Date of Award:
5-2015
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Arts (MA)
Department:
History
Committee Chair(s)
Victoria Grieve
Committee
Victoria Grieve
Committee
David Rich Lewis
Committee
Judson Finley
Abstract
The fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, a region encompassing Oregon, Washington, Idaho, the western half of Montana, and British Columbia, supplied the needed ingredients for the formation of a distinctive identity to form among the mixed heritage children born to indigenous women and men of the fur trade. This thesis examined how this identity formed in some the leading families of the time. The MacDonald’s, McKay’s, and the Tolmie’s all embraced both sides of their parental cultures and used them to create and defend their own sense of identity and community. Language was an important aspect of this new culture. The combination of indigenous and European words and phrases, based on the language of the Lower Chinooks, was the foundation of group identity within the mixed heritage community. Kinship ties also brought together this community. It connected them to both indigenous and European communities and created bonds with each other. As American colonialism entered the region, this community pulled together and used both sides of their heritage to defend their rights as a mixed heritage community.
Checksum
13dd0d53bc7c9506c4f1a6c49bffdec3
Recommended Citation
Beason, Alanna Cameron, "Claiming the Best of Both Worlds: Mixed Heritage Children of the Pacific Northwest Fur Trade and the Formation of Identity" (2015). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 4728.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4728
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