Boojwiikwedong

Boojwiikwedong is an Ojibwe name for Green Bay, the long inlet of Lake Michigan where the Fox River reaches the water. The Menominee and Ho-Chunk lived in this country when the French traveller Jean Nicolet arrived in the 1630s. The river and bay became part of a fur-trading route into the interior, while the Ho-Chunk cultivated maize, beans and squash and harvested wild rice along the waterways.

French missionaries established a mission in the area in 1671, and a fort followed in 1717. Britain took control during the Seven Years' War, but French-speaking traders continued to live and work around the bay. British traders also pursued the fur trade through the region. After the War of 1812, the United States built Fort Howard on the Fox River in 1816.