https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Nicolet#Exploration_of_Wisconsin

Exploration of Wisconsin

Nicolet is noted for being the first European to explore Lake Michigan. In 1634 he became the first European to explore what would become Wisconsin. Jean Nicolet landed at Red Banks, near modern-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, in search of a passage to the Orient.[5] He and other French explorers had learned from their native contacts that the people who lived along these shores were called Ho-Chunk, which some French mistakenly translated as "People of the Sea".[6] In the Ho Chunk language, it means people of the big voice, because they believe their language was the original language of their family of tribal languages. However, the Ojibwe had a less appealing name for them, Winnebago, or "people of the fragrant waters," translated to French as, Puants or Puans. This exonym was derogatory, however, not knowing that, Nicolet concluded that the people must be from or near the Pacific Ocean, and would provide a direct contact with China.[7]

Nicolet became the French ambassador to the Ho-Chunk people. He wore brightly colored robes and carried two pistols, to convey his authority. The Ho-Chunk people appreciated his ritual display. With some Ho-Chunk guides, Nicolet ascended the Fox River, portaged to the Wisconsin, and travelled down it until it began to widen. So sure was he that he was near the ocean, that he stopped and went back to Quebec to report his discovery of a passage to the "South Sea," unaware that he had just missed finding the upper Mississippi River.[8]

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Recent controversy

In the last couple decades, some have questioned the traditional account of Nicolet's arrival in Green Bay, saying that Nicolet was not looking for a route to China, did not wear a Chinese robe, and did not meet the Puans at Red Banks. Ronald Stiebe proposed that Nicolet did not even go to Lake Michigan but that the Puants were actually Algonquin people and Nicolet met them at Keweenaw Bay, Michigan.[9] Nancy Oestreich Lurie, of the Milwaukee Public Museum—followed by Patrick J. Jung, of the Milwaukee School of Engineering (PBS video, "Rethinking Jean Nicolet's Journey to Wisconsin," 2014)—concluded that Nicolet actually met the Puans near Menominee, Michigan. Although the Menominee people and the Puants were different tribes, they were allies who jointly controlled access to Green Bay.[10] Also, the Menominee would have been able to serve as interpreters for Nicolet in negotiations with the Puans. Lurie and Jung propose that the main purpose of Nicolet's mission was to establish peace between New France and the Puants and an alliance against the Iroquois people.