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In the Maelstrom of Change: The Indian Trade and Cultural Process in the Middle Connecticut River Valley, 1635-1665
First Published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
552 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1991
2 people want to read
About the author
Peter Thomas
288 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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February 10, 2015
This is an Anthropology dissertation published in 1979 and as such, is now a bit dated, especially when it comes to secondary source materials. That said, Thomas tackled interesting questions that remain relevant to indigenous history today. The focus of Thomas' work was to examine the socio-economic relations as they developed between settlers and Indians in the Connecticut River Valley during the first 30 years of white settlement. He began by establishing what indigenous and white communities looked like in terms of population sizes, land use practices, how many acres for agriculture were needed to support the communities, and authority/social structures.
Thomas begins in the year 1635 at a time when the physical and political landscape of New England looked radically different than from any age before. European settlement had been underway for 15 years and settlers had begun to feel cramped and desired to spread. William Pynchon, a wealthy and politically active merchant became the leader of a westward expansion project and moved his family, along with a handful of others out to the Connecticut River Valley. He finally settled in Agawam (later Springfield, MA) and became the first official white settler. Upon arrival negotiations and terms of settlement were hashed out with the native people who lived there. The natives were still recuperating from a series of plagues that had wiped out around 75% of their population. Their land needs were considerably reduced from previous generations, and they were willing to concede certain tracts to this handful of settlers. The "great migration” was just getting underway, however, and in a short time, Indian populations began to rebound just as the influx of settlers boomed - future arguments were guaranteed. Thomas paused to also consider how population loss affected the political and social institutions of the Native Americans. One idea that he worked at several places in the work to dispel is the idea that New England Indians were organized into “tribes”. He amply demonstrated that pre-contact natives were organized into small villages of several unrelated families. Remnants of this system still survived at the point of contact, however, because of the plagues and severe population loss the socio-political organization of the communities were changing and settler influx became the determining key. In the wake of the population crisis, remaining villagers combined, and for the first time communities began to have significant social stratification and the rise of “big men” who negotiated with the outside world. It was into this changing dynamic that the English who settled the Connecticut River Valley stumbled, and the need for co-existence and exchange altered the course of native politics (as will be seen).
***
In pursuit of his main goal of determining how the influx of trade goods impacted socio-political aspects of native lives, Thomas expended a great deal of energy compiling the types and quantities of European goods that trickled into native communities and how these goods were used. He gathered his evidence from the Trade accounts and ledgers of William Pynchon and those of his son John who continued in his father’s footsteps. Further, Thomas incorporated evidence from an archeological dig that he conducted of Fort Hill in present day Hinsdale, NH. The Fort had been constructed and utilized during the time period established for this study and used only a short while, thus it yielded particularly relevant evidence as to how natives were adapting to rapidly changing conditions, including the influx of trade goods.
One long asserted belief Thomas’s findings challenge is that when exposed to European goods that Native Americans quickly abandoned their own goods and practices in favor of "superior technology". Historians and anthropologists have felt that the natives' drive to acquire these new goods is what led to over-harvesting furs, accruement of debts which led to homelands being sold off in order to pay back. This cycle documented in most colonized places became the major footing for the "dependency theory" -or- the theory of how natives came to lose their lands and ultimately cultures. What is interesting is that Thomas is writing against this theory even as it is just emerging and before it gained wide traction in various academic fields (See for example: Richard White, "The Roots of Dependency" 1983). Instead, what Thomas finds is that while New England natives actively acquired European goods, trade records demonstrate that far too few goods circulated in the 17th century to have impacted the life of the average Indian. The quantities simply do not support abandonment of native technologies. Furthermore, textual and archeological evidence demonstrated that Indians did not always use European objects for the purpose(s) which they had been designed. Brass kettles were in high demand by the natives, but not because they wanted them to cook or carry water - they already had their own methods and devices to do these tasks. Instead, they used the metal from the kettles - something they could not obtain on their own - to make other things. Most kettles seem to have been broken down and refashioned to meet indigenous purposes. Thus, Thomas concluded that the European goods acquired were prestige goods used by the emerging class of "big men" who distributed them in order to bolster their positions within their communities. Congruently, he found that the most successful European traders were "big men" in their communities too. Men like William and John Pynchon were not only wealthy (and thus in the position to extend credit), but most critically were politically active and respected within their own communities. As the Pynchon records demonstrated, lower class men without political connections and those who had cheated Indians in the past, did not succeed as traders. Trading, it turned out, had as much to do with swapping goods and fulfilling promises, as it did with mitigating disputes that arose between the Indigenous and Euro-American communities. Fair and proven arbiters were respected and sought out when it came time to do business.
Over the time period examined in this work, Thomas demonstrated that colonial officials became increasingly embroiled in Indian affairs - particularly with the tribes in the Connecticut Valley who were affiliated with the 5 Nations and their wars with the Iroquois. Wars, as it happened, were bad for the fur business. Since most wars were with the Iroquois, it also halted the flow of furs from the Great Lakes region. It also prevented men from going out on long hunting trips both for sustenance and for pelts as they were either off fighting or deemed a long trek too dangerous. This led to low numbers of pelts being brought in for trade, but it also increased the pressure on local wildlife populations (that were now being hunted by both Indians and Europeans), and with that much less meat coming in, it caused natives to use their stores of corn sooner in the season (which also meant they had less to trade with the colonists), and they then resorted to non-typical food sources such as dogs. (Evidence of which was found in the Fort Hill archeological site.) Thus, Colonial officials found themselves in the position of constantly discouraging war to keep the furs flowing so that they could keep up business as usual and have debts repaid on schedule. Thomas noted that in other places and in other times, native debt was encouraged by colonial officials and traders as a strategy to usurp lands, but he found no evidence to support this tactic was employed during the 30 years he studied. There were, he noted, Indian lands taken as collateral to cover trade debts, but this practice was a logical extension of English/Colonial economics, and not part of an "insidious plot” to scheme the Indians.
In fact, Thomas concluded that at least until the 1660s, Natives were not dependent on colonial goods, were fairly solvent, and still in control of their destinies. The rising class of “big men" were perhaps the only ones in native communities who had become dependent on the continuous influx of Europeans goods because their positions depended on their ability to give away prestige items (esp. during peace time). Thus, European trade goods became key to well-functioning native societies, but not to their day-to-day existence. As long as the opportunity for reciprocal exchange between natives and europeans existed, the system worked. Thomas noted that conditions changed in the decade his study ends. The fur trade collapsed due to warfare and environmental factors, Euro-American settlement ballooned, and most critically, they became unwilling to tolerate the presence of Indians as neighbors. However, up until the 1660s, had the Indians desired, they could have eschewed European trade, and returned to their traditional ways.
Thus, Thomas' findings have long term implications concerning the political changes that were beginning to take place in native communities. Some Indians chose to embrace contact with Euro-American society and all the changes it brought (trade goods, religion, language, etc.), while others retreated and moved to lands further off, having as little contact with the encroaching white world and their trade goods as possible. These decisions and experiences led to factions developing within communities. In particular, access to trade goods highlighted previously non-distinctive social stratifications. European goods were prestige items making those who gave them away and those who acquired them stand apart from others in their community. Indians who regularly traded with whites learned something of their political and economic system and were better equipped to deal with later conflicts than those who remained geographically and socially isolated. Thomas noted that these divisions were visible within the Menominee as late as the 1950s among when the whole community was forced to deal with US Termination Policy proceedings as one entity. Individual experiences shaped how people responded to outside social stressors - they tended to become either isolated and conservative/nativist, or more willing to incorporate and acculturate. When forced together, persons with these differing perspectives have immediate and natural conflicts over how land and community resources should be used.
***
On a side (slightly whiney) quibble, this dissertation was reproduced from the original typewritten copy and while not hard to read falls in the "annoying to read" category due to worn keys - the capital "M" and "N" along with the occasional "W" and "E" have missing components. On English words, it's easy enough to mentally fill in the gaps, but some of the Indigenous names can be difficult to determine (esp. the M's and N's). Skimming through the text is certainly hindered.
Thomas begins in the year 1635 at a time when the physical and political landscape of New England looked radically different than from any age before. European settlement had been underway for 15 years and settlers had begun to feel cramped and desired to spread. William Pynchon, a wealthy and politically active merchant became the leader of a westward expansion project and moved his family, along with a handful of others out to the Connecticut River Valley. He finally settled in Agawam (later Springfield, MA) and became the first official white settler. Upon arrival negotiations and terms of settlement were hashed out with the native people who lived there. The natives were still recuperating from a series of plagues that had wiped out around 75% of their population. Their land needs were considerably reduced from previous generations, and they were willing to concede certain tracts to this handful of settlers. The "great migration” was just getting underway, however, and in a short time, Indian populations began to rebound just as the influx of settlers boomed - future arguments were guaranteed. Thomas paused to also consider how population loss affected the political and social institutions of the Native Americans. One idea that he worked at several places in the work to dispel is the idea that New England Indians were organized into “tribes”. He amply demonstrated that pre-contact natives were organized into small villages of several unrelated families. Remnants of this system still survived at the point of contact, however, because of the plagues and severe population loss the socio-political organization of the communities were changing and settler influx became the determining key. In the wake of the population crisis, remaining villagers combined, and for the first time communities began to have significant social stratification and the rise of “big men” who negotiated with the outside world. It was into this changing dynamic that the English who settled the Connecticut River Valley stumbled, and the need for co-existence and exchange altered the course of native politics (as will be seen).
***
In pursuit of his main goal of determining how the influx of trade goods impacted socio-political aspects of native lives, Thomas expended a great deal of energy compiling the types and quantities of European goods that trickled into native communities and how these goods were used. He gathered his evidence from the Trade accounts and ledgers of William Pynchon and those of his son John who continued in his father’s footsteps. Further, Thomas incorporated evidence from an archeological dig that he conducted of Fort Hill in present day Hinsdale, NH. The Fort had been constructed and utilized during the time period established for this study and used only a short while, thus it yielded particularly relevant evidence as to how natives were adapting to rapidly changing conditions, including the influx of trade goods.
One long asserted belief Thomas’s findings challenge is that when exposed to European goods that Native Americans quickly abandoned their own goods and practices in favor of "superior technology". Historians and anthropologists have felt that the natives' drive to acquire these new goods is what led to over-harvesting furs, accruement of debts which led to homelands being sold off in order to pay back. This cycle documented in most colonized places became the major footing for the "dependency theory" -or- the theory of how natives came to lose their lands and ultimately cultures. What is interesting is that Thomas is writing against this theory even as it is just emerging and before it gained wide traction in various academic fields (See for example: Richard White, "The Roots of Dependency" 1983). Instead, what Thomas finds is that while New England natives actively acquired European goods, trade records demonstrate that far too few goods circulated in the 17th century to have impacted the life of the average Indian. The quantities simply do not support abandonment of native technologies. Furthermore, textual and archeological evidence demonstrated that Indians did not always use European objects for the purpose(s) which they had been designed. Brass kettles were in high demand by the natives, but not because they wanted them to cook or carry water - they already had their own methods and devices to do these tasks. Instead, they used the metal from the kettles - something they could not obtain on their own - to make other things. Most kettles seem to have been broken down and refashioned to meet indigenous purposes. Thus, Thomas concluded that the European goods acquired were prestige goods used by the emerging class of "big men" who distributed them in order to bolster their positions within their communities. Congruently, he found that the most successful European traders were "big men" in their communities too. Men like William and John Pynchon were not only wealthy (and thus in the position to extend credit), but most critically were politically active and respected within their own communities. As the Pynchon records demonstrated, lower class men without political connections and those who had cheated Indians in the past, did not succeed as traders. Trading, it turned out, had as much to do with swapping goods and fulfilling promises, as it did with mitigating disputes that arose between the Indigenous and Euro-American communities. Fair and proven arbiters were respected and sought out when it came time to do business.
Over the time period examined in this work, Thomas demonstrated that colonial officials became increasingly embroiled in Indian affairs - particularly with the tribes in the Connecticut Valley who were affiliated with the 5 Nations and their wars with the Iroquois. Wars, as it happened, were bad for the fur business. Since most wars were with the Iroquois, it also halted the flow of furs from the Great Lakes region. It also prevented men from going out on long hunting trips both for sustenance and for pelts as they were either off fighting or deemed a long trek too dangerous. This led to low numbers of pelts being brought in for trade, but it also increased the pressure on local wildlife populations (that were now being hunted by both Indians and Europeans), and with that much less meat coming in, it caused natives to use their stores of corn sooner in the season (which also meant they had less to trade with the colonists), and they then resorted to non-typical food sources such as dogs. (Evidence of which was found in the Fort Hill archeological site.) Thus, Colonial officials found themselves in the position of constantly discouraging war to keep the furs flowing so that they could keep up business as usual and have debts repaid on schedule. Thomas noted that in other places and in other times, native debt was encouraged by colonial officials and traders as a strategy to usurp lands, but he found no evidence to support this tactic was employed during the 30 years he studied. There were, he noted, Indian lands taken as collateral to cover trade debts, but this practice was a logical extension of English/Colonial economics, and not part of an "insidious plot” to scheme the Indians.
In fact, Thomas concluded that at least until the 1660s, Natives were not dependent on colonial goods, were fairly solvent, and still in control of their destinies. The rising class of “big men" were perhaps the only ones in native communities who had become dependent on the continuous influx of Europeans goods because their positions depended on their ability to give away prestige items (esp. during peace time). Thus, European trade goods became key to well-functioning native societies, but not to their day-to-day existence. As long as the opportunity for reciprocal exchange between natives and europeans existed, the system worked. Thomas noted that conditions changed in the decade his study ends. The fur trade collapsed due to warfare and environmental factors, Euro-American settlement ballooned, and most critically, they became unwilling to tolerate the presence of Indians as neighbors. However, up until the 1660s, had the Indians desired, they could have eschewed European trade, and returned to their traditional ways.
Thus, Thomas' findings have long term implications concerning the political changes that were beginning to take place in native communities. Some Indians chose to embrace contact with Euro-American society and all the changes it brought (trade goods, religion, language, etc.), while others retreated and moved to lands further off, having as little contact with the encroaching white world and their trade goods as possible. These decisions and experiences led to factions developing within communities. In particular, access to trade goods highlighted previously non-distinctive social stratifications. European goods were prestige items making those who gave them away and those who acquired them stand apart from others in their community. Indians who regularly traded with whites learned something of their political and economic system and were better equipped to deal with later conflicts than those who remained geographically and socially isolated. Thomas noted that these divisions were visible within the Menominee as late as the 1950s among when the whole community was forced to deal with US Termination Policy proceedings as one entity. Individual experiences shaped how people responded to outside social stressors - they tended to become either isolated and conservative/nativist, or more willing to incorporate and acculturate. When forced together, persons with these differing perspectives have immediate and natural conflicts over how land and community resources should be used.
***
On a side (slightly whiney) quibble, this dissertation was reproduced from the original typewritten copy and while not hard to read falls in the "annoying to read" category due to worn keys - the capital "M" and "N" along with the occasional "W" and "E" have missing components. On English words, it's easy enough to mentally fill in the gaps, but some of the Indigenous names can be difficult to determine (esp. the M's and N's). Skimming through the text is certainly hindered.
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