The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650 - 1815

“Algonquian” refers to a linguistic and cultural group of Indigenous tribes and nations in North America who share a common language family, the Algonquian languages. This widespread group was one of North America's most extensive and diverse linguistic families and the Algonquian people exhibited significant cultural diversity. Algonquian societies were typically organized into decentralized political structures. Social organization often revolved around extended families or clans, and decision-making involved consensus-building rather than a centralized authority. The arrival of European colonizers, particularly the French and English, significantly impacted on Algonquian social, political, and economic structures, and vice versa, as the Algonquian-speaking tribes participated in trade networks and formed alliances with colonial settlers and powers.

In The Middle Ground, White uses the term "Algonquian" as an umbrella to refer to the broader group of non-Iroquois people in the area because Algonquian speakers made up most of the population.

In the context of Indigenous American and colonial relations, especially during the fur trade, bon marché (French for “good deal”) represented a system of economic exchange characterized by fair trade practices, reciprocity, and mutually beneficial transactions between Europeans and Indigenous peoples. French traders exchanged various goods, such as metal tools, textiles, and firearms, for furs obtained by Algonquian hunters.