Background
Daniel Greysolon was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France in 1636.
Daniel Greysolon was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France in 1636.
Daniel migrated to Canada in 1672. Duluth left Montreal in 1678 for the Sioux Indian territory southwest of Lake Superior, and took possession of the country about the headwaters of the Mississippi for France in 1679. At a great council of the Ojibway and Sioux Indians at the present site of the city of Duluth, he persuaded them to make peace, and thus facilitated the fur trade. Duluth built a trading post at the mouth of the Pigeon River on Lake Superior. He secured the release of Father Louis Hennepin and two compatriots from the Sioux Indians in 1680. Duluth was imprisoned in Mackinac for illegal trading, and made an unsuccessful trip to France in 1682 for permission to explore further. He then resumed his trading with the Indian tribes northwest of Lake Superior. He took over René de La Salle's Fort St. Louis on the Illinois River in 1683, and the following year went to Niagara to join the campaign against the Seneca Indians. Duluth built Fort St. Joseph on the St. Clair River at the outlet of Lake Huron in 1686. He was commandant of Fort Frontenac at the present site of Kingston, Ontario, and subsequently at Detroit.