Both the Jesuits and the French military deliberately aimed at changing the Indian’s way of life but their aims were in direct opposition to one another. The Jesuits were not interested in “civilizing” the Indians. They desired to see these simple people maintained in their original ignorance except for their belief in the “One True God,” and such simple improvements in agriculture and other techniques as would improve their lot as mission Indians. The Jesuits, not without some justification, regarded contact between their charges and the French traders and soldiers as having a demoralizing influence. [Illustration: MENOMINI INDIAN MEDICINE LODGE CEREMONY (PAINTING BY A. O. TIEMANN).] Despite great heroism and prodigious efforts on the part of the missionaries, permanent effects on the Indians by the Jesuits was to prove almost negligible. The Wisconsin Indian was highly war-like and found it difficult to appreciate the humility preached by the missionary. The Indian regarded such behavior as effeminate. [Illustration: FATHER JACQUES MARQUETTE (COURTESY OF MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY).] Nevertheless, the story of their efforts to Christianize the tribes, and the valor of these missionaries in exploring unknown territory, makes a fascinating story in our state’s history. Not the least among such heroic deeds was the great voyage of exploration by Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet. Traveling up the Fox River, crossing over on foot at what is now Portage, Wisconsin, and proceeding down the Wisconsin River, the two explorers entered the Mississippi River on the seventeenth of June, 1673. They explored the great river as far south as the Arkansas River and then returned, by way of the Illinois River. This great discovery made known a continuous water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and opened to the French the interior of a vast continent. It was the desire to exploit and unify this vast wilderness empire that led the French leaders to attempt deliberate changes in the Wisconsin Indian geography and political structure. This was necessary in order to strengthen the Wisconsin tribes and keep them fighting the Iroquois who consistently raided the western Indians and the French settlements along the St. Lawrence. LaSalle conceived the idea of a great Indian confederacy which, it was hoped, would be able to successfully oppose the mighty Iroquois, and so built forts in the Illinois country to help defend the area. The Wisconsin Mascouten and Kickapoo left this area, partly because of their desire to join the confederacy and partly because of population pressure in the Fox River valley. The year before the Iroquois invasions of 1680, DuLhut helped to strengthen the French cause by negotiating peace between the Dakota Sioux and their enemy of long standing, the Chippewa, and also reconciling the Dakota Sioux and Assiniboine, who had been warring for thirty years.