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The Ottawa: Traders of the Upper Great Lakes

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The Ottawa: Traders of the Upper Great Lakes THE OTTAWA: TRADERS OF THE UPPER GREAT LAKES THE OTTAWA: TRADERS OF THE UPPER GREAT LAKES 1615-1700 By LEO GILBERT WAISBERG, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University September 1977 MASTER OF ARTS (1978) McMaster University (Anthropology) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Ottawa, Traders of the Upper Great Lakes AUTHOR: Leo Gilbert Waisberg, B.A. (York University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Richard J. Preston NUMBER OF PAGES: xxii + 203 ii ABSTRACT The fur trade of the Upper Great Lakes region during the 17th century is examined with the aid of ethnohistorical documents and source materials. Analysis is focused upon the role of the Ottawa, an important collection of native American middlemen, on the French- oriented fur trade. The Ottawa, a loose political federation of Algonkian-speaking peoples, exhibited a rather variable economic adaptation during this era; while territorial or ecological factors are considered in this study, it was concluded that social organizational 1 forms and economic relations were modified, significantly, and continually throughout the 17th century 7 by changing Ottawa perceptions of trade strategies. These perceptions revolved around traditional cultural norms and conventions as well as strictly market considerations such as supply/ demand fluctuations. The trade itself, a melange of European and native customs and orthodoxies, was manipu- lated in various ways to ensure high levels of consumption. In effect, the trade financed an intensification of traditional reciprocity, egalitarianism and factional politics; international relations were also affected, as iii the influx of wealth was used to extend the influence of Ottawa chiefs among other nations, or to engage in the subtleties of baroque power politics with the English and French. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Few studies are purely the work of the author alone. I would like to thank those who have been involved, and especially express gratitude to the members of my Thesis Committee: Dr. Richard Preston, Dr. David Damas, and Dr. Edward S. Rogers. They have provided expert advice, guidance and criticism, all of which were well appreciated. Dr. Rogers in particular devoted many hours, discussing some of the thornier dilemmas confront­ ing me. My special thanks go to him. Dr. James G. E. Smith and Mr. Clinton J. Wheeler also deserve mention. Dr. Smith first confronted me with the problem of who the Ottawa were, and has since provided helpful comments at intervals. Mr. Wheeler, as well as suffering silently through multiple but premature revela­ tions about Ottawa kinship, gave constructive criticism on the problem, as well as insights into contemporary kin-based factional struggles among Algonkian-speaking peoples, some of which we watched together. Lastly, in reply to an unnamed friend who, one evening, claimed that despite appearances my work in toto v was not science but science fiction, I devote this thought. If Stanislav Andreski (1974) is correct, then anthropology, when treated as a uniformly quantifiable science, conjures itself into a vast mechanical monster of sorcery and jargon. Each reader must decide if this work fits the picture of that true Killing Machine (1964) as seen by a real science fiction writer, Jack Vance (119): Ponderously, the great machine ingests its bales of lore; grinding, groaning, shuddering, it brings forth its product: small puffs of acrid, vari-colored vapor. If in your opinion this shoe actually fits, then, Great Finagle, aid me! vi The rabbi of Kotzk was asked how he knew what advice to give the hasidim who came to him in regard to their business affairs, since he certainly was above and beyond all such matters. He replied: "From where can you get the best all-round view of everything?" (Buber: 275) vii PREFACE This narrative concerns that culster of Algonkian- speaking peoples collectively called the ottawa. As a study, it was motivated by a desire to investigate the historic origins of a people influential beyond their numbers: who are the Ottawa, and what was their role ln the events leading to their current status? Many references have been made to them, but there is as yet no cohesive account of their early history. As an expres- sion of a process characterizing the history of a native people, this study was provoked by a variety of anthro- pological citations either tantalizing or ambiguous, qualities mutually reinforcing. Commentators from Innis onward have ascribed to the Ottawa, on the basis of what seems to be very limited information, a middleman position in the fur trade during the heyday of the French regine In North America, an interpretation which overlooks the complexities of the period and the contradictions in the sources. Information on the history of the Ottawa is derived from many viewpoints: traders, soldiers, bureau- crats, and priests, each group reflecting attitudes to viii life remarkably different from one another. Where possible, original documentary sources have been utilized, especially for the crucial events of direct contact and the fur trade operations centered at Michilmackinac; these extend primarily over the course of the 17th century. While library materials constitute the bulk of the documentation, ethnographic experience among Ojibway peoples has clarified some aspects of the source reports. No oral history was collected, unfortunately, from elders at contemporary Odawa reserves. lX Discursus: On Method ( For interpreting ethnohistoric data, what approaches to an Ottawa history are possible? I would rather not strain credulity and insist that the- author is a dispassionate wraith, cooly sifting and straining the information to derive an objective account of those facts which actually occurred. If these can be said even to have existed, they are now lost for all time. Only approximations are rossible. Indeed, even in our original sources, we are dealing with informant inter- pretations. Objectivity in its ultimate sense is thus impossible. To embroider an argument now considered to reflect the approach of historical relativism, Beard noted (1959:141): Every student of history knows that his colleagues have been influenced in their selection and ordering of their materials by their biases, prejudices, beliefs, affections, general upbringing, and experience, and if he has any sense of propriety, to say nothing of humour, he applies the canon to himself, leaving no exceptions to the rule. I hold to an ideology of interpretation which stresses the finite and- very limited quality of our knowledge of the 'true' historic facts. Consequently, I see the x sLructures of ethnohistory, those grand models of social change and evolution, as patterns more or less imposed upon the past by its observers; such persons may be either witnesses to certain events or they may depend upon the records of these individuals. Whatever the amount of critical intellectual effort, past actions are filtered to us, at any level of analysis, to first-hand witness or nighted scholar, through layers of feeling and inter­ pretive processes in every mind through which the informa­ tion seeps. Events have been selected and ordered, with varying qualities of care and conscience, by motivations scholarly, religious, ideological, economic, or by compulsions totally mysterious or unconscious. Each set of apparent historical ultimates is susceptible therefore to reinterpretation, as new personalities and new concerns are focussed. Such thoughts are as well aimed at this history as at any other. Even if one accepts the notion that the form of an ethnohistoric presentation arises innocent and directly from the content of the sources, one must also recognize that these sources are, after all, only the impressions of people. What these say may be logical, coherent, even fitting, but they are not simply reflections of the past, as it actually happened, but also explanations valid to the involved personalities. Past events do not xi exist except through our own minds. When the sense of an actuality of the past has been transcended, past and present become products of each other. One can derive, perhaps not logically, a method- ology from the assertion of this approach to historical relativism. Ironically, the recognition of how impossible thistoryt is can lead to great care and irreproachable standards, the fullest presentation and the most honest interpretation of data. From a recognition of historical relativism, I found that the methodological path beyond led, interestingly enough, to standards of critical analysis similar to those that lay far back on the peculiar progression of historical philosophy. In this regard j there are parallels in method between a contempora~~ "/ approach to ethnohistory, that of Bruce Trigger in The (/ Children of Aataentsic (1976), and that presented by some military historians of Imperial Germany at the close of the 19th century; of these, a representative example is Hans Delbruckts History of the Art of War Within the Framework of Political History (1975). Ethnohistory remains basically an attempt to use "historical documents and oral traditions to study the history of non-literate peoples" (Trigger 1976:12). Its branches are various, and include works with the limited aim of simply charting the history of the native peoples xii ~ (Anson 1970); alternatively, this history may be used to! exemplify processes and patterns of cultural change in C the native societies, especially within the context
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