‘Tell them nott to bring any rum here’: Alcohol regulation, authority, and sovereignty among the Shawnees, 1700–1860

Abstract

ABSTRACT Narratives about the colonial liquor trade among the Native peoples of Eastern North America have long emphasized the weakness of Indigenous authorities. Focusing on the efforts of Shawnee leaders to regulate this commerce from 1700 to the 1860s, this article complicates such views. Alcohol control pushed Shawnees to construct, test, and debate diverse forms of authority. The trade persisted, however, because colonial empires refused to recognize Shawnee sovereignty.