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by Theodore Catton


  31. John McLoughlin, “Autobiography,” in S. A. Clarke, Pioneer Days of Oregon Country (Portland: J. K. Gill Company, 1905), 215–17; Morrison, Outpost, 174–75.

  32. John McLoughlin to Edward Ermatinger, February 1, 1836, in T. C. Elliott, ed., “Letters of Dr. John McLoughlin,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 23, no. 4 (December 1922), 368; Gay, Life and Letters of Mrs. Jason Lee, 16; McLoughlin, “Autobiography,” 220.

  33. John McLoughlin to Alexander H. H. Stuart, July 15, 1851, in Barker, The McLoughlin Empire and its Rulers, 330–33; McLoughlin, “Autobiography,” 217.

  34. Jackson, Children of the Fur Trade, 62–63, 183; Barker, The McLoughlin Empire and its Rulers, 329; Morrison, Outpost, 278, 465.

  35. Jackson, Children of the Fur Trade, 230; Barker, The McLoughlin Empire and its Rulers, 107–25; Morrison, Outpost, 221–27, 278–83, 339–49, 435, 465.

  36. Simon Fraser to John McLoughlin, January 12, 1836, in Barker, The McLoughlin Empire and its Rulers, 218–20.

  37. Barker, The McLoughlin Empire and its Rulers, 178, 190–91; Morrison, Outpost, 221–27, 279–83, 339–49; John McLoughlin to John McLeod, March 1, 1833, in Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, ed., “Documents,” Washington Historical Quarterly 2, no. 2 (January 1908), 166–68; John McLoughlin to Edward Ermatinger, February 1, 1836, in T. C. Elliott, ed., “Letters of Dr. McLoughlin to Edward Ermatinger,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 23 (December 1922), 365–71.

  38. Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History (rev. ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), 144.

  39. Jackson, Children of the Fur Trade, 222–23; Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest, 114, 153.

  40. Galbraith, The Hudson’s Bay Company, 226–27.

  41. Morrison, Outpost, 460–61.

  42. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Oregon, Vol. 2 (San Francisco: History Company, Publishers, 1888), 130–31. In 1862, the state sold the land to the heirs for a nominal sum.

  43. Frank N. Schubert, ed., The Nation Builders: A Sesquicentennial History of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, 1838–1863 (Fort Belvoir, VA: Office of History, United States Army Corps of Engineers, 1988), 9–18, 23–26; Forest G. Hill, Roads, Rails and Waterways: The Army Engineers and Early Transportation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957), 220.

  44. Long’s keen interest in the changing mission of the Topographical Engineers is evidenced in his correspondence with Isaac Roberdeau, April 16, 1822, September 9, 1822, and March 28, 1823, NA, RG 77, Entry 306, Box 1. See also Schubert, ed., The Nation Builders, 8–9. Long’s support of Clay for president is disclosed in his September 9, 1822, letter to Roberdeau, as well as his naming of his second son, Henry Clay Long.

  45. Long had little to say about Indian relocation in the 1830s. The governor of the state of Georgia once asked his opinion about possible resistance by the Cherokees to forced relocation. Long replied that he thought the Cherokees would submit without a struggle but if any should resist then resistance must be met with “firmness and severity tempered as much as possible with humanity, otherwise a spirit of desperation will likely be engendered in the minds of the Indians and they will be stimulated to sell their lives as dearly as possible.” Quoted in Wood, Stephen Harriman Long, 197.

  46. Livingston, Portraits of Eminent Americans, 478–79.

  47. The five-acre lot is described in Long’s will, a copy of which is filed with Military Bounty Land Warrant 276 120/55, NA, RG 49—Records of the General Land Office. The sale price is reported in Norman L. Freeman, reporter, Reports of Cases at Law and in Chancery Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Illinois, vol. 117 (Springfield, IL: Printed for the Reporter, 1887), 309, and it is consistent with Chicago land values at the time of sale as described in Homer Hoyt, One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago: The Relationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise of its Land Values, 1830–1933 (Washington: Beard Books, 1933), 108. Long’s estate included $40,000 for the Chicago property and about $48,000 for his home and property in Alton, Illinois. The top 1 percent in Illinois in 1870 had property wealth of $50,000 or greater, according to Frank Manzo IV, “The History of Economic Inequality in Illinois, 1850–2014,” March 2016, at Illinois.epi.org/countrysideonprofit/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-History-of-Economic-Inequality-in-Illinois-FINAL.pdf .

  48. The circumstances of Long’s children and grandchildren living with him in Alton are explained in relation to a suit brought by his heirs over his estate, as reported in Freeman, Reports of Cases at Law, vol. 117, 306–9.

  49. Harvey Reid, Biographical Sketch of Enoch Long, an Illinois Pioneer (Chicago: Historical Society’s Collection, 1884), 87–105; Wood, Stephen Harriman Long, 251.

  50. “Seventh Debate: Alton, Illinois,” at www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate7.htm ; “Alton, Madison County, October 15, 1858,” at www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org .

  51. Wood, Stephen Harriman Long, 250–63; Schubert, ed., The Nation Builders, 75–76.

  POSTSCRIPT

  1. Louise Erdrich, “Introduction,” in The Falcon: A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner (New York: Penguin Group, 1994), xi.

  2. Amplifying Coues, ethnohistorian Harold Hickerson included a short chapter on the “Tanner-Henry data” in his book, The Chippewa and Their Neighbors.

  3. Tanner, Narrative, 252.

  4. The most important source on Tanner’s family besides Tanner himself is Baird, “Reminiscences of Early Days on Mackinac Island,” 17–55. Although some of Baird’s statements about Tanner’s family are in error, she is a reliable source on one point: on August 4, 1820, Tanner placed his wife and their newborn daughter, Lucy, in the temporary care of Baird’s grandmother at Mackinac after which Tanner proceeded on his journey with his other three small children from this marriage. I have estimated the years of Tanner’s two marriages and ten children’s births as follows (references in parentheses): first marriage in 1804 (Tanner, Narrative, 103); first child, boy, in 1805 (Tanner, 203, 267, 280); second child, girl, in 1807 or 1808 (Tanner, 151, 269, 277, and Keating, Narrative, 2:116); third child, girl, in 1809 (Tanner, 277, Keating, 2:116); second marriage in 1809 or 1810 (Tanner, 252); fourth child, Martha, in 1812 (Tanner, 257); fifth child, Mary, in 1813 (Tanner, 207); sixth child in 1814 (Tanner, 207); seventh child in 1817 or 1818 (Tanner, 252); eighth child, Lucy, in 1820 (Baird, 52); ninth child, James, in 1822 or 1823 (Baird, 53); tenth and eleventh children in the mid-1820s (Baird, 53), and twelfth child in 1832. The sixth and seventh children died around 1819–20. Delafield (The Unfortified Boundary) confirms that Tanner had six living children when he went to work for the American Fur Company in 1822 (423n). See also John T. Fierst, “Return to ‘Civilization’: John Tanner’s Troubled Years at Sault Ste. Marie,” 27.

  5. Coues, New Light on the Early History of the Great Northwest, 262–63.

  6. Noel M. Loomis, “Introduction,” in Tanner, Narrative, xii; “The Northwestern Indians, Communicated to Congress on the 9th of December, 1790,” American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 1:89.

  7. Tanner, Narrative, 157.

  8. Loomis, “Introduction,” in Tanner, Narrative, xix.

  9. L. H. Pammel, “Dr. Edwin James,” Annals of Iowa 8, no. 3 (October 1907), 179–81; Rotella, “Travels in a Subjective West,” 25–29.

  10. Benson, “Schoolcraft, James, and the ‘White Indian,’ ” 316.

  11. Loomis, “Introduction,” in Tanner, Narrative, xviii.

  12. Fierst, “Strange Eloquence,” 229. Also see Kyhl Lyndgaard, “Landscapes of Removal and Resistance: Edwin James’s Nineteenth-Century Cross-Cultural Collaborations,” Great Plains Quarterly 30 (Winter 2010), 37–46. Their collaborative translation of the New Testament was published as Kekitchemanitomenahn Gahbemahjeinnunk Jesus Christ, Otoashke Wawweendummahgawin (Albany, NY: Packard & Van Benthuysen, 1833) without attribution to the translators. However, the British and Foreign Bible Society catalogued the work as “The earliest complete N.T. in Chippewa; tra
nslated by Edwin James, assisted by John Tanner.”

  13. See also the report on John Tanner making his way to New York with his manuscript in the Daily National Journal, August 14, 1828.

  14. “Art. V.—A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner,” American Quarterly Review, 8, no. 15 (September 1, 1830), 108. Further evidence that Tanner met with Carey and Lea is found in “John Tanner,” Christian Watchman, August 22, 1828, which reports that Tanner was passing through Detroit with the manuscript and hoped to find a publisher in Philadelphia or New York. For the modern view of John Dunn Hunter, see Richard Drinnon, White Savage: The Case of John Dunn Hunter (New York: Shocken Books, 1972).

  15. “The Booksellers’ Trade Sales,” American Publishers’ Circular and Literary Gazette, September 26, 1857.

  16. Fierst, “Strange Eloquence,” 227.

  17. Ibid., 227–28.

  INDEX

  Abenakis, captives of, 18–19

  Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (James), 191, 347

  Adams, John Quincy, 142

  Adams-Onís Treaty, 180, 183, 188

  agokwa, 90–91

  agriculture: Hudson’s Bay Company policy on, 316

  inferiority of Indian people and, 204

  McLoughlin on, 330

  production of Ottawa and Ojibwa, 232–33

  at Rainy Lake House, 268

  at Red River colony, 286

  Ais-ainse, 214

  Ais-kaw-ba-wis, 223–24, 225, 228

  Albany Factory, 117

  Algonquian tribes: overview of, 27–28

  Shawnees, 22, 28

  social safety net of, 68–69

  winter months and, 81. See also Ojibwas; Ottawas

  Alton, Illinois, 338–40

  Ambrose, Stephen E., 182

  American Colonization Society, 44

  American Fur Company: Cass and, 246

  children of Tanner and, 323

  competition from, 156, 273, 274–76

  expansion of, 195

  French Canadian voyageurs and, 279

  Tanner and, 258, 275, 311. See also Côté, Pierre

  Americanization of fur trade: army and, 315–16

  Clark and, 246

  Crawford and, 41–42, 43

  overview of, 8

  Americanization of Mackinac Island, 322

  American Philosophical Society, 40, 54, 169, 173, 174, 348

  Aneeb, 85, 86

  Anglican mission, 285

  Anglo-French-Indian milieu, 47

  anti-Americanism of Shawnee Prophet, 210

  Arkansas River, 180, 183, 185

  Assiniboia, 123

  Assiniboine River, 71, 122

  Assiniboine tribe, 76, 88, 228

  Astor, John Jacob, 108, 156, 195, 246, 274. See also American Fur Company

  Atkinson, Henry, 176

  Auger, Jean Baptiste, 263

  bad medicine, power of, 224–25

  Baird, Elizabeth Thérèse, 321, 325, 394n4

  Baldwin, William, 173–74, 175, 176, 177, 179

  Baptist Missionary Society, 197

  Barton, Benjamin S., 174

  Bas de la Rivière, 70

  Basswood Lake, 273

  Battle of Seven Oaks, 9, 133–34, 136–37, 141, 142–43, 233

  Bay House, 152

  Beaulieu, Paul and Bazil, 273–74

  Beauvais, Jacques, 263

  beaver, 63–64, 76, 79, 93, 112, 113, 198, 213

  Be-gwais, 236, 286

  Bell, John R., 179, 182–83

  Beltrami, Giacomo, 199, 204

  Berkhofer, Robert F., Jr., 54

  Bethune, Angus, 148, 149, 157

  Biddle, Thomas, Jr., 174, 177–78, 179

  Bingham, Abel, 324–25, 326

  bison. See buffalo

  Black-Rogers, Mary, 270

  boarding schools: for Indian children, 285–86

  on Mackinac Island, 323

  Bois brulé, 203. See also Métis

  Boucher, François, 142

  Bouck, Charles, 263, 268

  boundaries and territorial claims, 188, 194–95, 202–3, 274–75

  Boyd, George, 257, 258, 322, 323

  Bradford, William, 56

  Brandon House, 76, 78, 209, 219, 221

  Breckenridge, Marcus P., 339

  Britain: Convention of 1818 and, 188, 274–75

  fur trade and, 40–41, 113, 118–19, 246, 273

  Indian Department of, 215–16

  Oregon country and, 333

  Orkney Islands, 263

  Treaty of Ghent and, 188. See also Hudson’s Bay Company; War of 1812

  Brousse, Charles, 2, 204, 234, 287, 289, 301–2, 305

  Brown, Jennifer S. H., 285

  Brown, Paul, 142

  buffalo, 75, 78, 120, 198, 200, 213, 226

  Bulger, Andrew, 287, 289

  Cadotte, Joseph, 273, 275, 279

  Caldwell, John, 152–53, 154

  Calhoun, John C.: book project and, 191

  Long and, 165–66

  Long expeditions and, 174–75, 179–80, 188, 194

  moral condition of Indians and, 171

  calumet, ritual smoking of, 265

  Cameron, Duncan, 126, 127, 131

  Camp Monroe, 202

  Canada Jurisdiction Act, 125

  Canadian Shield, 116, 205

  canoes, birchbark (canot du nord), 117, 120, 204, 271

  Cape Girardeau, 255–56

  captivity: adoption by Indian tribes after, 23, 25–26, 27

  narratives of, 17–19

  rights of citizenship and, 388n3

  Carey and Lea (publishers), 348–49

  Carver, Gun, 48

  Carver, Jonathan, 46, 48, 174

  Carver, King, 48

  Cass, Lewis, 245–46, 247, 248, 282, 324, 325

  Chaboillez, Charles Jean Baptiste, 79, 361n11

  Chalifoux, Pierre, 263

  Chatelain, Nicholas, 263

  Cheboygan village, 28

  Cherokees, 56, 57–58

  children: adopted by Net-no-kwa, 213

  binding out of, 322–23

  boarding schools for, 285–86

  capture of, 23, 25–26, 27

  mixed-blood, reclaiming from Indians, 284–85

  at northwest forts, 108–9

  Childs, Cephas G., 349

  Christianity: civilization and assimilation of Indians and, 197–98

  doctrine of unity of humankind and, 54

  missionaries, 285–86, 322, 325, 330

  revenge and, 16, 310

  Tanner conversion to, 325–26

  Therezia conversion to, 325

  worldview of Indians and, 53

  Civil War, 341

  Clark, William: children of, 383n14

  Fort Shelby and, 47

  as governor, 46

  Long and, 182–83, 304

  scientific inquiries of, 163–64, 182

  Tanner and, 246–47, 249–50, 255. See also Lewis and Clark expedition

  Clay, Henry, 336, 340

  Clermont’s band of Osages, 58

  Clouston, William, 263, 268

  coffee houses in London, 153–54

  Colhoun, James, 194, 201

  colonization: European, 181

  by Selkirk, 121–22. See also Red River colony

  Coltman, William B., 237

  Columbia District of Hudson’s Bay Company, 29–330, 319–20

  Columbia Fur Company, 198, 199

  Colvile, Andrew, 147, 149, 154, 155, 156

  companionate marriage, 170

  Congregational church, 19–20

  Congress: factory system and, 42, 194–95

  Indian Removal Bill of, 336–37

  liquor trafficking and, 282

  Oregon Territory and, 334

  Topographical Engineers and, 21, 336, 341

  War Department budget and, 179, 188

  Convention of 1818, 188, 274–75

  Corps of Canadian Voyageurs, 126


  Côté, Pierre: arrival of, 312–13

  as clerk, 275, 279

  Little Clear Sky and, 293

  Tanner and, 280, 281–83, 311, 313–14

  Coues, Elliott, 344

  Crane Lake, 273–74

  Crawford, William, 39, 41–42, 43–44, 164

  credit system of fur trade, 114–15

  Crees, 72, 88, 228

  cultivation, labor of, 232

  culture: encounter between Indian and European, 5–6

  Indian, hardening of attitudes toward, 197

  Mississippian Indian, 52–53

  oral, 344

  trade relations, views of, and, 265–67

  white-Indian identity, 247, 257, 290–91. See also degeneracy, idea of; dependency of Indians, assumptions of; marriage; revenge; savagery

  Dartmouth College, 20–21

  dead, mourning for, 95

  Dease, John Warren, 127, 234, 244

  Deed Poll, 156–57

  degeneracy, idea of: Fort Wayne and, 196–97

  Long at Prairie du Chien and, 48

  Puritans and, 53

  racial prejudice of Americans and, 333

  white-Indian contact and, 197, 316–17

  Delafield, Joseph, 300–301

  De Meuron Regiment, 135, 136, 137, 141

  dependency of Indians, assumptions of: Craw­ford and, 42

  fur trade and, 315–16;

  in Indian-European relations, 6–7

  “Description of the Indians from Fort William to Lake of the Woods” (McLoughlin), 103, 114, 310

  De Watteville Regiment, 135

  Dewess, William P., 174

  Dickson, Robert, 96

  discovery, doctrine of, 181

  Donation Land Claim Act, 334

  d’Orsonnens, P., 135, 136, 234, 236

  Douglas, Stephen, 340

  Douglas, Thomas. See Selkirk, Lord

  Duponceau, Peter S., 348

  Edwards, Ninian, 383n4

  Ellice, Edward, 154–55

  emigration, push and pull factors in, 64–65. See also migration

  engagés, 196, 198

  Erdrich, Louise, 343

  Ermatinger, Charles, 244–45

  expansionism, American, 209, 210

  factory system in fur trade, 42, 43, 47, 194–95

  families: Indian, 27, 170, 264

  interracial, 284–86. See also children

  Fauche, G. A., 139, 141

  Ferry, William, 322

  Fierst, John T., 348

  Fisher, James, 31, 33

  Five Civilized Tribes, relocation of, 337

 

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