Jean Nicolet
Jean Nicolet (Nicollet) de Belleborne (Ca. 1598 – 1 November 1642) was a French coureur des bois noted for exploring Green Bay in what is now the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
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[edit] Early life
Nicolet (Nicollet)was born in Cherbourg, Coutances, Normandie, France,the son of Thomas Nicollet who was "messenger ordinary of the King between Paris and Cherbourg", and Marguerite de la Mer. He went to Canada in accordance with Samuel Champlain's plan to train young French men as explorers and traders by having them live among native Americans.[1]
[edit] Arrival at Quebec
In 1618, Nicolet came to Quebec as a clerk to train as an interpreter for the Compagnie des Marchands, a trading monopoly owned by members of the French aristocracy. As an employee, Jean Nicolet was a devoted lay member of the Roman Catholic Church and a faithful supporter of the Ancien Régime.
On his arrival in Quebec, in order that he learn their language, he was sent to live with the Algonquins on Allumette Island, a friendly First Nation settlement on the important fur trade route on the Ottawa River. Nicolet returned to Quebec in 1635, but was then directed to go to the Lake Nipissing area where he spent more than eight years among the Nipissing First Nation, running a store and trading with the various indigenous people in the area.[1]
From a relationship with a Nipissing native, a woman named Jeanne Nipissing - une Sauvagesse de Nipissing (translation of the French "an Indian woman from Nipissing"), he had a daughter, Madeleine Euphrosine Nicolet, whom he later brought back with him to the colony. On July 19, 1629, when Quebec fell to the Kirke brothers who took control for England, Jean Nicolet fled back into the safety of the Huron country and worked against English interests until the French were restored to power.
[edit] Exploration of Wisconsin
Nicolet is noted for being the first European to cross Lake Michigan, and in 1634 he became the first European to explore what would become Wisconsin. He landed at Red Banks, near modern-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, in search of a passage to the Orient.[2] He and others had learned that the people who lived along these shores were called Ho-Chunk ("People of the Big Voice"). He concluded that these people must be from or near the Pacific Ocean and would provide a direct contact with China.[3]
Nicolet became the ambassador to the Ho-Chunk people, and wore brightly colored robes and carried two pistols, to show that he was in power. The Ho-Chunk people respected him for this. With some Ho-Chunk guides, Nicolet ascended the Fox River, portaged to the Wisconsin, and travelled down it until it began to widen. So sure was he that he was near the sea, he stopped and went back to Quebec to report his discovery of a passage to the "South Sea," unaware that he had just missed finding the upper Mississippi.[4]
[edit] Legacy
- Nicolet's landing at Red Banks is commemorated by a mural at the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay. A statue of him, first erected in 1950, is now located at Wequiock Falls County Park along Wisconsin Highway 57, about 10 miles northeast of Green Bay and just a mile or so from where it is believed he landed.[5]
- The town of Nicolet in the Canadian province of Quebec is named for Nicolet, who explored the area during the seven years he lived in Trois-Rivières. "École Secondaire Jean-Nicolet" is a high school named after him in the same town.
- There is a Wisconsin community college named after him.
- Nicolet High School in suburban Milwaukee is named after him.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884; 1975 rprt). History of Chicago, Vol. I, p. 39. Arno Press, Inc.
- ^ UW - Green Bay - Wisconsin's French Connections Jean Nicolet Statue
- ^ Nicolet, Jean 1598 - 1642
- ^ Christianson, Theodore (1935). History of Minnesota. 1. Chicago: The American Historical Society, Inc.. p. 43.
- ^ [1]
[edit] External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- The Canadian Encyclopedia - Jean Nicollet de Belleborne
- Jean Nicollet de Belleborne (French)
