Readings 9/10/08

"Many Tender Ties" Introduction

In the introduction of "Many Tender Ties" the author talks about the creation of a different kind of society when the fur-trade was introduced in the territories. Neither Indian nor European, the families were multi-racial and combined different cultures and traditions. Van Kirk talks about how vital the family system was for the fur traders to survive life so far away from home, which created an interesting multicultural situation that was unlike other settler situations.

That is the thing I find most interesting about this book, is how different the relationships were for such a long period of time compared to other settler societies that were formed a short time later in different parts of the country. The fact that relatively peaceful relations were kept for such a long time, and that the two societies started to depend on one another, is an interesting possibility to me that I had never really thought about before.

"Many Tender Ties" Chapter One

The thing that struck me most while reading the chapter was the practice of "wife trading" that was discussed in the chapter, with women being traded to different men, either traders or other Native American men. It was something I haven't heard of before, but it seemed like a pretty awful practice. Then again, we don't really have the full records of what went on, whether the women had a choice in the matter or how they even felt in that situation. So I know I need to be careful before judging or making any assumptions about what is written in books that reflect pretty much only the point of view of the traders or settlers.

But still, it's hard to read about a practice and then hear about how if women committed "adultery" (although with completely different social norms I am not sure what that means in the context of this book) women could be physically mutilated or even killed. Again, I'm not sure how much I should trust these sources and what the traders perceived to be going on. However, one thing this book does note is how closely the traders worked with different tribes and groups of people, learning the languages and customs while marrying women from the different groups. That makes me think that they can still provide an accurate account of what life was like in the societies, because they had more than a passing opinion on what life was like, which comes from working with them so closely. All in all, it's an interesting thing to think about while looking at the accounts provided in the story, and something definitely on the top of my mind while I read from this book.