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HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED WITH WYANDOTTE AND
VICINITY BY DR. E. P. CHRISTIAN
Almost directly opposite also lay. the mouth of the Aux Canard river, offering suitable landing, with shelter for their canoes, and on the Canadian banks above was also a village of the Wyandottes, which we may suppose had constant intercommunication with their brethren of this village, and which tribe we may suppose had different settlements about the lakes in selected localities, and with which there would be more or less intercourse; for we learn that the voyager Cartier, on his arrival at the island of Hochelaga, in the St. Lawrence, found a village of Wyandottes at that place. Besides these geographical advantages of the locality, the waters, the marshes, the shores and the forests teemed with animal life, the water with many varieties of fish, the marshes with muskrats, valuable for food and fur, and the deep forest in the rear with game of all kinds, and animals furnishing sustenance and peltries for barter. Besides these advantages the land was a fertile sandy loam, easily cultivatable for their maize and such vegetables and fruits as they were in the habit of raising. The forests and openings, too, furnished a variety of small fruits and nuts.
That the advantages of the locality were in fact understood and utilized • as a place for crossing by the Indians is attested by Mi*. George Clark, late a resident of Ecorse, now deceased. Mr. Clark came to this locality in 1817. He presented a paper to this society entitled "Reminiscences" [Recollections, Vol. I, p. 151] as I think, and which was published in the first volume of the papers of the society. ' He says this was a favorite place for crossing among the Indians, and that from here trails led to points above, below and to the interior.
Michigan
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