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Rainy Lake House : twilight of empire on the northern frontier Cover Image Book Book

Rainy Lake House : twilight of empire on the northern frontier / Theodore Catton.

Catton, Theodore, (author.).

Summary:

"Exiles in Indian Country weaves together the biographies of three men who cast their fortunes with the Western fur trade in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. John Tanner was a 'white Indian' who was taken captive and raised by Ottawa, and lived among the Ottawa and Ojibwa for thirty years, hunting across the northern forests and plains of present-day Ontario, Manitoba, and northern Minnesota. Dr. John McLoughlin fled the law in Quebec at the age of eighteen to work for the Hudson's Bay Company in the Lake Superior region during its two decades of war with the North West Company. Major Stephen H. Long explored the northern borderlands in a time when the United States aimed to take over British-Indian trade in its new western territories. The three men met at the HBC's Rainy Lake House near the Boundary Waters in 1823 after Tanner was badly wounded while trying to take his daughters out of Indian country, to save them from being raped by the white traders. Foregrounding this incident, Theodore Catton examines the events leading up to this fateful encounter through a Rashomon-like tale about the British-American-Indian frontier. Through these three colliding vantage points, the book describes the world of the fur trade: American, British, and Indian; imperial, capital, and labor; explorer, trader, and hunter. In its competing viewpoints, Exiles in Indian Country deftly crafts one grand narrative out of three and reveals the perilous lives of the white adventurers and their Indian families who lived on the fringe--truly the hands of empire"--Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781421422923 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
  • ISBN: 1421422921 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
  • Physical Description: xiii, 406 pages : maps ; 24 cm
  • Publisher: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [2017]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-395) and index.

Search for related items by subject

Subject: Tanner, John, 1780?-1847.
McLoughlin, John, 1784-1857.
Long, Stephen H. (Stephen Harriman), 1784-1864.
Frontier and pioneer life > Rainy River Region (Minn. and Ont.)
Pioneers > Family relationships > Rainy River Region (Minn. and Ont.) > History > 19th century.
Missing children > Rainy River Region (Minn. and Ont.) > History > 19th century.
Indians of North America > Rainy River Region (Minn. and Ont.) > History > 19th century.
Fur trade > Rainy River Region (Minn. and Ont.) > History > 19th century.
Hudson's Bay Company > History > 19th century.
Rainy River Region (Minn. and Ont.) > Ethnic relations > History > 19th century.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Legislative Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Legislative Library, Vaughan Street F 612 .R18 Cat (Text) 36970100217753 General Collection Volume hold Available -
► Summaries & More
▼ Additional Content

Maps
Timeline
Introduction: Rainy Lake House, 1823
Part I: Leave-Takings
Chapter 1. The Explorer
Chapter 2. The Hunter
Chapter 3. The Trader
Part II: Long
Chapter 4. "The English Make Them More Presents"
Chapter 5. Encounters with the Sioux
Chapter 6. Race and History
Chapter 7. To Civilize the Osage
Part III: Tanner
Chapter 8. Westward Migration
Chapter 9. "Six Beaver Skins for a Quart of Mixed Rum"
Chapter 10. The Test of Winter
Chapter 11. Red Sky of the Morning
Chapter 12. Warrior
Part IV: McLoughlin
Chapter 13. Fort William
Chapter 14. Marriage à la façon du pays
Chapter 15. Bad Birds
Chapter 16. The Restive Partnership
Chapter 17. The Pemmican War
Chapter 18. The Battle of Seven Oaks
Chapter 19. The Surrender of Fort William
Chapter 20. Lord Selkirk's Prisoner
Chapter 21. Time of Reckoning
Chapter 22. London
Part V: Long
Chapter 23. The Wonder of the Steamboat
Chapter 24. A Christian Marriage
Chapter 25. Up the Missouri
Chapter 26. To the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 27. Mapmaker
Chapter 28. The Northern Expedition
Part VI: Tanner
Chapter 29. The Coming of The Prophet
Chapter 30. A Loathsome Man
Chapter 31. Sorcery and Sickness
Chapter 32. Taking Fort Douglas
Chapter 33. Rough Justice
Chapter 34. In Search of Kin
Chapter 35. Between Two Worlds
Part VII: McLoughlin
Chapter 36. Chief Factor
Chapter 37. Providence
Chapter 38. Opposing the Americans
Part VIII: Collision
Chapter 39. Working for Wages
Chapter 40. Children of the Fur Trade
Chapter 41. The Ambush
Chapter 42. The Pardon
Chapter 43. "We met with an American"
Chapter 44. The Onus of Revenge
Chapter 45. Journeys Home
Epilogue: Mackinac, 1824 – and After
Postscript: John Tanner as a Source
Acknowledgements
Notes

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