Scott Berthelette - Heirs of an Ambivalent Empire: French-Indigenous Relations and the Rise of the Métis in the Hudson Bay Watershed

HEIRS OF AN AMBIVALENT EMPIRE

M C GILL-QUEENS STUDIES IN EARLY CANADA / AVANT LE CANADA

Series Editors / Directeurs de la collection :
Allan Greer and Carolyn Podruchny

This series features studies of the history of the northern half of North America a vast expanse that would eventually be known as Canada in the era before extensive European settlement and extending into the nineteenth century. Long neglected, Canada-before-Canada is a fascinating area of study experiencing an intellectual renaissance as researchers in a range of disciplines, including history, geography, archeology, anthropology, literary studies, and law, contribute to a new and enriched understanding of the distant past. The editors welcome manuscripts in English or French on all aspects of the period, including work on Indigenous history, the Atlantic fisheries, the fur trade, exploration, French or British imperial expansion, colonial life, culture, language, law, science, religion, and the environment.

Cette srie de monographies est consacre lhistoire de la partie septentrionale du continent de lAmrique du nord, autrement dit le grand espace qui deviendra le Canada, dans les sicles qui stendent jusquau dbut du 19 e . Longtemps nglig par les chercheurs, ce Canada-avant-le-Canada suscite beaucoup dintrt de la part de spcialistes dans plusieurs disciplines, entre autres, lhistoire, la gographie, larchologie, lanthropologie, les tudes littraires et le droit. Nous assistons une renaissance intellectuelle dans ce champ dtude ax sur linteraction de premires nations, dempires europens et de colonies. Les directeurs de cette srie sollicitent des manuscrits, en franais ou en anglais, qui portent sur tout aspect de cette priode, y compris lhistoire des autochtones, celle des pcheries de latlantique, de la traite des fourrures, de lexploration, de lexpansion de lempire franais ou britannique, de la vie coloniale (Nouvelle-France, lAcadie, Terre-Neuve, les provinces maritimes, etc.), de la culture, la langue, le droit, les sciences, la religion ou lenvironnement.

1A Touch of Fire
Marie-Andr Duplessis, the Htel-Dieu of Quebec, and the Writing of New France
Thomas M. Carr, Jr

2Entangling the Quebec Act
Transnational Contexts, Meanings, and Legacies in North America and the British Empire
Edited by Ollivier Hubert and Franois Furstenberg

Listening to the Fur Trade
Soundways and Music in the British North American Fur Trade, 17601840
Daniel Robert Laxer

4Heirs of an Ambivalent Empire
French-Indigenous Relations and the Rise of the Mtis in the Hudson Bay Watershed
Scott Berthelette

Heirs of an
Ambivalent Empire

French-Indigenous Relations
and the Rise of the Mtis
in the Hudson Bay Watershed

SCOTT BERTHELETTE

McGill-Queens University Press

Montreal & Kingston London Chicago

McGill-Queens University Press 2022

ISBN 978-0-2280-1058-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-2280-1059-3 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-2280-1249-8 (e PDF )
ISBN 978-0-2280-1250-4 (e PUB )

Legal deposit third quarter 2022
Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Heirs of an ambivalent empire: French-Indigenous relations and the rise
of the Mtis in the Hudson Bay watershed / Scott Berthelette.

Names: Berthelette, Scott, author.

Series: McGill-Queens studies in early Canada; 4.

Description: Series statement: McGill-Queens studies in early Canada; 4 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220161534 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220171475 | ISBN 9780228010593 (softcover) | ISBN 9780228010586 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780228012498 ( PDF ) | ISBN 9780228012504 (e PUB )

Subjects: LCSH : CanadaHistoryTo 1763 (New France) | CSH : French CanadiansHudson Bay RegionHistory. | CSH : Canadians, French-speakingHudson Bay RegionHistory. | LCSH : MtisHudson Bay RegionHistory. | LCSH : Fur tradeHudson Bay RegionHistory. | LCSH : Canada
Race relationsHistory. | LCSH : CanadaEthnic relationsHistory.

Classification: LCC FC 3211.9. I 6 B 47 2022 | DDC 971.01/8dc23

This book was typeset by Marquis Interscrip.

Contents

Figures

0.1 The Hudson Bay watershed. Map made by Bill Nelson at Bill Nelson Cartography. 22

0.2 Historical map of the Hudson Bay watershed. The Newberry Library, Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection, Ayer MS map 30, sheet 110, Carte angloise de la Baye de Hudson o la compagnie apelle Hudson Bay fait son commerce, 1719. 23

1.1 French posts in the pays den haut in the late seventeenth century. Map made by author using A rc GIS Online. 38

1.2 Alexis-Hubert Jaillots map of New France. BnF , dpartement Cartes et plans, Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, Partie de la Nouvelle France par Hubert Jaillot, 1700. 57

2.1 Jean Bobs map of Bourbonie. BnF, dpartement Cartes et plans, Jean Bob, Carte des Mers et des Pays qui sont lOuest, au Nord du Lac Suprieur et du Mississippi jusquaux extrmits de lOccident, 1718. 78

2.2 Guillaume Delisles map of North America showing the Bering Strait, eastern Asia, and the Western Sea. JCBL Map Collection, Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, Carte des nouvelles dcouvertes au nord de la Mer du Sud, tant lest de la Siberia et du Kamtchatka, 1752. 80

2.3 Guillaume Delisles map of the Mer de lOuest. BnF, dpartement Cartes et plans, Philippe Buache and Guillaume Delisle, Essai dune carte que Mr. Guillaume Delisle avoit joint son mmoire prsent la cour en 1717 sur la mer de lOuest, 1752. 81

2.4 Map of the Baron de Lahontans Rivire Longue. JCBL Map Collection, Louis Armand de Lom dArce, Baron de Lahontan, Carte que les Gnacsitares ont Dessin sur des peaux de Cerfs, 1703. 84

2.5 Hudsons Bay Company factories and French posts in the 1720s. Map made by author using A rc GIS Online. 94

3.1 Auchagahs map of the waters northwest of Lake Superior. The Newberry Library, Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection, Ayer MS map 186, Ochagach and Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vrendrye, Carte copie sur celle qui a t trace par le sauvage Ochagache [Auchagah] et autres, ca 1728. 107

3.2 Guillaume Delisles 1722 map of North America superimposed over Auchagahs map. BnF , dpartement Cartes et plans, GE D -11619, Guillaume Delisle et Philippe Buache, Carte dAmrique dresse pour lusage du Roy, 1722. 108

3.3 Auchagahs map re-copied by Philippe Buache. BnF , dpartement Cartes et plans, CPL GE DD -2987 (8696 B), Ochagac et Philippe Buache, Cours des rivires, et fleuves, courant louest du nord du Lac Suprieur, suivant la carte faite par le sauvage Ochagac [Auchagah] et autres, rduite dans celle cy sur une mme chelle, ca 1730. 109

3.4 Borderland between Lake Superior and the Upper Missouri valley. Map made by author using A rc GIS Online. 112