Ann Durkin Keating

And third, they are proselytizing.

They are missionaries.

They're Catholic missionaries that are coming out.

And they come into this region and they find dense networks of lots of different indigenous people who have knitted together village life and hunting and farming really over the course of their seasons.

And what they find is they get involved in the fur trade.

So the most critical connection that's made with indigenous people in this region by the French is the fur trade is the missionizing is creating Christian missions and

And again, Illinois, though, is also a transportation route.

This area becomes a transportation route for the French between the north and the south.

Oh, I would agree.

I think the idea that the French come in, they're not interested.

They want to claim land, but they're not taking land or resources straightforwardly from Indigenous people.

They continue to hold this land, whether it's Potawatomi, whether it's Miami, Ho-Chunk.

But instead, what we get is that trade network.

And the French men who come into this region are, in many cases, they're traders who are going to marry Indigenous women.

So the trading networks are family networks, are village networks, so that the French who move into this region create... It's a new culture.

It's certainly not simply an indigenous culture, but it's rooted in indigenous culture with the addition of...

European with French goods, with French ideas, with French religion being a part of the story.

So, you know, you'll find they'll remain Indian villages, but many of those villages and then a trading outpost, you'll find French men.

And then once those French men and indigenous women have formed families, there's going to be this region is filled with mixed descent people.

So people who are of French and indigenous heritage.