W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2011 Jealous neighbors: Rivalry and alliance among the native communities of Detroit, 1701--1766 andrew Keith Sturtevant College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Canadian History Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Sturtevant, andrew Keith, "Jealous neighbors: Rivalry and alliance among the native communities of Detroit, 1701--1766" (2011). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623586. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-crtm-ya36 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. JEALOUS NEIGHBORS: RIVALRY AND ALLIANCE AMONG THE NATIVE COMMUNITIES OF DETROIT, 1701-1766 Andrew Keith Sturtevant Frankfort, Kentucky Master of Arts, The College of William & Mary, 2006 Bachelor of Arts, Georgetown College, 2002 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the College of William and Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Lyon G. Tyler Department of History The College of William and Mary August, 2011 Copyright 2011, Andrew Sturtevant APPROVAL PAGE This Dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of L Doctor of Philosophy 1&.r .MJLI:J Andrew Keith Sturtevant June 2011 Approved by the Committee, Committee Chair Professor James Axtell, Emeritus, History The oil e f William and Mary ssociate Professor Br t Rushforth, History The College of William and Mary Associate Professor Ronald Schechter The College of William and Mary r 41i£~ttrnf~ Western Michigan University ABSTRACT PAGE Between the founding of the French post of Detroit in 1701 and the end of Pontiac's War in 1766, several native American peoples settled in distinct clusters around the French (and later British post) near current-day Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario. Focusing on the interactions among these communities, this dissertation makes two interrelated arguments. It first argues that, although these peoples had been challenged and changed by the forces of colonialism during the seventeenth century, they nonetheless emerged from that century as discrete ethnic, social, and political entities, rather than shattered or disintegrated refugees. A set of interconnected, mutually constituting, and consistent relationships between these separate and autonomous peoples, secondly, shaped affairs in the region just as much as the relationship between Europeans and native peoples. That colonial relationship, in fact, was embedded within and reciprocally tied to the web of relationships between native peoples. Only by understanding both exchanges between French and native peoples as well as modes of interaction between different indigenous peoples can scholars make sense of events at Detroit. To demonstrate both the survival of these native groups as discrete peoples and the consequences of that survival, each of the first four chapters explores one of the salient relationships between native peoples at Detroit, while the final charts how these relationships shaped one event, Pontiac's War. The first chapter charts the way in which the Huron man, Cheanonvouzon, sought to compensate for his peoples' weakness by forming a "southern alliance" with two powerful groups in the region, the Miamis and Five Nations, or Iroquois. The second chapter investigates how the closely related Anishinaabe peoples-the Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomis-cooperated to meet the challenge posed by the southern alliance. The emergence of these two rival blocs led to conflict between the Hurons and Ottawas in 1738, and the third chapter places that violence within a longer pattern of competition between these peoples. Chapter Four uses a controversy among the Hurons in the 1740s and 1750s to understand the bonds which held that community together. Finally, the fifth chapter demonstrates how all of these patterns shaped one event, the Anglo-Indian conflict frequently called Pontiac's War, and situates that conflict within a local context. As scholars investigate how these relationships mutually constituted not only one another but also the colonial relationship, intercultural relations at Detroit, as well as the rest of the New World, become at once more complicated and more comprehensible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication u Acknowledgements iii List of Figures v Abbreviations VI Introduction: The Same Body 1 Prologue: Exploring the Detroit River with Father Charlevoix, ca. 1721 22 Chapter One Lyons and Foxes: Cheanonvouzon and the Southern Alliance 34 Chapter Two "The Ottawawa Confederation": The Anishinaabeg during the Pax Vulpinae 87 Chapter Three "Inseparable Companions" and Irreconcilable Enemies: The Hurons and Ottawas 138 Chapter Four "One Heart and One Body": The Huron Community 175 Chapter Five "Elder Brother. .in My Heart": The Local Context of Pontiac's War 246 Epilogue Exploring the Detroit River with Tocqueville, ca. 1831 326 Selected Bibliography 332 Vita 347 To Mom and Dad, who took me to Ouiatenon and Vincennes 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many institutions and individuals have made this dissertation a reality. First, I'd like to thank the Lyon G. Tyler Department of History at William and Mary, which has so generously funded me, given me the opportunity to work as a writing consultant, and has provided several opportunities for me to teach. Funding from the department has also allowed me to do research and attend conferences in four countries on two continents. The Newberry Library also provided funding for the research project in the form of a short-term fellowship in September 2008. The staff helped me navigate the considerable cartographic collections. Brett Rushforth and Chris Hudson also made my research trip to the Centre des archives d'outre mer in Aix-en-Provence, France, possible by providing me a place to stay. I also owe a debt to a number of talented and generous scholars who have contributed directly and indirectly to this project. Lindsay Apple, my undergraduate advisor at Georgetown College, taught me how to be a historian and a writer, and encouraged me to apply to graduate school (for which I've nearly forgiven him). The faculty at William and Mary has also provided support since I arrived as a dewy-eyed M.A. student in the fall of 2002 and have been excellent models of scholars and teachers. Paul Mapp and Kris Lane, for example, gave excellent feedback and encouragement throughout this process, and Andy Fisher's classes-and topical examination field-in Native American history shaped how I understand that history. Special thanks go to my two mentors, Jim Axtell and Brett Rushforth. Professor Axtell first introduced me to the joys of ethnohistory, helped hone my writing style and has given me encouragement throughout, even allowing me to housesit while he and Susan were away at Princeton. Brett Rushforth, who introduced me to the French Atlantic in a seminar during his tenure as a fellow at the Omohundro Institute, first suggested this project and has always been available to help me think through the project (and has helped me weather the vagaries of the job market). Archaeologists Martin Gallivan (William and Mary), David Brown (Fairfield Foundation), and Andy Edwards (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) introduced me to alternative epistemic tools so central to ethnohistory, and an occasional source of income. Jennifer Jones, then at Colonial Williamsburg, supervised my apprenticeship at the Digital History Lab, and taught me valuable database skills which allowed me to impose some organization on the bibliographic data in this project. I would like to thank my colleagues at William and Mary who have generously read drafts of this project, application letters, and the other miscellanea of academia and have given me excellent advice. Equally importantly, by virtually (re)killing the undead, 111 going for afternoon runs, enjoying the culinary delights of this colonial city, and other doctoral pursuits, have made life as an ABD not only bearable but unforgettable. Finally, I thank my family. By taking me to historic sites throughout the eastern United States, including some of the places mentioned in this dissertation and instilling a love of learning, my parents inculcated a love of history. By patiently reading drafts of this project, some of them quite rough, they have made this dissertation a polished product. By providing me with moral and psychological support, finally, my family has helped me see this project to its completion. Thank you. I love you. IV LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Detail from Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, "Carte du Detroit," 1702. 4 2 Detail from [Henri-Louis Boishebert], "Carte du Detroit et Partie duLac 23 Erie, et du Lac Ste. Claire," 1731. 3 The Major Peoples and Places of the Pays d'en haut, 1701-1766. 23 4 Boishebert, Carte du detroit Erie remontent jusqu' au Lac Huron, 1731. · 24 5 Population of Natives Permanently Settled at Detroit, 1703-1761. 25 6 [Henri-Louis Boishebert], "Plan du Village Des Sauvages Outaouas 30 du Detroit," 1732. 7 The Southern and Anishinaabe Alliances, ca. 1700. 90 8 Detail of Jean-Baptise de Couagne, "Carte du Canada," 1711. 95 9 Major Settlements in Lakes Ontario and Erie. 126 10 Detail of map of the Mackinac Straits by Louis Armand de Lorn d'Arce, 161 Baron de Lahontan. 11 Detail from Jacques-Nicolas Bellin after Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de 174 Lery, "La Riviere du Detroit. .. ," 1764. 12 [Boishebert], "Plan du Village des hurons au Detroit, Erie," 1732. 180 13 Detail from Lewis Evans, "Bowles's new pocket map of the following 190 independent states of North America," 1784. 14 Detail from Bellin. "Lariviere du Detroit depuis le lac Sainte-Claire 201 jusqu'au lac Erie," 1764.