Advent of the New York Indians into Wisconsin

              1821]        Coming of New York Indians     425
dians, particularly the Menomonees, was very close, and their influence with them very strong, almost potential. Some of the more shrewd among them very soon penetrated the ambitious de¬ sign of Williams, which was no less than a.total subjugation of the whole country, and the establishment of an Indian govern¬ ment, of which he was tO' be the sole dictator. The French and traders immediately organized into an opposition to the whole programme of the delegates. They were familiar with the Me- nomonees and Winnebagoes, present at their debates, counselled and advised with them in their deliberations, and when the an¬ swer of the Menomonees and Winnebagoes wasi given, it Was a deliberate and decided refusal to cede them an inch of soil west of Lake Michigan. It was plain to all, that the French and half breeds had answered, and not. the Indians. The delegates ex¬ pressed as much in their reply and affectionately requested their brothers to re-consider the matter, and answer for themselves, in¬ dependent of the French and half-breeds.
Several days w^ere spent by both parties in out-door discussions; the French and half breed interest, finding their positon not safely tenable, counselled a kind of compromise, which being adopted, resulted in proposing a cession to their Eiastern brethren, the IsTot-ta-ways, of a strip of land five miles in width, running across the Fox Eiver at Little Chute as a centre, and thence to the North-west and South-east, equi-distant with their claims or |X>sse!Ssions. In offering this cession to the delegates as their ul¬ timatum, these tribes urged their limited posses'sions., the poverty of their hunting grounds, and their inability in consequence to subsist their people! The pO'Ssessions^ of the Menomonees then reached from the inouth of Green Bay to the Milwaukee Eiver, North and South, and from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, South-east and ISTorth-west. Those of the Winnebagoes included all the remainder of what is now known as Southern, Wisconsin, except the inconsiderable tract west of Sugar Eiver, claimed by the Sauks and Foxes. They were very much crowded, of course! The delegates saw that the object was, by placing them on a