A Gathering of Rivers: Indians, Métis, and Mining in the Western Great Lakes, 1737-1832

by Lucy Eldersveld Murphy

In A Gathering of Rivers , Lucy Eldersveld Murphy traces the histories of Indian, multiracial, and mining communities in the western Great Lakes region during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. For a century the Winnebagos (Ho-Chunks), Mesquakies (Fox), and Sauks successfully confronted waves of French and British immigration by diversifying their economies and commercializing lead mining. Focusing on personal stories and detailed community histories, Murphy charts the changed economic forces at work in the region, connecting them to shifts in gender roles and intercultural relationships. She argues that French, British, and Native peoples forged cooperative social and economic bonds expressed partly by mixed-race marriages and the emergence of multiethnic communities at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. Significantly, Native peoples in the western Great Lakes region were able to adapt successfully to the new frontier market economy until their lead mining operations became the envy of outsiders in the 1820s.

231 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2000

Reviews

[Jada Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating! wish it would’ve gotten into mining history quicker tho

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew that in the 17th and 18th century native women were the ones doing the mining in the lead region of what are today the Great Lakes states? I didn't and that is what was enjoyable about this academic work. I had assumed the lead mines of the region were known to the natives, but first developed by the Europeans. In her detailed and carefully documented work, the author adds texture, shading, and depth to the surface-skimming history that most of us learn about how this nation came to be. At one time, Métis, Native Americans, Europeans, primarily French, and even Blacks formed what Murphy terms a Creole culture in the Great Lakes region. A culture that depended on kin alliances between the indigenous residents and the newcomers. She combs through primary source material to document her thesis. Her work is grounded in scholarship. She is not making a point that some sort of paradise existed, but rather that the alliances created through marriage, economic exchange that gave something to each group, fostered communities of cooperation. That began to change rapidly as the United States grew and settlement from the East upset the balance with a different culture, different ideas about equality, and a different economy.
This is not a book to pick up for an evening of casual reading, but if you want a surprisingly readable but detailed and clearly researched exploration of a time gone by, this would be a good choice for re-shaping or augmenting one's understanding.