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Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michigan's Native Americans
A comprehensive and readable history of Native Americans in the Upper Great Lakes region
For many thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, Michigan's native peoples, the Anishnabeg, thrived in the forests and along the shores of the Great Lakes. Theirs were cultures in delicate social balance and in economic harmony with the natural order. Rites of Conquest details the struggles of Michigan Indians—the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, and their neighbors—to maintain unique traditions in the wake of contact with Euro-Americans. The French quest for furs, the colonial aggression of the British, and the invasion of native homelands by American settlers is the backdrop for this fascinating saga of their resistance and accommodation to the new social order. Minavavana's victory at Fort Michilimackinac, Pontiac's attempts to expel the British, Pokagon's struggle to maintain a Michigan homeland, and Big Abe Le Blanc's fight for fishing rights are a few of the many episodes recounted in the pages of this book.
Beyond wars and warriors, Rites of Conquest is also about diplomacy and negotiation, mythology and magic, birth and death, and the joys and trials of daily life in the native villages of the Great Lakes region. Today, Michigan's Indian citizens struggle to solve problems that are a legacy of their past, while they attempt to maintain a distinctive place within modern society. In facing this challenge they often turn to the values and traditions that set them apart as the most enduring peoples of the Great Lakes region.
Maps, photographs, and biographical sketches complement the text and make this the most comprehensive yet readable book on the region's Native American population.
For many thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, Michigan's native peoples, the Anishnabeg, thrived in the forests and along the shores of the Great Lakes. Theirs were cultures in delicate social balance and in economic harmony with the natural order. Rites of Conquest details the struggles of Michigan Indians—the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, and their neighbors—to maintain unique traditions in the wake of contact with Euro-Americans. The French quest for furs, the colonial aggression of the British, and the invasion of native homelands by American settlers is the backdrop for this fascinating saga of their resistance and accommodation to the new social order. Minavavana's victory at Fort Michilimackinac, Pontiac's attempts to expel the British, Pokagon's struggle to maintain a Michigan homeland, and Big Abe Le Blanc's fight for fishing rights are a few of the many episodes recounted in the pages of this book.
Beyond wars and warriors, Rites of Conquest is also about diplomacy and negotiation, mythology and magic, birth and death, and the joys and trials of daily life in the native villages of the Great Lakes region. Today, Michigan's Indian citizens struggle to solve problems that are a legacy of their past, while they attempt to maintain a distinctive place within modern society. In facing this challenge they often turn to the values and traditions that set them apart as the most enduring peoples of the Great Lakes region.
Maps, photographs, and biographical sketches complement the text and make this the most comprehensive yet readable book on the region's Native American population.
360 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 1992
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About the author
Charles E. Cleland
8 books1 followerCharles E. Cleland is Michigan State University emeritus professor of anthropology and former curator of anthropology and ethnology. He has been an expert witness in numerous Native American land claims and fishing rights cases and written a number of other books on the subject, including Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michigan’s Native Americans, Place of the Pike: A History of the Bay Mills Indian Community, and Fish in the Lakes, Wild Rice, and Game in Abundance: Testimony on Behalf of Mille Lacs Ojibwe Hunting and Fishing Rights.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2011
Each year, thousands of visiting Michigan school children file through the National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol building past an imposing statue of Lewis Cass, Michigan’s territorial governor from 1813 to 1831. The guide likely throws out brief factoids on his tenure, leaving the students with some vague impression that this portly, serious-looking guy did something great. At the US Capitol’s website, we’re told that “his tenure was marked by good relations with the numerous Indian tribes under his jurisdiction.” Anyone who’s read Charles Cleland’s beautifully researched "Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michigan’s Native Americans" would gag at such a statement.
Cass is not the only character in the history of the slow erosion of Indian (I’ll use “Indian” here as Cleland does) livelihoods in the Great Lakes region, but his activities marked a stunning apex of greed which was born with the first European (French, essentially) arrivals in the 1600s. Before that, the material record indicates that Indians occupied the area of what we now call Michigan for 12,000 years (“In contrast to the 350 or so years non-Indian people have lived on the shores of the Great Lakes, such a tenure is immense”). Cleland brings to life the likely realities of the Anishnabeg, the Algonquian-speaking people who fished, hunted and later farmed the region and who, importantly, travelled for food and social reasons along with the seasons (summers fishing at the lake in larger villages, winters hunting the interior). Cleland deftly avoids romanticizing traditional Indian life while at the same time fostering a deep respect for their endurance and connection to the land.
After European arrival, a wave of different tribes washed over the area, fleeing or following various wars. What we now think of as traditionally “Michigan” tribes: the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi originated in today’s Canada and Wisconsin. Warfare was not unknown prior to the Europeans, but it increased as the French fur trade gained momentum and allies, and Indians sought new, useful products (cloth, metal, guns) from this new French “tribe”. In contrast to the British and eventually the Americans who would follow, the few French traders operated on relatively even ground with their Indian counterparts. Over time, Indians were increasingly conscripted as mercenaries in wars between France and Britain or Britain and America.
But the most heartbreaking chapter in this history has got to be the late-18th and entire 19th century, after the establishment of the US. In conventional history, we think of this era as the beginning of our great independence. For Michigan Indians, it was exactly the opposite as a hungry new country swindled all but the tiniest speck of land from them by both formal and informal means. That a people used to migrating with the seasons fared so poorly in trivial, static “reservations” is not surprising. You know the story, but you’ll weep at the details. The aforementioned Cass played one of the biggest roles in this swindle.
What makes this book so special is its ability to weave history and anthropology together seamlessly. Most Americans have a general sense of atrocities carried out against indigenous people, but Cleland describes the cultural underpinnings of misunderstanding and manipulation that continue to have such an impact on Indians today. Primarily, those are the conflicts between oral and written methods of documenting history, the difficulty of ascribing names/identity to individuals and tribes, and the disconnect between Western economic systems and Indian traditions of gift giving. All of these divisions played out, pretty much solely to Indians’ disadvantage in treaty negotiations and other methods of land acquisition.
As an environmentalist, I’m interested in history that’s tied not to an ethnic group or state, but to the land. For that reason, I think every American should know the local indigenous history of their region – it gives a humbling counter to our sense of ownership and identity as citizens of a place. Cleland’s book is not only an important contribution to Michigan history, but hits on fundamental questions about the founding and future of our country.
Cass is not the only character in the history of the slow erosion of Indian (I’ll use “Indian” here as Cleland does) livelihoods in the Great Lakes region, but his activities marked a stunning apex of greed which was born with the first European (French, essentially) arrivals in the 1600s. Before that, the material record indicates that Indians occupied the area of what we now call Michigan for 12,000 years (“In contrast to the 350 or so years non-Indian people have lived on the shores of the Great Lakes, such a tenure is immense”). Cleland brings to life the likely realities of the Anishnabeg, the Algonquian-speaking people who fished, hunted and later farmed the region and who, importantly, travelled for food and social reasons along with the seasons (summers fishing at the lake in larger villages, winters hunting the interior). Cleland deftly avoids romanticizing traditional Indian life while at the same time fostering a deep respect for their endurance and connection to the land.
After European arrival, a wave of different tribes washed over the area, fleeing or following various wars. What we now think of as traditionally “Michigan” tribes: the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi originated in today’s Canada and Wisconsin. Warfare was not unknown prior to the Europeans, but it increased as the French fur trade gained momentum and allies, and Indians sought new, useful products (cloth, metal, guns) from this new French “tribe”. In contrast to the British and eventually the Americans who would follow, the few French traders operated on relatively even ground with their Indian counterparts. Over time, Indians were increasingly conscripted as mercenaries in wars between France and Britain or Britain and America.
But the most heartbreaking chapter in this history has got to be the late-18th and entire 19th century, after the establishment of the US. In conventional history, we think of this era as the beginning of our great independence. For Michigan Indians, it was exactly the opposite as a hungry new country swindled all but the tiniest speck of land from them by both formal and informal means. That a people used to migrating with the seasons fared so poorly in trivial, static “reservations” is not surprising. You know the story, but you’ll weep at the details. The aforementioned Cass played one of the biggest roles in this swindle.
What makes this book so special is its ability to weave history and anthropology together seamlessly. Most Americans have a general sense of atrocities carried out against indigenous people, but Cleland describes the cultural underpinnings of misunderstanding and manipulation that continue to have such an impact on Indians today. Primarily, those are the conflicts between oral and written methods of documenting history, the difficulty of ascribing names/identity to individuals and tribes, and the disconnect between Western economic systems and Indian traditions of gift giving. All of these divisions played out, pretty much solely to Indians’ disadvantage in treaty negotiations and other methods of land acquisition.
As an environmentalist, I’m interested in history that’s tied not to an ethnic group or state, but to the land. For that reason, I think every American should know the local indigenous history of their region – it gives a humbling counter to our sense of ownership and identity as citizens of a place. Cleland’s book is not only an important contribution to Michigan history, but hits on fundamental questions about the founding and future of our country.
January 28, 2025
I feel like I've been looking for this exact book for a long time. Cleland is incredibly comprehensive in his coverage of Michigan's Indigenous history. I would have enjoyed spending a little more time on what we know of these cultures before European colonization, but I also understand that this was a practical challenge due to a lack of written record. In total, I found Cleland's writing to be incredibly clear and fair. This should be required reading in Michigan schools.
September 10, 2015
A heartbreaking, blow by blow, examination of how the tribes in Michigan and other surrounding states and provinces were systematically robbed of their land, not to mention their cultures and way of life.
October 9, 2023
parádna kniha o živote a politike kmeňov štátu Michigan (Ottawa, Potawatomie a Ojibwe-Saginaw), ľahké čítanie
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews