People of the Post by Erika K. Hartley and Michael S. Nassaney (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: People of the Post by Erika K. Hartley and Michael S. Nassaney Randa J. Duvick Hartley, Erika K. and Michael S. Nassaney. People of the Post. Western Michigan UP, 2022. ISBN 979-8-42585-728-6. Pp. 75. This book is one of a series presenting and interpreting the archaeological site of colonial French Fort St. Joseph in southwest Michigan. The fort was established by the French on the St. Joseph River in 1691, came under English control after 1763, and was abandoned in the 1780s; archaeological investigation of the fort’s site started in 1998. The investigation is run by the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, a “multidisciplinary, collaborative […] project in historical archaeology aimed at investigating the fur trade and colonialism in southwest Michigan” (10). Although today there are no signs of the fort aboveground, digs each year yield artifacts that shed light on the lives of the French and Native Americans who lived there in the eighteenth century. The four short books published by the project aim to help a lay audience better understand the historical context of the fort and its material culture. Although this volume—like the others in the series—deals specifically with Fort St. Joseph, it nonetheless illuminates the history of the French colonial presence in the entire western Great Lakes area, known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the pays d’en haut. Placing the fort in its economic and cultural contexts, the book explores the lives of those who lived there, the “people of the post,” by examining the many archaeological artifacts found onsite as well as historical documents like business and military records, letters, and journals. One of the merits of this book is that it takes care to introduce a variety of people. Readers meet the post’s French speakers, both individuals like the fort’s blacksmith, Antoine Deshêtres, and groups like Jesuit missionaries and French soldiers. Fur traders and voyageurs were, of course, present at Fort St. Joseph, and the book helpfully traces the history of this trade, showcasing related artifacts found at the fort such as lead seals from trade-cloth bales, silver brooches, and glass beads. Descriptions of the lives of women and children—including métis children who were born of the unions between French and Natives—help give a rounded portrait of life at the post. Sections telling about both the earliest Native American inhabitants of the area and the Potawatomi, who lived in the area when the French established the fort and still reside there today, create a nuanced presentation of the complicated cultural world of the pays d’en haut. Lavishly illustrated with maps, photographs of artifacts found on site, and pictures of reenactors portraying the eighteenth-century people of the post, this volume is an attractive and useful introduction to the period of France’s colonization of the Upper Midwest that avoids a romanticized picture of “voyageur life.” With both in-depth portraits and shorter sidebars highlighting a single artifact or document, it is accessible for anyone—including both teachers and students of French—who wants to know more about this period and the people who lived in and around Fort St. Joseph when it was part of la Nouvelle France. [End Page 224] Randa J. Duvick Valparaiso University (IN) Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French