The Battle of the Brule was an October 1842 battle between the La Pointe Band of Ojibwe Indians and a war party of Lakota Indians. The battle took place along the Brule River (Bois Brule) in what is today northern Wisconsin and resulted in a decisive victory for the Ojibwe. Background During the 17th and 18th centuries, control of northern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota was hotly contested by the Santee Sioux and the Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). By the close of the 18th century, the Lakota were largely pushed out of Wisconsin and much of northern Minnesota to areas west of the Mississippi River. In fact, the 1825 First Treaty of Prairie du Chien only recognized a small portion of present-day Wisconsin as Lakota land. However, throughout the 18th and well into the 19th centuries, the Dakota and Ojibwe continued to launch military expeditions into each other's territories. The Battle Much of what we know about the Battle of the Brule comes from the reminiscences of Benjamin Armstrong, an eyewitness to the event. Armstrong, the adopted son of Chief Buffalo of the La Pointe Band, was an American who had decided to live with the Ojibwas on Madeline Island. Although the Ojibwas living along Lake Superior's south shore were collectively referred to as the La Pointe Band by 19th-century sources, in actuality, they maintained seasonal camps all along the shoreline. One such camp was located at the Bois Brule River. The Dakota, under the leadership of Old Crow, hoped to take advantage of the scattered Ojibwa by leading his party against small groups by surprise while avoiding the large body of Ojibwa at La Pointe or farther to the south on the St. Croix River under Hole in the Day. Chief Buffalo of La Pointe, however, received an advance warning but not with enough time to gather his full military strength. When the groups met at the Brule, the Lakota had the advantage of numbers, but Buffalo positioned the main body of his force behind a high river bank. The Dakota, still thinking they were dealing with a very small unsuspecting group of Ojibwe fell for Buffalo's maneuver of sending out a few warriors to engage in a decoy retreat. The warriors, retreating across the Brule drew the Dakota from their bank into the river toward Buffalo on the other side. As they drew close and started climbing the bank