[60] See note 47. Several references are made to the Iowa tribe at an [Sidenote: +André, 1676+] earlier date than here mentioned. Father Louis André, who came to Canada during 1669, and was at Green Bay, Wis., from 1671 to 1681, designates the Nadoessi Mascouteins, which name was applied to the Iowa because of their relations for a time with the Sioux, as living about 200 leagues from that place, in 1676. (See article by Father A. E. Jones, in _U. S. Cath. Hist. Mag._, No. 9, 1889). Father André died in Quebec in 1715. [Sidenote: +Membré, 1680+] Even before the date of Le Sueur we have a reference by Father Zenobius Membré in 1680, placing the Oto and Iowa in three great villages built near a river “which empties in the river Colbert [Mississippi] on the west side above the Illinois, almost opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin.” More than this he appears to locate a part of the Ainove [Sidenote: +Perrot, 1685+] (no doubt Aioue) to the west of the Milwaukee river in Wisconsin. Perrot (MEMOIRS), apparently locates them, in 1685, on the plains in the vicinity of the Pawnee. Marquette’s map of 1674-79 gives the Pahoutet (Iowa), Otontanta (Oto), Maha (Omaha) a position on the Missouri river, but this is done by mere chance and without authority. La Salle, writing Hennepin August 22, 1682, mentions both Oto and Iowa under Otontanto and Aiounonea. [61] It has often been a matter for conjecture why Le Sueur should have given himself so much concern over a mine of “green earth” as the discovery does not seem to be one meriting a great amount of distinction. Not long since, however, certain mineral specimens of metallic substance, apparently a sort of iron or copper ore, were found in the banks of the Le Sueur river (so-called by J. N. Nicollet, and on a map published in 1773, the river St. Remi), near the confluence with the Blue Earth river. Penicaut in his relation speaks of the deposit extending many miles on the banks of the river (MINN. HIST. SOC. COLL., Vol. III, page 8), and it is therefore not improbable that the intrepid explorer had in mind something more real than colored marls of blue, green or yellow, which owed their color to the silicate of iron, and which were, when free from sand, highly prized and used for paint by the Indians. As an article of trade they were of value, but even this point does not fully explain the expedition. (See MS. in _Ministère des Colonies_, Paris, Vol. XV, c. 11, fol. 39). In a letter from the Intendant Champigny to the French Minister, also in this collection in Paris, the former says, “I think that the only mines that he (Le Sueur) seeks in those regions are mines of beaver skins.” For a lengthy sketch of the material first referred to, see MINN. HIST. SOC. COLL., Vol. I, 1902, reprint, also in Neill, HISTORY OF MINNESOTA, 3d edition, 1878, page 165, note. [62] See note 50. [63] In Shea’s VOYAGES UP AND DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI, Albany, 1861 (1902).