Rainy Lake House

Theodore Catton

doi:10.1353/book.55893

Rainy Lake House

Twilight of Empire on the Northern Frontier

Theodore Catton

Publication Date

September 15, 2017

A fateful encounter between three backwoodsmen on the British–American–Indian frontier leads to the pursuit of wealth—and tragedy.

In September 1823, three men met at Rainy Lake House, a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post near the Boundary Waters. Dr. John McLoughlin, the proprietor of Rainy Lake House, was in charge of the borderlands west of Lake Superior, where he was tasked with opposing the petty traders who operated out of US territory. Major Stephen H. Long, an officer in the US Army Topographical Engineers, was on an expedition to explore the wooded borderlands west of Lake Superior and the northern prairies from the upper Mississippi to the forty-ninth parallel. John Tanner, a "white Indian" living among the Ojibwa nation, arrived in search of his missing daughters, who, Tanner believed, were at risk of being raped by the white traders holding them captive at a nearby fort.

Rainy Lake House weaves together the captivating stories of these men who cast their fortunes in different ways with the western fur trade. Drawing on their combined experiences, Theodore Catton creates a vivid depiction of the beautiful and dangerous northern frontier from a collision of vantage points: American, British, and Indian; imperial, capital, and labor; explorer, trader, and hunter. At the center of this history is the deeply personal story of John Tanner’s search for kinship: first among his adopted Ojibwa nation; then in the search for his white family of origin; and finally in his quest for custody of his half-Indian children.

Rainy Lake House is a character-driven narrative about ambition, adventure, alienation, and revenge. Catton deftly crafts one grand narrative out of three and reveals the perilous lives of the white adventurers and their Indian families, who lived on the fringe of empire.

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Reviews

Catton's riveting story is exquisitely written and well-researched. A must-read for anyone interested in frontier history.

— Library Journal

Catton has produced a remarkable work of narrative nonfiction. ‘Rainy Lake House’ deserves a place on any history buff’s bookshelf alongside other excellent examples of frontier history narratives, including 'Undaunted Courage' (Stephen E. Ambrose), 'Astoria' (Peter Stark), 'Boone' (Robert Morgan) and 'Blood and Thunder' (Hampton Sides).

— The Missoulian

... well written... Recommended

— Choice

It is refreshing to come across a historical monograph written with such a clear commitment to the craft of storytelling... a narrative that transcends mere biography to reveal the complex and fractured world of the northern borderland during the turbulent years of the fur trade monopolies and U.S. expansion... this is a well-researched piece of scholarship that is also a true pleasure to read. Catton's aim here is not to argue small points of historiographic debate, but to offer a glimpse at the tumultuous nature of the fur trade "from its various colliding vantage points" through the compelling accounts of three individuals (p. 7). In this, he succeeds masterfully.

— John William Nelson, University of Notre Dame — Western Historical Quarterly

Catton's nuanced consideration of the cultural history of these events is enlightening.

— Thomas S. Abler, University of Waterloo — Journal of American History

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This narrative focuses on three men from vastly different backgrounds and serves as a vehicle for exploring the rigors of the fur trade and the impending decline of Britain's fur-trading empire... Catton's writing style is lyrical and transcendent.

— Susan Sleeper-Smith, Michigan State University — American Historical Review

Thick description of the fascinating world of the Great Lakes and northern plains is the great strength of this book... Catton's tight focus on three protagonists lets him vividly illustrate the dynamics of fur trade society, the reorganization of the trade, and the rise of Anglo-American racism.

— Benjamin H. Johnson, Loyola University Chicago — Montana: the Magazine of Western History

A journey into the complicated environment of the North American interior in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Written with clarity and energy, this book tells its story through the remarkable device of a triple biography.

— Gregory Evans Dowd, author of Groundless: Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes on the Early American Frontier

Catton makes me think that there must be a gene for historical writing. In this marvelously crafted book, he uses a quarrel over the custody of children in the early nineteenth century to reveal the fraying of the hybrid Indian/white world of the lands neighboring the Great Lakes. This is a deeply human story of a nineteenth-century world that was in the midst of great change. A compelling, surprising, and dramatic account that reads like historical fiction.

— Richard White, author of The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815

Book Details

Publication Date

September 15, 2017

Status

Available

Trim Size

Pages

424

ISBN

9781421422923

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/book.55893

Illustration Description

3 maps

Subject

American History & Studies

Table of Contents

Maps
Timeline
Introduction: Rainy Lake House, 1823
Part I: Leave-Takings
Chapter 1. The Explorer
Chapter 2. The Hunter
Chapter 3. The Trader

Maps
Timeline
Introduction: Rainy Lake House, 1823
Part I: Leave-Takings
Chapter 1. The Explorer
Chapter 2. The Hunter
Chapter 3. The Trader
Part II: Long
Chapter 4. "The English Make Them More Presents"
Chapter 5. Encounters with the Sioux
Chapter 6. Race and History
Chapter 7. To Civilize the Osage
Part III: Tanner
Chapter 8. Westward Migration
Chapter 9. "Six Beaver Skins for a Quart of Mixed Rum"
Chapter 10. The Test of Winter
Chapter 11. Red Sky of the Morning
Chapter 12. Warrior
Part IV: McLoughlin
Chapter 13. Fort William
Chapter 14. Marriage à la façon du pays
Chapter 15. Bad Birds
Chapter 16. The Restive Partnership
Chapter 17. The Pemmican War
Chapter 18. The Battle of Seven Oaks
Chapter 19. The Surrender of Fort William
Chapter 20. Lord Selkirk's Prisoner
Chapter 21. Time of Reckoning
Chapter 22. London
Part V: Long
Chapter 23. The Wonder of the Steamboat
Chapter 24. A Christian Marriage
Chapter 25. Up the Missouri
Chapter 26. To the Rocky Mountains
Chapter 27. Mapmaker
Chapter 28. The Northern Expedition
Part VI: Tanner
Chapter 29. The Coming of The Prophet
Chapter 30. A Loathsome Man
Chapter 31. Sorcery and Sickness
Chapter 32. Taking Fort Douglas
Chapter 33. Rough Justice
Chapter 34. In Search of Kin
Chapter 35. Between Two Worlds
Part VII: McLoughlin
Chapter 36. Chief Factor
Chapter 37. Providence
Chapter 38. Opposing the Americans
Part VIII: Collision
Chapter 39. Working for Wages
Chapter 40. Children of the Fur Trade
Chapter 41. The Ambush
Chapter 42. The Pardon
Chapter 43. "We met with an American"
Chapter 44. The Onus of Revenge
Chapter 45. Journeys Home
Epilogue: Mackinac, 1824 – and After
Postscript: John Tanner as a Source
Acknowledgements
Notes

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Featured Contributor

Theodore Catton

Theodore Catton is an associate research professor of history at the University of Montana. He is the author of Inhabited Wilderness: Indians, Eskimos, and Alaska’s National Parks and American Indians and National Forests.

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