sentences:  The French wanted the rights to use the river system to gain access to both the Mississippi and trade contacts with tribes to the west.The wars claimed thousands of lives and initiated a slave trade whereby Fox Indians were captured by native allies of New France and then sold as slaves to the French colonial population.Indeed, alliances between the French and other native groups (such as Ottawa, Miamis and Sioux) as well as those between the Fox and other native groups (such as the Sauk, Mascoutens and Kickapoos) were an important aspect of the Wars, influencing every stage of the conflicts, including the causes, the fighting and the conclusion.