Marquette and Jolliet . . .
A celebration?
Three hundred and fifty years ago today (June 17), marked a historic day for the land that would become Iowa – but not such a joyous time for the indigenous people who had lived in those bountiful woods and prairies for thousands of years before.
That’s why it was with mixed emotions that we joined crowds of people at a rendezvous in Prairie du Chien, Wis., to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of explorer Louis Jolliet and Jesuit missionary Father Jacques Marquette at the Mississippi River. The men and six others had portaged and paddled from Lake Superior, then down the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi on their four-month journey to the Gulf of Mexico
Frenchmen Marquette and Jolliet claimed the land – which later was sold to the fledgling United States as the Louisiana Purchase. That led to the opening up of western North American to European settlement – and the eradication or displacement of Native Americans.
As proud as I am to have been born and raised in Iowa, and to live within an easy drive of a spectacular view of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers from Pike’s Peak State Park, I’m saddened to realize how our forbearers forced the original inhabitants from the land. And I’m embarrassed to see every day how we’ve continued to ravage the Iowa, “beautiful land,” that deserves better stewardship by those of us who now claim it.
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