the Bois Brule River to the St. Croix, and then down to its juncture with the Mississippi. There he met three fellow-Frenchmen, Michael Accault, Antoine Auguell, and Louis Hennepin, whom the Sioux had taken captive. He persuaded the Indians to release these men at Mille Lac, and he returned with them to the Great Lakes through Wisconsin.

In 1763 the region was taken over by the British through the Treaty of Paris, and in 1774 what is now Minnesota became a part of the Province of Quebec, although Virginia still considered it a part of her territory on the basis of the 1609 grants. In 1778 the North West Company was formed, and the British garrison at Grand Portage involved the territory in the War of Independence. In the peace of 1783, England relinquished the lake areas and the borderlands to the United States but did not actually give up control until the end of the War of 1812. Meanwhile, in 1787 it was organized as the Northwest Territory and was given laws and administration under the United States; in 1800 it became a part of the Indiana Territory, and in 1809 it was incorporated into the Illinois Territory.

The first American challenge to British jurisdiction did not come until more than two decades after the War for Independence, because in the interim the Americans had not yet been ready to occupy the area. Minnesota was far from the fixed American settlements; St. Louis, for example, lay 800 miles to the south. Not until President Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase did the situation begin to change; the President wanted facts about this vast new territory which extended to the Pacific, and in 1804 he arranged for the Lewis and Clark expedition to the west, and simultaneously he sent Lieutenant Zebulon Pike with twenty soldiers to Minnesota. When the young lieutenant arrived with his men on 21 September 1804 on the island which later was named Pike Island, the American flag was raised for the first time on Minnesota soil. Pike persuaded the Sioux Indians to grant sites for forts at the mouths of the Minnesota and St. Croix rivers. He also continued to explore the land toward Little Falls and late in December reached the vicinity of Brainerd, from where he continued on to Sandy Lake and Leech Lake, where the group met some polite Britishers. In May 1806, Pike returned to St. Louis. Later, in the War of 1812, Minnesota (that is, the Sioux Indians) still fought on the side of the British, and although the Americans controlled the Great Lakes, the British had a strong foothold in the northern sectors of the Mississippi valley. In the peace treaty which followed, these regions were ceded to

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