Indian Men and French “Women”: Fragile Masculinity and Fragile Alliances in Colonial Louisiana, 1699–1741

Abstract

abstract:Understandings of gender underpinned every encounter between eighteenth-century Indigenous and colonial leaders. They met each other not just as warriors, traders, or diplomats but also as men. Keeping this in mind, this article examines diplomatic discourse between French colonial officials of Louisiana and Choctaw headmen to understand the underlying tensions in their long-standing alliance. This analysis sheds new light on critical decisions made by both the French and Choctaws about their military strategies and their commitments to defending each other. When one studies several flashpoints in their alliance during the Natchez and Chickasaw Wars, French and Choctaw understandings of masculinity and its entanglements with war, status, and alliance come into focus. Because the Choctaws held the upper hand in the relationship, they typically directed how the often-resentful French performed masculinity; frequently the French did so on Choctaw terms.