p. 37

41

Wisconsin in 1820

the Dubuque mines where lead could be obtained, and these were worked exclusively by the women of the Fox Indians, assisted perhaps by the Old men- the young men and warriors holding themselves above it. "They employ the hoe, shovel, pick axe, and crow bar in taking up the ore. These things are supplied by the traders, but no shafts are sunk, not even of the simplest kind, and the windlass and the bucket are unknown among them; They run drifts into the hill so far as they can conveniently go, without the use of gun powder, and if a trench caves in, it is abandoned. When a quantity of ore has been got out it is carried in buckets by the women to the Mississippi, where it is purchased by the traders at the rate of two dollars for a hundred and twenty pounds, payable in goods at Indian prices." The settlement at Green Bay is mentioned by Schoolcraft upon his approach down the Fox river as a country of exceeding beauty "checkered as it is with farm houses; fences, cultivated fields,