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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Metis ("Halfbreeds") of the Lower Missouri,
By Lance M. Foster "Solvitur ambulando" (Helena, Montana, USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri (Hardcover)
Lots of folks know about the Metis people of the North, the people sprung from the mixing of French and Indian peoples in Canada and the Dakotas, but this book fills an important gap....that the same process occurred on the lower Missouri as well. There are a few facts and conclusions I do not agree with, but the book is very important, nonetheless. As one of the descendants of these people, with Ioway, Otoe, Omaha, Sauk, Menominee, and Dakota bloodlines, I recommend this book highly. From the University of Missouri Press:
"The Many Hands of My Relations is a study of kinship networks among French Creoles and Central Siouan tribes and the influence of those networks on social, political, and economic development along the lower Missouri River from the late prehistoric period to the removal era in the 1870s. The book's primary focus is on the economic relations and intermarriages between French fur traders and native people of the Central Siouan tribes and the consequences for intergroup relationships as three imperial powers (France, then Spain, and then the United States) vied for political control and commercial supremacy. Arguing that cultural and biological hybridization is an underappreciated aspect of the historical development of this region, Tanis Thorne focuses much of her analysis on French-Indian mixed-bloods of the lower Missouri River region. She examines their economic roles as intermediaries in the fur and liquor trade, their attempts to form communities, and their political loyalties and cultural orientations. Of special importance is Thorne's examination of the French-Indian borderlands people, not as isolated individuals, but as members of family networks set in a social and historical context. The study concludes with an assessment of how persons of mixed ancestry influenced tribal politics in the era of white settlement and Indian removal. This significant work helps dispel stereotypes regarding "half-breeds" and shows how kinship between culturally different groups served as a means of accommodation and coexistence in America's multiethnic panorama. Filling a major gap in the literature on the fur trade, The Many Hands of My Relations also yields important new insights into the history of native peoples of the Midwest and their relations with European newcomers." Tanis C. Thorne is Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at the University of California in Irvine.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed Bloods of the Middle Border,
This review is from: The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri (Hardcover)
"Many Hands of My Relations" is an outstanding academic history of the French, Indians, and mixed bloods on the middle border of the United States. The author opens with a pre-history of the Indian tribes on the Great Plains border from Oklahoma to Iowa: the Osage, Kansa or Kaw, Omaha, Ponca, Missouri, Oto, and Iowa. He describes the coming of the French in the 18th century and the cultural and racial mixing between the Indians and French to create a new people, neither French nor Indian, and believed by Anglos to incorporate the worst of both peoples, the "mixed bloods." (The common term of the day, "half breed," is deemed derogatory by the author.)
The fact that French and French/Indian mixed bloods preceded the Anglos in discovering most of the United States is ignored in most histories. Lewis and Clark found French traders as far west as the Mandan villages of North Dakota; early fur trading brigades in the Rocky Mountains included many French and Indians; and as late as the 1840s travelers such as Francis Parkman and John Charles Fremont relied on French and mixed blood guides and helpers. We just don't hear of the French and Indians as we do of such well-know American heroes as Jim Bridger, "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick, and others. The mixed bloods began to disappear about 1850, integrating into either White or Indian society -- although neither received them enthusiastically. The membership rolls of Indian tribes are dotted with their names today: Pappan, Roy, Revard, Bellmard, Denoya, and many others. The only Vice President of the United States with Indian blood, Charles Curtis, came out of this culture. His mother's maiden name was Pappan and she was the granddaughter of the Kaw chief, White Plume. Thorne does an thorough and excellent job in telling the story of the 18th and 19th century French and Indians living on the lower Missouri River. It's a sad story as the Indians and their French relatives were plowed under by the waves of advancing Anglos. The author's research is impeccable; his bibiography runs to 27 pages and includes numerous eye-witness and primary sources dug out of dusty archives. The Indian tribes on the Middle Border and the French/Indian mixed bloods are pretty much forgotten today, and the work of scholars such as Thorne in recovering memories of them is welcome. Smallchief
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Many Hands of My Relations,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri (Hardcover)
This book is very captivating and kept me interested, loved the few old photos and the many illustrations provided. For anyone interested in the history of the lower Missouri Native people and the effect Europeans had upon them, this book is a must have!
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