<P> The name is the translation of rivière aux Renards (French for River of the Foxes), given by explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette because it went through the territory of the Meskwaki people, called Renards in French . </P> <P> Since the recession of the glaciers that once covered much of Wisconsin, the Fox River has supported several Native American cultures, and has been important for its fisheries, waterfowl, wild rice, forests, and water . Archaeologists have determined that indigenous peoples lived in the Fox River area as early as 7000 BC . </P> <P> Prior to European settlement in the late 17th century, the shores of the Fox River and Green Bay were home to roughly half the estimated 25,000 Native Americans who lived in what is today Wisconsin . The first Europeans to reach the Fox were French, beginning with explorer Jean Nicolet in 1634 . In 1673 explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet canoed up the river as far as Portage . Here they made the short portage from the Fox to the Wisconsin River and then canoed on toward the Mississippi River . They established an important water route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River known as the Fox--Wisconsin Waterway . It was likely long used by Native Americans prior to European encounter, as they had extensive cross-country trading routes related to the Mississippi River . </P> <P> During the French colonization of the Americas, this route was used frequently by fur traders . French - Canadian men who established homes on the Fox River married First Nation women, producing mixed - race descendants who were generally raised within the matrilineal cultures of their mothers and identified with the tribes . In Canada, the Metis of the Red River of the North are classified as a distinct ethnicity because of their shared culture . </P>

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