Rethinking the Fur Trade

Susan Sleeper-Smith, professor of history at Michigan State University, is the author of Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes and the editor of Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives (Nebraska 2009). Contributors: Dean Anderson, Donald F. Bibeau, Mary Black-Rogers, Bruce J. Bourque, Jennifer S. H. Brown, Allen Chronister, James L. Clayton, Bruce White, W. J. Eccles, William F. Ganong, James A. Hanson, Gail D. MacLeitch, D. Peter MacLeod, D. W. Moodie, Jacqueline Petersen, Carolyn Podruchny, Gail DeBuse Potter, Arthur J. Ray, Timothy J. Shannon, Susan Sleeper-Smith, Helen Hornbeck Tanner, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Sylvia Van Kirk, Richard White, and Ruth H. Whitehead.

"Rethinking the Fur Trade is an invaluable book."—Claiborne A. Skinner, Annals of Iowa "Rethinking the Fur Trade is a welcome and valuable addition. . . . It succeeds in giving multiple perspectives on the cultures of exchange and the fur trade for a wide audience."—Chris Johnson, North Dakota History

• List of IllustrationsList of TablesSource AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Cultures of Exchange in a North Atlantic WorldPart 1. Indigenous PerspectivesIntroduction1. Of the Mission of Saint Francois Xavier on the "Bay of Stinkards," or Rather "Of Stinking Waters"Father Allouez2. On the Hunting of the GaspesiansFather Chrestien LeClercq3. The Hunting of Moose, of Bears, of Beavers, of Lynxes, and Other Animals According to Their SeasonsFather Chrestien LeClercq4. Tarrentines and the Introduction of European Trade Goods in the Gulf of MaineBruce J. Bourque and Ruth Holmes Whitehead5. The Anishinabeg Point of View: The History of the Great Lakes Region to 1800 in Nineteenth-Century Mississauga, Odawa, and Obijwa HistoriographyD. Peter MacLeod6. Fur Trade Literature from a Tribal Point of View: A CritiqueDonald F. BibeauPart 2. The Social and Political Significance of ExchangeIntroduction7. Agriculture and the Fur TradeD. W. Moodie8. "Give Us a Little Milk": The Social and Cultural Significance of Gift Giving in the Lake Superior Fur TradeBruce M. White9. "Starving" and Survival in the Subartic Fur Trade: A Case for Contextual SemanticsMary Black-Rogers10. The Growth and Economic Significance of the American Fur Trade, 17901890James L. Clayton11. "Red" Labor: Iroquois Participation in the Atlantic EconomyGail D. MacLeitch12. The Fur Trade and Eighteenth-Century ImperialismW. J. Eccles13. The Middle GroundRichard White14. Creative Misunderstandings and New UnderstandingsRichard WhitePart 3. Cloth TradeIntroduction15. Indians as Consumers in the Eighteenth CenturyArthur J. Ray16. Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier: Hendrick, William Johnson, and the Indian FashionTimothy J. Shannon17. The Flow of European Trade Goods into the Western Great Lakes Region, 17151760Dean L. Anderson18. The MatchcoatGail DeBuse Potter19. Chiefs Coats Supplied by the American Fur CompanyAllen Chronister20. The Myth of the Silk Hat and the End of the RendezvousJames A. HansonPart 4. Gender, Kinship, and CommunityIntroduction21. Women, Kin, and Catholicism: New Perspectives on the Fur TradeSusan Sleeper-Smith22. "The Custom of the Country": An Examination of Fur Trade Marriage PracticesSylvia Van Kirk23. Woman as Centre and Symbol in the Emergence of Metis CommunitiesJennifer S. H. Brown24. Prelude to Red River: A Social Portrait of the Great Lakes MétisJacqueline Peterson25. The Glaize in 1792: A Composite Indian CommunityHelen Hornbeck Tanner26. Festivities, Fortitude, and Fraternalism: Fur Trade Masculinity and the Beaver Club, 17851827Carolyn PodruchnyIndex