Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
REVISITING THE LEGEND OF JEAN NICOLET
SHIRLEY VERBRUGGEN
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
(zhäN nēkôlā´)
CONTROVERSY WITH THE LEGEND OF JEAN NICOLET
A STORY OF "ERRORS, INVENTIONS, SLOPPY SCHOLARSHIP, AND
PASSIONATELY PARTISAN DEFENSES OF CONFLICTING
CONCLUSIONS...REGARDING VIRTUALLY EVERY ASPECT OF THE
NICOLET STORY."
Who cares? We do!
For example:

Jean Nicolet Chapter of National Society of Daughters of the
American Revolution
http://www.wsdar.com/depere/

Seek accuracy in genealogy

Value accuracy of historical facts

Should know about the history of the organization's namesake

What we teach about the history of Wisconsin is important
So,...
what do you know about
Jean Nicolet?
1948 Detail from the painted mural, "Wisconsin History," by William A. McCloy,
WI State Historical Society building
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Sources of Information about Jean Nicolet

Fourth grade Social Studies curriculum

Sign at Nicolet statue

Murals and paintings

Books

Voyaguer magazine article

Scholarly writings
http://www.uwgb.edu/wisfrench/photos/nicolet.htm

Sign at the Nicolet statue at Wequiock Falls Park.
4th Grade Book
Books and Magazines
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne

Born in Cherbourg in Normandy, France around 1598

Roman Catholic

Friend of Samuel de Champlain, founder of New France

Immigrated to Canada in 1618

Worked as an Indian agent and clerk

Lived among Algonquin people to learn their language

Set up fur trading for a French company

Became a proficient mediator and interpreter
Before Nicolet
http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/navigating/map/

1492 - Christopher Columbus

1497 - John Cabot - coast of Labrador, Newfoundland

1500 - son of John, Sebastian Cabot - Labrador to Florida?

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano - NC, Newfoundland,
named the area New France

1534 - Jacques Cartier - Newfoundland, took possession in the
name of the French King, discovered St. Lawrence River, sailed
back

1535 - St. Charles and St. Lawrence Rivers

Named the hill on an island Mont-Real (Montreal)

1541 - Erected a fort near Quebec city
Before Nicolet

1598 - 1601 - Colonization of New France, most died

1603 - Company of merchants of France formed (100 associates)
and Samuel de Champlain came to survey St. Lawrence River

1608 - Champlain returned to colonize with men, arms and stores

1611 - Returned to St. Lawrence to secure advantages of fur trade

1615 - Champlain viewed Lake Ontario, became commander of
the fort at Quebec with fur traders and friars
Before Nicolet

1625 - Three Jesuits arrived in the colony

1627 - 100 men, women and children in colony and Cardinal
Richelieu is grandmaster of navigation and commerce in a colony
of Roman Catholic French
By 1634

Whole French population was barely 150 people

Needed to build a better understanding of the Indians

Mostly involved in the trading business

Interior of continent needed to be explored

Needed young men trained in life in the woods, language and
customs of Indians

Develop friendly relations with Indians to advance fur trade and
build allies for the French
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne

Roman Catholic

Friend of Samuel de Champlain (founder/governor of New France)

Immigrated to Canada in 1618 at about 20 years old

Worked as an Indian agent and clerk

Lived for two years among Algonquin (Ottawas) to learn their
language and spent eight or more years with Nipissing Indians

Set up fur trading for a French company

Became a proficient commissary, mediator, and Indian interpreter

Went on a successful peace mission to visit Iroquis
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Champlain's "young men" (protégés)

Etienne Brule

Jean Nicolet
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Champlain's "young men" (protégés)

Etienne Brule

Champlain had admonished him
for serving the English

Vicious in character

Addicted to women

Killed and eaten by the Indians
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Champlain's "young men" (protégés)

Etienne Brule

Champlain had admonished him
for serving the English

Vicious in character

Addicted to women

Killed and eaten by the Indians

Jean Nicolet

High favor with Champlain

Adapted to savage life

Courageous

Well tempered

Admired
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Chosen by Champlain to lead an expedition
We don't know....

exactly why he traveled

exactly how he traveled

exactly when he traveled

exactly where he landed

exactly who he met
BECAUSE NO PERSONAL ACCOUNT
OF HIS EXPEDITION EXISTS
Either his journal never existed or was lost overboard out of a canoe
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Why Champlain sent Nicolet on an expedition

Champlain's expedition objectives:

Believed a western route to China and Japan was not more than 200300 leagues (about 400-600 miles) away? Northwest passage?


Make fur trade more profitable and secure trade of whole country?


Advantages of fur trade for superiors and French company
Needed a peace treaty and friendly relations with Indians?


Champlain already knew about westward Great Lake copper mines and
Lake Superior by 1632 based on his own maps and others
True reason per writing of Father Vimont
Christianizing/Missionary work for Catholic Church?

Likely considering involvement of Jesuits in the colony's leadership
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
How do we know anything about this expedition?

Series of reports called Jesuit Relations was filed by missionaries later
based on recollections of what Nicolet told them

After Nicolet died Jesuit Father Barthelemy Vimont wrote brief
account in 1643 of travels (9 years after Nicolet's journey)

Church registers and documents establish year as summer of 1634

Curiosity of those who studied the available resources

Curiosity of those who discounted the conclusions of those who
studied the very limited available resources
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Contributions of the researchers and skeptics






Reuben Gold Thwaites. WI. Hist. Soc.--edited Jesuit Relations and
Father Barthelemy Vimont's writing
John Gilmary Shea (1853)--identified Indians visited as Winnebago
Consul Willshire Butterfield (1881)--said Nicolet did not discover the
Wisconsin River but journeyed to Neenah on Fox River, wrote History
of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634
Benjamin Sulte--established 1634 as voyage year from parish
registers and other documents (1876), speculated about the
appearance of the "Chinese robe"
George W. Wing--founder of Kewaunee Hist. Society, suggests
Nicolet landed at Kewaunee and met with Potawatomi
Nancy Oestreich Lurie and Patrick J. Jung--wrote The Nicolet
Corrigenda, refuting place, voyage objective and the Chinese robe
story( 2009)
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Where, what, how and why?

Set out in summer of 1634 with seven Huron Indians from Georgian Bay in birch
bark canoe/s

Meet with the Puant or Puan people believed to be the Winnebago or HoChunk called "People of the Sea"

Establish peace between Puans and the Huron Indians

Met 4,000 to 5,000 natives at an undesignated location and feasted on six score
(120) beavers

Delivered Champlain's message of peace to open way to French trade further
west
 DIFFERENCE:

Hurons speak Iroquoian, an Algonquian language, are not part of Five Nations
of Iroquis, and were allied with the French

Puans (Winnebago/Ho-Chunk) speak Siouxan language (totally different), are
part of the Five Nations which were allied with the Dutch and later English
Father Barthelemy Vimont's
Journey of Jean Nicollet, 1634
An obituary of sorts?
http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/navigating/map/
Map from The Nicolet Corrigenda by Lurie and Jung
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Where did Nicolet ready land?
 Entered
Lake Superior?
 Menominee?
 Red Banks?
 Ventured inland to Lake Winnebago and
Green Lake and possibly as far as
Mississippi?
 Kewaunee?
 Followed coast of Lake Michigan to
southern Cook Co., IL?
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Landing place is challenged by these inconsistencies
 Difference
of opinion that the Ho-Chunk
even lived in Door Peninsula when Nicolet
visited
 Stronghold of Potawatomi (Algonquin tribe)
at Kewaunee, Indians that the next French
explorers allied
 Vimont wrote that Nicolet arrived, fastened
two sticks in the ground and hung gifts, then
traveled two days journey--60 miles, but
where?
Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
Language problems led to interpretation problems
 COMPLETELY
different Indian languages
 MISINTERPRETATION OF "REPORTS"
 Puant
or Puan in French, "Stinkard" in English
(smelly water, not smelly people)
 Winnebago referred to as Ouinepigou in
French, also Gens de Mer (People of the
Sea), Ho-Chunk, other names
 Potawatomi (Pout) misinterpreted could
have been Puan
Nearly everything we have
been taught about Nicolet has
been disputed and is based on
personal interpretation, like this
statue...
http://www.c-span.org/video/?321802-1/discussion-jean-nicolet-green-bay-wisconsin
Sculptor Sydney Bedore's bronze statue of Nicolet erected June 3, 1951
on Red Banks bluff. Moved 2009 to Wequiock Falls Park.
http://wisconsinhistoricalmarkers.blogspot.com/search?q=Nicolet
http://wisconsinhistoricalmarkers.blogspot.com/2012/07/nicolet-memorial.html
Sydney Bedore's Nicolet Statue
"He throws back his robe over his shoulders,
revealing his Indian dressings underneath, a
gesture of friendship. His left arm with the
gun falls to his side while he still retains a
posture of authority and command with his
right hand on his hip..."
Sculptor Sydney Bedore's bronze statue of Nicolet, commissioned 1939 by Nicolet
Memorial Commission. Erected June 3, 1951. Paid for, in part, with pennies from
school children. Placed on Red Banks bluff. Moved 2009 to Wequiock Falls Park.
Also by Sydney Bedore
Former Green Bay boy, a student of Lorado
Taft at the Art Institute in Chicago,
submitted a tentative design to build a lifesize figure of Father Allouez, the first noted
missionary to visit this part of the country in
1669; Nicolas Perrot, first governor of the
Northwest Territory; and an Indian chief.
Wisconsin Historical Society Green Bay notes, Vol 64
Sydney Bedore called this a slightly effeminate figure of Nicolet
1907 Edward Willard Deming Mural Painting at the State Capital
"...a cherished but fictional incident in Wisconsin's history."
There was never a Chinese robe according to The Nicolet Corrigenda by Lurie and Jung.
1910 painting by Frank Rohrbeck, Brown County Courthouse
http://wisconsinproject.blogspot.com/2013/11/found-landing-of-nicolet-green-bay-wi.html
http://scalar.usc.edu/hc/hugo-ballins-los-angeles/executive-chamber-nicoletmeeting-wisconsin-indians-in-1634?path=wisconsin-state-capitol-gallery-path
1910 Hugo Ballin's Mural Painting in the Executive Chamber, State Capitol
Building
Legacy of Jean Nicolet
Had previously fathered a Nipissing woman's child
Returned to his work with the company at Quebec
1634 -- Married Marguerite Couillard, goddaughter of Champlain, two children
October 27, 1642 -- Drowned on St. Lawrence River in a storm on a diplomatic trip.
Last words were "Save yourself, I can't swim."
Credited as first European to set foot in Northwest (Ohio, Ind. Ill, Mich, Wisconsin)
Brokered peace to advance fur trade
Questions?