The Fox Wars

The Fox Wars

This is the saga of the Fox (or Mesquakie) Indians' struggle to maintain their identity in the face of colonial New France during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The Foxes occupied central Wisconsin, where for a long time they had warred with the Sioux and, more recently, had opposed the extension of the French firearm-and-fur trade with their western enemies. Caught between the Sioux anvil and the French hammer, the Foxes enlisted other tribes' support and maintained their independence until the late 1720s. Then the French treacherously offered them peace before launching a campaign of annihilation against them. The Foxes resisted valiantly, but finally were overwhelmed and took sanctuary among the Sac Indians, with whom they are closely associated to this day. R. David Edmunds, Professor of History at Indiana University, is an award-winning author of Native American histories. Joseph L. Peyser, Professor of French at Indiana University South Bend and well known as an editor and translator of documents relating to New France, received the 1991 Hesseltine Award of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for his research on the French-Fox conflict. "It treats an important topic and touches on such vital themes as intertribal warfare, the impact of the fur trade on Indians, and the democratic mature of Indian societies and how that militated against strong tribal government."-William T. Hagan, author of The Sac and Fox Indians. "By incorporating Fox oral traditions and uncovering new manuscript sources, R. David Edmunds and Joseph L. Peyser have given us new insights into the history of the Foxes. Anyone interested in American Indians should find this book useful. It treats an important topic and touches on such vital themes as intertribal warfare, the impact of the fur trade on Indians, and the democratic nature of Indian societies and how that militated against strong tribal government." -William T. Hagan, author of The Sac and Fox Indians.