History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634: With a Sketch of his LifeButterfield, Consul Willshire
History
History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolet in 1634: With a Sketch of his Life
Butterfield, Consul Willshire
Nicollet, Jean, 1598-1642; Northwest, Old -- Discovery and exploration
"The name Sioux is an abbreviation of _Nadoucssioux_, an Ojibwa
[Chippewa] word, meaning _enemies_. The Ojibwas used it to designate
this people, and occasionally, also, the Iroquois--being at deadly war
with both."--Parkman's "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West"
(revised ed.), p. 243, note.]
[Footnote 16: From the Algonquin word "ouinipeg," signifying "bad
smelling water," as salt-water was by them designated. When, therefore,
the Algonquins spoke of this tribe as the "Ouinipigou," they simply
meant "Men of the Salt-water;" that is, "Men of the Sea." But the French
gave a different signification to the word, calling the nation "Men of
the Stinking-water;" or, rather, "the Nation of Stinkards"--"la Nation
des Puans." And they are so designated by Champlain in his "Voyages," in
1632, and on his map of that year. By Friar Gabriel Sagard ("Histoire du
Canada," Paris, 1636, p. 201), they are also noted as "des Puants."
Sagard's information of the Winnebagoes, although printed after
Nicolet's visit to that tribe, was obtained previous to that event. The
home of this nation was around the head of Green bay, in what is now the
State of Wisconsin. Says Vimont (_Relation_, 1640, p. 35), as to the
signification of the word "ouinipeg:"
"Quelques François les appellant la Nation des Puans, à cause que le mot
Algonquin ouinipeg signifie eau puante; or ils nomment ainsi l'eau de la
mer salée, si bien que ces peuples se nomment Ouinipigou, pource qu'ils
viennent des bords d'vne mer dont nous n'auons point de cognoissance, et
par consequent il ne faut pas les appeller la nation des Puans, mais la
nation de la mer." The same is reiterated in the _Relations_ of 1648 and
1654. Consult, in this connection, Smith's "History of Wisconsin," Vol.
III., pp. 11, 15, 17. To John Gilmary Shea belongs the credit of first
identifying the "Ouinipigou," or "Gens de Mer," of Vimont (_Relation_,
1640), with the Winnebagoes. See his "Discovery and Exploration of the
Mississippi Valley," 1853, pp. 20, 21.]
[Footnote 17: It is nowhere stated in the _Relations_ that such was the
object of Champlain in dispatching Nicolet to those people;
nevertheless, that it was the chief purpose had in view by him, is
fairly deducible from what is known of his purposes at that date. He
had, also, other designs to be accomplished.]
[Footnote 18: Parkman's "Jesuits in North America," pp. 1, 2.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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