The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge to New France

by R. David Edmunds, Joseph L. Peyser

Overview

This is the saga of the Fox (or Mesquakie) Indians' struggle to maintain their identity in the face of colonial New France during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

The Foxes occupied central Wisconsin, where for a long time they had warred with the Sioux and, more recently, had opposed the extension of the French firearm-and-fur trade with their western enemies. Caught between the Sioux anvil and the French hammer, the Foxes enlisted other tribes' support and maintained their independence until the late 1720s. Then the French treacherously offered them peace before launching a campaign of annihilation against them. The Foxes resisted valiantly, but finally were overwhelmed and took sanctuary among the Sac Indians, with whom they are closely associated to this day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806144634
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	04/26/2014
Series:	The Civilization of the American Indian Series , #211
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	761,434
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

R. David Edmunds, is Watson Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Texas in Dallas, is a historian of Native American people and the American West. The author or editor of ten books and over one hundred essays, articles, and other shorter publications, Edmunds' major works have been awarded the Francis Parkman Prize (The Potawatomis: Keepers Of The Fire, 1978); the Ohioana Prize for Biography (The Shawnee Prophet , 1983); and the Alfred Heggoy Prize of the French Colonial Historical Society (The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge To New France, 1993).

The late Joseph L. Peyser, who was Professor Emeritus of French at Indiana University, South Bend, and well known as an editor and translator of documents relating to New France, received the 1991 Hesseltine Award of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for his research on the French-Fox conflict.

Editorial Reviews

A dramatic narrative with a tragic conclusion. . . . A lively, readable account of an overlooked episode in Native American history.”—Journal of the West


“A fine history that focuses upon diplomacy, the fur trade, and intertribal conflict.”—Gary Clayton Anderson, The Journal of American History

From the Publisher

Limns the history of the Mesquakie Indians (called the Foxes) from the late precontact period through the mid-1700s, centering on their struggles against the colonial government of New France. Also examines their history of war with the Sioux, their opposition to the French fur-and-firearm trade with other tribes, and their eventual alliance with the Sac Indians. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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