"He was neither a soldier nor a slave: he was under the control of no man": Kahnawake Mohawks in the Northwest Fur Trade, 1790-1850.

From 1790 to the 1850s hundreds of Kahnawake men signed fur trade contracts, part of a vast, Montreal-centred, salaried labour force that fuelled the peltry trade for two centuries. However, these Mohawks constituted more than simply a native subset of largely French Canadian voyageur brigades. Mohawks were coveted for their abilities as canoe men, ruthless talents as trappers, and their fearsome warrior reputation. Such martial qualities had special value during the "fur trade wars" of 1798-1804 and 1815-1821. These Kahnawake men pursued these contracts for economic and Mohawk-specific cultural reasons. For young Kahnawake men, difficult employment, distant from home and associated with potential violence, was a means to experience rites of passage from adolescence to manhood and to prove warrior qualities. Racialized white views and the need for Mohawks as woodsmen and warriors with fearsome reputations thus coincided with Mohawk views of their masculinity and the need for adventure and income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]