Exploring Minnesota Chapter 5: The Fur Trade

Introduction See Oral Tradition on page 57 & 58.

Two Worlds Meet The North American fur trade began in the early 1600s when French explorers first encountered Indians along the St. Lawrence River in eastern Canada. Furs were traded for blankets, jewelry, and metal goods.

Two Worlds continued Soon others arrived along with missionaries looking to convert the Indians to Christianity. Before long the fur trade was the biggest industry that North America had ever seen to date.

Two Worlds continued By the 1700s traders from France, Great Britain, and Holland began to arrive and found settlements, giving them European names. Quebec, Montreal Also see “European Explorers and missionaries.”

I want, you want Europeans wanted furs, especially beaver. See beaver hats pg. 60. These were considered symbols of power in Europe Indians wanted European trade goods such as woven fabrics, colorful glass beads, metal goods such as tools, and guns.

Early French Canadian Fur Trap

Going to the Source Europeans found they could collect more furs if they went to the Indians instead of the Indians having to come to them. In the process, Europeans learned the ways of the Indians. See page 60. Cultural diffusion?

Going to the Source The Europeans who traveled to the lands of the Ojibwe and the Dakota were of three social classes. Trader Clerk Voyageur See page 60

By the end of the 1700s a few big companies controlled most of the fur trade. In Minnesota, the biggest company was the Northwest Company. It’s main competitors were the Hudson Bay Company and the XY Company.

North West Company post in Pine City, Minnesota

Living Together Late each summer, crews of men set out from the central fur post at Grand Portage for wintering posts throughout the areas that now make up northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, including a destination near the St. Croix River, which was a post run by the North West Company.

Living Together continued… In the autumn of 1803, the Ojibwe in the area had someone new to trade with – the XY Company. For a period of the next 7 months the Northwest Company and the XY Company competed over Ojibwe furs. See pages 62-65 for info on this and the seasonal activities of the traders.

Living Together continued….. By 1804, the fur trade was entering its final decades and in a few years, the newly formed American Fur Company would take control of the fur trade in the region. Traders would have to become U.S. citizens to participate after the War of 1812. This was one of the first signs that the new nation, formed in lands to the east, was now looking west to a place that would later be called Minnesota.

Gull Lake’s Role in the Fur Trade (LUND) Radisson and Groseillers, French organizers fo the England based Hudson Bay Company, entered what is now MN and WI to find new sources for furs. Found them but also found Indians willing to travel as far as Hudson Bay to trade them. In late 1700s, mostly French independent traders followed the St. Lawrence in the the MN/Ontario boundary waters and established many small posts. Eventually these traders organized themselves into the Northwest Company. No longer would the Indians have to travel to Hudson Bay. Competition between the two companies was intense, sometimes to bloodshed. Finally a merger was negotiated in 1821 under the name of Hudson Bay Company.

Gull Lake continued…. Used mostly French Canadian voyageurs and their birch bark canoes to carry trade goods out of Montreal each spring to posts in the west. Would return in the fall with furs. Some would winter with Indians in the far west and rendevous with the voyageurs at Grand Portage in July to exchange furs for goods such as kettles, blankets, firearms, tobacco, knives, clothing, beads, combs, sewing tools, flour, salt, liquor, etc.

Gull Lake cont… Through journals and oral histories, we know the general (not exact) locations of a few posts: Between Gull and Round Lakes – Lynde or Round Lake trading post At the confluence of the Crow Wing and Mississippi Rivers – became Crow Wing village Pine River Whitefish Lake (2 posts)

Gull Lake cont…. The post at the mouth of the Crow Wing was one of the most important in MN – large and permanent, may have had a population as big as 600. Both Hole-In-The-Days resided there at times and the area Ojibwe were of the Gull Lake Pillager tribe and were under their jurisdiction. First road in MN was built from Fort Snelling to Fort Ripley and then to Crow Wing village.

Gull Lake Under Three Flags Besides Native American ownership: France 1671-1762, 1800-1803 Spain 1763-1799 U.S. as part of Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Before 1858, part of Louisiana, Missouri, Unorganized, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Unorganized, and MN territories (in order.)