Intimacy and Violence in New France: French and Indigenous Relations In

Claiborne A. Skinner. The Upper Country: French Enterprise in the Colonial Great Lakes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. xiv + 202 pp. $25.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-8018-8838-0. Reviewed by Bryan Rindfleisch Published on H-Canada (November, 2011) Commissioned by Stephanie Bangarth (King's University College, UWO) Claiborne A. Skinner offers a concise synthe‐ and downturns that rendered any imperial plan‐ sis for the history of the “French Middle West,” or ning utterly useless and forced the French in New France, during the seventeenth and eigh‐ North America to rely on the everyday interac‐ teenth centuries. Largely aimed at diffusing the tions and relations forged with their Native Amer‐ “popular myths” surrounding French colonization ican neighbors as a means for stability in the ab‐ in the Great Lakes region that revolves around sence of support from the imperial metropolis.[1] the benevolent Jesuit missionary and heroic fur In fact, Skinner suggests that this intimacy be‐ trade trapper carving out a French empire in tween the French and Great Lakes Indians (the North America while enjoying harmonious rela‐ Huron, Ojibwe, Illiniwek, Ottawa, Potawatomi, tions with indigenous peoples, Skinner instead Fox, Saux, Menominee, etc.) proved to be the only posits the imperial designs of the French in Cana‐ sustainable feature of the French North American da and the Illinois country as violent and factious, empire, and that when this coalition disintegrated and a site of constant negotiation and conflict during the eighteenth century, so too did New with other Europeans, native populaces, and even France, largely as a product of intertribal Indian the varying factions of the French themselves. As warfare (“Fox Wars” and “Chickasaw Wars”) and Skinner states, “it was one thing to claim a conti‐ the European imperial wars. nent and quite another to hold onto and exploit In addition to his corrections of the pervasive one” (p. 155). As a consequence, the French impe‐ mythology that so often becomes enshrined in rial venture in North America resembled the popular history and memory, Skinner ably recon‐ “rollercoaster rhythm” of history that James H. ciles three contending histories despite unfolding Merrell provided in his study of the Catawba Indi‐ on two different continents, bringing early mod‐ ans for this same period of time; the French colo‐ ern European history into dialogue with early nizing experience comprised continual upturns American (with an emphasis on New France) and H-Net Reviews indigenous histories. By framing New France as a fundamentally unable to pursue the imperial de‐ methodological tool that connects this French sign originally envisioned by French monarchs colony with the rest of Europe, France’s imperial and imperial administrators, particularly because rivals in North America, and the indigenous popu‐ “France simply lacked the manpower to do any‐ lations of the continent, Skinner shows that this thing else” (p. 7). Yet in relying on its native neigh‐ place and its peoples offers a window into how bors, New France even contributed to this cyclical European geopolitics; the conflicts between New violence by creating competing factions among France and its rival English and Dutch colonies; the indigenous polities who vied for access to and and commercial exchanges, violent interactions, control of French commerce, the fur trade, and and sexual intimacies of the French with indige‐ French military support for use against tradition‐ nous populaces all intersected and proved inter‐ al Indian enemies. related throughout the seventeenth and eigh‐ Internally, New France suffered from its own teenth centuries. In short, Skinner pleads for factionalism between the imperial governors who American historians to look beyond the prototypi‐ attempted to expand France’s sovereignty over cal, Anglo-centric history of early America and to the North American continent (in contest with the be more inclusive of New France, the Illinois English, Spanish, and Dutch) and French settlers, country, and its native populaces, all of whom fur traders, merchants, and “coureur du bois” were every bit as important as the English to (frontiersmen and fur trappers who sometimes molding the history of the North American conti‐ served as formal intermediaries for the French nent during this period. colony with indigenous peoples, but more often As Skinner promises, his narrative of New acted in their own interests) who sought their France and early America is driven by conflict own livelihoods and self-interests divested of any and violence. Beginning as early as 1608 with the sense of obligation to further the imperial design. arrival of Samuel de Champlain in the Saint Imperial administrators and Jesuit missionaries Lawrence River Valley and his settlement of Que‐ continually tried to impose political and moral bec, Skinner stresses, violence defined the French control over these peoples, which in turn only imperial design in North America, particularly as provoked hostility and emigration farther west‐ Champlain courted Huron and Algonquian Indi‐ ward and southward away from New France, of‐ ans, which in turn provoked a “century of war‐ ten to the detriment of French royal authority and fare with the Iroquois” (p. 3). Subsequently, the territorial integrity. Again, Skinner demonstrates French and their native allies in Canada and the that French history in North America paralleled Illinois country fought the Iroquois and their con‐ what occurred among the English in early Ameri‐ stituents throughout the seventeenth century un‐ ca as backcountry settlers composed of diverse til the “Great Peace of 1701,” which coincided ethnic origins, religious affiliations, and political with and even exacerbated France’s war efforts loyalties increasingly moved farther west and against other Europeans during the English Civil south throughout North America during the sev‐ War, the Thirty Years’ War, and Anglo-Dutch enteenth and eighteenth centuries, which not wars; its own internal insurrections; and the im‐ only inhibited imperial control, but also precipi‐ perial warfare of the eighteenth century that tated violence between Europeans and their in‐ started in 1689. Due to this legacy of violence that digenous neighbors. This Euro-Indian violence plagued France during the seventeenth century, fostered a growing racial animosity between Skinner asserts, New France often found itself iso‐ these two peoples and undermined all of the inti‐ lated; forced to depend on itself and its indige‐ mate relations constructed throughout over a cen‐ nous allies for protection and subsistence; and tury of commercial, diplomatic, and sexual inter‐ 2 H-Net Reviews actions between the French and Indians, connec‐ at this same juncture, both of which chipped tions that New France and the French empire in away at the intimate relations forged by French North America utterly depended on for stability. and indigenous peoples in the preceding century. Aside from the violence that drives Skinner’s Overall, Skinner’s work is a superb, even mas‐ narrative, the other pertinent theme to his work is terful, synthesis that testifies to the importance of the intimacy that existed between French and na‐ New France and the history of French coloniza‐ tive peoples in New France and the Illinois coun‐ tion to the overarching narrative of early Ameri‐ try, encapsulated best by his chapter on the cre‐ ca, yet in terms of his engagement with the histo‐ ation of frontier communities (more akin to forti‐ riography he is less than impressive. While solidly fied villages than actual communities) during the relying on the work of Denys Delage, William Ec‐ early to mid-eighteenth century by both the cles, Richard White, and Gilles Havard, he is less French and Indians. Utilizing the forts of Detroit, attuned to the most recent historiographical Michilimackinac, Miami, Niagara, and others trends and monographs on the French coloniza‐ throughout Canada and the Illinois lands, French tion experience in North America. For example, men and women (far fewer in number than their his analysis of Champlain and his diplomatic and male counterparts) lived alongside or even with military interactions with the Huron and Algo‐ Huron, Illiniwek, Ojibwe, and other Great Lakes nquian Indians lacks the rich scholarly analysis native peoples, creating hybrid communities that that Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton provide balanced their diverse ways of life. For instance, in The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in at Fort Detroit, French and Indian individuals en‐ North America, 1500-2000 (2005), which set the gaged in subsistence and commercial agricultural new standard for interpreting how Champlain’s together; competed with one another in lacrosse actions were understood and exploited by indige‐ matches and footraces; intermarried and raised nous peoples for their own military and political Metis children; joined in one another’s religious purposes. Similarly, Skinner’s comprehension of observations or secular celebrations; participated indigenous peoples’ social organizations and com‐ in joint leisure activities, such as drinking, danc‐ munity exchanges requires consideration of ing, or gambling; fought alongside one another in Daniel K. Richter’s Facing East from Indian Coun‐ defense of their families and community; engaged try: A Native History of Early America (2003), a in illicit trafficking of fur pelts to their European study that is utterly fundamental to understand‐ rivals or native enemies; and enslaved both

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