Presentation Abstract

Faculty's Name: Melinda Jette

Co-registrant Names:

Type of Presentation: Research Paper Presentation: One or more registrants presenting a research paper

Presentation Title: "French North Americans and Anglo-Americans: Encounters along the Oregon Trail, 1800-1860"

Abstract:

For this project, I am currently investigating intercultural encounters along the Oregon Trail during the early 1800s when travel by foot, canoe, and horse were the primary means of locomotion. As the experience of the Anglo-American emigrants is well-known and well-documented, I examine the story of French Canadian men and their bicultural French-Indian families through their documented encounters with Anglo-American travelers and migrants. The French diaspora in the trans-Mississippi began in the late 1600s and continued in phases through the mid-1800s under various regimes (French, Spanish, British, and American). The North American fur trade was one of the major engines of imperial penetration and historical change in the region prior to the arrival of industrial capitalism after the Civil War. French-Canadians and French-Indian peoples played a central role in the development of the continental fur trade from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast.

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