The Era of the Fur Trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry that deals in the sale of animal fur over the world to manufacture especially woolen hats and clothes. In the 1800s on the mainland north of the 49th parallel, the fur trade held until the gold rush to the Fraser river. The Europeans established their power in the Northern cordillera in the absence of a state as there were heavy conflicts regarding the territories. For approximately fifty years, the Europeans operated the fur trade beyond the rules and control of the state.
Cole Harris has argued that the European fur traders entered the country with weapons and technology, an ideology of language and power. David Thompson encountered that he traded and explored the upper Columbia for two reasons. First, because of the assistance from aboriginals such as lending horses and canoes; Supplying dried salmon, berries, and venison, and geographic information. Due to the absence of an efficient law, an act of 1803 that dealt with the crimes and punishments in Indian territories was implemented in the upper and lower canada. The British government advised the officers of Hudson’s bay company to maintain peace in the parts of North America under the jurisdictions of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
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The intention of the Europeans’
The discourse of commercial capitalism turned around management order and property. The first problem for European fur traders in the northern cordillera was to create familiar, friendly spaces for themselves. For this, they conquered vast hectares of land by constructing forts for security, but they didn’t control the territories where hostile people were inhabited as they were an important part of trade and communication. After the building of fort Langley, the chief trader could consider a ‘war of examination’ against a large native village nearby because he was confident that a few men could hold the fort against a general uprising of numerous, ‘brutally disposed of’ natives. On the other hand, a fire that destroyed a building at fort George reminded traders of their vulnerability; The place was not fit to resist anything but savages. But that was its purpose, and for that purpose it served. Under the protection of such forts, traders established farms where soils and climate permitted. Though they have said that these were for the upliftment of native people, they did it only for the sake of Europeans. Inside the palisades, the number and arrangement of buildings, the number and arrangement of buildings, depending on the size of the fort, The forts were the source of power for the fur trade.
The life of Salish people
It is so evident that the Salish wanted European manufactured goods to better protect, feed, and clothe themselves and they were in charge of providing safe access to fur traders and security to get access to those goods. Though the armed brigades and the capability to interdict the use of ammunition helped European to gain power over the territories; In the upper Columbia, it was clearly in the hands of Salish tribes who were capable of wars and raiding as well as for defending their territory or retaining their access to resources. The Blackfeet were the common enemy of the upper Columbia tribes for many years. Salish nations inhabit the upper Columbia River and middle Fraser river regions of the cordillera and they are separated from the coastal region by the cascade and coast mountains through which the Columbia and Fraser rivers flow on their way to the sea. They all were spoken languages of the same family, traded with one another, intermarried, and aided their neighbors in war or times of need.
George Simpson’s retrenchment strategy
It included negotiating an agreement with native peoples on whose land the HBC maintained a post on his trip up the Columbia river in April 1825, he attempted to establish the conditions of the relationship with the Salish tribes and his accounts of these meetings are instructive. Simpson also requested permission to buy fish at kettle falls, but the salmon chief denied it by saying that they were necessary to Salish people. The HBC could use the forests and fields for food production and buy fish by selling the food products. Two years later the company policy repeated when Simpson was given instructions to “secure the Indians on our side” by conciliating and kind treatment. In 1838 James Douglas also wrote of attaching the First Nations to the HBC by kind and liberal treatment. Definitely, competition with the united states for Oregon country was an element of the HBC’s attempts to secure aboriginal friendship and protection.
Conclusions
Things all changed when the fur trade was closed as aboriginal peoples faced so many challenges which all put their life in agony. The population decreased tremendously, the resources they used for survival depleted, and there emerged new beliefs, Oppressive colonial policies were implemented in the territory.
- Cole Harris, “The intention of the Europeans”, “Strategies of power in the Cordilleran Fur trade”, in The Resettlement of British Columbia: (Vancouver; UBC press, 2000), 9.
- Duane Thomson and Marianne Ignace, “The life of Salish people”, “They made themselves our Guest”, 3.
- George Simpson’s Retrenchment strategy, 10.
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