An Indian Agent on the Paper Frontier: C.C. Trowbridge in Wisconsin, 1823–40

An Indian Agent on the Paper Frontier: C.C, Trowbridge in Wisconsin, 1823 – 1840 Almost two centuries of contact and negotiation between white fur traders and native tribes preceded C.C, Trowbridge's service as Indian Agent in Wisconsin. He entered an extraordinarily complex, ecologically diverse world - tribes in the southern half of Wisconsin more agricultural and the northern half predominantly dependent on hunting, gathering and fishing. A steady stream of tribes from eastern homelands seized by white settlers immigrated in. Tribal war was endemic. No high-value trade item replaced beaver, which was nearly trapped out. The Trowbridge papers, at the Bentley Library (University of Michigan) show that the Indian Agent was at the edge of a paper frontier. One the tribal side was orality, oaths, and a considerable knowledge of local and tribal history. On the white side was a Washington bureaucracy, the army, eager settlers, and interested Easterners. Trowbridge pursued oral tribal histories, which he wrote down and forwarded to Washington, developed grammars of local languages, delivered written versions of speeches by chiefs, and responded to questions, often in standard format, from his superiors. He produced reports for wider distribution in various Eastern venues. The expected conflicts over epistemology, trust, legal understanding, and personal responsibility are rife in his papers and reports.