FUR TRADE PROJECT-40 POINTS *Due Tues. Nov. 27, 2012

MINNESOTA FUR TRADE BACKGROUND – MNHS
AMERICAN INDIAN NATIONS traded along the
Mississippi River for centuries before the arrival of
Europeans in the mid-1600s. For nearly 200 years
afterward, European traders exchanged
manufactured goods with American Indian nations
for valuable furs. Following the American
Revolution, the U.S. competed fiercely with Great
Britain for dominance of the North American fur
trade. After the War of 1812 there were three
main parties involved in the Northwest
Territory's fur trade: American Indians (primarily
the Dakota and Ojibwe), the fur trading companies,
and the U.S. government. These parties worked
together and each had something to gain from a
stable trading environment. Both Fort Snelling and
the Indian Agency were established at the river
junction to help maintain stability of the region's fur
trade.
The DAKOTA AND OJIBWE were the primary
trappers of fur-bearing animals in the Northwest
Territory. They harvested a wide variety of furs
(beaver the most valuable) in the region's woodlands
and waterways. In exchange for these furs,
French, British and U.S. traders provided goods
such as blankets, firearms and ammunition, cloth,
metal tools and brass kettles. The Dakota and
Ojibwe had existed for thousands of years using
tools made from readily available materials, but by
the 1800s trade goods had become a part of daily
life for many American Indian communities. Still,
these trade goods often represented a trade-off:
for example, metal trade knives may be more
durable than traditional flint knives, but they were
not as sharp. The main advantage of these trade
goods lay in their availability. By the 1820s,
however, some Dakota and Ojibwe communities
had become dependent on trade goods for a
certain level of prosperity and efficiency in their
everyday lives. The fur trade had a tremendous
effect on their cultures and influenced U.S.-
American Indian economic and political relations
and events in the 19th c.
VOYAGEURS ("travelers" in French) were men hired
to work for the fur traders to transport trade
goods throughout the vast territory to rendezvous
posts. At the rendezvous points these goods were
exchanged for furs, which were then sent to larger
cities for shipment to the east coast. Many traders
and voyageurs married into American Indian
communities, taking advantage of kinship networks,
often trading exclusively within their particular
community. As a result, large communities of
individuals of diverse heritage developed, often called
"mixed-bloods" or Métis during the period, and
many of these individuals maintained ties to both fur
trade and American Indian communities.
SLAVERY also played a part in the fur trade, as some
traders (including Henry H. Sibley and Jean-Baptiste
Faribault) utilized slave labor. In some cases
these enslaved people were freed by their masters,
but often they remained part of the trade business.
George Bonga was the son of a former slave and an
Ojibwe woman and was active in the fur trade
during the first half of the 1800s. Bonga was
educated in Montreal and was well-known for his
physical stature and strength. Often sought out for
his skills as an interpreter, Bonga could speak
French, English and Ojibwe. The Bonga family is
just one example of the diversity and
cultural exchange that resulted from the fur trade
in the Northwest Territory.
DECLINE: By the 1840s the fur trade had declined
dramatically in the Minnesota region, partially due
to changes in fashion tastes, the availability of lessexpensive
materials for hat-making, and because
Dakota and Ojibwe hunters had their available
hunting grounds reduced through treaties with the
U.S. government. Many fur traders took the
opportunity to become land speculators, and
economics in the region changed forever. For many
Dakota and Ojibwe people, who had by this time
become increasingly dependent on the trade,
exchanging land in order to pay off debts claimed
by traders became a matter of survival.