A History of Alcohol As Symbol and Substance in Anishinaabe Culture, 1765-1920
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1996 A history of alcohol as symbol and substance in Anishinaabe culture, 1765-1920 Kathryn A. Abbott University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Abbott, Kathryn A., "A history of alcohol as symbol and substance in Anishinaabe culture, 1765-1920" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1225. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1225 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of Massachusetts Amherst Library A HISTORY OF ALCOHOL AS SYMBOL AND SUBSTANCE IN ANISHINAABE CULTURE, 1765-1920 A Dissertation Presented by KATHRYN A. ABBOTT Submitted to the Graduate School of the Univeristy of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 1996 Department of History UMI Niinber: 9638923 UMI Microform 9638923 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microfonn edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 This is an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis published by UMI. The bibliographic information for this thesis is contained in UMFs Dissertation Abstracts database, the only central source for accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North America since 1861. Dissertation Services From:Pro(jvuest COMPANY 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346 USA 800.521.0600 734.761.4700 web vwvw.il. proquest.com Printed in 2008 by digital xerographic process on acid-free paper Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/historyofalcoholOOabbo INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UME films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overiaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor ND 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 © Copyright by Kathryn Agnes Abbott 1996 All Rights Reserved A HISTORY OF ALCOHOL AS SYMBOL AND SUBSTANCE IN ANISHINAABE CULTURE, 1765-1920 A Dissertation Presented by KATHRYN A. ABBOTT Approved as to style and content by: Kathy Peiss, Cnair Neal Salisbury, Member 04. Peter d'Errico, Member Bruce Laurie, Department Head Department of History DEDICATION To my children, Kate and Sam Hartshorne and to the memory of my parents, Robert W. Abbott and Margaret Feld Abbott ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During this long process, I have acquired many debts, both personal and professional. Kathy Peiss has been an inspiration to me since I was an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts, and during the last few months of the dissertation process, provided invaluable criticism, advice, and support. John Mack Faragher helped tremendously in the early stages to give the dissertation focus. Both Kathy Peiss and John Mack Faragher have provided for me a role model of what a mentor should be. Over the last twenty years, Peter d'Errico has helped me sharpen my analysis and my political perspective. Neal Salisbury provided much expert advice, and a seminar I sat in on in 1994 helped me rethink some of my ideas about alcohol in North America. Leonard Richards, Stephen Nissenbaum, David Glassberg, Bruce Laurie, Joyce Berkman, and Barry Levy, all from the University of Massachusetts history department, have provided guidance during my years in the graduate program. Melissa Meyer, Richard Hamm, Steven V Aron, Richard White, Carol Higham, Catherine McNichol Stock, Edward Brodkin, Michele Hoffnung, and Howard Lamar also provided much-appreciated support along the way. In the course of conducting my research, I met many . wonderful people who helped make the job easier. Tim Wehrcamp of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., took me on a wonderful tour of the archives' stacks and provided a valuable suggestion for tracking down information on William E. Johnson. Ann Cummings was also very helpful. I also want to thank Rose de Luca of the National Archives' Kansas City branch office, Steve Nielsen and the entire reading room staff of the Minnesota Historical Society Archives, Betty Swanson of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Bruce Chandler and everyone at the Institute for American Indian Studies at the University of South Dakota. I have met a great number of friends in graduate school, many of whom crossed the boundary between "school friend" and "real friend." I thank in particular Jean Sherlock, Susan Ouellette, Billy Guild, Beth Weston, Tim Ashwell, Else Hambleton, Graham Warder, Matt Crocker, Anne Clark, Maggie Lowe, Julie Foulkes, and Kathleen Nutter for helping make graduate school an experience that I enjoyed and not a chore that I endured. vi I also want to thank long-term friends Sharon Tracy, Gloria Fisher, Don Taylor, Nancy Edelstein, "Digger" Bemben, Chester Clarke, Phyllis Spatrick, Sky Arndt, and Mini Whitcomb, who have all been there in innumerable ways, from child care to shoulder-to-cry-on. Nathaniel and Valerie Hartshorne deserve a special thanks for the love and support they have provided and for being loving grandparents to my children. Betty Pratt took care of her niece and nephew while I was doing research in 1993. Mary Flynn has been a close and loving sister. And Stephen Abbott has been a wonderful benefactor and believer who deserves special thanks. I also thank my parents. Bob and Peggy Abbott, for instilling in me the importance of education, even though it took me a really long time to believe them. Would that they could be here to see this. And finally, I thank my children, Kate and Sam Hartshorne, who give all of this meaning, even though Kate assures me that she has no intention of ever getting a doctorate. vii ABSTRACT A HISTORY OF ALCOHOL AS SYMBOL AND SUBSTANCE IN ANISHINAABE CULTURE, 1765-1920 MAY 1996 KATHRYN A. ABBOTT, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M.A. , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph . D . , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Kathy Peiss This dissertation examines the history of alcohol among the Anishinaabe (also known as the Ojibway or Chippewa) people from the middle of the eighteenth century until the enactment of National Prohibition in 1920. As early as the eighteenth century, alcohol was an integral part of the gift-giving which preceded negotiations for the French—and later British and American—fur trade. Some Anishinaabe people incorporated alcohol into funerals, and there is also evidence that the Anishinaabeg had reasonable social controls around drinking into the twentieth century. Alcohol was also pivotal in shaping non-Indian stereotypes of Indian people. In the nineteenth century, the drinking habits of the Anishinaabeg were seen first as a sign of cultural weakness. The rhetoric of American viii . missionaries emphasized that once the Anishinaabeg had accepted Christianity, they would choose to give up alcohol. However, these same missionaries also argued that in order to become Christian, the Anishinaabeg first would have to reject liquor. By the early twentieth century, the stereotype of the culturally inferior Indian combined with scientific racism to create the image of racially inferior Indians. These images served as the justification for Anishinaabeg dispossession in the early years of the twentieth century Further, as Prohibition agitation increased in the early twentieth century, non-Indians used the Anishinaabeg in Minnesota to wage an ideological war not only about alcohol in white society but also about the extent of federal power in enforcing treaty provisions on non-Indians lands. Hence, the Anishinaabeg became the rhetorical vehicle for a complex debate which at times only marginally included them. By focusing on one Indian group at a particular point in time, this dissertation seeks to historicize one Indian group's experience with alcohol and to move away from generalizations about