As the War of 1812 drew to a stalemate, the American government began the process of state formation in the \"Old Northwest,\" which put political, economic, and cultural pressures on the indigenous population. Among the Anishinaabeg, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, and other Native inhabitants, however, were fifty-three communities of mixed ancestry produced by the fur trade: the Great Lakes Metis. This project looks at the ways the Metis of Green Bay adapted to the pressures of settler colonialism through the nineteenth century. In particular, it uses the diaries of a French-Menominee woman named Mary Hobart Williams to identify examples of \"survivance, \"or the continued presence of indigenous peoples on the land in ways that defy cliched formulas. Williams remained stable and solvent on her own land until her death in the 1880s. She did this by adapting her labor, adding to her kinship network, and using literacy to control her world.
","abstract_html":"<p>As the War of 1812 drew to a stalemate, the American government began the process of state formation in the "Old Northwest," which put political, economic, and cultural pressures on the indigenous population. Among the Anishinaabeg, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, and other Native inhabitants, however, were fifty-three communities of mixed ancestry produced by the fur trade: the Great Lakes Metis. This project looks at the ways the Metis of Green Bay adapted to the pressures of settler colonialism through the nineteenth century. In particular, it uses the diaries of a French-Menominee woman named Mary Hobart Williams to identify examples of "survivance, "or the continued presence of indigenous peoples on the land in ways that defy cliched formulas. Williams remained stable and solvent on her own land until her death in the 1880s. She did this by adapting her labor, adding to her kinship network, and using literacy to control her world.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Schnurr, Rachael"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Open Access Thesis","degree_discipline":"History and Philosophy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["John G. McCurdy, Ph.D.","Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, Ph.D.","Richard Nation, Ph.D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:17:40Z","subjects":["fur trade","Menominee","Native American","United States","War of 1812","Wisconsin","History","Native American Studies","Women's History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1087","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["John G. McCurdy, Ph.D.","Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, Ph.D.","Richard Nation, Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Schnurr, Rachael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2021-10-12T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History and Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["fur trade","Menominee","Native American","United States","War of 1812","Wisconsin","History","Native American Studies","Women's History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1087"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["As the War of 1812 drew to a stalemate, the American government began the process of state formation in the \"Old Northwest,\" which put political, economic, and cultural pressures on the indigenous population. Among the Anishinaabeg, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, and other Native inhabitants, however, were fifty-three communities of mixed ancestry produced by the fur trade: the Great Lakes Metis. This project looks at the ways the Metis of Green Bay adapted to the pressures of settler colonialism through the nineteenth century. In particular, it uses the diaries of a French-Menominee woman named Mary Hobart Williams to identify examples of \"survivance, \"or the continued presence of indigenous peoples on the land in ways that defy cliched formulas. Williams remained stable and solvent on her own land until her death in the 1880s. She did this by adapting her labor, adding to her kinship network, and using literacy to control her world.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Métis wife's tale: Race, womanhood, and adaptation to settler colonialism in the diaries of Mary Hobart Williams"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["John G. McCurdy, Ph.D.","Mary-Elizabeth Murphy, Ph.D.","Richard Nation, Ph.D."],"dc:creator":["Schnurr, Rachael"],"dc:date.available":["2021-10-12T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["As the War of 1812 drew to a stalemate, the American government began the process of state formation in the \"Old Northwest,\" which put political, economic, and cultural pressures on the indigenous population. Among the Anishinaabeg, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, and other Native inhabitants, however, were fifty-three communities of mixed ancestry produced by the fur trade: the Great Lakes Metis. This project looks at the ways the Metis of Green Bay adapted to the pressures of settler colonialism through the nineteenth century. In particular, it uses the diaries of a French-Menominee woman named Mary Hobart Williams to identify examples of \"survivance, \"or the continued presence of indigenous peoples on the land in ways that defy cliched formulas. Williams remained stable and solvent on her own land until her death in the 1880s. She did this by adapting her labor, adding to her kinship network, and using literacy to control her world.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1087"],"dc:subject":["fur trade","Menominee","Native American","United States","War of 1812","Wisconsin","History","Native American Studies","Women's History"],"dc:title":["A Métis wife's tale: Race, womanhood, and adaptation to settler colonialism in the diaries of Mary Hobart Williams"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["History and Philosophy"],"thesis:degree_level":["Open Access Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:17:40Z"}