Biography
I am an historian of Aboriginal and French relations and Metis history in early North American history, specializing in fur trade encounters, systems of communication, and identity formation. My first book charts the world of French Canadian voyageurs in the Montreal-based fur trade, and my current projects explore the blending of French Canadian, Ojibwe and Cree narratives in the guise of fur trade stories and the French-Saulteaux dictionary compiled by Roman Catholic missionary Georges-Antione Belcourt in the mid-19th century. I teach courses on early Canadian and Aboriginal history, as well as historical methodology.
Areas of Research
- Early Canadian history, especially cultural and social
- Relations between French Canadians and Algonquian-speakers
- Metis ethnogenesis
- Oral history and folklore
- Book and print history
Recent Publications
Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade
French Canadian workers who paddled canoes, transported goods, and staffed the interior posts of the northern North American fur trade became popularly known as voyageurs. Scholars and public historians alike have cast them in romantic roles of rugged and merry heroes who paved the way for European civilization in the wild northwest. This book looks past the stereotypes and reveals the contours of voyageurs' lives, world views, and values. Making the Voyageurs' World argues that voyageurs created distinct identities shaped by their French-Canadian peasant roots, the Aboriginal peoples they met in the northwest, and the nature of their workplace as indentured servants in diverse environments. Voyageurs' identities were also shaped by the liminality inherent in their constant travels and by their own masculine ideals that emphasized strength, endurance and daring. Although voyageurs left few conventional traces of their own voices in the documentary record, an astonishing amount of information can be found in descriptions of them by their masters, explorers and other travelers.