Crafting Culture at Fort St. Joseph

The study of craft production in the context of Native American–European interactions during the eighteenth century in the western Great Lakes region has emerged as a topic of scholarly interest. An analysis of tinkling cone production both demonstrates how European raw materials were being transformed into new forms and reveals how labor was organized. By examining the technological histories of tinkling cones, this chapter illustrates that their production was conducted in independent workshops as an opportunistic activity that fit the demands of life on the colonial frontier at Fort St. Joseph.

Architectural Remains at Fort St. Joseph

This chapter reveals the architectural remains recovered at Fort St. Joseph. Unlike other colonial settlements, no detailed maps, drawings, or descriptions have come to light to illuminate the physical appearance of the fort. Here, we trace the origins of French colonial architectural styles and how they were adapted to the New World. We then employ archaeological and documentary sources to ascertain the types of buildings that may have existed at Fort St. Joseph, their functions, and what they may have looked like. This information will help in our interpretations of the function, construction techniques, and materials used to construct buildings as revealed through the architectural remains and associated structural materials found at Fort St. Joseph. This examination of eighteenth-century buildings in New France provides a better appreciation and understanding of colonial architecture and the conservative nature of French building practices.

Revealing the History and Archaeology of Fort St. Joseph

This introduction provides the historical and cultural context and rationale for archaeological investigations at Fort St. Joseph. It includes discussions of the research design that has focused on understanding the multiethnic composition of the post, the identities of the Fort St. Joseph community, and the ways in which the Fort occupants participated in a fur trade society. It highlights how the material goods made, used, deposited, and discarded at Fort St. Joseph provide insight into the lived experience and identities of the site occupants as they negotiated the new conditions associated with colonialism and frontier life.

The Historical and Cultural Context of Fort St. Joseph

This brief overview of the cultural and historical context of Fort St. Joseph explores how Natives and newcomers created a vibrant social and economic life on the frontier of the French empire. The Fort was an important trading post and a key cog in the French network of trading and military posts. Interactions between French speakers and Native peoples at the Fort initiated a process of ethnogenesis, even as both Native peoples and French settlers sought to maintain key elements of their particular culture.

Fort St. Joseph Revealed Then and Now

A retrospective examination of the changing interpretations of Fort St. Joseph suggest that the history and archaeology of the Fort have supported various narratives that have served different audiences and political agendas. This concluding chapter emphasizes that the social and political conditions and the subject position of researches influence how Fort St. Joseph has been presented in popular and scholarly discourse. It summarizes what has been learned from nearly two decades of collaborative archaeology at Fort St. Joseph and underscores the importance of the past for charting a better vision for the future.

The Changing Cultural Landscape of the Lower St. Joseph River Valley

Archaeological studies conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project have focused on material remains in the St. Joseph River valley in Niles, Michigan. Material remains indicate that human groups exploited resources and established settlements throughout the area, and that, in the context of local and regional political economic relations, those settlements shifted in response to changes in resources availability and alliance formation. This chapter examines the spatial distribution of Euro-American and Native American sites in the lower St. Joseph River Valley during the periods ranging from immediately prior, to during, and to after the occupation of Fort St. Joseph. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the authors monitored changes in settlement patterns as they related to the establishment and abandonment of this French colonial outpost.

The Use of Animals for Fur, Food, and Raw Material at Fort St. Joseph

The large faunal assemblage from the Fort St. Joseph site reveals the importance of wild over domesticated animals, the importance of fur trade activities, and the importance of daily interactions with local indigenous populations. Whereas both subsistence and fur trade activities occurred at the site, our study provides detailed information on where (the habitat) and what species were procured. Faunal specimens also include examples of bone tools, ornaments, and gaming pieces that site inhabitants made or made and/or used. Attention to the spatial distribution of animal remains attempts to understand refuse disposal patterns and distinctive activity areas where animals were processed for their hides, meat, and bone marrow. The Fort St. Joseph animal exploitation pattern shows a preference for wild animal resources, which is consistent with other French colonial sites like the ones in the Upper Great Lakes and in Louisiana.

Hide Processing and Cultural Exchange in the Fort St. Joseph Community

This chapter examines archaeological remains recovered from the Lyne site (20BE10) located on the terrace in proximity to the floodplain settlement of Fort St. Joseph. Artifacts and features that were contemporaneous with the Fort suggest that a long occupational history of this area and different post-depositional formation processes have produced cultural deposits that vary considerably from what has been recovered at the nearby Fort. The authors places an emphasis on a series of smudge pits that evaded agricultural destruction. Their morphology and contents assist in placing these features into a cultural context and demonstrate the types of activities that were conducted by a multiethnic population engaged in cross-cultural exchange at a commercial fur-trading post in the western Great Lakes region.

Public Archaeology at Fort St. Joseph

This chapter summarizes two decades of public archaeology at Fort St. Joseph. It reviews the successes, prospects, and challenges of the project, and it critically examines the lessons learned. The authors suggest various pathways for sustaining the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project into the future while considering its legacy to the field of public archaeology and the community of Niles, MI.

Lead Seals from Colonial Fort St. Joseph

In the past forty years, historians have repeatedly noted that textiles were among the most sought after and ubiquitous trade goods in North America. However, although cloth-related artifacts such as straight pins, thimbles, fasteners, and lead seals are well represented, archaeological sites rarely yield textile scraps. Lead seals provide specific details concerning the types and origins of textiles once present at a site. These data attest to the interconnectedness and scope of the French Atlantic World. This chapter examines the information revealed through the identification and interpretation of lead seals from Fort St. Joseph, including how they situate the daily materiality of the occupants in the larger eighteenth-century world.