Relationships and the Creation of Colonial Landscapes in the Eighteenth-Century Fur Trade

Abstract:In this article, I draw inspiration from La Donna Harris and Jaqueline Wasilewski's notions of relationships and dynamic inclusivity, as laid out in their 2004 article, to interpret the late eighteenth-century fur trade landscape of the western Great Lakes region. Using documentary sources and archaeological investigations conducted at a 1790s trade post known as Réaume's Leaf River Post, I first consider the role of foodways in the creation of ambivalent relationships between Ojibwe people and fur traders. I further argue that these relationships extended to the broader landscape (and waterscape), emerging out of contested sharing of knowledge, practices, and geographic imaginaries. I contend that Harris and Wasilewski's notions of relationships and dynamic inclusivity are useful to decentering colonial narratives in the archaeology of the fur trade.