Strawberries, Floating Islands, and Rabbit Captains: Mythical Realities and European Contact in the Northeast During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Fundamental concepts, themes, and dramatis personae from Northeastern Woodland Indian myth are reviewed for their insights into the archaeological, ethnological, and historical records ofIndian-European contact and the contact fur trade. This paper briefly reviews the cognitive role of colour in categorizing and semantically charging Indian biosocial experience; the consequent isomorphism of Indian aesthetic and ideational interests and values in material substances which manifest these colours; the Indian concept of wealth as well-being, of which these substances are primary material expressions; and, finally, the traditional ascription of such wealth to under-(water)world sources and keepers. These mythical realities — as paridigms for behaviour — are then compared for their congruence and interpretive value to the archaeological, ethnological, and historical records of the contact period fur trade.