Native Women's Marriage to White Men Term Paper by Top Papers

The paper argues that, far from being agent-less victims, native women who married white fur traders in pre-confederation Canada did so because they knew that they fulfilled an important intermediary role within native/white business relations, and thus stood to see their social and economic status increase dramatically through marriage to non-native men. To put it another way, being a translator and a bridge to both worlds was an excellent means of accruing power, status and capital. In the end, the paper shows how while there were external pressures that may often have propelled native women into one marriage or another, the final decision to marry a white man was chiefly prompted by self-interest, by a keen appreciation of the valuable roles they served, and by no small amount of craftiness.