Contested Territories: Native Americans and Non-Natives in the Lower Great Lakes, 1700-1850

Native American– French Interactions in Eighteenth-Century Southwest Michigan: The View from Fort St. Joseph

55 native American–French interactions in eighteenthCentury southwest Michigan: the View from Fort st. Joseph MiCHAeL s. nAssAneY, WiLLiAM M. CreMin, And LisAMArie MALisCHKe A pervasive trend in historical scholarship has been a move away from broad metanarratives to more detailed examinations of concrete historical moments and contexts to better understand the nuances of events and processes at the local scale.1 in the Americas, empirical studies have shown that historical outcomes were predicated upon the nature of empire, and the groups encountered in the changing circumstances of colonialism.2 Considerable attention has been paid to the consequences of colonial encounters, particularly for indigenous groups who were often decimated by disease and warfare and subjugated politically, economically, and socially. While europeans undeniably had a deleterious impact on native peoples, the variable encounters and interactions between natives and newcomers were neither inevitable nor predictable over the past five centuries. it behooves us to examine the conditions that engendered conflict, contestation, and cooperation . Furthermore, our understandings of colonialism are a product of the changing social and political conditions in which we live.3 suffice it to say that in a post-nagpra world,4 in which native peoples rightfully and increasingly insert themselves into popular and academic dialogues about native histories, interpretations of the past are no longer seen as politically neutral. Yet, even as conflict and struggle have long been recognized as recurrent processes associated with new World encounters, academic and 56| Nassaney, Cremin, and Malischke public imaginings acknowledge important variation in the ways in which different european powers interacted with native hosts.5 in a popular treatment on this subject, James Volo and dorothy denneen Volo distinguished the French from their english and spanish counterparts, noting that “the most enduring and harmonious relationships with the native American population were formed with the French, who attempted with some success to peacefully coexist with the indians, living with them, marrying into their families, and converting them to Christianity.”6 the intimate relations established between the French and their native allies in the western Great Lakes, or the pays d’en haut, are seen as essential to the concept of the “middle ground” that was introduced and argued persuasively by the ethnohistorian richard White.7 the middle ground is a metaphorical space for accommodation in which natives and newcomers were fundamentally transformed. in the middle ground, White sees an eighteenth-century world in which it was in the interests of both the French and Algonquians to form alliances and provide mutual aid to check the expansion of the english and the iroquois.8 From their interactions grew a number of practices and material objects that symbolize their political reconciliation. A poignant example is the calumet pipe and associated greeting ceremony that spread throughout the Mississippi Valley in conjunction with French exploration.9 originally developed to assuage differences among refugee groups in the mid- to late seventeenth century, the calumet became emblematic of the bonds created between strangers—a hallmark of mediation. the purpose of this chapter is to examine the nature of relationships between the French and their Algonquian neighbors in southwest Michigan . Archaeological investigations conducted under the auspices of the Fort st. Joseph Archaeological Project since 1998 have led to the discovery and investigation of Fort st. Joseph, an important but heretofore poorly documented French mission/garrison/trading-post complex along the banks of the st. Joseph river.10 Material and documentary evidence regarding the fort afford us the opportunity to reassess an important chapter in American history and evaluate the appropriateness of White’s characterization for this particular historical place. We understand that White’s model can be criticized on empirical grounds and may not be applicable to colonial relations throughout eastern north America. Yet investigations thus far suggest that interactions between the French occupants of Fort st. Joseph and the local Potawatomi and Miami populations of the area were generally cooperative and amicable until the 1760s, when the fort fell under British control. in the remainder of the chapter, we discuss the sources of evidence that lead us to this conclusion, and posit some explanations for these cultural patterns Native American–French Interactions| 57 and processes. We begin by describing the historical and cultural context of the region immediately prior to european contact. the site of Fort st. Joseph is located on the east bank of the st. Joseph river at niles in southeastern Berrien County, Michigan (figure...