Page "Anishinaabe" Paragraph 29

The earliest Europeans to encounter native peoples in the Great Lakes area were the French voyageurs.

These men were professional canoe-paddlers who transported furs and other merchandise over long distances in the lake and river system of northern America.

Such explorers gave French names to many places in present-day Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The French were mainly trappers and traders rather than settlers.

So in general they got along with the Indians much better than the English did, who often were settlers and took the land from the Indian inhabitants of the country.

Much more often French people intermarried with American Indian women ; the French newcomers are often thought to have had a less arrogant attitude towards the native people.