Author Robert Silbernagel will sign copies of his book The Cadottes: A Fur Trade Family on Lake Superior (Wisconsin Historical Society Press).
The Great Lakes fur trade spanned two centuries and thousands of miles, but the story of one particular family, the Cadottes, illuminates the history of trade and trapping while exploring under-researched stories of French-Ojibwe political, social, and economic relations. Multiple generations of Cadottes were involved in the trade, usually working as interpreters and peacemakers, as the region passed from French to British to American control.
Robert Silbernagel studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin and spent his newspaper career