1. Chapter 4
Competition for Trade

2. Chapter focus: How did the various peoples in North America both work together in the fur trade and compete to control it?
Cultures in Contact:
Vikings were the first Europeans to visit North America, 1000s of years ago. The next Europeans to arrive, came 500 year ago and they interacted with the people who lived on or near the coast. These people were the Mi’kmaq, the Haudenosaunee and the Montagnais. Both groups of people were surprised to meet one another!

3. Introduction
Imagine that 20 visitors from another planet arrived in your neighbourhood. They seem friendly, but they speak a language that you have never heard before and is unknown on earth. They have many interesting gadgets you have never seen before. They seem interested in learning about you, and about the things you have.

4. What would you do? Working alone or with a person next to you, think about the following questions. Write them down and answer them.
How would you communicate with the newcomers?
How would you learn about their gadgets?
How would you explain some of your technologies?
How might you begin to trade?

5. Vocabulary!
Ethnocentric: evaluating other peoples and cultures according to the standards of one's own culture.
First contact: is a term describing the first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another.
Economy: or economic system consists of the production, distribution or trade, and consumption of limited goods and services by different agents in a given geographical location.
Cause: a person or thing that gives rise to an action, phenomenon, or condition.
Effect: something that is produced by an agency or cause; result; consequence

6. Vocabulary: part deux
Merchants: a person or company involved in wholesale trade, especially one dealing with foreign countries or supplying merchandise to a particular trade.
Voyageurs: a boatman employed by the fur companies in transporting goods and passengers to and from trading posts.
Pemmican: a paste of dried and pounded meat mixed with melted fat and other ingredients, originally made by North American Indians and later adapted by Arctic explorers.
Portage: the carrying of a boat or its cargo between two navigable waters.
Stockade: a barrier formed from upright wooden posts or stakes, especially as a defense against attack or as a means of confining animals.

7. What does this picture reveal about the trade relationship
What does this picture reveal about the trade relationship? Identify any elements of the illustration that show a bias toward one group or another. pg74

8. The Fur Trade: The Foundation of an Economy
Focus Question: How did the First Nations peoples work with the French and the British in the fur trade?
Page 77 of your textbook
These are some of the items First Nations would have been able to obtain through trade. The items would have changed day to day life for the First Nations by simplifying some tasks, and by replacing items that would have previously been made by hand from stone, wood, bone or other materials.

9. The Barter System
When you go to the store you pay for things using money. Europeans used metal coins for money, but they also traded goods. The exchange of goods is called barter.
The First Nations had been trading among themselves for hundreds of years prior to European contact. Trading parties carried corn, tobacco, furs, copper, pottery and many other goods long distances to neighbours.
Before trade began, those who had travelled a long way would rest a bit. They would establish feelings of respect and trust with one another by exchanging gifts and sharing of a peace pipe. Throughout Eastern North America, a wampum (strings of shells) would be offered to honor new friends and create harmony.

10. Wampum
Wampum comes from the quahog shell found in the cold waters of the Atlantic.  It has been used for hundreds of years as trade. Wampum dates back to 1570 when it was first made by the American Indians and used for ornamentation, communication and currency. Depending on the color and arrangement of the beads, strands of wampum could prompt Indian nations to war, be sent as marriage proposals or be used in burial rites. Since these shells are made by nature, no two are alike and color patterns may vary slightly.

11. When the French arrived, they adopted this way of conducting business
When the French arrived, they adopted this way of conducting business. The fur trade, therefore, was a partnership between the European traders and the First Nations trappers.
Did they benefit equally from trade?
It cost a lot of money to run trading posts and ship furs across the Atlantic. Even so, the European fur traders were paid about 10 times more for the pelts they paid for goods to trade. This mark up ensured a healthy profit.
Guns were more valuable than a hatchet because they enabled them to hunt more for pelts.

12. Did you know?
Hudson Bay blankets still have several narrow black lines running along one edge. These indicate the number of beaver pelts a blanket of that size was worth.

13. Three Key Players!
First Nations: During the winter First Nations men hunted and trapped animals. The women skinned the animals and prepared the pelts. In the spring, when the ice melted on the rivers and lakes, the men and women loaded their bark canoes with furs. They travelled to the trading posts to trade the furs for goods. Sometimes they transported furs for other hunting groups, too.
Merchants: In both the French and English fur trade, merchants financed and organized the trade. They purchased trading goods in Europe and shipped them to Canada. Then they shipped the furs back to Europe to sell to the hate makers.
Coureurs do bois and voyageurs: They were the French fur traders who paddled on long journeys into the wilderness to trade furs with the First Nations. Later, these men paddled the trade canoes from Montreal to trading forts. They became known as voyageurs.

14. Relying on First Nations
Europeans would not have been successful in the fur trade without the help of the First Nations.
The First Nations helped them by:
Showing them how to find food
Teaching them how to make medicine to cure disease
Providing advice on how to dress for cold weather
Provided transportation in the form of canoes, snowshoes and toboggans
Sharing their knowledge of the region
Translating trade deals various groups
Helping them negotiate
Providing a workforce to cook food, sew moccasins, prepare pemmican, snare animals, lace snowshoes etc.

15. Pemmican
Many First Nations women made pemmican. Pemmican is dried buffalo or moose meat mixed with berries and fat and then pounded flat. It keeps for years.
Why do you think pemmican was so important to the fur trade and to First Nations peoples?

16. First Nations Women: Another Perspective
The First Nations women played an important part in the fur trade.
They did not hunt for furs. However, First Nations and Metis women played a different but equally important role to the community.

17. Preparing furs
Women prepared most pelts that crossed the ocean. First, they scraped off the flesh. They rubbed the pelt with the brains of the animal, smoked it over an open fire, and soaked it in warm water. Then they worked the pelt until it was soft.

18. Working in the forts
Women helped in the forts. They preformed many essential tasks, such as making moccasins and clothing. They collected birchbark and sprucegum for making canoes. They wove fish nets and snowshoes and gathered firewood. They contributed to the food supply by snaring small animals and collecting nuts, roots, berries, and bulbs as well as leaves to make tea.

19. Working “on the road”
Women paddled the canoes and worked in camps. Matonabbee was the Dene explorer who led Samuel Hearne on his trip. He refused to travel without women to help. In Dene society, then as in now, all clan members share the duties and responsibilities of survival. This included women and children.

20. Sharing language and geography
Many First Nations and Metis women knew more than one language. This made them valuable interpreters and negotiators. They also worked as guides.

21. 1. Has your impression of First Nations women in the fur trade changed
1. Has your impression of First Nations women in the fur trade changed? If so, explain.
2. The fur trade was a partnership between First Nations peoples and Europeans.
A) Alone or with a partner, discuss what each group contributed to the partnership. How did each group benefit? Show your information in a chart like the one on the left
B) In your opinion did one group benefit more than the other did? Explain.
Think it Through
First Nations
Europeans
Contributions to the fur trade
Benefits from the fur trade

22. 1. Your answers will vary, depending on your initial ideas about First Nations women in the fur trade, but you should be able to explain why your viewpoint has or has not changed.
First Nations
Europeans
Contributions to the fur trade
Furs, canoes, snowshoes, guidance, medicine, clothing, food, workforce
Trade goods (iron pots, tools, guns, blankets, etc) trading posts, wages, market for fur
Benefits from the fur trade
Iron tools and pots used in food preparation, guns, hatchets, thread, blankets, work, new knowledge
Furs for Europe, profit, travel, food, medicine, new knowledge, clothing, transportation, claims to territory
b) Your answers should vary, but all opinions should be properly supported with facts and well reasoned arguments.

23. Beaver Pelt Trade