Iroquois Wars of the 17th Century

Within a generation of Columbus, the French had penetrated the St. Lawrence River and pointed their ships toward the interior. By 1630 they had built settlements at Quebec and Montreal, where they could easily communicate and trade with the Huron, Ottawa, and Ojibwe Indians around the Great Lakes. At the same time, the English and Dutch settled New England and New York, where they could easily communicate and trade with the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy via the Hudson River. In the 1640s, the Dutch demand for furs prompted the Iroquois to invade the rich fur-supplying territories to their north... more...

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	Jesuit missionaries describe the aftermath of Iroquois attacks.
	A priest journeys to a Wisconsin village of exiled Hurons in 1661.
	Iroquois warriors attack their enemies while hunting
	Iroquois warriors ambush French troops in 1687.

Primary Sources Available Elsewhere

	The first fur traders reach Wisconsin about 1654.
	The First Iroquois Raid into Wisconsin, 1653
	Father Jean Claude Allouez in the Fox Valley, 1669-1670.
	The Ottawas and Huron Flee to Wisconsin, 1656-1662.
	Fr. Louis Hennepin describes Wisconsin and Minnesota in the 1670's.
	Francis Parkman's The Jesuits in North America, from Project Gutenberg.
	Cadwallader Colden's History of the Five Nations... (1747) presents the Iroquois side of the story.
	An electronic text of the complete Jesuit Relations, at Creighton University.

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