20 fur trade. Under conditions that did not immediately advance their bourgeois goals, true French intentions were more obvious and unmasked in French native policy and operation. Focusing especially on the prejudiced policies against the Fox/Meskwaki native tribes demonstrated during the Fox Wars reveals the malevolent French attitude and portrayal of Natives. White's The Middle Ground is one of many modern histories of New France that promotes a French Indian policy that was controlled by the fur trade and evidenced by the start of the Fox Wars in 1712. The vast and powerful fur trade, however, did not always determine New France's approach to its Indian population. Unsurprisingly, French sources of the time attempted to explain the conflict by demonizing their Fox adversaries as a "Cruel people," typified by the cunning treachery of the animal whose name they carried.3 For much of the 20th century, historians merely mirrored the tone of these French sources, attributing the war to the Fox's "habitual warlike resolve."4 One scholar claimed that because of their "chronic belligerence," the Fox became "the problem tribe of the Great Lakes country" and had a "fierce barbaric impulse" toward the French.5 A more nuanced, though still faulty, analysis of the Fox wars is provided by more recent scholarship, which refutes the ideas that either the French leadership and commercial interests were driving forces behind the violence or that it was entirely the result of intrinsic Fox hostility. Instead, it is claimed that disagreements over the boundaries of the developing French-Indian alliance led to the Fox Wars. Whereas French imperial officials sought to broaden their sphere of influence in the west by establishing connections with commercial and military allies, natives who were already partners of France wanted to curtail this growth by preventing their enemies from receiving French 3 Antoine, Michel. 1968. “Les Arrêts Du Conseil Rendus Au XVIIIe Siècle Pour Le Département de La Marine (17231791).” Revue Française d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer 55 (200): 316–34. https://doi.org/10.3406/outre.1968.1466. 4 Lachance, André. 1990. “Dale MIQUELON, New France, 1701-1744: A Supplement to Europe.” Recherches Sociographiques 31 (3): 420. https://doi.org/10.7202/056551ar. 5 Louise Phelps Kellogg. 2007. The French Régime in Wisconsin and the Northwest. Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books.
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