By Harry Klinkhamer
Museum Coordinator, Isle a la Cache Museum
Since before the first explorations by Father Pierre Marquette and Louis
Jolliet were recorded, the Des Plaines River corridor was used as a passageway
connecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi River water basins. Native
Americans, and later French fur traders, found this portage area to be an
easily accessible
means of traveling in the region and getting to points elsewhere. Native
Tribes used the corridor to extend trade routes from the northeast, the
north, and the south. It was an area rich in natural resources and the
converging watersheds provided habitat for many game species. The French
saw the area
as a mid-point between the far-reaching colonies of Louisiana and Canada.
It acted as a hinge between France’s two largest colonies in North
America and expanded to become part of the defense against the encroaching
English. This essay will review the story of Native Americans and French
in the region. It will also review some of the literature on suggest
places where you can see some of this history first hand and provide
a brief bibliography
for further reading.
French and Native American encounters brought two
very different worlds together. As part of the “Columbian Exchange”,
these two cultures learned to adapt to new circumstances and readapt the
others’ material goods.
The main connection between these two was the fur trade. The French were
more intent on developing commercial relations than colonizing in the
area. They
sought deer skins and various animal hides, but in particular they sought
beaver pelts.
Beaver fur was particularly desirable for several reasons. Its fur was
used for clothing and hats and was a popular fashion item in Europe.
In addition,
the beaver furs ability to repel water made it quite practical and popular.
These qualities fed the demand for beavers that started on the east Coast
and in Canada and found its way toward the beaver populations of Illinois
and the
Des Plaines and Illinois River valleys.
For Native Americans in the region,
the fur trade exposed them to the material culture of Europe. Prior
to European contact, Native Americans hunted beaver
for their furs, but used the animal for several purposes. They recognized
that their needs were limited and that the beaver populations could recover
each
year. But when the demand for furs rose through trade, 
Native Americans,
and later Métis, increased hunting and negotiated for European
wares. Copper pots, silver trinkets, colorful beads and cloths, along
with guns,
flint and
steel, and knives all became desirous objects.
Eventually the fur trade would pass on further west of here. Several
factors helped to attribute to this. The diminishing beaver population
sent trappers
onto to other areas to look for more. Political and demographic changes
also played major roles. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Seven
Years’ War
(known as the French and Indian War in North America) and transferred
the Illinois Country to England. Although colonists were banned from
settling in the area,
they did so nonetheless. Encroachment and land treaties, first with
England and later with the fledgling United States, lead to expulsion
of Native tribes
from the area. In addition, the conversion of the region into developed
farmland also spelled the end of fur trapping and trading on the Des
Plaines and Illinois
Rivers.
There are several sites in the Heritage Corridor that represent and
reflect the fur trade era in Illinois. The Chicago Portage National
Historic
Site is located in the Portage Woods Forest Preserve owned by the
Forest Preserve
District
of Cook County in Lyons, Illinois. A statue of Jolliet, Marquette,
and their Native American guide marks the site. This is where the
Lake Michigan
and
Mississippi River water basins meet, providing a portage area between
the two during their
journey.
The Isle a la Cache Museum in Romeoville, Illinois, tells
the story of the French, Native Americans, and beaver in the region.
Operated by the
Forest
Preserve District of Will County, this site includes a museum,
trader’s
cabin education building, and Native American longhouse. It provides
tours, public programs, and both on-site and in-school programs about
life in the
area in the mid-eighteenth century.
For Further Reading
Brown, Margaret Kimball. The Voyageur in the Illinois Country:
The Fur Trade's Professional Boatman in Mid America. Naperville, IL: Center
for
French Colonial Studies, 2002.
Matson, Nehemiah, with a forward by
Rodney O. Davis. French and Indians of the Illinois River. Carbondale,
IL: Southern Illinois University
Press, Shawnee Classic Reprint Edition, 2001.
Walthall, John A.,
ed. French Colonial Archaeology: The Illinois Country and the Western
Great Lakes. Champaign: University of Illinois Press,
1991.
White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics
in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press,
1991.
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