A Brief History of the Native American and European Names of the Saint Joseph-River
By Bob Owens & Scott Null
About eight thousand years ago when the last great glacier retreated, leaving the Great Lakes almost in their present form, the stream that we presently know to be called the Saint Joseph River was shrinking in size to eventually settle to its present state.
During the following couple of thousand years, very small bands of hunters roamed the shores of the big lakes and their tributaries in search of big game. Each of these groups that passed here had a name for our particular river, but there is no record of what those names were.
Small settlements began to spring forth along the river's banks from about 4,000 BC until about 2,000 BC. Most of the big game had been driven off or killed by this time and the dwellers of these small settlements were satisfied with the small game and plentiful fish. Each of these settlements had a name for our river and again there was still no record of what they were.
Larger groups of migrants in search of food began moving into this area of the country in about 2,000 BC. This group is known as the mound builders by archeologists. It is believed that this culture came north from the central part of North America by way of the Mississippi River. Evidence of many mounds existed throughout the Saint Joseph River valley. The names that these mound builders used for our river are lost forever. These people traveled and traded extensively throughout this continent as is evident by the artifacts found in the mounds.
The Hopewellean culture made their appearance on the scene at about 500 BC according to archaeologists. It is not certain if this group of people was an outgrowth of the earlier mound builders. These people also built mounds, however, the Hopewellean mounds were usually formed in effigy of different animals. Their disappearance in about 900 AD is as mysterious as their appearance, and again, their name for our river is not recorded.
Perhaps the demise of the Hopewellean culture was due to the arrival of the Algonquian Nation to the area. It is thought that the Algonquian speaking people migrated from the east coast to settle in the upper Great Lakes region between 800 AD and 1000 AD. This was the first time that walled villages appeared in this part of the country. Tins indicates that the prior inhabitants were more peaceful and tolerant of each other. Perhaps the early Algonquians killed off the Hopewelleans out of greed, or maybe because of non acceptance. At any rate, the Algonquians were here to stay, or so they thought.
The tribe that became known as the Potowatomi resided to the north of present day South Haven at this time. This tribe occupied the western half of the lower peninsula of Michigan with the exception of the bottom 40 miles or so. The Miami tribe occupied the southern part of Lake Michigan and most of the Saint Joseph River Valley. This Miami tribal area also was host to a hundred and fifty miles of the heavily traveled cross continental Native American trail that later came to be known as the Sauk Trail (presently US-l2). The Miami tribe occupied land as far west as what is now Gary, Indiana. The Miamis called our river Sauk-Wauk-Sil-Buck.
Champlain established the city of Quebec on the Saint Lawrence River in 1604. His prime interest was to discover a water route to lie west across this new great land. He agreed to deal in furs with the Ottawa tribe in about 1610 in order to secure funding for this action. The tribe was located to the west and in the direction of his proposed forthcoming explorations. This action by Champlain sorely angered the Iroquois League of Five Nations. The League felt that they were being ignored because they had already been dealing in the furs of their area with the British and the Dutch. The Iroquois League did not realize that Champlain's primary goal was the Vermillion Sea (Pacific Ocean). Champlain felt that his goal could not be reached through the League because they were located to the south of Quebec.
The Iroquois League had all but deleted their area of furs by about 1620 due to their trading with the British. They had begun to become accustomed to the easier life that the European trade offered. Therefore, the Iroquois League began to scourge the Algonquian people to the west of them. By 1625 the League had depopulated all of Michigan's lower peninsula, most of Ohio, most of Indian, parts of eastern Illinois and parts of southern Wisconsin. Their aim was to rid the existence of all competition in the fur trade.
Most of the surviving Algonquian people had fled in haste to Wisconsin's northern region and western Illinois. These areas became overcrowded and unable to sustain the lives of the great populations. Many Indians died as a result of starvation and exposure to the elements.
The Iroquois League called our river the River of The Illinois during this time (after 1630). They also called Lake Michigan The Lake of The Illinois. The reason for these Iroquois names could be due to the fact that the first Algonquian tribe that they encountered after crossing the river was the Illinois tribe. The Illinois tribe was also occupying the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan at the time.
Some of the Miami tribe, for reasons of survival, returned to the Saint Joseph River Valley and the river they knew as Sauk-Wauk-Sil-Buck in about 1640. These Miamis, with hopes of staying alive, often were turn-coats to the rest of the Algonquian Nation. They would aid the Iroquois in frequent and nearly constant incursions with a promise from the Iroquois of staying alive. The Iroquois goal was still to eliminate all competition and they usually killed these traitor Miamis after weeding out as much information as possible from them.
The Iroquois league was an extremely organized nation for its time. They often sent infiltrators into the Algonquian areas and lured more Miamis back to the banks of the Saint Joe River. These returning Miamis had no knowledge of the fate of their earlier brothers until it was too late for them also.
In the fall of 1654 during a lull in the conflict between Quebec and the Iroquois League, a bold Frenchman by the name of Medard Chouart Des Groseilliers crossed from east to west over the bottom part of what is now Michigan. He was accompanied by an unknown French companion and a few Huron guides. These two Frenchmen paddled their small gondolas (birch bark canoes) down most of the length of the Saint Joseph River. Des Groseilliers did not give a name to our river as he was strictly on an exploration mission. However, he did record the Miami tribe as dwelling along the south east shore of the big lake. The tribe called the lake "Michigami" which was the Algonquian name for Lake Michigan. In all probability, Des Groseilliers referred to the Saint Joseph River by the Miami name Sauk-Wauk-Sil-Buck.
Claude Allouez, a Jesuit missionary, arrived in the Green Bay area in 1666. He named the great lake "Lake Saint Joseph" upon first seeing it on the date of the Catholic Feast Day of Saint Joseph.
In the spring of 1672, Rene-Robert Cavalier De La Salle passed up the Kankakee River, across the Grand Portage, and down the Saint Joseph River in his quest to find the easiest route between Quebec and the Mississippi's mouth. He found only Miami Indians along the banks of the Saint Joseph River. He in turn named our river The River of the Miamis.
Claude Allouez founded a mission at the junction of our river and the great transcontinental trail on the west bank at what later became known as the town of Bertrand. He had followed an exodus of Algonquian people who were migrating back to the lower Michigan peninsula. This area came to be called Parkovash by the French because of the great herds of buffalo that grazed here. At this time Claud Allouez named the river The River Saint Joseph because it was the largest river that he knew to drain into his "Lake Saint Joseph".
La Salle returned to his River of the Miamis in 1679. La Salle made numerous trips up and down the river between the mouth and the Grand Portage during the following few years. He continued to use the name he had created for the stream.
The French built and occupied Fort Saint Joseph on the west bank of the Saint Joseph River near present day Niles, Michigan in 1691. By building the original fort on the west bank, the river acted as a natural barrier for the occupants of the fort to raids from the east. Some of the Miami tribe were occupying the east bank, and were still catering to the whims of the Iroquois league who's incursions upon the Algonquians were still relentless from the east. At about this time, more Potowatomi bands began migrating to the south of Lake Michigan from Green Bay in order to escape starvation. They found protection near the west bank of the Saint Joseph River where Fort Saint Joseph was garrisoned by their friends, the French. The Fort offered these Potowatomi a refuge from the Iroquois incursions while opening up fur trade directly with the Frenchmen. This trade arrangement was better for both the Miamis and Potowatomis because it eliminated the middle men who were previously the Ottawa and the Hurons. The Potowatomi name for our river was Sohg-Wah-Se-Pe, or Sagwa-Se-Pe. Each of these spellings depends upon the interpreter - the easiest spelling being Sagwa. The translated meaning is "Mystery River".
The French withdrew the garrison from the fort at about the turn of the 18th century because the Iroquois attention was drawn else where with the collaboration of the British. The mission stayed on as did the French trappers and traders. Soon a new calamity befell the Potowatomi and the French traders.
The Fox and Sauk tribes started to make raids upon the fur stores of the Potowatomi and the French traders in 1701. This was the beginning of the Fox Wars. The year 1702 found the Fox with the Mascoutens fighting on behalf of the English against the Potowatomi who backed the French. The Fox and Sauk tribes called our river O-Sang-E-Wong-Se-Pe which also means Mystery River.
The Potowatomi asked the French to re-establish a fort on the Saint Joseph River in 1706. The French complied, but this time they built their fort on the east bank where the river offered a barrier from the Fox raiding parties. Both the mission and the fort closed in 1712 because of the Fox Wars. Only a few French traders and their families remained. Most of the Potowatomi and Miami had been driven out by the Fox. The Potowatomi and Miami soon returned causing the fort and mission to once again reopen.
By 1722 the Fox had the fur trade in a shambles. Tha Potowatomi thoroughly defeated the Fox and made peace in 1730. The Potowatomi then acted as mediators between the French and the Fox until 1737 when the war diminished. Many of the Miami tribe had moved to the Detroit area to escape the Fox incursions during the 1720s. Most of the Miami tribe then returned to the Saint Joseph River Valley in the mid 1730's. The Potowatomi forced the Miami tribe south to the Tippecanoe Valley around 1743.
This left the dwellers of our area to call the river Sagwa Se-Pe. The traveling tribes of the Sauk called the stream O-Sang-E-Wong Se-Pe. As each band of each tribe of Native Americans had their own distinct name for our river, most of these names are lost forever. Most of the known Algonquian lingual stock pronunciations for our river are similar.
A century later in the 1820s and 30s, the westward moving settlers, using the old Indian transcontinental trail, often crossed paths with the travelling Sauk. This old trail came to be called the Sauk Trail because of this. The original and main trail crossed tha Saint Joseph River at three separate locations. The settlers often heard the stream referred to as O-Sang-E-Wong Se-Pe. Those settlers who squatted and bought land along the Saint Joseph River lived among the Potowatomi bands who were the last indians as a group to occupy the Saint Joseph River Valley. These settlers soon learned that their most recent preceding dwellers called the river (as pronounced) Sagwa Se Pe.
It is therefore the belief of this writer and the organization of the Friends of the Sagwa that the last most common name that was used by the area's Native Americans for our stream should remain as such... Sagwa Se Pe.
To support the issues which concern the welfare of the St. Joseph River:
The conservation of the water supply in the river and its watershed, the maintenance of the water quality of the river, evaluation of hydrological data of the river and its tributaries so that decisions and actions of the corporation may be conducive to the betterment of the river and to operate exclusively for education, historical, charitable, and scientific purposes.