Essential overview of American Indian societies during the Archaic period across central North America.

"Despite increased research interest in the interaction of native North American peoples and Europeans, little attention has been directed toward Indian-French interactions--even though for more than a century the French controlled an area of the interior more than twice the size of the combined North American territories of Britain and Spain." "Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys focuses on historic Native American sites and archaeological evidence of native interaction with the French from the landing of Jean Nicollet in Green Bay in 1634 to the surrender of French America to the British in 1765. It integrates, for the first time, historical documents of the French politicians, explorers, priests, and traders with the archaeological record of numerous midcontinental native and French colonial sites. The essays cover the full range of French America--from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Great Lakes region--and examine topics as diverse as the protohistoric native cultures of the Midwest, French traders among the Sioux of northern Minnesota, Indian-French military relations in Louisiana and on the Wabash, the Indian deerskin trade of the Southeast, Huron refugees in Michigan, and Illini hunting camps and villages in Illinois." "Most previous research into French America, including Francis Parkman's classic histories, has centered on "great men"--LaSalle, Marquette, Joliet, and Nicollet. Calumet and Fleur-de-Lys demonstrates the potential of the archaeological record to expand the history of native cultures and Indian-French relations in the contact era."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Archaeologists across the Midwest have pooled their data and perspectives to produce this indispensable volume on the Native cultures of the Late Woodland period (approximately A.D. 300?1000). Sandwiched between the well-known Hopewellian and Mississippian eras of monumental mound construction, theøLate Woodland period has received insufficient attention from archaeologists, who have frequently characterized it as consisting of relatively drab artifact assemblages. The close connections between this period and subsequent Mississippian and Fort Ancient societies, however, make it especially valuable for cross-cultural researchers. Understanding the cultural processes at work during the Late Woodland period will yield important clues about the long-term forces that stimulate and enhance social inequality. Late Woodland Societies is notable for its comprehensive geographic coverage; exhaustive presentation and discussion of sites, artifacts, and prehistoric cultural practices; and critical summaries of interpretive perspectives and trends in scholarship. The vast amount of information and theory brought together, examined, and synthesized by the contributors produces a detailed, coherent, and systematic picture of Late Woodland lifestyles across the Midwest. The Late Woodland can now be seen as a dynamic time in its own right and instrumental to the emergence of complex late prehistoric cultures across the Midwest and Southeast.