DCHP-3

French Indian

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

— Hist.

an Indian from territory controlled by New France, or one who hunted for and dealt with French-Canadian traders, as opposed to the Hudson's Bay Company.

Quotations

1724
. . . the French Indians . . . shall be in very great hopes of a good trade next spring. . . .
1752
The contests between the English and French Indians have so depeopled the stocks, that it hardly affords either beaver, or martins, or porcupines, or other family creatures.
1912
French Indians. A term used by early English writers to designate the tribes in the French interest, especially the Abnaki and their congeners on the New England Frontier.