Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region

by Emily SneffJanuary 29, 2019

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During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ohio River Valley proved to be a rich agrarian region. Many different Native American peoples prospered from its land both in terms of the the land’s ability to produce a wide variety of crops and its support of a wide variety of small fur-bearing animals for the fur trade.

Susan Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women and the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792, helps us explore this unique region and the important roles it played in the early American past.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Susan Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women and the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792, helps us explore the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes region and the important roles they played in the early American past.

During our foray into the 17th- and 18th-century Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes region, Susan reveals why the Ohio River Valley proved to be such a unique, lush, and fertile area for agriculture; The role of the fur trades in connecting the Ohio River Valley with the Great Lakes region; And, how American conquest of the Ohio River Valley altered the region’s prosperity after the American Revolution.

What You’ll Discover

The Ohio River Valley between the late 17th and early 18th centuries
Native American peoples who lived in the Ohio River Valley
The fertility of the Ohio River Valley landscape
How historians can learn about landscapes from earlier eras
European arrival in the Ohio River Valley
The role of Native American women in maintaining agriculture and culture
Native American life and the early fur trade at Green Bay
The early American fur trade
Why French King Louis XIV closed the French fur trade in 1697
The fur trade as a trade in commercial cloth
The cloth Native American women traded for
What happened when the French reopened their fur trade
The Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes fur trade after 1763
American conquest of the region
George Washington’s order to kidnap Ohio River Valley women and children
Indigenous prosperity after the American conquest of the Ohio River Valley

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if the French had not banned the fur trade in 1697 and had instead remained active in the fur trade, how would the history of the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes region be different?