 It was a few more centuries before contact between Europeans and Native Americans of Minnesota could be confirmed . In the late 1650s , Pierre Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers were probably the first to meet Dakota Native Americans while following the southern shore of Lake Superior ( which would become northern Wisconsin ) . The north shore was explored in the 1660s . Among the first to do this was Claude Allouez , a missionary on Madeline Island . He made an early map of the area in 1671 . 
