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From Ethnogenesis to Ethnic Segmentation in the Wabash Valley: Constructing Identity and Houses in Great Lakes Fur Trade Society

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Abstract

This study asks the question, “What happens when the colonizers become the colonized?” It examines the social, cultural and political-economic transformations that took place as first the British and then the Americans wrested control of Great Lakes fur trade from the French and their Native American allies. One result was the ethnic segmentation of the fur trade labor market, which attempted to relegate Canadiens to the role of fur trade laborers. In response Canadien traders constructed homes and identities that were constitutive of both their fur trade society heritage and their political-economic position.

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Acknowledgments

My thanks go to Elizabeth Scott for inviting me to participate in this volume. Funding for the 1997 archaeological investigations at the Cicott Trading Post site was provided by a Wabash Heritage Corridor Heritage Grant to the Warren County Park Board; Mrs. Nancy Grenard prepared the grant proposal. The Cicott Trading Post Project 1997 labor force consisted of Claudia Milne, Tom Naughton, Mary Putzier, Jessica Shuster and Heather Woolley—an unflagging, hard working, and steadfast crew if ever there was one. As always, many thanks go out to the guiding spirit of the Cicott Trading Post Project, Mr. John Henry. The ultimate responsibility for the ideas and interpretations herein belong solely to me.

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  1. Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Rob Mann

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Mann, R. From Ethnogenesis to Ethnic Segmentation in the Wabash Valley: Constructing Identity and Houses in Great Lakes Fur Trade Society. Int J Histor Archaeol 12, 319–337 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-008-0060-z

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