The Lake Between: Kinship and Conflict in the Lake Champlain Valley, Creations - 1775

This dissertation examines the transformation of the Lake Champlain Valley from a boundary between the Abenaki and Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) worlds into an imperial borderland. With their semi-nomadic lifestyle and dispersed kinship networks, Abenakis relied on seasonal migrations to sustain their people. The Kanien’kehá:ka thrived in permanent villages, cultivating staple crops and establishing a clan system to manage conflicts. The clash between these differing cultures led to frequent warfare as each people competed for resources along the borders of their overlapping territories. European officials mapped their rivalry for the Champlain Valley onto competing Native kinship systems in the region, leading to the decline of Native populations and the erasure of their homelands. Despite their marginalization, however, both the Kanien’kehá:ka and Abenaki peoples have persisted in asserting their rights to their ancestral lands.