Detroit's Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century by Karen L. Marrero (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Detroit's Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century by Karen L. Marrero Jonathan Quint Detroit's Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century By Karen L. Marrero (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2020. Pp. vii, 276. Appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $44.95.) Karen L. Marrero's Detroit's Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century is a sophisticated reinterpretation of the settlement and development of Detroit during its first decades as a fur-trade outpost and imperial enclave. Challenging narratives of ascendant imperial power, Marrero's work instead centers mixed French-Indigenous families, particularly Indigenous women, to show the [End Page 91] myriad ways in which family networks shaped trade, diplomacy, and the basic viability of Detroit as a European commercial and population center. Marrero focuses on Detroit, but her work also looks beyond Detroit's palisades and into Indigenous homelands, like Anishinaabe territories along nearby Lake St. Clair and Myaamia (Miami) lands in present-day Indiana and Illinois. Readers see, literally, how partnerships between Indigenous women like Waapankihkwa (Myaami) and European men such as Pierre Roy formed soon after Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac's 1701 establishment of Detroit. Women facilitated cross-cultural connections through marriage and good parentage, but Marrero makes a broader argument about Indigenous women's agency and power. Indeed, whether controlling and managing trade, using mobility to evade imperial surveillance, involving themselves in war, or acting as diplomats on behalf of communities and broader networks, Indigenous women acted to support their communities and families. Chapters One and Two consider the formation of French-Indigenous families in early eighteenth-century Detroit. Here Marrero skillfully reconstructs the interconnected webs of kinship and commerce that emerged in part because of French demographic imbalance, but also because of Indigenous efforts to navigate the arrival of French newcomers. Working in concert, these chapters set the scene for Chapter Three, where Marrero examines the Fox Wars (1712–1733) and power struggles between the French regime and French-Indigenous families whose loyalties and connections did not always align with French imperial policy. Chapter Four elaborates on the power and capabilities of French-Indigenous families through analysis of two elite families that succeeded in expanding their reach and influence from Detroit into Myaamionki (Myaamia homelands) and the Illinois country. Chapter Five discusses the varied commercial and diplomatic roles of Indigenous women and the durability of French-Indigenous power in mid-eighteenth-century Detroit. Despite the efforts of French and British officials to curb the influence of Indigenous women by restricting mobility and limiting trading opportunities, women deftly navigated changing rules and policies. In Chapter Six, Marrero wades through the mythic narratives of Pontiac's 1763 siege of Detroit to conclude that women acted not in support of the British but for the benefit of French-Indigenous families and communities. Chapter Seven explores British-Myaami diplomacy after Pontiac's War, where "explicit and implicit references to sexuality and gender" became common features of diplomatic discussions (p. 144). An afterword and appendix are also included. Marrero employs an interdisciplinary methodology and multilingual sources. Work by Andrew J. Blackbird, tribal and community histories, oral histories, Myaami lexicons, recorded folktales, and a range of other [End Page 92] sources serve as evidence. Use of these wide-ranging sources and scrutiny of colonial narratives enable recovery of the individual personalities and broader family networks operating between Detroit and surrounding Indigenous territories in what are now Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ontario. Colonial officials did not always understand French-Indigenous families, and their activities drew both ire and encouragement, but Marrero convincingly demonstrates French-Indigenous power and influence in the eighteenth-century Great Lakes. Detroit's Hidden Channels is recommended for readers interested in the histories of Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes, French and British imperial expansion, intercultural diplomacy and exchange, and women's and gender studies. Jonathan Quint University of Michigan Copyright © 2023 Trustees of Indiana University