How Did Americans Acquire Beaver Fur?

Over time, the power that Native women held with in their tribe has unfortunately digressed. During the age of exploration Native women have played key roles in the western fur trade. Native women assisted the fur traders by being liaison between the Europeans and Natives. This role was fundamental in strengthening trade increasing the economic stability of the post. They acted as guides for the European traders who often found themselves in dangerous and unfamiliar territory. Finally, they provided an intimate relationship for the European traders, and played a pragmatic role as a domesticated wife. However in order to fully understand the magnitude of the

Aboriginal women had occupied an essential position in the fur trade of the North American region from its birth during the 17th and 18th centuries. Even though this is true, the role of women, especially those of the Native American society, has been ignored a great deal in the entire history of fur trade. Contrary to the belief that the whole fur trade activity was only male-dominated, it very much depended upon Native women and their participation and labor in order to ensure survival as well as economic success. This paper will attempt to illuminate how Native women played the role as important producers when it comes to fur trade of the American Plains and, of course, the Canadian region. This paper will also deal with the two

Native Americans easily engaged in trade with Europeans. They wished to include new glass and metal items in their society. European and Native Americans viewed trade as a means for economic development. Native Americans viewed trade, also, as a way for communicating with individuals and maintaining interdependence. This is evident in the elaborate gift giving celebrations that occurred before exchanging of goods occurred. For Europeans, however, these social and spiritual functions of trade were limited a great deal more.

The British were interested in the production and circulation of fur as a commodity in the world market and were in need of labor. The Indians were the only available source of skilled labor, so they became part of the production process.

The Anishinabe of Parry Island, the Wasauksing, are an amalgam of families from the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi (from Michigan) nations. Some joining of Anishinabe nations occurred from the 1600s compelled firstly by the fur trade and later as treaties were signed in the mid to late 1800s. The fur trade was quite lucrative for them. A large beaver pelt in good condition and from a winter kill could sell for 5 Livres in 1740 or about 4 weeks pay for non-skilled labourer or 2 weeks pay for an artisan.

Images of rough faced, Grizzly Bear fighting, firewater drinking, yarn spinning, frontiersmen form in the minds eye. Wild men for wild times! To a degree this image is true, but the fur trade was more than wild men. The fur trade was a business, conducted by businessmen. The wilder men living on the frontier chose trapping. Fashion created the fur trade as businessmen sought to satisfy the tastes of designers and customers back east and in Europe, where furs and hides were necessities for fashionable clothing and accessories. Fashions also affected the Indians who sought, silver, vermillion, glass beads, and clothe from traders. Each group depended on the other to supply the resources.

In "Red" Labor: Iroquois Participation in the Atlantic Economy Gail D.MacLeitch explains “Cultural practices centered on gift giving and communal ownership prevented extremes of wealth from developing” (6). However by the seventeenth century, contact with colonists attracted the Iroquois to paid labor. Deciding to become part of the transatlantic fur trade the Iroquois received items such as cloth, guns, house wares, alcohol, and jewelry from the French and British in exchange for the furs of beavers (which were hunted to near extinction.) The goods that were received were then incorporated into the Iroquois way of life, including religious practices. By the eighteenth century Iroquois had ceased to create their own goods and became completely reliant on foreign trade (MacLeitch

Fur Trade in Canada, formed the backbone of the object in the original settlement of that colony. The Fur Trade represented travel, adventure, and employment for hundreds of young men (little book page 10). The First Nations and Europeans recognized one another as supreme nations and created

Louis to the Rocky Mountain valley and waited for the trappers and Indians to arrive with beaver pelts to swap for manufactured goods from the East

A historical event that occurred in the Pacific Northwest region was the start of trading between Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest and Europeans. This was an important event because Non-Native Americans were driven to the region because of the idea of making money. This lead to settlements and trading posts throughout the region.The social structure of tribes in this region was also affected by trade. The website http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Indians%20&%20Europeans/II.html says, “In return the Europeans sought furs, and it became relatively simple for powerful Native leaders to take control of the acquisition, preperation, and trade of furs within a given area.

“By 1860, the predominance of German arrived in Wisconsin which led some people to call the state German” and it attracted many nationalities (Carson, Banks 2014). The state lured many Scandinavians as German in 1880 but later, immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe settled in Wisconsin and farms were established by the foreign Americans. “In the beginning, farmers grow wheat since it was the biggest cash crop of the prairie and it enables farmers to harvest vast amount of it in a short period of time because of the McCormick reaper”. (Carson, Banks 2014). Their product was sold to Great Britain during the civil war because they needed money to finance the war. Wisconsin has over 14,000 lakes of which Winnebago is the largest which helped in the transportation of their goods. Water sports, ice-boating, and fishing were popular as hunting. The soil later lost its fertility after so many years of farming wheat so framers later began to change their production to wool, tobacco, hops, and sugar beets. Also, cheese factories increase rapidly in Wisconsin because about 90% of the farmers had milk cows. “By 1919, Wisconsin was distributing almost two-thirds of the country’s cheese”. (Carson, Banks 2014) which later became the backbone for the state’s economy after the World War II. Although the dairy production was fast increasing,

Relying heavily on the Snoqualmie River, the cedar dugout canoe was the primary mode of transportation for the Snoqualmie People, and dog salmon the most important food. They traversed the heavy forests along the Cascade Mountains, hunting for deer and elk and gathering berries and wild plants for food and medicine. After glaciers from the Ice Age melted the Snoqualmie Valley was left a fertile plain, and in addition to the yearly flooding that enriched the soils along the river for farming, the Snoqualmies’ periodically burned off the valley floor to keep the prairies clear, where they gathered naturalized bulb, berry, and root crop. The Snoqualmie People kept goats for their wool, and traded amongst the other nearby tribes for other materials

Upon arrival the colonist began to trade with the Indians. The colonist would supply the Indians with goods such as brass and copper pots in exchange for animal furs. As their relations with the natives continued colonist realized that the Native Americans valued trade goods primarily as a status symbol [1]. This observation may have lean the colonist to begin trading in wampum. Wampum is a strings of white and purple beads which Native Americans commonly traded amongst themselves. The wampum were a symbol of wealth and power [2]. The colonial fur traders began collecting vast quantities of this to trade for fur. Initially they would trade guns and commodities for the wampum [3]. Then trade the wampum for the desired furs. However, in 1637 a colonial group attacked the Peguots and took the wampum by force. The colonist considered this to be a safer alternative to trading guns with the natives [3].

At the very end of the 15th century or early 16th century the fur trade began to emerge on a very small scale along the coast of the United States; it was conducted by fishermen and other coastal sailors. Major trade goods from this period of trade were unique because they did not include standard European domestic or trade objects, instead the sailors traded parts stripped from their ships such as metal bolts and brass rings from their rigging, perishables such as woolen fabrics and hemp, and personal goods such as the earrings they wore to ward off bad eyesight, fishing knives, and blue glass beads that were worn as protection against the evil eye (Whitthoft 1966:204-205; Sempowski 2007). At this time the Iroquois had no direct contact with Europeans but received a small number of European goods that moved in from the coast along the established trade

Hundreds of years back beavers were hunted and extirpated for their beaver pelt. The stepping stone for a land to become a country was laid by the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. the fur trade industry became powerful with the help of the aboriginal hunting and trading the fur or pelt for good or alcohol from the Britain. For thus, a lot of species were over-hunted to near extinction. The beavers were one of these species, who were hunted to near extinction. Now in the 2000s are seen being reintroduced to stream and coastal areas all around the world in on modern urban cities. The aim of this paper is to expand on beaver in their habitat and how their presence affects the overall niche.