Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670–1870 by Sylvia Van Kirk
1985; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 19; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1985.0051
ISSN1948-7142
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeology and Natural History
Resumo346 Western American Literature lusts, his boldnesses, his abilities, his willingness to be hugely and spontane ously himself. This is not simply a brash young trapper feeling his oats, but a man who sees the myriad, crazy possibilities of life and embraces them with an affirming, cosmic laughter. If the book’s other people run to fur-trade stereotypes, it does not matter beside the creation of such a splendid Beckwourth . Hotchkiss is quick to emphasize that his Beckwourth is fictional, and that seems to me right: Why not use the historical mulatto as a frame on which to build a character larger and more resonant than history? But other liberties with history are more dubious: Hotchkiss indicates several times that Moses Harris was a Negro, which he wasn’t; Jedediah Smith is sketched as small both physically and spiritually, a factual error com pounded by an interpretive one; emigrants are put into the mountains half a decade before they arrived; and other such small matters. The reshaping of history seems to me legitimate when done knowingly for large artistic purpose, but not when done out of carelessness or ignorance. And, considering Hotchkiss’s impressive ability to enter into the mind of Beckwourth, I hoped for a deeper and more empathetic portrayal of Crow culture. Hotchkiss seems interested in such matters only superficially, when unavoidable for his story. There’s no denying the novel’s sporadic great beauty, but on the whole this is an uneven performance. Sometimes Ammahabas seems to belong in the distinguished company of The Big Sky, Lord Grizzly, Trask, and Moontrap. As often it seems to blend “distinguished” with “boring.” WINFRED BLEVINS, Jackson, Wyoming Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870. By Sylvia Van Kirk. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. $21.50 hardcover. $9.95 paperback.) The importance of the fur trade to North American history can hardly be overstated. Yet, because the fur trade has been regarded as a male activity, Van Kirk’s book might seem only a trivial addendum. To think, however, that women were not important to the fur trade underscores our sexist and racist conceptualization of history. While it is true that a virtual ban kept European women from the Canadian wilds for much of the fur-trade period, the extensive role Indian women and their “half-breed” daughters played in fur-trade society has been ignored. Van Kirk’s book documents the widespread intermarriage between the traders and Indian women, showing how fur-trade society developed its own marriage rite, a la fagon du pays, combining both Indian and European mar riage customs. Using wills, letters, diaries, and a volume of Hudson’s Bay Company correspondence, she illustrates both the loving and tragic relation ships that existed between traders and their native families. Van Kirk ends Reviews 347 her book with the arrival of white women and the tensions caused by these “lovely, tender exotics.” Many Tender Ties documents what effects the coming of traders with their iron pots, knives, and European values had on native society, and illus trates the differences in the way Indian males and females responded to these changes. Indian women, for example, who welcomed metal implements, were also often more closely connected with the fur trade than were Indian men. Women served as interpreters, snowshoe and moccasin makers, and food preservers. Also, because Indian women trapped small animals and prepared their pelts, these peltries were considered their property. Consequently, much of the actual trading for pelts involved an exchange between trappers and Indian women. Many Tender Ties is a pleasure to read and a valuable asset to scholar ship. It has many pictures, extensive footnotes, and a substantial bibliography. Its only limitation is that Van Kirk had to rely on men’s documents to recreate the history of women. Indian women and their offspring left very few first hand accounts of their thoughts and feelings. This may be a part of history we will never be able to regain, but .Many Tender Ties does much to remedy the deficiencies of our present history. BILLIE WAHLSTROM Michigan Technological University Famous All Over Town. By Danny Santiago, pseud. Daniel James. (New York: Simon...
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