ENCOUNTERS WITH SPIRITS - OJIBWAY AND DAKOTA THEORIES ABOUT THE FRENCH AND THEIR MERCHANDISE

Early accounts of Indian-French interaction record that native peoples called the French esprits, or spirits. Evidence from the Ojibwa and D akota of the western Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi corroborates th is often-repeated statement and suggests that it was based on native a dmiration for French technology. Although the Ojibwa and Dakota appear to have desired different kinds of French goods, both groups used wor ds that indicate they believed that French technology was beyond the p ower of ordinary human beings and that the French themselves had nonhu man power. While greeting the French with rituals ordinarily used in d ealing with nonhuman beings of power may suggest that nonutilitarian g oods were the main interest of the Dakota and Ojibwa, these people in fact appreciated French technology for its many applications to their lives, including religion and subsistence. Categorizing objects as eit her utilitarian or nonutilitarian seems irrelevant in these two native contexts.