The Fox Wars were a series of military confrontations in the Midwest between the Meskwaki (Fox) Indians and the French, largely fought between 1712 and 1730. The Fox Wars were the most serious conflict between Indians and Europeans during the century between King Philips War in New England (1675-1676) and Pontiac's Rebellion in the Great Lakes region (1763).

Meskwaki Resistance to Colonialism

The Meskwaki Indians, with the occasional support of Mascouten and Kickapoo allies, were the only tribe to systematically oppose French domination in Wisconsin during the colonial era. An initial meeting in Montreal between the Meskwaki and the leaders of New France did not go well, and the Meskwaki left the meeting offended at their treatment.

The Meskwaki were later angered at high prices for goods and alarmed by French attempts to supply their Sioux enemies with firearms. When some members of the Iroquois confederacy invited them to trade with the English in New York, the French came to view the Meskwaki as disloyal customers, worsening relations.  

Specific Battles

During the first few decades of the 18th century, the Meskwaki aggressively resisted French attempts to control them economically and fought to stop the French from arming their enemies. The most important military engagements occurred in these years:

1712: When the French temporarily moved their trading headquarters to Detroit, Meskwaki warriors laid siege to the garrison stationed there. The French only defeated them with the help of Indians from other tribes, who killed nearly all the Meskwaki that participated in the uprising. The surviving Meskwaki rejoined their communities in northeastern Wisconsin, where they again began to intercept French traders along the Fox River. They exacted a toll from passing boats and canoes and attempted to prevent guns and ammunition from reaching their Sioux adversaries.

1716:  French commander Louis de la Porte de Louvigny was sent out to pacify the Meskwaki with a force of 800 soldiers, including Indian allies. At Little Butte des Morts he attacked the Meskwaki fortifications and brought about a surrender at the end of three days. A peace agreement was reached, but when the French failed to return enslaved Meskwaki prisoners per the terms of the treaty, relations between the French and the Meskwaki again declined.

1724-1728: expeditions led by Constant Le Marchand de Lignery in northern Illinois and Wisconsin created temporary truces but were largely ineffective in stopping Meskwaki hostilities. This led French officials to adopt a policy of genocide against the Meskwaki at the end of the decade.

ca. 1730: in a daring sneak attack, Capt. Pierre Paul Marin suprised the Meskwaki assembled on the riverbank at Little Butte des Morts (at the site of modern Menasha, Wisconsin) with artillery fire. His Indian allies from other tribes simultaneously attacked them from the rear. This battle was described by Augustin Grignon, who heard it recounted by his grandfather, a member of the expedition. Marin's sneak attack nearly wiped out the Meskwaki settlement and convinced the tribe to leave the river that still bears their name (the Fox River). The survivors retreated to Wauzeka, on the lower Wisconsin, where Marin made a surprise winter expedition against them while their hunters were in the field. After capturing all the Meskwaki who remained at the town, Marin released the prisoners on condition that the nation would permanently leave Wisconsin. 

1730: most of the remaining Meskwaki headed south, hoping to round Lake Michigan and join the Iroquois in the east. On their way, however, they were cornered and destroyed by the French and their Illinois allies.

In 1733, with their population decimated from several thousand in the 1710s to only a few hundred, the Meskwaki survivors returned to Wisconsin and sought refuge among the Sauk near Green Bay. Around 1745, both nations moved to the lower Wisconsin River, giving rise to the names Sauk City and Prairie du Sac. English traveler Jonathan Carver visited them there in 1766. Around 1780 they relocated to the banks of the Mississippi south of Prairie du Chien, where their largest town, Saukenuk, was located at the mouth of the Rock River. Fifty years later, at the time of the 1832 Black Hawk War, the Meskwaki and the Sauk were forced across the Mississippi into Iowa.

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[Sources: Edmunds, David, and Joseph Peyser. The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge to New France (University of Oklahoma Press, 1993); Wisconsin Historical Collections.]