abstract: Museums reflect power relations in society. Centuries of tradition dictate that museum professionals through years of study have more knowledge about the past and culture than the communities they present and serve. As mausoleums of intellect, museums developed cultures that are resistant to relinquishing any authority to the public. The long history of museums as the authority over the past led to the alienation and exclusion of many groups from museums, particular indigenous communities. Since the 1970s, many Native groups across the United States established their own museums in response to the exclusion of their voices in mainstream institutions. As establishments preserving cultural material, tradition, and history, tribal museums are recreating the meaning of "museum," presenting a model of cooperation and inclusion of community members to the museum process unprecedented in other institutions. In a changing world, many scholars and professionals call for a sharing of authority in museum spaces in order to engage the pubic in new ways, yet many cultural institutions s struggle to find a way to negotiate the traditional model of a museum while working with communities. Conversely, the practice of power sharing present in Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) tradition shaped a museum culture capable of collaboration with their community. Focusing on the Akwesasne Museum as a case study, this dissertation argues that the ability for a museum to share authority of the past with its community is dependent on the history and framework of the culture of the institution, its recognition of the importance of place to informing the museum, and the use of cultural symbols to encourage collaboration. At its core, this dissertation concerns issues of authority, power, and ownership over the past in museum spaces. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. History 2013

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The lack of a chronological framework for 16th and 17th century northeastern North America has impeded local and regional cultural reconstructions. Based upon the changing style of 16th and early 17th century European glass beads and the settlement patterning of the Neutral Iroquoians of southern Ontario, a chronology has been created. It provides the means to investigate native and European cultural trends during that era, and within this dissertation three topics are examined--the development of the commercial fur trade and its archaeological manifestations, an archaeological definition of the Neutral Iroquoian confederacy, and changes in European material culture recovered from pre-ca. AD 1650 archaeological contexts throughout the Northeast.

Les Basques ont été parmi les premiers Européens à être en contact et à pratiquer le commerce avec les Premières Nations du nord-est de l’Amérique du Nord. Leurs activités de pêche et leurs relations avec les Premières Nations au XVIe siècle demeurent peu et mal connues dans la mesure où elles ont laissé peu de traces écrites et qu’il y a très peu de travaux traitant de la question. Notre étude porte principalement sur l’analyse de la langue et de la culture matérielle pour appréhender les relations nouées entre ces deux groupes car les premiers contacts entre eux ont été caractérisés par des échanges linguistiques et des échanges d’objets matériels. C’est essentiellement par les travaux historiques menés sur les ports basques, par les cartes anciennes, par les récits de voyage français, qui font souvent référence aux Basques, et par les collections d’objets provenant de sites basques et autochtones en Amérique du Nord que nous pouvons mieux connaître les activités des Basques et leurs relations avec les Premières Nations. Nous avons donc privilégié une approche multidisciplinaire et transversale qui mobilise l’histoire, la linguistique et l’archéologie dans un même travail de synthèse. / The Basques were among the first Europeans to be in contact and to trade with the Native people of north-eastern North America. Little is known or understood of their activities and relationships with the First Nations in the 16th century in so far as few printed records of their activities have survived and the scholarly works dealing with the topic are scarce and far between. The study focusses on language and material culture because the first contacts between these two groups are characterised by the exchange of words and material objects. The aim of this study is to reach a better understanding of the activities of the Basque and their relations with First Nations through historical research carried out in Basque ports, maps of the period, French travel accounts, which often refer to the Basques who preceded them, and collections of objects from Basque and First Nations archaeological sites in North America. This study is, therefore, a multidisciplinary undertaking which combines history, linguistics and archaeology in a single analytical work. / Euskaldunak lehenengoetarikoak izan ziren Ipar Amerikako ipar-ekialdeko Lehen Nazioekin harremantzen eta salerosketan aritzen. Haien XVI. Mendeko arrantza eta harremanen aztarna idatziak eskasak dira, idatziriko idazki gutxi geratu baitira eta ikasketa oso gutxi baitaude gai honi buruz. Hizkuntz eta kultura materialaren trukaketa izanen dira bide Euskaldun eta Lehen Nazioetakoen arteko harremana ulertzeko, horiexek izan baitziren haien harremanari hasiera eman zioten bi kontaktu motak. Gehienbat euskal portuei buruzko idazki notarioak aztertzen dituzten lan historikoak, mapa zaharrak, frantsesen bidai liburuak eta euskal zein Lehen Nazioen indusketa lekuetan aurkitu diren zenbait objektu landuko ditugu, euskaldunek Ipar Amerikako ipar-ekialdean zituzten zereginak eta bertakoekin zuten harremana hobe ulertzeko. Lan hau, beraz, jakintza-alor anitzeko lan bat izanen da, historia, hizkuntza eta arkeologia aztertuko dituena, analisi lan bakarrean.

Dans la tradition historiographique québécoise, les Iroquois ont été présentés comme les adversaires acharnés de la Nouvelle-France. Pourtant, à plusieurs reprises, entre 1640 et 1660, les Cinq-Nations iroquoises proposent aux Français de s'unir étroitement à eux pour «ne faire qu'un seul peuple». Dans les années 1650, les propositions en ce sens vont recevoir un accueil favorable de la part des autorités coloniales françaises et déboucher sur la construction d'une base commerciale et missionnaire au cœur du pays iroquois. Ultimement, cette tentative de rapprochement sera un échec et les hostilités reprendront en 1660, mais pendant quelques années, la possibilité d'une alliance franco-iroquoise avait été prise très au sérieux, aussi bien dans la colonie que parmi les Cinq-Nations iroquoises. Jusqu'ici, les historiens n'ont guère prêté attention à cette volonté réciproque des Français et des Iroquois de s'unir étroitement et ont traité cet épisode un peu comme une bizarrerie, comme un incident de parcours sans grandes conséquences. Cela tient peut-être au fait que dans l'imaginaire collectif les Iroquois représentent l'archétype de l'adversaire de la Nouvelle-France et qu'il existe certaines difficultés à imaginer ces deux «acteurs» autrement que comme des ennemis jurés. Cette vision est-elle pleinement justifiée ? Ne devrait-on pas prendre au sérieux cette volonté de rapprochement entre les Français et les Cinq Nations ? Examinant les relations franco-iroquoises du début du XVIIe siècle jusqu'en 1660, cette thèse cherche à dégager dans quel cadre, à la fois politique, économique, militaire et même religieux, s'inscrivent les démarches des Iroquois et des Français et à comprendre les impératifs stratégiques et les visées géopolitiques qui les conditionnent. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013

The past is often used by political figures in the present in order to achieve political goals by manipulating a feeling of identity, based upon a shared history, among their followers. The extent to which a political leader may alter narratives of the past to meet his or her own needs is governed by certain constraints and laws of structure, as Appadurai and Sahlins have argued (Appadurai 1981; Sahlins 1985). However, the credibility of a leader is affected by such factors as how well that leader fills the cultural construct of a leader's role and adheres to the community's expectations. At Kahnawake, a Mohawk community near Montreal, I found that the amount of authority granted to individual factional leaders in their interpretation of the Iroquois Confederacy's Great Law of Peace reflected the degree to which each leader behaved as a Confederacy chief or orator should, and also reflected the degree to which the leader obeyed social norms, particularly that of not advocating violence against fellow Mohawks. My findings add to the growing body of anthropological literature on the uses of the past by demonstrating in a specific case study how interpersonal relationships between leaders and a community affect the leaders' credibility and authority over the past.

The archaeological record of the Iroquois supports that settlements were regularly relocated during the protohistoric period (1500-1650 A.D.). With the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) computer software, archaeologists may analyze variables potentially resulting in or influencing the movement of settlements. Through the use of spatial analysis, I argue that Cayuga Iroquois settlement locations were influenced by the environmental characteristics of their surrounding landscape. Specifically, wetlands are believed to have influenced settlement location choices in central New York state. This study examines the spatial relationships between wetland habitats and protohistoric period Cayuga Iroquois settlements where swidden maize agriculture comprised most of the diet. Considering previous research that has linked the movement of settlements to Iroquois agricultural practices, I hypothesize that wetlands played a significant role in the Iroquois subsistence system by providing supplementary plant and animal resources to a diet primarily characterized by maize consumption, and thereby influenced the strategy behind settlement relocation. Nine Cayuga Iroquois settlements dating to the protohistoric period were selected for analysis using GIS. Two control groups, each consisting of nine random points, were generated for comparison. Distance buffers show the amount of wetlands that are situated within 1-, 2.5-, and 5-kilometers from Cayuga settlements and random points. The total number of wetlands within proximity of these distances to the settlements and random points are recorded and analyzed. The results indicate a statistical significance regarding the prominence of wetlands within the landscape which pertains to the Cayuga Iroquois settlement strategy.