Detroit's hidden channels : the power of French-Indigenous families in the eighteenth century / Karen L. Marrero.

Revision of author's thesis (doctoral)--Yale University, 2011, titled: Founding families : power and authority of mixed French and native lineages in eighteenth century Detroit.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Creating the place between : building indigenous and French communities in early Detroit -- Corn mothers, commandantes, and nurturing fathers : negotiating place at Detroit -- War, slavery, baptism, and the formation of the French-Indigenous networks at Detroit -- Il s'en allaient tous : roots and routes of the French-Indigenous family networks -- On such does the fate of empires depend : gendered peril and prospect -- Unveiling the conspiracy : women at the heart of Pontiac's War -- Bastards and bastions : domestic disorder and the changing status of the French Indigenous family networks.

"Detroit's Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century examines the role of French-Indigenous kinship networks in Detroit's development as one of the most politically and economically pivotal locations in the continental interior. Situated where Anishinaabe, Myaamia, Wendat and later French communities were established and where the system of waterways linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico narrowed, Detroit's location was its primary resource. While the French state viewed Detroit as a decaying site of illegal activities, the influence of the French-Indigenous networks grew as members diverted imperial resources to bolster an alternative configuration of power relations that crossed Euro-American and Indigenous nations. A critical foundation of their economic empires was their skill at utilizing metaphors of gendered hybridity in diplomacy and transecting gender norms in trade. Women furthered commerce by navigating a multitude of gender norms of their nations, allowing them to defy the state which sought to control them by holding them to European ideals of womanhood. By the mid-eighteenth century, the families had become so powerful, incoming British traders and imperial officials courted their favor. They would maintain that power as British imperial presence splintered on the eve of the American Revolution"-- Provided by publisher.