In the past thirty years, the study of French-Indian relations in the center of North America has emerged as an important field for examining the complex relationships that defined a vast geographical area, including the Great Lakes region, the Illinois Country, the Missouri River Valley, and Upper and Lower Louisiana. For years, no one better represented this emerging area of study than Jacqueline Peterson and Richard White, scholars who identified a world defined by miscegenation between French colonists and the native population, or métissage, and the unique process of cultural accommodation that led to a “middle ground” between French and Algonquian. Building on the research of Peterson, White, and Jay Gitlin, this collection of essays brings together new and established scholars from the United States, Canada, and France to move beyond the paradigms of the middle ground and métissage. Capturing the complexity and nuance of relations between French and Indians in the heart of North America from 1630 to 1815, the authors examine a number of thematic areas that provide a broader assessment of the historical bridge-building process, including ritual interactions, transatlantic connections, diplomatic relations, and post–New France French-Indian relations.

Robert Englebert is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan.

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Guillaume Teasdale is assistant professor of history and director of the Detroit River Border Region Digital History Project at the University of Windsor.

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This fascinating and important book features cutting-edge research on French-Native relations by many of the field’s leading lights. Ranging widely to encompass cultural, environmental, economic, and legal histories of the early American encounter, these essays demonstrate the inseparability of Native and French societies in the Great Lakes region. A must-read for historians of Native America, early America, and French colonialism.

Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France

This book unites new and established scholars in an interrogation of the nature and meanings of French and indigenous encounters in the heart of the North American continent.

Histoire Social / Social History