NOVEL NEXT Introduction
This serialized story is an effort to understand an oft-underexplored point in American History: the period between the first European settlements in the Americas and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Specifically, the serial will begin just before the onset of King William’s War, the second in a series of conflicts that are understood as the French and Indian Wars. In reality, these conflicts rarely started and stopped when the wars did, and represented a larger picture of trade, diplomatic agreements, and territorial disputes between the French, the English, and the three major tribal powers of the time: the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Five Nations of the Iroquois, and the Council of Three Fires.
As this is a work of historical fiction, there will inevitably be a mix of real historicity and fictitious events. That being said, my intention is to try and represent the cultures of both the Native American tribes and the European Settlers as accurately as I can. If possible, the majority of the creative liberties will come from the historical events (the “plot”, so to speak) and with some of the historical figures present in the work, and not the cultures themselves. That being said, this is an exceedingly difficult task in practice. Much of what we know about the different Native tribes come from first-hand accounts from European settlers, accounts which are tainted by the prejudices the settlers carried against the Natives. While I have spent a great deal of time and effort to separate the colonial narrative from my understanding of tribal cultures, I cannot hope to fully represent everything in complete historical accuracy, and I take full responsibility for any mistakes I make over the course of the story.
–J Braden Traw
What's in a Name?
Throughout this series you will see a wide variety of names and terms used to describe different native tribes. While it would be easier to use one name, the fact is that different tribes were referred to as something different depending on who was talking about them. For example, the French and English refer to one tribe as the Maliseet. In truth, they are called the Wolastoqiyik. The term “Maliseet” is an anglicized form for a term used by the Mi'kmaq to describe the Wolastoqiyik, a term that means “The Ones that Speak Slowly”. Whether this was intended as an insult or not is unknown, but regardless, the Wolastoqiyik would not refer to themselves as Maliseet or any similar name. At the same time, it would be inaccurate to have the European settlers use any other name than Maliseet to describe the tribe, as that is what they knew them to be.
Additionally, the names of all native tribes all had their own meaning in their native tongues. When European settlers made contact with native tribes, they would typically just anglicize or francize the tribal name, such as “Micmac” coming from the name “Mi’kmaq” or “Megumawaach”. Typically, when other tribes would refer to another, instead of using the literal name, they would simply refer to them by what the name means in their own native language.
Below is a chart to serve as a guide to the different ways people referred to one another at the time. As you read the series, you will slowly adjust to the way all the different tribes and settlers referred to one another, until it becomes second-nature to you the way it was for them during the period.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YWN2P8ee0VlQygOoJwOeqj-6EWAyp1Jd7Afxc5oK5vA/edit?usp=sharing