Background
Nicolas Perrot was born in 1644 in France. His father was lieutenant of justice.
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Nicolas Perrot was born in 1644 in France. His father was lieutenant of justice.
There is no information about his education.
While still a youth he emigrated to New France and was in service with the Jesuit missionaries; later, for two years he was with the Sulpicians of Montreal. These services gave him opportunity to become acquainted with the Indian languages.
Leaving the missionaries, he embarked in the fur trade, and may have been one of the Frenchmen who in 1663 went to Lake Superior with the Ottawa trading caravan. In 1667 he signed a contract with Toussaint Baudry for a voyage to the Ottawa country, where, the following year, they appeared at Green Bay, the first French traders to the Algonquian tribes, recently settled in that vicinity. Thenceforth they called Perrot their "father, " since he brought them iron implements and weapons.
In 1670, after a very successful trade, Perrot and Baudry returned to Montreal. That autumn Governor Frontenac sent an expedition to take possession of the West for France; with the commander he sent Perrot as interpreter since "none better could be found. " In the spring of 1671 Perrot visited Green Bay to secure delegates to the pageant - the ceremony of annexation - which took place June 14, at Sault Ste. Marie.
Little is known of his activities during the next decade. Frontenac in 1674 awarded him a license for the fur trade and in 1681 he was accused of sending peltry out of the country to the English settlements. In 1683 the new governor, La Barre, permitted Perrot to go West on a trading expedition, then, in 1684, summoned him to bring the western tribes to join his expedition against the Iroquois.
By his many trading excursions Perrot had obtained great influence with the western tribesmen, and the year after his disastrous Iroquois raid La Barre sent him West with a commission as commandant of La Baye and its dependencies. Proceeding to the Mississippi, he built Fort St. Nicolas at the mouth of the Wisconsin and wintered in a trading post at Mount Trempealeau. The next year he built Fort St. Antoine on Lake Pepin and opened trade with the Sioux. That year, 1686, was signalized by his gift to the mission of St. Francis of a silver ostensorium, finely chased and engraved. This relic is now in the museum at Green Bay.
In 1687 Perrot was called upon to cooperate in another expedition against the Iroquois. This year he assisted in arresting two English fur-trading expeditions on the Great Lakes. Having returned to Fort St. Antoine after adjusting Indian difficulties at Green Bay, on May 8, 1689, he took possession of the region of the upper Mississippi in a ceremony similar to that of 1671. The next year, 1690, he discovered a lead mine in what is now southwest Wisconsin and built a fort to aid in its exploitation. For several years more Perrot was employed among the western tribes, adjusting their disputes, preserving their friendship for France; then, in 1696, all licenses for trade were revoked and all commissions canceled.
He returned to Canada, badly in debt and without resources. During Denonville's expedition (1687) 40, 000 livres worth of furs Perrot had left at Green Bay were burned. In 1699 he requested permission for his sons to go West and collect his credits but was refused. In 1701, at the great peace treaty, he was employed as interpreter and was earnestly requested by the Indians to return with them as their ruler and guide. This request the governor refused; some time thereafter he was given employment in the militia service along the St. Lawrence.
His later years were spent in writing his experiences. One memoir has survived, which was published in 1867 at Paris. His journals were also utilized by Bacqueville de la Potherie in his Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale (1722).
Nicolas Perrot died around 1718 at about the age of 74.
Nicolas Perrot was one of the first European men to travel in the Upper Mississippi Valley. He was one of the ablest Indian diplomats of the seventeenth century, he also built Fort Saint Antoine, now in Minnesota. Besides, Perrot wrote his memoirs, which became valuable to later historians. His name is perpetuated in the Perrot State Park, on the upper Mississippi, the site of his Mount Trempealeau post.
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Quotes from others about the person
Sulte called him "the greatest Frenchman of the West".
He married Madeleine Raclot. He was given a land grant on the river Saint-Michel in present-day Quebec. By the 1681 census he and Madeleine had six children. They had a total of eleven altogether.
