The Redwood gazette., 1936-01-30
Early Explorer Failed to
Map Redwood River Mouth
Crude Map Indicates Party
Explored Region $50
Years Ago
Fourth of a Series)


Years Ago
Fourth of Series)
Indian anthropology is confus-
ing for various reasons. We shall
deal only with obvious reasons
here. We could quote authorities
whose writings reveal assiduous
and intelligent study of known
facts, but we prefer to contribute
to this record less-known mater
ial. We have selected the letters
of Louis Armand de Lom d'arce,
baron de Lahoptan, an officer of
Canadian army when virtually all
of the region of that name was
owned by France.
This Lahontan, as he is called,
made an exploration trip in Min
nesota nearly $50 years ago. Most
historians discount his claims and
some class him with another early
baron Munchausen. Whatever of
Lahontan's reports may be false,
his references to the Indian tribes
are interesting from the stand
point of Indian tribal classifica-
ton.
The baron ascended the Mime
sofa river, he asserts, to the vicin-
ity of Browns Valley. November
81, 1888, Lahontan's party reach
ed a point near Redwood Falls, ac-
cording to a map made by the ex-
plorer. The mp is crude and anus
ingly inaccurate but it bears the
impress of originality and of
drafting from actual study of the
region mapped. Lahontan's ac-
count Of his explorations in the
valley are confined mainly to let
ters written to a relative and do
not add greatly to the historical
record but we wish to present
here some Of his statements con-
cerning the Indians he encounter
ed.
He described the entry of his
party into the mouth of the Min
nesota river, which he called the
Tongue, or Morte", river. He
first tells of encounting "Eokoras"
Indians, probably at points be-
tween St. Paul and Mankato. Near
Mankato he says, he was told by
the chief of that section that he
would reach the land of the "Es-
sanapes" about 60 leagues up the
valley. The chief refused to give
him convoy because his people
were at war with the Essanapes
but gave him six Essanape slaves
as guides.
The map shows that the Essan-
apes dwelt in the region in the
valley extending from a point
about midway between the mouths
Of the Lac Qui Parle and Chippe-
wa rivers to a point between the
mouths Of the Redwood river and
Beaver creek. A number of In
dian villages are shown along the
river in this territory on Lahon-
tan's map.
The explorer tells of travelling
in canoes from the Mackinac riv-
er to Green Bay and from there by
way of the Fox and Wisconsin riv-
ers to the Mississippi. He was ac-
companied, he says, by four Of
tawa and 10 Fox Indians ard sew
eral French soldiers. We may as
sumo that this party, augmented
by the acquisition of the six Es-
sanape slaves reached the vicinity
of Redwood Falls. They did 10,
set foot on the site apparently, ror
the map does not show the Red
wood river. If the baron made the
the trip he must have hugged the
opposite shore and missed the
mouth of the Redwood, which
seems decidedly unusual and un-
likely. But still, strange things
happen when one is exploring in
a new country.
They reached the first village of
the Essanapes November 27 and
the map shows villages on the
south side of the river, one eviden-
thy short distance above Beaver
creek. This of course would place
it very near Redwood Falls. The
baron tells of Capital Canton,
on the west line of the month of
the Chippewa river, the most wes-
terly Essanape village. There the
"Generalissimo", or Chief Canton,
lived. AS the canoes continued up
stream to this village. trouble de-
velOped between Lahontan's Foxes
and the Essanape slaves. The ex-
plorer indicates that the chief was
asked to intercede. Why it was
expected that a savage chieftain
should be able and willing to COM
pose the difference between In
dians of strange tribe and of an
enemy band is not evident. But
that is Lahontan's story.
At Capital Canton the travellers
learned of another tribe, the
"Gnacsitares," but the map shows
that the domain of this tribe ex-
tended east only as far as Lake
Traverse. This would leave all
the valley from the mouth of the
Chippewa almost to the South Da-
kota border unclaimed by Indians
1t may have been a No-man's Land
or a sort of a buffet area which
prevented too frequent contact T!
between the two tribes. Yet La
hontan says the Essanapes and
the Gnacsitares were allies in con-
f1icts with the "Mozeemleks", a
war like tribe living far to the
west.
The "Generalissimo" gave the
exploring party a convoy of about
500 of his braves and the party
set out December a in dugouts,
called pirogues, instead of canoes
The land of Gnacsitares was
reached and. although these peo-