Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America

by Michael A. McDonnell

A radical reinterpretation of early American history from a native point of viewIn Masters of Empire, the historian Michael McDonnell reveals the pivotal role played by the native peoples of the Great Lakes in the history of North America. Though less well known than the Iroquois or Sioux, the Anishinaabeg who lived along Lakes Michigan and Huron were equally influential. McDonnell charts their story, and argues that the Anishinaabeg have been relegated to the edges of history for too long. Through remarkable research into 19th-century Anishinaabeg-authored chronicles, McDonnell highlights the long-standing rivalries and relationships among the great tribes of North America, and how Europeans often played only a minor role in their stories. McDonnell reminds us that it was native people who possessed intricate and far-reaching networks of trade and kinship, of which the French and British knew little. And as empire encroached upon their domain, the Anishinaabeg were often the ones doing the exploiting. By dictating terms at trading posts and frontier forts, they played a crucial role in the making of early America. Through vivid depictions of early conflicts, the French and Indian War, and Pontiac's Rebellion, all from a native perspective, Masters of Empire overturns our assumptions about colonial America and the origins of the Revolutionary War. By calling attention to the Great Lakes as a crucible of culture and conflict, McDonnell reimagines the landscape of American history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Indigenous, Native American, Native Americans, Native American History

504 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2015

About the author

Michael McDonnell is an associate professor of history at the University of Sydney. He is the author of The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia, winner of the 2008 New South Wales Premier's History Award, and coeditor of Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation Making from Independence to the Civil War. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

From 2006-7 I first learned that, yes, even as an undergraduate I could have fun doing work. In fact, I learned this from combining the primary source archives of my then-current job with my capstone thesis, a study of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) as a great power in the wars we often think of as British and French directed in the late 17th and 18th Centuries. I found an immense amount of diplomatic correspondence about the various tribes allied to Britian and summaries of their capabilities and objectives in the conflict. It was the first paper, out of many, that I ever not only enjoyed writing but also remain proud of even to this day. It ushered in a massive level of interest in my life regarding the Iroquois, which later expanded into other powerful Native American groups of vastly different biomes such as the Comanche and the Tlingit.

Somehow though, in all of that, I missed the Anishinaabeg, or Three Fires Confederacy. I knew of it, of course, and its critical role in the French alliance network, but few details. About a year ago I became much more interested in the topic, and so far I find this to be by far the best text on the subject. It makes its case strongly on the source material while also keeping a critical eye on the agendas of the sources in question. It also convincingly tells the story I once came at from the perspective of the Iroquois, how many native confederacies played great power politics as primary, and not secondary, actors. A vital contribution to Native American historical scholarship to be sure.

[Dschreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as Europeans arrived in North America, they planted flags and boldly claimed possession of vast swathes of territory. Over the next several centuries they imagined that the few towns they set up, some scattered missions and outposts, and the travels of some trappers and traders amounted to sovereignty. In their eyes, small in number though they often were, they took the lead parts in a grand, world-historical drama about the winning of a new continent; the bit parts, the non-speaking parts, belonged to Indigenous people. That was not the reality. For centuries the crucial decisions were not made by the Europeans but by Indigenous leaders and the most fateful events took place not in London, Paris, or Quebec, but in “the woods.”

In the usual narrative, First Nations appear dimly in the background, brought into focus only when they impinge directly upon European ambitions—raiding colonists, fighting as allies in inter-European conflicts, signing treaties, ceding lands. Modern research, however, is revealing that First Nations were clearly dominant in North America from the first arrival of the Europeans until nearly the nineteenth century, after the American War of Independence. Until then the newcomers were utterly dependent on the good graces of the original inhabitants. And historians now understand that, far from fighting as auxiliaries for the French or English, when First Nations stood in battle beside European armies, they did so with their own agendas— agendas that had much to do with managing Indigenous tensions and little to do with wanting final victory for either of the European powers. The geopolitics of the region was settled around council fires, where rivalries and alliances among First Nations predominated over relations with the colonial powers.

Michael McDonnell’s Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America is an important contribution to Indigenous-oriented scholarship. Not only does it present the history of the Great Lakes region by “looking east,” it also reveals that the key players were not the nations of the lower Great Lakes, such as the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) or the Huron (Wendat), but a subgroup of the Anishinaabeg, the Ottawa (Odawa) living at the Straits of Michilimackinac where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan meet. Much undervalued by historians, theirs is shown to be the preeminent influence both on other First Nations and on the European powers. It derived partly from their strategic location in the Great Lakes system, a key point in the fur trade, giving them control over connections between the lower and upper lakes as well as access to the Mississippi Valley and the western plains; but also decisive was the tradition of their women marrying outside the group, creating a dense and extensive web of family connections stretching from Green Bay to the St. Lawrence, easily activated into alliances.

The title Masters of Empire is not a tribute to this network, to a European-style “empire” run by the Michilimackinac Odawa, but to their achievement in managing the nascent French and English empires. In the early period, the new neighbours, the French, were by no means uppermost in the minds of the Odawa. Some traders and a few military personnel were allowed to reside at Michilimackinac and voyageurs were allowed to travel through the region, but the Odawa controlled the newcomers easily through negotiations. The focus of the Odawa was on hunting, cultivating crops, overseeing their extensive trading relationships, and keeping abreast of political developments among other Indigenous peoples. The French were accepted in small numbers because in exchange for furs they provided valuable trade goods, such as cloth, metal cooking utensils, guns, and ammunition; but the grave decisions at Michilimackinac concerned other First Nations, especially Iroquois threats from the east, Fox and Sioux threats from the west, and Catawba incursions to the south. When the French lost their empire, the Odawa found the English more difficult to deal with—haughty and expansionist—so they set about checking English power, aiming to reduce them to fur traders. Only after America became an independent nation and settlers poured over the Appalachians by the thousands, backed by large armies, did outsiders become an existential threat. Even then, however, clever negotiating enabled the Odawa of Michilimackinac to avoid the fate of many other First Nations—being forcibly removed to distant lands.

A recurring theme of Masters of Empire is how events in the backwoods of North America often had repercussions around the world. Although France and England had long been rivals in the New World, their final struggle for supremacy in the Seven Years War began with an effort by Odawa and Ojibwe warriors to rebalance the influence of the two colonial powers, destabilized by recent British advances. Their successful attack on a British fort at Pickawillany in the Ohio Valley, unanswered by any English move, emboldened the French to reassert themselves south of the Great Lakes and spurred First Nations to send raiding parties to remove British settlers from traditional lands. A chain of reactions broadened into a global war between coalitions led by the French and British. Every European great power of the time, except the Ottoman Empire, joined in, and the fighting spread from North America to Europe, West Africa, the West Indies, India, and the Philippines.

At the end of the Seven Years War, First Nations were furious to learn that the French “gave away” their land to the British, and they launched a war against the British to establish that they were the masters in their own land. McDonnell calls it “the first war for American independence in North America.” So effective were they that finally the British promised to ban settlements west of the Appalachians, a move welcomed by First Nations but decried by the American colonies. Then Britain, alarmed at the drain on its treasury resulting from so many wars, decided to offset its costs by taxing the American colonists, thus laying the groundwork for the American War of Independence.

Master of Empire is academic history, offering only moderate concessions to the general reader in terms of prose style and narrative structure. However, its Indigenous perspective easily compensates us for our effort, making us re-think some of what we long took for granted and, like an infrared image of a familiar scene, making the familiar seem unfamiliar again.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating account of how the Odawa Indians managed to maintain a position of independence, near monopolistic control of trade in the Great Lakes region, and influence on both their European and native neighbors. They did so through shrewd negotiations and judicious use of intelligence. For the 200 years preceding the American Revolution, the Odawa were in the middle of global conflict yet managed to stay out of the fight for the most part. Equally impressive was their ability to stay abreast of events covering most of North America, this during an era when travel was either by foot or canoe. Their success was due in large part to their occupancy of a small piece of Michigan in that place where the upper and lower peninsulas almost touch: Michilimackinac (or Mackinaw). It took great skill to maintain this position as this was a place of strategic importance, sort of Grand Central Station for the canoe dependent trade of the era. Although they were ultimately overwhelmed by American settlers, the Odawa were one of the few tribes that managed to escape "removal" by the federal government. This too was the result of their skills as negotiators. Masters of Empire is well written, cogently argued, and just a "good read."

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative, very well researched and well written. This is a particularly good example of the "new" style of researching and writing about Native American history, the attempt to try to approach it from the perspective of the subject, which was very much the opposite from most American books of the 20th century, which was only to look at the Indian from the white American perspective. Which was why there was such a huge gap between the oral history of living Native Americans & 19th century (and earlier) writings versus the 20th century books I initially was exposed to.

Finally, academic knowledge is catching up with the reality. I am very happy about that.

[Andrew Blok]

I came to this book because I was looking to learn about the people who lived on and around the Great Lakes before Europeans arrived. This book felt like a good start.

I can't say much about the scholarship that went into this book. I'm not an expert in the field. But, my inexpert read on it is that the research was thorough and careful. The arguments the author put forward seem to follow from good evidence and a fair reading of the sources.

McDonnell's project in this book is to reframe the role of the Great Lakes Indians, especially the Odawa at the Straits of Mackinac as active in their history (something my American history education rarely did) and a major force in the operating of competing empires in and around the Great Lakes. This book does both of those things well, I think.

McDonnell shows how European misunderstanding of the politics of the region (and racism and assumptions that Europeans were the more advanced society) had led white tellings of this history to view the regions as fractured (likely by war) and disorganized, particularly because there often was not one clear leader. Instead, McDonnell shows a society bound by kinship with different loyalties and authorities than Europeans expected. Likewise, he lays out a historical pattern of the Odawa out negotiating both the French and British empires, pitting them against each other and using each empire's worries of the other to keep them loyal to the Odawa. Rather than dupes or simpletons unable to navigate a more advanced society, which is certainly one way American Indians are portrayed in American history, Masters of Empire shows the Odawa in control throughout their history, actively resisting and manipulating empires in the region. It's a pattern he traces to present day and their persistence in Michigan and around the lakes.

I didn't really know what to expect when I picked up this book and it was more politics focused than expected. But, the political focus did clearly cast the Great Lakes Indians as active players, which is a telling of history that, unfortunately, I haven't run into frequently. (I also haven't done enough to seek it out.) I am excited to read more.

[Calvin Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most well researched, comprehensive histories I’ve every read. It’s like William Cronon’s “Nature’s Metropolis” but instead of Chicago it’s 17th and 18th century northern Michigan. Very dense.

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

While rather dry, this diplomatic history of the Odawa/Ottawa of what is now Wisconsin makes a good point of illustrating how into the 19th century these people were among the main arbiters of events in North America; certainly the French aspirations to empire lived and died on the decisions of their so-called "auxiliaries" among the First Nations. Though the book sort of fades out more than ends, McDonnell notes that while many other of the First Nations found themselves forced out of their traditional ranges, the Odawa remain in large numbers in Wisconsin to this day, a testament to their abilities at relationship building, and perhaps a shrewd eye for not picking fights with a low percentage of victory!

Originally written: May 1, 2018.

[Elspeth Martini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out and just re-read it for my Native American history course. Not only does McDonnell masterfully frame his historical narrative to put the Odawa firmly at the center of the eighteenth-century pays d'en haut, his prose is crisp, clear, and eminently readable.

[Matt Schmalzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that pulled together bits and pieces of "local history" I have picked up living in Michigan most of my life, but never quite stitched together. The reason, of course, that I had not been able to construct the narrative myself is that in many cases, the crucial players are downplayed or omitted altogether. Those players are the Odawa, Huron, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe of the Great Lakes, who challenged and successfully played off first the imperial ambitions of the French, then the British, and to some extent the Americans. This book is written about a time period (about 1700-1815) that gets a lot of attention in American history, but rarely contains a look past the Appalachians. McDonnell centers the straits of Mackinac as the nexus of the native world of the "upper country" desired by France and Britain for its wealth in furs. Rather than the passive, unsophisticated players implied by Eurocentric histories, the Odawa and their allies emerge as savvy, powerful, and calculating players on the local and world stage. In many ways, this book fills in the missing pieces of the why and wherefore of such notable events as the Seven Years War, Pontiac's War, the American Revolution, and a little of the War of 1812. Native American concerns were not the primary causes of these conflicts, and the author does not argue such, but they were active players with strategic goals. What emerges from this tale is a remarkable portrait of an enduring civilization that has been overlooked for too long. I, for one, will never look at Mackinac the same again. For these people, it truly was the center of the world.

[Ai Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was... okay? I read it over a very spread out amount of time, which is never good for reading books, but also in part speaks to how this book just didn't grab me. I was convinced by the end that McDonnell was right to identify how the Odawa had been left out of narratives, and I generally believed the power they held over the region. I just got caught up in the details and it made it hard to follow things that were happening. That might be part of the point, but it made for a really difficult read, and the months it took me to read it made it even more difficult. Overall, not a terrible read, and interesting to consider, but not my favorite thing.

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael McDonnell’s book, Masters of Empire, offers a new perspective when reading and interpreting the history of early America. McDonnell focused much of his narrative and analysis on the Odawa Indians that inhabited the pays d’en haut. McDonnell makes the argument that much of early American history and our understanding of it always comes from one perspective; the European or American perspective. What McDonnell does in Masters of Empire is show just how influential and powerful the Odawa Indians were during this period.

McDonnell starts his narrative off with giving the reader a general understanding of what the pays d’en haut was like in early America. His analysis of the Odawa culture—especially the kinship network that they created—showed just how instrumental the Odawa Indians were. They would rely on this kinship network often war with the Europeans and intertribal warfare would come their way. McDonnell then focuses on how the Odawa impacted many events and when examined through their perspective, the reader sees just how instrumental they were in shaping the history of early America.

McDonnell examined their role in the Seven Years’ War (The French and the Indian War) and shows how they impacted the war effort through many examples. One such example is focused on the French victory at Oswego. Told from the European perspective, this battle is one that the French decisively won. From the Odawa perspective, the only reason that Montcalm was successful at Oswego was because of his Indian allies. McDonnell makes the Indian role and perspective the focus of his argument and interpretation of many events. McDonnell highlights how the Odawa were able to force the European powers into giving into their demands. By doing this—McDonnell argues—not only did it benefit the Odawa but also proved their power as a nation.

McDonnell’s book still falls within the general historiography of Indian relations in early America but there is less focus on the European viewpoint and more on the Indians. McDonnell is open in his book when challenging other historians’ views on this topic. He mentions Richard White and James Merrell; two authors who have written about Indian relations during this period. McDonnell does this to show where traditional narratives fall and how his narrative is different.

McDonnell’s analysis of the role the Odawa had in early America offers a new perspective which should be considered when looking at early America. Through his analysis we see a story of power, survival, and adaptation. As all other Indian groups in the pays d’en haut were being removed, the Odawa remained where they were and where they still reside. McDonnell’s book by no means is an Indian feel good story. In the end McDonnell does what he set out to do which was to tell the history of the pays d’en haut from the Odawa perspective. In doing so he opens another way to interpret the history of early America.

[Jacob Vigil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rich and informative survey of the history of the First Nations people of the Great Lakes in the colonial period, their impact on European empires, and their strategies of survival and resilience.
My main beef with this book is just that it was heavily focused on the political and military details and chronology. I learned a lot about who the leaders were, the battles that were fought, and even the political decision making of the various nations and European powers. But I was hoping for more social, economic, and/or ecological history.

Another issue I had was that the author seemed at great pains to emphasize the power and savvy of the Odawa and other Indians-constantly trying to show that they had the upper hand with regard to French, English, and American encroachment on their land. While this is true and refreshing to read about, McDonnell, I think, glosses over or totally disregards the real ways in which settler colonialism devastated and transformed Indian societies. Yes, intermarriage with French traders extended and strengthened kinship and economic ties that ensured the survival of the communities in Michigan. But can't we also acknowledge that rape and sexual violence also attended the mixing of cultures in North America?

The lives or perspectives of women in the context of colonization are almost never mentioned-- and when they are, the focus is on Indian women in their role as wives and mothers of the famous and powerful men they were attached to.

Overall, though, this is an important contribution to the historiography of North American Indians in that it centers the narrative on the complexity, motivations, resilience, political power, and agency of First Nations. They were not passive victims, but savvy political actors who succeeded in playing off global European powers against each other to secure their own interests.

[Robert Downes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spellbinding history of Indian power on the Great Lakes

I was was hooked from the first page of Michael McDonnell’s “Masters of Empire,” which offers page after page of astonishing revelations of life among the Odawa in the 17th and 18th centuries.
As the title implies, the Odawa (which means “traders” in the Anishinaabek language) controlled the empires of France and England in their struggle for North America and its fur trade. Commanding access to lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron at the Mackinac Straits, the Odawa considered their homeland to be the heart of the world, from which it was possible to travel not only up the St. Lawrence seaway, but also south and west through a network of rivers to the Mississippi and beyond.
McDonnell skillfully demonstrates that it was the Odawa and other native peoples who literally called the shots early on with European powers, sparking the global Seven Years War which led to one million deaths world-wide. He notes that the expense of this conflict, also known as the French and Indian War, led to heavy taxation of English colonies, leading to the American Revolution.
Also revelatory is the extent of Odawa military power with their near continental-wide raids into Tennessee, the Gulf of Mexico and Pennsylvania. In the latter, they took part in Braddocks’ Defeat in 1755, in which 600 warriors and 200 Frenchmen routed the 3,000-man army of Major General Edward Braddock. McDonnell shows over and over how kinship bonds united native peoples, allowing them to muster hundreds of warriors while squeezing the coffers of foreign suitors.
McDonnell has contributed a valuable reassessment of the role of the French and British in their hapless relations with the Indians of the Upper Great Lakes. His book is a brilliant feat of scholarship and storytelling.

[John Caviglia]

I stopped reading this book at 29%, but in all fairness I need to explain why. Though Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America is well done, and interesting, I found my curiosity stimulated enough that I wanted more breadth and depth in the history. And nosing around, I think I found just the book: The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815, which I have begun reading ... a classic of its kind, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and, I think, the more substantial thing I'm wanting.

To clarify my perspective, I should point out that I am personally fascinated with Native Americans in general, and particularly by a subset of that category--the Seneca--on whose former land my house now sits, not ten miles from Ganondagan (a site sacred to them). So, though to me Masters of Empire seemed skimpy, it might be just be book enough for those wanting a quicker take on the French and Indian (or Seven Years’) War.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masters of Empire is amazing. Having lived in Ottawa County, Michigan, and vacationed regularly near Cross Village, Michigan (near the center of Ottawa tribal life in the 17th-18th centuries), I had no idea of the importance of the Otrtawa to the politics and economy of early America. Were the Ottawa responsible for the 18th century British victories over the French? Were the Ottawa responsible for the outbreak of the Revolutionary War? How were they able to resist the “Removal” policies that displaced or destroyed almost all of the other tribes East of the Mississippi? McDonnell makes a strong case for the powerful and complex diplomacy that marked the dominance of the “Odawa” (Anishinaabeg) over all other nations, including dozens of Indian nations as well as the Europeans. Their secret: thousands of alliances formed through intermarriage, and a decentralized governance that befuddled the French, British, and Americans. The only serious downfall of this account is McDonnell’s extremely repetitious style of narrative. Many times I wanted to say, Yes Michael, we got the point. If you live in Michigan, you need to read this book.

[Gary Brecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensively researched in both early French and English sources, Mc Donnall relates the important role played by Anishinabe natives in forming the histories of America and Canada. The Anishinabe were Algonquins, comprised of many tribes like the Ottawa and Ojibwas, who occupied the Michilimackinac and Sault St. Marie straits in the Great Lakes during the early years of European settlement in North America. The author makes a case for appreciating the Native American perspective of events prior to and during the French & Indian conflict, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. This is not an easy read for the serious student of history since it is accompanied by copious notes which serve to demonstrate and verify the observations made by the various eye witnesses and government administrators of that era. Despite the academic approach to this subject the story is told in such a way that it does not become tedious or too pedagogic. This book would be an excellent addition to the libraries of any who are interested in Native American history.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quite a different view of the fur trade. It's about the power and influence of the Indians on the trade in their home areas and their effects on more distant places too. McDonnel explains and shows the ability of the various tribes who are tied by marriage and other economic factors to unite and help or hinder the French, English and the American colonists in their trade efforts in the upper Great lakes and in their wars.
McDonnel has done a lot of research to come up with this needed addition to better understanding the complexities of the fur trade.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Europeans first arrived in the Great Lakes region, they found a complex network of allegiances and conflicts between fairly sophisticated groups who were far less interested in The White Man than in their own politics and rivalries. By considering the area’s colonial-era history from the perspective of the Odawa, who served as power brokers between the Europeans and other native groups but had their own agenda, the author provides a welcome change from the usual view that nothing much was going on here before the Europeans blundered in.

[Chris Safranski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read on a lesser-discussed aspect of American history

I bought this book without truly understanding what it was about but I'm glad I read it. I have read countless books on colonial American history and this book provided a view of a Native American group I had learned only little about in previous books. It was interesting to see how a group of peoples influenced American history when the standard narrative is to dismiss them as pawns of the French or English. The book was a bit repetitive in some places but overall was an interesting read.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a longtime Chicagoan and recent transplant to southwest Michigan, I thought it would be good to brush up on the history of the regional native tribes. There is a lot of information in this book and some interesting reformulations of English, French, and American colonial conquest through Indian eyes. It was a bit too dry and textbook to truly captivate me, though.

[Alec Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating survey of the Indian "empire" in the Great Lakes region of North America that held sway for two centuries, and through complex intra-tribal relations and balancing the empires of England and France survived, until swept away by the Americans.

[Edward Irons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael McDonnell takes the reader on a deep dive into an overlooked era, that of pre-1800 colonial North America, and into an overlooked people, the Anishinaabeg. The Anishinaabeg were the dominant ethnolinguistic group in the Great Lakes. Their descendants, in various tribes such as the Odawa and the Ojibwa, continue to live around the shores of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan today. McDonnell’s key point is that the Anishinaabeg and their neighbors had developed a thriving and surprisingly strong civilization that held off the incursions from Europeans back for three hundred years.

The “Empire” of the title can thus be taken two ways. First, the Empires of France and England. As McDonnell states again and again, decisions taken at war councils in indigenous North America had vast impacts on the development of both the French and British colonial empires. While it is a stretch to claim that the Anishinaabeg “ruled” New France the same way as Luis XIV’s finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert or the Marquis de Vaudreuil the senior, governor of New France from 1703 to 1725, McDonnell is making the strong case that the Anishinaabeg and the culture of the pays d’en haut, the entire northwest of New France, exercised considerable impact of decisions in both France and Britain and thus on the course of history.

The second sense of empire is the complex indigenous culture which, despite the presence of Europeans, thrived well into the 19th century. Anishinaabewaki was an empire of another sort than the European model, but an empire nevertheless. It was maintained by mutually reinforcing trade and kinship ties. McDonnell does an exemplary job of describing the constant rebalancing required to make the empire work. This was a social system that easily absorbed the impact of the French, who clearly functioned as simply one ethnic group among many others, and not the most significant at that. (The Anishinaabeg were always primarily focused on their traditional foes, the Iroquois.) Anishinaabeg councils and leaders, the ogimaa, proved adept at strategizing their responses and persuading other groups, many of which were related to them by marriage. This form of empire clearly could not stand up to the British-American style of settler civilization that prevailed in the 1800s. Yet it was amazingly resilient. Nor was Anishinaabeg civilization poor or passive. The Anishinaabeg exercised their own agency. The French and British were allowed to stay at the discretion of the indigenous peoples.

The second half of the book describes the historic events that eventually led to the victory of the British-American social form to which we are all heirs. This includes, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the large numbers of settlers intent on moving west and taking lands from indigenous populations. But in the case of the Anishinaabeg this is not a tragic story. The tribe has managed to preserve its integrity and stay in the region.

McDonnell’s careful description leaves an exciting sense of possibility. The Anishinaabeg and the French co-existed for nearly two hundred years. Nor were the Anishinaabeg conquered by the British or the US These expert negotiators thrived on the margins by a mixture of diplomacy, trading, kinship ties and constant communication. What if this civilizational form had continued intact into the modern age? Anishinaabeg society in its heyday offers in effect an alternative way of organizing social life, one based on true democratic values—the endless councils and opinions between Anishinaabeg villages, a topic which McDonnell covers well. How such a system was able to thrive while adapting to modernity is a fascinating question, one worth pondering as we look to our own future.

[Stuart Berman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do we really know about American history?

Did you know that various European troops and colonists were insignificant compared to the vast array of native tribes?

Did you know how the Anishinaabe shaped global events and were in part responsible for the American Revolution?

Did you know that the Anishinaabe are the largest North American tribal group still around today?

The author uncovers the hidden history of the Anishinaabe from the 1600’s up through the War of 1812. This is no dry history but one that is gripping while filling the massive gaps that we were never taught.

This is not a book that takes sides and tries to lionize nor demonize any of the actors in the great drama of North America during this period. The author tries to present the perspectives of the groups encountering each other. We see how the French, then British and then American reacted and relied upon the Anishinaabe in an untarnished manner yet not judgmental. Nor are the Anishinaabe glorified, we see the wisdom, the indecisiveness and the horrific actions from one and all.

But this book is more than old history, it inspires reflection about how different people can deal with difficult situations even today. The Anishinaabe offer a tantalizing view into autonomous government that any professed libertarian ought consider, both pros and cons; they also show us an example of how to deal with racial strife as we see right now with global protests; and I see important lessons that they could teach regarding the Israeli/Arab conflict.

Now I begin my search for a modern history of the Anishinaabe and a clear perspective of these people living hidden in plain sight.

[Wendell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing and somewhat groundbreaking new history of indigenous politics and society in the colonial Midwest; if the description sounds a lot like Richard White's classic The Middle Ground, that's because McDonnell covers a lot of the same material from a different perspective; he contends that White, classic though he wrote, denied agency to the native peoples they both study through emphasizing the dislocation of indigenous society with the arrival of Europeans. It's been a long time since I read The Middle Ground, so I'm not sure how much I agree with this. On the other hand, it certainly isn't a problem from which McDonnell suffers; focusing on the experiences of the Anishinaabeg and the Odawa in particular, he brings the history into close view, stressing individual conflicts and life stories such as that of the "mixed" Langlade family, whose fortunes paralleled the changing political and social landscape of the eighteenth-century Midwest. McDonnell's central argument is that indigenous problems and conflicts reciprocally affected European ambitions in the region, in particular the Allegheny "border" strife that drew Britain and France into the Seven Years' War. Setting the colonial outpost of Michilimackinac (now wonderfully restored as an archeological park by the State of Michigan) at the center of a vast informal empire of trading and exchange, he convincingly argues for the continuing power and influence of indigenous peoples well into the nineteenth century in ways that transformed relations between themselves and the oncoming flood of settlers. He largely concerns himself with the eighteenth century, so there's not as much here about the establishment of American power, but it explains more than a little about the unusual pattern of settlement in the Upper Midwest, Michigan in particular. A little slow to get going, but well worth reading, and hopefully a taste of more revelatory history to come.

[E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend from Minnesota loaned me this book a couple of years ago, and I've been working my way through it slowly, finally finishing last night, after another vacation in the Great Lakes region.

This is history as told from the perspective of the Odawa. The author demonstrates the central role that the nation played in colonial and earlier American history, as they played the French, British, Americans, and other nations off of one another. And did so with greater lasting success than some of the other indigenous nations.

Among his claims is that the Seven Year's War, the first world war that embroiled all the empires of Europe, was begun by the Odawa.

I've long wished that North American history, particularly the maps, show our early history as a contest among nations, instead of looking like white Americans occupying empty space to their West. This book helps to flesh out the details of one part of that history.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

draft notes
at p.100 of 329
exciting story of native empires, coalitions, trading, and impact on the french and english traders and settlers.
my only real criticism at this pt is too much restating of McDonnell's theme, ie the Odawa, centered at strategic hub where the Great Lakes, Superior, Michigan, and Huron meet, and their allies and foes (Iroquois and sometimes Dakota) were the primary catalysts for the success and failure for the French and English imperialists, traders, armies, and settlers in the New World. The standard version is that the English and French fought for control of the New World and the natives were unsophisticated, unreliable, and manipulated part-time allies for the two competing major powers.

The impact of the competition to control the New World was enormous - the Seven Years War with all the major european powers, French & Indian War, and ultimately the Revolutionary War.

[Robert Ham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book argues, quite convincingly, that the tribes around the Great Lakes were pretty much running the show in the 17th and 18th centuries, playing the British and French empires off against one another, and in doing so restores some balance to a heretofore Euro-centric historical narrative. The argument is similar to that made by Pekka Hamalained in The Comanche Empire. As with that book, I found myself accepting the argument, but not much liking the Native American peoples it described, who come off as petty, manipulative, demanding presents to behave, and perfectly happy to start a war if they don't get their way--in other words, just like everyone else. The book will certainly disabuse you of the notion that Native Americans lived in harmony with nature and one another before the European invasion. It's an eye-opening book and to my mind long overdue.

[Chris Maddix · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Native American and member of the Ojibway tribe, I was particularly interested in Masters of Empire, the first book I have examined which focused entirely on Great Lakes Indians. I was not disappointed. With exacting and punctilious detail author Michael McDonnell chronicled the history of Great Lakes tribes, scrutinizing most closely the Odawa tribe at Michilimackinac, the northernmost point of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Most of the history of which I am aware details Europeans v Native Americans, but this book convincingly makes the point that the interaction of Native Americans, eg the Odawas v the Iroquois, was much more important to the indians.

This book is not for everyone, but for me it was wonderful. It was as if a page of heretofore unknown history was revealed, and, since I had personal interest, the book had still further impact.

[Andy]

An interesting look at early American history from an alternate perspective. It frames Native American participation in the seven years war and war of independence not as isolated incidents, but as part of broader historical currents that often took place outside European colonists purview.

The great lakes tribes were neither hapless victims nor ruthlessly hostile towards the colonies. Rather they saw the potential of trade to boost their wealth and status among their neighbors, while shrewdly maintaining a balance of power among European powers to prevent domination by one.

As American settlement steadily progressed westward, the northern Anishinaabe maintained this pragmatism and slowly assimilated themselves into the new society. Its not as romantic as the militant uprisings of Tecumseh or Crazy Horse, but theyre one of the few groups to have not been displaced by colonization.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book concerning the Great Lakes Indians and their far reaching effects on events in American history. From Michilimackinac to Johnston Farm and Indian Agency in Piqua, Ohio; as well as dealing with far reaching time frame of the 1600's through the War of 1812. Characters such as Charles Langlade, many Indian chiefs, and tribes such as the Odawa, the Anishinaabeg, Shawnee, Sioux and Ojibwe, etc. The French, English, American and how they fought, traded, and interacted with the Native Americans is included. A lot of information is related to help place an overall view of this time in American history.