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III. Mackinac, 1815-1830: A Metis Community Responds to Americanization A fter 1815, the Metis encountered a growing number of American nationals who came to establish American institutions at Mackinac, to re-establish preexisting institutions, and to extend the influence and authority of the United States throughout Michigan Territory. The outcome of the War of 1812 ensured that the forces of American law, government, military, business, and Protestant Christianity would work together to reform the fur-trade society with English as the common language. The middle ground, however, made room for Americans, but unlike the French and British, the Americans instituted changes which over time would cause it to crumble. As the Metis faced the Americanization of their way of life, they made adaptations, but they also hung on to their customs whenever possible, perpetuating the middle ground into the 1830s. Some Metis and Indian women married American men, but most Native women continued to find their mates among French-Canadian, Metis, or Indian men who worked in the trade. The Metis reaffirmed their identity when they renewed their devotion to the Roman Catholic Church, which was itself becoming an American church. Catholicism enabled the Metis to retain their religion while adapting to changes occurring in their society at Mackinac. Since the 1670s, when the Straits of Mackinac first served as a hub for furtrade activities, changes there influenced the larger society to the west. Mackinac's strategic location at the juncture of Lakes Huron and Michigan made the Straits a logical fur-trade center that served the vast western interior. In the seventeenth century French traders, soldiers, and missionaries introduced themselves, European-manufactured goods, and Roman Catholicism into Indian societies, thus initiating significant changes throughout the region. The French paddled their birchbark canoes along the Ottawa River route from Montreal to Mackinac and found the Straits an ideal place to outfit their crews with fresh provisions before journeying on into the interior to live and trade among the Odawa, Chippewa, Menominee, Sioux, and other nations. Traders, often accompanied 47 BATTLE FOR THE SOUL by Indian families, brought the winter's fur harvest to Mackinac in the spring.l Soon after the British conquest of Canada in 1760, sailing vessels began calling at Mackinac, bringing British soldiers, traders, and goods. British control of the fur trade resulted in more changes as Indians, French Canadians, and Metis had to submit to British policies.2 In 1796, Americans arrived at Mackinac aboard sailing ships, and in 1820, steam-powered vessels joined the Great Lakes fleet. Ideas, beliefs, and material culture coming from both the East and the West formed, shaped, and reformed society at Mackinac. European-American ways took hold and helped to create a fur-trade society at Mackinac and all through the western Great Lakes whose manners were neither entirely Indian nor European but a changing mixture of both.3 Dietary practices over the century illustrate this phenomenon. The French depended upon imported beverages such as coffee and chocolate and a variety of locally produced foods, including wild game, fish, and Indian-grown corn. Michel Chartier de LotbinH:re noted in 1749 that the ten French families (three of whom were Metis) who lived at Michilimackinac showed little interest in agriculture. Instead they only took "the trouble of going to the edge of the lake, as if going to market, to get their supplies of corn and fish when the Indians bring some."4 After the British gained control of Michilimackinac in 1761, they relied more upon imported foods, such as salted meats, milled flour, butter, and domestic animals. They ate less venison, fish, and corn, and consumed more beef. Although the British practiced farming on a small scale, British traders, too, purchased large quantities of corn from the Odawa and Chippewa living near Lakes Michigan and Huron, which they used to provision the Metis and Canadian voyageurs who transported furs and merchandise. Through importation of foodstuffs and objects manufactured in Britain, British officers, soldiers, and traders transplanted to Mackinac as many of the amenities of their way of life as possible.5 The French and British sent military garrisons to the Straits in the eighteenth century to protect and further European imperial interests in the fur-trade country . French troops first appeared in St. Ignace in the 1680s, but were withdrawn in 1696. About 1715, French troops returned and constructed Fort Michilimackinac on the south side of the Straits. Their objectives were to subdue the Fox Indians in Wisconsin...

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