Jacques Marquette and Joliet Expedition Essay Example

Great Lakes region and the Mississippi River alongside Father Marquette and other French associates as early as 1672.

With aspirations of amassing wealth through the fur trade industry, he embarked on his expedition. As Marquette and Joliet journeyed further south, they engaged with native American Indian tribes, diligently charting the region. Upon reaching Arkansas, they made their stop at Kappa, a Quapaw village situated approximately twenty miles from the Arkansas River's mouth. Initially hesitant, the Quapaw people eventually grew warm towards the visitors — the first foreign faces they had seen in over a century.

As a welcoming act when they met the travelers, the Quapaw gifted Marquette a ceremonial pipe called the calumet, which he shared with the tribal chiefs. Marquette commented on the Quapaw men's strength and good looks, referring to them as beaux homes (handsome men). After spending three days and nights in feasting, both Marquette and Joliet found the Quapaw to be pleasant and potential allies of the French in colonizing the lower Mississippi River Valley. However, their journey was cut short when they were warned by the Quapaw about Spanish colonists settled further south.

Upon their return to the area of the Great Lakes, specifically the northern tip of Green Bay, Marquette and Joliet aimed to safeguard their critical findings about this region from potentially being accessed by the Spanish. They reaffirmed that Mississippi River indeed empties into the Gulf of Mexico based on information given by the Quapaw Indians in Arkansas. Before they left, a cross was erected in Kappa village by Marquette's team. The journey undertaken by Marquette and Joliet is significant as it realises

France's goal for a water route connecting between Great Lakes region and Gulf of Mexico.

The French authorities, drawing on accounts from Marquette, Joliet, and the Quapaw Indians of Arkansas, could start to establish forts along the river, create a buffer against the English colonies, and spread Catholicism. Moreover, the data obtained from the explorations paved the path for further French expeditions, including those by Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682 and Henri de Tonti, who ventured to Arkansas and founded Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) in 1686 - being the initial European settlement to the west of the Mississippi River.

Not only did Marquette and Joliet identify the potential for establishing sturdy alliances with the indigenous peoples residing in the lower Mississippi River Valley, especially Arkansas, but they also exerted considerable effort to actualize this. Following their voyage, Father Marquette resumed his duties with the Kaskaskia tribe near present-day Utica at Starved Rock. Regrettably, he became sick and passed away on May 18, 1675, when he was thirty-nine years old. His remains were subsequently returned to Mackinac's Catholic mission, now known as Michigan.

Louis Joliet, a notable expeditionary partner, went back to Quebec where he got married. He was granted land ownership of Anticosti Island in Quebec and continued undertaking exploration missions within the area, including Labrador in eastern Canada. In 1680, he was named as the royal hydrographer - a role that encompassed the comprehensive research of numerous bodies of water like seas, lakes, and rivers, and was awarded the control of Joliet seignory (located south of Quebec) in 1697. Louis Joliet passed away in Canada in May

1700, with his gravesite remaining undisclosed.