met the Assneboines,
and other nations, at the head of Lake Supc-
rior for the purpose of settling their Difficult
ties with the Dahkctahs, AMI was successful"
There is reason to tini that this peace couu-
Gil wa held at Fond du Lac Of Lake Superior.
where at that day there was probably a large
village Of Dakotahs as there was afterwards
Of Oilbways; perhaps it was the very ''great
village" of IA hio itself; and it is coniec-
tured that here, as we'll as at Kamanis,equayn,
the entrance of Pigeon river, Minnesota, lc
built trading houses of pine logs. 1t is fui-
ther narrated, that i" in the month Of June
lGoO, he left his post on Lake Superior, and
wiIh two caaoeS, an Indian and four French
men, entered :. river B B,is Brulel eight leagues
bclow [ais post a. Fond du Lac ascending
to the sources Of which, he made portage
TO lake which is the head of river [St
Croixl that entered into the Mississippi"
Projecting on to the Dakotal. villages he
met HENNEPIN, as before stated.
In this manner, and by these two men as
chiefs, was Minnesota first discovered and
explored by white men.
HENNEPiN was not only a man of daring
and adventurous spirit, but an interesting
writer; and his pen, though not aiwovs truth
ful, gave his own adventures and claims to
original discovery, a wide spread circulation.
Many editions of his works were issued, and
in farent languages. lie subsequently pass
ed from the French service into that of King
William III of England, who as Prince of
the Netherlands was his native sovereign
but IN subsequent editions Of his works, for
pecuniary gain to subserve political ends, he
departed from the strict truth in describing
the extent of his travels, and finally died but
little respected though widely famous, at a
little convent in Italy.