Les soldats et les sauvages en la Louisiane: Entangling Alliances at Fort Louis and Fort Tombecbé

Summary

After LaSalle’s Texas debacle in the 1680s, French colonization of the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico focused initially at Fort Louis de la Louisiane and the surrounding settlement known today as Old Mobile (1702-1711). The French established other forts in succeeding decades throughout La Louisiane to protect their own settlements, strengthen Indian alliances, and hinder English encroachment. Among these was remote Fort Tombecbé (1736-1763), at the eastern frontier of Choctaw country. Though Forts Louis and Tombecbé represent different colonial goals and trajectories, both reveal abundant archaeological evidence for the close relationships that developed between natives and colonizers. The importance of forts for the maintenance of reciprocal social and economic ties between colonial occupiers and regional Indian peoples is clearly indicated in archaeological assemblages from the southern limits of New France.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• More than Ramparts and Redoubts: Forts and Families of New France

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-21,06