Empire by Collaboration Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country by Robert Michael Morrissey (review)

In a recent article for the American Historical Association, editor and author Nancy Shoemaker suggests that colonialism came in many flavors. In part, she critiques the dominance of settler colonial theory in Native American history. Settler colonialism focuses on British colonies (U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) and the subsequent Native American and Indigenous histories that unfold. She argues there were many different kinds of colonialism based on the motivations of the colonizers: planter colonialism, trade colonialism, legal colonialism, missionary colonialism, and more. She challenges us to consider these differentiations and their patterns. Robert Michael Morrissey’s Empire of Collaboration convinces me that Shoemaker’s ideas are worth further investigation.

Empire by Collaboration is a well written and much needed study of the Illinois Country focused intently on the late 1600s to the beginning of the American Revolution. Rather than a story of rudderless occupation, rag-tag residents, and muddled governance, the author offers a challenging story of self-determination and self-sufficiency on the fringe of the French Empire. The mixed populations of French and Indian settlers, both pragmatically seeking opportunities and stability, expressed a different kind of colonialism that is more a story of collaboration rather than one of conflict, conquest, and imperial control.

The author’s opening chapter establishes the Illinois Indians as newcomers to the region who were anxious to establish their own power and authority. He presents the Illinois Country as an ecological transition zone that transformed into a human and cultural transition zone. The Illinois Indians were opportunists who moved into the region to escape the instability of the Beaver Wars and take advantage of the bison herds in the region. Morrissey suggests that the Illinois Indians were colonizers, not unlike the French. They moved into the west and took advantage of accessible and profitable resources: bison and the Indian slave trade. Similarly, as he illustrates in later chapters, the Illinois Indians, like the French settlers, would be transformed by their experiences on the fringe of empire.

Morrissey’s study of French settlers and their interactions with the Illinois Indians is by far the most complete and nuanced study of its kind currently available. From the early settlements of the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia in the northern reaches of the Illinois territory to the later southern settlement of Kaskaskia south of Fort de Chartres, the story is one of innovation, adaptation, and collaboration between settlers, Indians, and various representatives of power sent by the kings of France and later England. The colony is presented as unplanned and continually challenging the control and authority of empire. Despite the setbacks of disease and warfare that were endemic features of early modern North American history, settlements in the Illinois territory thrived because they were in some ways indispensable to the authorities that sought to control them. For this reason and because they were on the edge of empire, their customs and actions were tolerated. Whether in trade, financial affairs, land acquisition, or marriage, the settlements in the Illinois Country pragmatically evolved to suit the needs and desires of the settlers.

The pragmatic adaptations presented by Morrissey are all very interesting, but especially so in his discussions of politics and gender, which overlap repeatedly. In fact, the centrality of gender, interracial marriage, and kinship are invaluable contributions to the history of this region. The fluidity with which he connects the gendered history of the Illinois Indians and the effects of their involvement in the Indian slave trade to the relative success of the Jesuits in converting a high percentage of Native American women sheds new light on earlier research by Susan Sleep-Smith, Lucy Eldersveld Murphy, and many others who study the experiences of Native American women and the fur trade and the creolization of these cultures.

There are a few points of criticism, though. The book would have benefited with more maps, specifically modern renditions...