In this episode we tell the story of Jean Nicolet, one of Samuel de Champlain’s embedded interpreters. In the summer of 1634, Champlain sent Nicolet to negotiate a treaty with a tribe known to eat their enemies on the shores of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Along the way we consider the first European encounters with cities that today have National Football League franchises, and the fraught question of Nicolet’s legendary “Chinese robe,” which was depicted on a United States postage stamp in 1934. But the serious question remains: Was Champlain still looking for a northwest passage, or playing geopolitical 3-D chess?

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Selected references for this episode

Patrick J. Jung, The Misunderstood Mission of Jean Nicolet: Uncovering the Story of the 1634 Journey

Norman K. Risjord, “Jean Nicolet’s Search for the South Sea,” The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2001.

David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream

Virtual Museum of New France (Cool site, btw)