French-Indian Fur Trade Era Up for Discussion November 9, 2008

Harry Klinkhamer, of the Isle a la Cache Museum in Romeoville, Ill., will discuss Fur Traders in the Illinois Country on Sunday, November 9, at 1 p.m., at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, 3001 Central St., Evanston.

His talk will focus on the daily realities of the fur trade and the cultural exchange between Native American tribes and French frontiersmen during the
seventeenth and eighteenth century in the greater Chicago region.

French and Native American encounters brought two very different worlds together, Klinkhamer says.

During the fur trade era, the Chicago, Des Plaines, Illinois, and Kankakee rivers served as the equivalent of the interstate system, Klinkhamer says. Politically and militarily, the region served as a bridge between Frances far-flung holdings in Canada and Louisiana.

Local tribes involved in the French fur trade were the Miami, Illinois, Iroquois, Fox, and Potawatomi, Klinkhamer says. They traded furs for European goods that could make their lives easier in some way, including metal knives, copper pots, wool blankets, colorful glass beads and cloths, and other items.

The French were more intent on developing commercial relations with the Indians than colonizing in the area, Klinkhamer says. If you saw Frenchmen on Illinois rivers, they were typically fur traders or Jesuit missionaries.

During Klinkhamers presentation, a costumed historical interpreter, dressed as a French Canadian voyageur, will pay a visit. Phil Liput, a volunteer from the Romeoville museums living history program, will discuss the blend of French and Native American culture adopted by the canoemen who transported beaver pelts, deer skins, and other animal hides; trade goods; and supplies between wilderness areas and commercial outposts.

Klinkhamer is the coordinator for the Isle a la Cache (Island of the Hiding Place) Museum, which is located on the Des Plaines River and is owned and operated by the Forest Preserve District of Will County. He is a member and former officer of the National Council on Public History. In 2003, he was a panelist on National Public Radios Talk of the Nation program on hometown history and local museums.

Admission to the presentation is included with an entrance donation to the Mitchell Museum. Suggested donation is $5 for adults; $2.50 for seniors, students, and children. Maximum suggested admission per family is $10. For information, phone (847) 475-1030. On the Net: http://www.mitchellmuseum.org.

Event submitted by Eventful.com on behalf of natsilv.