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Rainy Lake House

Name: Rainy Lake House
Brand: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
SKU: 9781421422923
Price: 75.99 AUD
Availability: InStock

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESSISBN: 9781421422923

Twilight of Empire on the Northern Frontier

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By Theodore Catton
Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Release Date: November 14, 2017
Format: HARDBACK
Pages: 424

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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.

Contents

Maps
Timeline
Introduction: Rainy Lake House, 1823

Part One: Leave-Takings
1. The Explorer
2. The Hunter
3. The Trader

Part Two: Long
4. ""The English Make Them More Presents""
5. Encounters with the Sioux
6. Race and History
7. To Civilize the Osage

Part Three: Tanner
8. Westward Migration
9. ""Six Beaver Skins for a Quart of Mixed Rum""
10. The Test of Winter
11. Red Sky of the Morning
12. Warrior

Part Four: McLoughlin
13. Fort William
14. Marriage à la façon du pays
15. Bad Birds
16. The Restive Partnership
17. The Pemmican War
18. The Battle of Seven Oaks
19. The Surrender of Fort William
20. Lord Selkirk's Prisoner
21. Time of Reckoning
22. London

Part Five: Long
23. The Wonder of the Steamboat
24. A Christian Marriage
25. Up the Missouri
26. To the Rocky Mountains
27. Mapmaker
28. The Northern Expedition

Part Six: Tanner
29. The Coming of The Prophet
30. A Loathsome Man
31. Sorcery and Sickness
32. Taking Fort Douglas
33. Rough Justice
34. In Search of Kin
35. Between Two Worlds

Part Seven: McLoughlin
36. Chief Factor
37. Providence
38. Opposing the Americans

Part Eight: Collision
39. Working for Wages
40. Children of the Fur Trade
41. The Ambush
42. The Pardon
43. ""We met with an American""
44. The Onus of Revenge
45. Journeys Home

Epilogue: Mackinac, 1824 and After
Postscript: John Tanner as a Source
Acknowledgements
Notes

""Thick description of the fascinating world of the Great Lakes and northern plains is the great strength of this book... Catton's tight focus on three protagonists lets him vividly illustrate the dynamics of fur trade society, the reorganization of the trade, and the rise of Anglo-American racism.""

Rainy Lake House

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