Rainy Lake House: Twilight of Empire on the Northern Frontier
424Rainy Lake House: Twilight of Empire on the Northern Frontier
424Hardcover
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Overview
In September 1823, three men met at Rainy Lake House, a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post near the Boundary Waters. Dr. John McLoughlin, the proprietor of Rainy Lake House, was in charge of the borderlands west of Lake Superior, where he was tasked with opposing the petty traders who operated out of US territory. Major Stephen H. Long, an officer in the US Army Topographical Engineers, was on an expedition to explore the wooded borderlands west of Lake Superior and the northern prairies from the upper Mississippi to the forty-ninth parallel. John Tanner, a “white Indian” living among the Ojibwa nation, arrived in search of his missing daughters, who, Tanner believed, were at risk of being raped by the white traders holding them captive at a nearby fort.
Rainy Lake House weaves together the captivating stories of these men who cast their fortunes in different ways with the western fur trade. Drawing on their combined experiences, Theodore Catton creates a vivid depiction of the beautiful and dangerous northern frontier from a collision of vantage points: American, British, and Indian; imperial, capital, and labor; explorer, trader, and hunter. At the center of this history is the deeply personal story of John Tanner’s search for kinship: first among his adopted Ojibwa nation; then in the search for his white family of origin; and finally in his quest for custody of his half-Indian children.
Rainy Lake House is a character-driven narrative about ambition, adventure, alienation, and revenge. Catton 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 of empire.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781421422923 |
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Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Publication date: | 09/15/2017 |
Pages: | 424 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Table of Contents
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 AcknowledgementsNotesWhat People are Saying About This
A journey into the complicated environment of the North American interior in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Written with clarity and energy, this book tells its story through the remarkable device of a triple biography.
Catton makes me think that there must be a gene for historical writing. In this marvelously crafted book, he uses a quarrel over the custody of children in the early nineteenth century to reveal the fraying of the hybrid Indian/white world of the lands neighboring the Great Lakes. This is a deeply human story of a nineteenth-century world that was in the midst of great change. A compelling, surprising, and dramatic account that reads like historical fiction.
A journey into the complicated environment of the North American interior in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Written with clarity and energy, this book tells its story through the remarkable device of a triple biography.—Gregory Evans Dowd, author of Groundless: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes on the Early American Frontier
Catton makes me think that there must be a gene for historical writing. In this marvelously crafted book, he uses a quarrel over the custody of children in the early nineteenth century to reveal the fraying of the hybrid Indian/white world of the lands neighboring the Great Lakes. This is a deeply human story of a nineteenth-century world that was in the midst of great change. A compelling, surprising, and dramatic account that reads like historical fiction.—Richard White, author of The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815