UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE “THE SEA OF TROUBLE WE ARE SWIMMING IN”: PEOPLE OF THE DAWNLAND AND THE ENDURING PURSUIT OF A NATIVE ATLANTIC WORLD A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By MATTHEW R. BAHAR Norman, Oklahoma 2012 “THE SEA OF TROUBLE WE ARE SWIMMING IN”: PEOPLE OF THE DAWNLAND AND THE ENDURING PURSUIT OF A NATIVE ATLANTIC WORLD A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY ______________________________ Dr. Joshua A. Piker, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Catherine E. Kelly ______________________________ Dr. James S. Hart, Jr. ______________________________ Dr. Gary C. Anderson ______________________________ Dr. Karl H. Offen © Copyright by MATTHEW R. BAHAR 2012 All Rights Reserved. For Allison Acknowledgements Crafting this dissertation, like the overall experience of graduate school, occasionally left me adrift at sea. At other times it saw me stuck in the doldrums. Periodically I was tossed around by tempestuous waves. But two beacons always pointed me to quiet harbors where I gained valuable insights, developed new perspectives, and acquired new momentum. My advisor and mentor, Josh Piker, has been incredibly generous with his time, ideas, advice, and encouragement. His constructive critique of my thoughts, methodology, and writing (I never realized I was prone to so many split infinitives and unclear antecedents) was a tremendous help to a graduate student beginning his career. In more ways than he probably knows, he remains for me an exemplar of the professional historian I hope to become. And as a barbecue connoisseur, he is particularly worthy of deference and emulation. Our profession would certainly be better off with more people like him. Cathy Kelly’s insights, criticisms, and interminable support have done more for my career than she realizes. By way of a graduate seminar, directed readings, and countless discussions, I have learned to value her brilliance. Our conversations about this project and my future in the academy have built in me a level of confidence I never thought possible. I am also indebted to Jamie Hart for deepening my interest and understanding of early modern England. Through coursework and directed readings with him, I first began to explore the possibilities of developing an Atlantic history of American Indians. Jamie was tremendously enthusiastic and patient with this student of early America whose peripheral interests lay far beyond his metropolitan expertise. Paul Gilje, iv Sterling Evans, Judy Lewis, and Sandie Holguin were also eager to share their time and ideas. This project is certainly much stronger because of their generosity. Researching and writing a dissertation on the native northeast and Atlantic while residing on the dusty Plains has often been a challenge. But several generous individuals and institutions eased the burden, allowing me to temporarily trade the deer and the antelope for the saltwater and pines. The Department of History at the University of Oklahoma – especially the department chair, Professor Rob Griswold – offered immeasurable support throughout my tenure as a doctoral student in their program. With a Hudson Fellowship, an A.K. Christian Scholarship, a Morgan Family Fellowship, and a semester free of teaching responsibilities, the History Department generously equipped me with the tools to develop as a scholar and make a worthwhile contribution to our profession. The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia likewise offered their support by awarding me a grant from their Phillips Fund for Native American Research. In addition, a Legacy Research Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA and an Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellowship from the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston afforded me opportunities to conduct extensive archival research at their prestigious institutions and present my project to other fellows, society members and staff. Certain people closest to me deserve the most credit for this accomplishment. My family has always been the ballast in my life; their own commitments and achievements, and their constant support of mine, continue to lend me invaluable strength and stability. Their genuine curiosity about my scholarly endeavors also sustains my own energy and enthusiasm for this project. My parents, in particular, v remain my compass in so many areas of life. They taught me at a very young age the importance of education, hard work, and commitment, and encouraged me to pursue my goals with a spirit of humility, simplicity, and authenticity. This dissertation would not have been possible, either, without the patience and boundless support of Allison. She has a knack for distracting me from the pressures and frustrations of academic life and refocusing my attention on its bright spots. Most significantly, she has shown me time and again what is truly important in life, what passes and what endures. This project, then, is as much her accomplishment as it is mine. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................ viii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ix Introduction – Charting a Course and Weighing Anchor ..................................................1 Chapter One - “On some rocks where the breakers were most violent”: Uniting and Reuniting Dawnlands and Oceans ..............................................................18 Chapter Two – “With all sails set”: Steering the Course of Transition in an Expanding Atlantic World ......................................................................................66 Chapter Three – “To go to all the fishing ilandes and so to drive all the contre before them”: Contesting Atlantic Colonialism and Regenerating Atlantic Autonomy .......................................................................................................112 Chapter Four – “His Majesty’s livery,” “the King’s presents,” and a “Sea of trouble”: Manipulating Power and Prestige in an Imperial World ..................166 Chapter Five – “Not to be under the command of any party”: Navigating the Shifting Winds of Imperial Conflict ....................................................211 Chapter Six – “Ye last & only door”: Struggling to Secure a Fleeting Vision ...........................................................................................................................254 Conclusion – Taking Soundings ...................................................................................296 Bibliography .................................................................................................................299 vii List of Figures Figure 1 – New England and the Canadian Maritimes…...…………………………..….6 Figure 2 – Major River Systems of Wabanakia………….……………………………..41 Figure 3 – Seventeenth-Century Wabanaki, French, and English Settlements ……………..………………………………………………..117 viii Abstract This dissertation explores the active engagement of an American Indian culture with the early modern Atlantic world. It argues that the Wabanaki of the American northeast were a quintessentially maritime-oriented people who time and again looked to the Atlantic as an essential means of mitigating the quotidian rigors of their society and enhancing its overall welfare. This process had sustained native life long before the arrival of Europeans, and afforded it valuable cultural and material resources to assuage the disruptive effects of colonialism from the early sixteenth through the mid-eighteenth centuries. In their exchanges with Euro-Americans, these people increasingly cultivated an array of novel Atlantic opportunities to enrich, augment, and protect their vision of this pelagic world in the face of increasing pressures to redefine its meaning and significance. By shrewdly engaging in trans-Atlantic gift-giving networks, astutely exploiting European imperial conflicts, carefully manipulating economic exchange complexes, respectfully invoking European monarchical authority, and strategically appropriating Euro-American sailing technology, Wabanaki consistently reinforced their presence on the high seas and elaborated their longstanding notion of the Atlantic world: the ocean was a profoundly generative and life-sustaining locus of power. Yet over the course of the colonial period, Wabanaki came to recognize that their Atlantic vision did not stand alone. As it ran up against European – and later primarily British – efforts to forcefully consolidate the Atlantic into a coherent and far- flung imperial network, Indian marine-warriors decimated and plundered the Euro- American maritime presence to fortify their conception of the Atlantic’s opportunity and their command of its waves. Countless imperial and colonial architects struggled ix relentlessly to rationalize and reign in this corner of the world, but the economic, diplomatic, and martial pursuit of a Wabanaki Atlantic constantly defied their efforts at cohesion. Ashore and afloat, a brutal contestation of oceanic spaces ensued in the northeast, and endured throughout much of the colonial era. British attempts to render the native Atlantic amenable to their own imperial designs gradually made