"Naval Combat on Lake Superior", by Captain Seth Eastman.
After their defeat of the Hurons and the Neutrals and Petuns in the mid-seventeenth century, the Iroquois moved north to occupy their vacated territory. They then pushed further north to confront the Ojibwa, who harboured many refugee Hurons in their midst. The Ojibwa met the Iroquois in a series of naval battles on both Lakes Superior and Huron. In Eastman's picture the native people are shown fighting with pre-contact weapons. By the late seventeenth century would the Indians have adopted any of the Europeans' weapons? For information on the manner in which the French arrival in the interior affected the balance of power on the Great Lakes see: Bruce G. Trigger. "The French Presence in Huronia: The Structure of Franco-Huron Relations in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century", Canadian Historical Review, 49 (1968):107-141.
Courtesy: Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, 2:142
Engraving of Eastman's dramatic reconstruction, "Combat Between the Ojibwas and the Sacs and Foxes in Lake Superior"
