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He was neither a soldier nor a slave

"He was under the control of no man": Kahnawake Mohawks in the Northwest Fur Trade, 1790-1850

Bibliographic Data

ID5301627
AuthorsNicole St-Onge (corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume51
Issue1
Pages1-32
Publication date2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-4107 • E-ISSN: 2292-8502
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/cjh.ach.51.1.001
OpenAlexW2381921394
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

From 1790 to the 1850s hundreds of Kahnawake men signed fur trade contracts, part of a vast, Montreal-centred, salaried labour force that fuelled the peltry trade for two centuries. However, these Mohawks constituted more than simply a native subset of largely French Canadian voyageur brigades. Mohawks were coveted for their abilities as canoe men, ruthless talents as trappers, and their fearsome warrior reputation. Such martial qualities had special value during the "fur trade wars" of 1798-1804 and 1815-1821. These Kahnawake men pursued these contracts for economic and Mohawk-specific cultural reasons. For young Kahnawake men, difficult employment, distant from home and associated with potential violence, was a means to experience rites of passage from adolescence to manhood and to prove warrior qualities. Racialized white views and the need for Mohawks as woodsmen and warriors with fearsome reputations thus coincided with Mohawk views of their masculinity and the need for adventure and income

Adventure · Art history · Economic history · Fur trade · Masculinity · Mohawk · Political science · Reputation · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law

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    Brian Gettler•Recherches amérindiennes au Québec•2017

  • Bibliographie sur l’histoire de l’Amérique française

    Open Access•Catherine Larochelle, Jean-Philippe Bernard et al.•Revue d histoire de l Amérique…•2016

  • From Communal to Independent Manhood in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, ca. 1760-1820

    Elizabeth Mancke, Colin Grittner•Histoire sociale•2019

  • The Mohawk Warrior

    Heather Smyth•TOPIA Canadian Journal of…•2000

  • Children of the Fur Trade

    Eileen Moore, Eileen S Moore et al.•Western Historical Quarterly•1996

  • Castoreum and Steel Traps in Eastern North America

    Open Access•Robin F Wells•American Anthropologist•1972

Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,3
Citation span2016 - 2019 (4)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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