Voyagers and Indian Maidens: The Fur Trade Creates A New People

The Hudson’s Bay Company The Hudson’s Bay Company established a number of trading posts throughout the Hudson’s Bay area and interior. The trading posts were manned by employees of the HBC. Aboriginal groups would trap throughout the winter and then sell or trade their furs at these outposts. Fort Carlton, Saskatchewan, 1871

Unforeseen Events Employees began to have relationships with the women who came to the trading posts. The Directors of the Company quickly acted to stop these relations. The directors created rules by which the employees were to adhere to. Rule 1: All persons attend prayers. Rule 2: All persons to live lovingly with one another, not to swear or quarrel but to live peaceably without drunkenness or profaneness. Rule 3: No man to meddle, trade with or affront any Indians, nor to concern themselves with women. Men going contrary to this order are to be punished [in public] before Indians.

Enforcement of the Rules The HBC had little control of their employees situated so far away on the shores of another continent. Within a few brief years both servants and officers of the HBC were taking First Nation wives. By 1763, the majority of the HBC employees were of “mixed blood”. Mrs. William McKay, 1820-1917 wife of Hudson's Bay Company factor. William McKay was stationed mainly at Fort Ellice and Fort Pitt.

Benefits of the Inter-racial Marriages Bilingual and bicultural, they became the near-perfect middlemen of the fur trade. Expanding the Company’s trading empire as they created new trade alliances between the Company and bands of Northern Cree. The men were a made-to-order workforce for the fur trade which rapidly replaced the indentured servants who previously had to be brought all the way from Europe. These “Half-breed people” acquired within their family structure both the European and Indian skills necessary for the fur trade. Good hunters, at home in the forest or in the fort, they were expert canoe men as well. Halfbreed Cree women, Moose Factory, Ontario

Women's Roles in the Fur trade Indian wives of Company men had many skills that proved essential once the Company’s operations began to expand to the interior of the continent. The fur trade in the interior could not have been successfully carried out without the Company’s acquisition of the traditional skills of the Indian women.

Traditional Skills Native wives made pemmican, a mixture of smoked meat and wild berries. Pemmican was such a nutritious food staple that voyagers could live on it for months at a time without any other food supplement. The women also made snowshoes, without which overland trips would have been impossible during the winter months when furs were at their prime. Indian women made and repaired canoes, which were, of course, vital to the fur trade.

The North West Company Made up of Canadian merchants from Montreal. Used the St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, Rainy River system that connected Montreal to the West. This route consisted of thousands of miles of rivers and lakes stretching from the stately maple forests of Quebec and Ontario through the majestic desolation of rock and pine known as the Great Canadian Shield to the open immensity of the Canadian prairies. Other waterways led to the incredibly rich fur-producing regions along the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers. Issac Todd, one of original partners of North West Company ca. 1743-1819

The Origins of the Metis These "Nor’Westers" took Native brides without facing questions of foreign morality. They married for love and passion and for the same trade-related reasons as the Hudson’s Bay Company men. But they were more prolific, with many voyageurs taking more than one wife, as was the custom of the Natives. The children of these unions, like their fathers, became employees of the North West Company. They were known as "les Metis," a name that has passed the test of time. Mrs. Pierre Decheneau and descendants, Metis, North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

Conclusion Today, all Canadians of Indian and European descent proudly call themselves Metis. They are the descendants of the early adventurers who first made their way across the vastness of this continent. They marked the beginning of the end for the ancient Indian cultures. And they planted the seeds of a new social order, the value of which is still to be determined.

References 1. Glenbow Museum, Archives, 2003. All pictures. 2. McLean, Don, 1987, pp. 5-7. Reprinted with permission from the Gabriel Dumont Institute.