The communities whose knowledge was being studied generally received nothing, or received considerably less than what was taken.

Parker’s position in this dynamic was, characteristically, more complicated than the general pattern suggests.

He was not a passive informant who was exploited without understanding what was happening.

He was an active participant who made deliberate choices about how much to share and what to withhold.

He used the relationship with Morgan as one of multiple connections to non-Native intellectual and political networks that he was building simultaneously.

The access he gave Morgan was, in part, an investment in a relationship with someone who was becoming an important figure in Rochester society and who might, at some future point, be a useful ally.