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MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS FALL 2001

DURING THE 1600S

Europeans explored and settled
North America. People from
France chose the continents
most northern part, including
Canada, the Great Lakes and
Michigan.
The first Frenchman to reach
the Great Lakes was Samuel de
Champlain. In 1622, Etienne
Brule, another French explorer,
was the first European to visit
Lake Superior.

Bonjour!
The
French
Settle
Michigan

Brule and early Frenchmen

explored the Great Lakes looking for a shortcut to China.
They hoped they could go by
boat through North America to
China. Soon it was clear that
this was not possible. Then the
French turned their attention to
enlarging their colonial empire
and Christianizing Native

Christianize
to teach the
Christian
religion.

Americans. In the 1660s, the

French established outposts at
Sault Ste. Marie and at the
Straits of Mackinac.
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MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS

he French found
Michigan attractive
because of the many
fur-bearing animals
living here. In the

1600s France was the fashion center of Europe. Furs,

especially from the beaver,
were used for mens broadbrimmed hats. However,
there werent enough animals in Europe to satisfy

married Native American

WILLIE FACT
When Cadillac built his
fort he named it Fort
Pontchartrain du De Troit
in honor of Count Pontchartrain, an important French
official. The settlements
name was shortened to

VOYAGEURS
Some of the most colorful Frenchmen of the fur
trade were the voyageurs.
Voyageurs transported furs
through the Great Lakes
back east to Montreal
where they were shipped to
France.
Known for their physical
strength, voyageurs paddled canoes filled with furs
up to eighteen hours a day.
At places where they had
to carry their canoes overland (called portages),
voyageurs also carried the
heavy packs of furs.
According to one observer,
the voyageurs moved along
the portages at a pace
which made unburdened
travelers pant for breath.

Detroit, which
means the
straits.

MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS FALL 2001

JESUITS
French missionaries
tried to convert Native

Americans to Catholicism.
The Jesuit order of the
Catholic Church oversaw
most of the French missionary work in the Great
Lakes. A missionary is
someone who is sent to a
foreign land to introduce
other people to his beliefs.
Being a missionary was difficult and often dangerous.
The missionaries kept
written records of their
experiences. They sent
these reports to France to
raise support for their
work. We know much
about Michigans French
period from these writings.
In 1668 the
mission
Jesuits built their
a place where
first mission
missionaries
lived and
in Michigan at
taught others
Sault Ste. Marie.
about their
Three years later,
religion.
they moved their
mission south to St. Ignace.
The best-known missionary was Father Jacques
Marquette. Like most
Jesuits, Marquette was
also an explorer. In 1673
Marquette and Louis
Jolliet became the first
Frenchmen to explore the
Mississippi River.

the demand.
Native Americans eagerly participated in the fur
trade. They killed the animals and traded the furs to
the French for guns,
knives, hatchets, cloth
blankets, iron cooking pots
and liquor. Frenchmen also

women and had families.

Native Americans introduced the French to the
birch-bark canoe. They
also showed them how to
get food in the wilderness
and how to survive the
harsh winters.

Other Frenchmen followed Marquette and

Jolliet. One of the most
famous was Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,
who founded a settlement
at the mouth of the St.
Joseph River in 1679.
La Salle built the first
sailing vessel on the
Great Lakes.
The French also opened
forts at the present-day
cities of Port Huron and
Niles. The settlements
were both called Fort St.
Joseph. The fort at Port
Huron was soon abandoned. The fort at Niles
remained an important
outpost and mission for
people traveling to the
Mississippi River.

DETROIT
The last major French
outpost in Michigan was
founded by Antoine de la
Mothe Cadillac. Born in
1658 to a middle-class
French family, Cadillac
arrived in New France in
1683. After becoming an
army officer, Cadillac commanded the French post at
the Straits of Mackinac.

toque (knitted wool hat)

waistcoat
linen shirt

trade silver

medicine pouch
that held personal
items

crucifix and
trade beads

sash

haversack for
carrying food,
tobacco and tea

wool breechcloth

WHAT

leather leggings

voyageurs

WORE
Cadillac asked the
French king for permission
to establish a new settlement that would keep the
British out of the Great
Lakes and also control
the fur trade. The king
said yes.
On July 24, 1701, after a
six-week canoe trip from
Montreal, Cadillac and 100
men under his command
landed on a sandy beach at
the foot of a 30-foot bluff
along the Detroit River.
Here, Cadillac built a log

leather moccasins
fort that he named Fort
Pontchartrain du De Troit.
Between 1689 and 1763
France and Great Britain
fought four wars as they
struggled for world power.
The last war, called the
French and Indian War,
started in 1754.
The British won. A treaty,
signed in 1763, ended
French control of the
Great Lakes although
many French people
continued living in
the area. 
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MICHIGAN HISTORY FOR KIDS