From Iliniwek to Ste Genevieve: Early Commerce along the Mississippi

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "From Iliniwek to Ste Genevieve: Early Commerce along the Mississippi," at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Perhaps the driving force in the early movement of French colonists into Upper Louisiana was commerce. Trade with the various Native American tribes in the region from the 17th through early 19th centuries led, directly or indirectly, to the establishment of multiple forts, villages, and trading posts along both banks of the Mississippi River. Evidence of this interaction, between and among the Native American tribes and French settlements, can be traced through time starting with the occupation of the Iliniwek Village in the 1640s to the establishment of St. Ferdinand in the 1760s. In light of recent excavations in St. Louis and elsewhere, it is both necessary and productive to reexamine past excavations at the Iliniwek Village, Ste. Genevieve, and St. Ferdinand.