| Edge of Empire: Documents of Michilimackinac, 1671-1716 Subjects: Fort Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City Mich.) -- History -- Sources; Mackinac Straits of Region (Mich.) -- History -- Sources; Fur trade -- Michigan -- Mackinac Straits of Region -- History -- Sources; Trading posts -- Michigan -- Mackinac Straits of ; Few places were as important in the seventeenth-century European colonial New World as the pays d'en haut. This term means "upper country" and refers to the western Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan, and Superior) and the areas immediately north, south, and west of them. The region was significant because of its large Native American population, because it had an extensive riverine system needed for beaver populations--essential to the fur trade--and because it held the transportation key to westward expansion. The late Joseph L. Payser was Professor Emeritus of French at Indiana University South Bend and co-director of the French Michilimackinac Research Project. Josoé António Brandão is Associate Professor of History and Associate Chair of the Department of History at Western Michigan University. He is co-editor of The Iroquoians and Their World , an ongoing series of publications related to the history and culture of the Iroquoian linguistic group. He is also co-director of the French Michilimackinac Research and Translation Project, of which the translated documents in this volume are a part. |