Description: A case study of one of America's many multi-ethnic border communities, Great Lakes Creoles builds upon recent research on gender, race, ethnicity, and politics as it examines the ways that the old fur trade families experienced and responded to the colonialism of United States expansion. Lucy Murphy examines Indian history with attention to the pluralistic nature of American communities and the ways that power, gender, race, and ethnicity were contested and negotiated in them. She explores the role of women as mediators shaping key social, economic, and political systems, as well as the creation of civil political institutions and the ways that men of many backgrounds participated in and influenced them. Ultimately, The Great Lakes Creoles takes a careful look at Native people and their complex families as active members of an American community in the Great Lakes region.
Review Quotes: "Lucy Eldersveld Murphy offers valuable insights into the assimilation of ethnic groups into American society in this major study of mixed-lineage Creole and indigenous people in the Great Lakes region. Using solid research and perceptive analysis, [she] provides an excellent account of the impact of land ownership, gender roles, and ethnic identification on the assimilation process, thus reconfirming her role as a leading scholar of Creole and mixed-lineage women in the Upper Midwest."
R. David Edmunds, Watson Professor of American History, University of Texas, Dallas