Great Lakes Creoles

A case study of one of America''s many multi-ethnic border communities Great Lakes Creoles builds upon recent research on gender race ethnicity and politics as it examines the ways that the old fur trade families experienced and responded to the colonialism of United States expansion. Lucy Eldersveld Murphy examines Indian history with attention to the pluralistic nature of American communities and the ways that power gender race and ethnicity were contested and negotiated in them. She explores the role of women as mediators shaping key social economic and political systems as well as the creation of civil political institutions and the ways that men of many backgrounds participated in and influenced them. Ultimately Great Lakes Creoles takes a careful look at Native people and their complex families as active members of an American community in the Great Lakes region.