The North American fur trade is the (typically) historical commercial trade of furs and other goods in North America , predominantly in the eastern provinces of Canada and the northeastern American colonies (soon-to-be northeastern United States ). The trade was initiated mainly through French, Dutch and English settlers and explorers in collaboration with various First Nations tribes of the region, such as the Wyandot-Huron and the Iroquois ; ultimately, the fur trade's financial and cultural benefits would see the operation quickly expanding coast-to-coast and into more of the continental United States and Alaska .
219-705: Henry Hastings Sibley (February 20, 1811 – February 18, 1891) was a fur trader with the American Fur Company , the first U.S. Congressional representative for Minnesota Territory , the first governor of the state of Minnesota , and a U.S. military leader in the Dakota War of 1862 and a subsequent expedition into Dakota Territory in 1863. Numerous places are named after him, including Sibley County, Minnesota ; Sibley, North Dakota ; Sibley, Iowa ; Hastings, Minnesota ; Sibley Memorial Highway ; General Sibley Park and Sibley State Park . Henry Hastings Sibley
438-526: A cashier at two banks, including one in Detroit. However, Crooks rejected Sibley's offer to pay US$ 1,000 to be released from his contract. Instead, his counteroffer was to include Sibley as a junior partner in the American Fur Company's newly constituted Western Outfit, together with Jean Joseph Rolette and Hercules L. Dousman , who had been running the company's Upper Mississippi Outfit. Sibley would be
657-539: A general merchandise store in Saint Paul , which was initially independent of Pierre Chouteau Jr. and Company. Because cash was scarce, many customers including white settlers paid for goods with fur pelts and deerskins . From 1847, the store was managed by William Henry Forbes . Business grew as the population of lumbermen and metal prospectors increased steadily east of the Mississippi River . Sibley also opened
876-634: A "Moccasin Democrat." Henry and Helen were often seen chatting at his picket-fence gate. On September 1, 1858, they were both very prominent in a St. Paul parade celebrating the laying of the transatlantic cable in September 1858, where Helen was one of 33 young women selected to represent the states of the Union. The Daily Minnesotian identified Miss Delaware as "Helen Sibley" with no further comment. In 1859, Helen married Sylvester Sawyer, an Anglo-American doctor, and
1095-639: A "final settlement" with Atchison. In 1847, Dousman and Sibley, together with Henry Mower Rice , Bernard Brisbois and others, purchased shares in a packet company with steamboats running on a regular schedule between Galena, Illinois and ports in Minnesota. The first boat of the Galena Packet Company, the "Argo," sank in October 1847, but its new boat, the "Dr. Franklin," launched successfully in 1848. In 1844, Sibley contracted with David Faribault to open
1314-534: A 'per pelt' basis. Colonial trading posts in the southern colonies also introduced many types of alcohol (especially brandy and rum) for trade. European traders flocked to the North American continent and made huge profits from the exchange. A metal axe head, for example, was exchanged for one beaver pelt (also called a 'beaver blanket'). The same pelt could fetch enough to buy dozens of axe heads in England, making
1533-512: A New York warehouse, and had become essentially worthless. The partners of the American Fur Company were on the brink of financial ruin. However, in the summer and fall of 1837, the United States government signed three major treaties with the Ojibwe , Dakota and Winnebago tribes, in which they agreed to give up all their lands east of the Mississippi River in return for compensation. Sibley and
1752-710: A Tartar victory in 1584 and the temporary end to Russian occupation in the area. In 1584, Ivan's son Feodor sent military governors ( voivodas ) and soldiers to reclaim Yermak conquests and officially to annex the land held by the Khanate of Sibir . Similar skirmishes with Tartars took place across Siberia as Russian expansion continued. Russian conquerors treated the natives of Siberia as easily exploited subjects who were inferior to them. As they penetrated deeper into Siberia, traders built outposts or winter lodges called zimovye [ ru ] where they lived and collected fur tribute from native tribes. By 1620 Russia dominated
1971-554: A U.S. Indian agent who later became a well-known ethnologist of Native American tribes in the United States . In the spring of 1829, Sibley entered into an apprenticeship as a clerk and storekeeper for the American Fur Company (AFC) in Mackinac (then known as Michilimackinac ). He returned to Detroit to work at the Bank of Michigan during the winter, and then signed a five-year contract with American Fur Company after working there again in
2190-509: A ceremony was held to thank the bear for "giving" up its life to them. One study of the Ojibwe women who married French fur traders maintained that the majority of the brides were "exceptional" women with "unusual ambitions, influenced by dreams and visions—like the women who become hunters, traders, healers and warriors in Ruth Landes 's account of Ojibwe women". Out of these relationships emerged
2409-569: A close friend of Henry Sibley. From 1856 until her death in 1869, Sarah Jane Sibley served on the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association as Vice Regent in charge of fundraising in Minnesota . She appointed roughly two dozen "lady managers" to assist fundraising efforts for the historical preservation of Mount Vernon , including Mary LeDuc and Rebecca Flandreau, who would succeed her. In an effort to transcend political divisions, Sarah Jane established
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#17328560574412628-412: A common pool that the band divided equally among themselves after Russian officials exacted the tithing tax. On the other hand, a trading company provided hired fur-trappers with the money needed for transportation, food, and supplies, and once the hunt was finished, the employer received two-thirds of the pelts and the remaining ones were sold and the proceeds divided evenly among the hired laborers. During
2847-530: A cryptic update to Sibley, who was in Washington, apparently about Red Blanket Woman and the baby. The evidence is unclear as to how long Red Blanket Woman lived in the area. Some sources suggest that Tahshinahohindoway remarried a Dakota man, perhaps in 1842, and died in early 1843. However, trading post records show that Tahshinahohindoway had made purchases of blankets, clothing and other items as late as 1846. On May 2, 1843, Henry Sibley married Sarah Jane Steele,
3066-478: A few months, he agreed to work as an agent for Susan Johnston , the widow of John Johnston , a Scots-Irish fur trader who had died that year. Mrs. Johnston, also known as Ozhaguscodaywayquay (Woman of the Green Glade), was the daughter of Ojibwe warrior and chief Waubojeeg ; mother of three daughters including Native American literary writer Jane Johnston Schoolcraft ; and mother-in-law of Henry Schoolcraft ,
3285-549: A fierce rivalry grow between France and Great Britain as each European power struggled to expand their fur-trading territories. The two imperial powers and their native allies competed in conflicts that culminated in the French and Indian War , a part of the Seven Years' War in Europe. The 1659–1660 voyage of French traders Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers into
3504-441: A flint much less traps & ammunition.'" Sibley removed Hazen Mooers, a fur trader who was popular with Sisseton, Wahpeton and Yankton hunters, from his trading post at Lake Traverse which he had run for over 20 years. By the fall of 1835, Sibley and Jean Joseph Rolette had replaced Mooers with Joseph R. Brown , a fur trader who had previously quarreled with Agent Taliaferro for hauling whiskey and owed money to Rolette and
3723-471: A gap between demand and supply and to a higher equilibrium in terms of supply. Data from the trading posts show that the supply of beavers from the Aboriginals was price-elastic and therefore traders responded with increased harvests as prices rose. The harvests were further increased due to the fact that no tribe had an absolute monopoly near any trade and most of them were competing against each other to derive
3942-530: A growing trade in the French and later British territories in the 17th century. The transition from a seasonal coastal trade into a permanent interior fur trade was formally marked with the foundation of Quebec on the Saint Lawrence River in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain , officially establishing the settlement of New France . This settlement marked the beginning of the westward movement of French traders from
4161-453: A hunt should occur, particularly prohibitions against needless killing of deer. There are specific taboos against taking the skins of unhealthy deer. But the arrival of the lucrative, European deerskin trade prompted some hunters to abandon tradition and act past the point of restraint they had operated under before. The hunting economy collapsed because of the scarcity of deer as they were over-hunted and lost their lands to white settlers. As
4380-564: A hunting expedition to the Red Cedar , which included 150 Dakota men and their families, as well as mixed-blood fur trader Alexander Faribault . While the details of their relationship are obscure, most accounts suggest that Sibley and Red Blanket Woman were married "in the Dakota manner" before or during the hunting trip. There has also been considerable speculation that Bad Hail had actively sought to establish kinship ties with Sibley for some time. In
4599-651: A male advisory board including Henry Sibley's bitter enemy within the Democratic Party, Daniel A. Robertson, along with future Republican state legislator John B. Sanborn and future governor Henry A. Swift . The advisory board also included many of Henry Sibley's business contacts such as Richard Chute, Alexis Bailly and Martin McLeod , and family friends such as John S. Prince and William Gates LeDuc . In her later years, Sarah Jane suffered from recurring pleurisy and pregnancies, which kept her confined to bed for much of
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#17328560574414818-466: A more active and stirring life." His parents finally agreed to allow Henry to pursue a career of his own choosing. On June 20, 1828, at the age of seventeen, Henry H. Sibley left Detroit for Sault Ste. Marie , a prominent fur trading center on both the United States and Canadian sides. His first job was as a clerk working for John Hulbert, whose sutler's store supplied four companies of the U.S. 5th Infantry Regiment , which were garrisoned there. After
5037-424: A more nuanced picture of the complex ways in which native populations fit new economic relationships into existing cultural patterns. Richard White, while admitting that the formalist/substantivist debate was "old, and now tired," attempted to reinvigorate the substantivist position. Echoing Ray's moderate position that cautioned against easy simplifications, White advanced a simple argument against formalism: "Life
5256-459: A number of English investors were found to back another attempt for Hudson Bay. Two ships were sent out in 1668. One, with Radisson aboard, had to turn back, but the other, the Nonsuch , with Groseilliers, did penetrate the bay. There she was able to trade with the indigenes, collecting a fine cargo of beaver skins before the expedition returned to London in October 1669. The delighted investors sought
5475-510: A royal charter, which they obtained the next year. This charter established the Hudson's Bay Company and granted it a monopoly to trade into all the rivers that emptied into Hudson Bay. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three trading ships into the bay every year. They brought back furs (mainly beaver) and sold them, sometimes by private treaty but usually by public auction. The beaver
5694-502: A series of small fortifications, beginning with Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario in 1673. Together with the construction of Le Griffon in 1679, the first full-sized sailing ship on the Great Lakes, the forts opened the upper Great Lakes to French navigation. More native groups learned about European wares and became trading middlemen, most notably the Ottawa . The competitive impact of
5913-663: A significant effect on the social behavior of Native Americans. Under the influence of rum, the younger generation did not obey the elders of the tribe and became involved with more skirmishes with other tribes and white settlers. Rum also disrupted the amount of time the younger generation of males spent on labor. Alcohol was one of the goods provided on credit, and led to a debt trap for many Native Americans. Native Americans did not know how to distill alcohol and thus were driven to trade for it. Native Americans had become dependent on manufactured goods such as guns and domesticated animals, and lost much of their traditional practices. With
6132-674: A significant step towards securing Russian hegemony in Siberia when he sent a large army to attack the Khanate of Kazan and ended up obtaining the territory from the Volga to the Ural Mountains . At this point the phrase, "ruler of Obdor , Konda , and all Siberian lands" became part of the title of the tsar in Moscow. Even so, problems ensued after 1558 when Ivan IV sent Grigory Stroganov [ ru ] ( c. 1533–1577 ) to colonize land on
6351-532: A steamboat called the "Lynx," which was half-owned by Dousman. Although the Lynx netted only $ 161.04 during the 1844 season after deducting losses due to damage to the boat, in 1845, the Lynx netted $ 11,194.73. However, there were delays in collecting payment from shippers, leading Captain John Atchison to delay paying dividends to investors. Frustrated, Dousman put considerable pressure on Sibley over several months to make
6570-437: A variety of reasons. Reducing them to simple economic or cultural dichotomies, as the formalists and substantivists had done, was a fruitless simplification that obscured more than it revealed. Moreover, Ray used trade accounts and account books in the Hudson's Bay Company's archives for masterful qualitative analyses and pushed the boundaries of the field's methodology. Following Ray's position, Bruce M. White also helped to create
6789-401: A very slow return. The first revenues from fur sales in Europe did not arrive until four or more years after the initial investment. These economic factors concentrated the fur trade in the hands of a few large Montreal merchants who had available capital. This trend expanded in the 18th century and reached its zenith with the great fur-trading companies of the 19th century. Competition between
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7008-661: A woman from one of these kinship networks would make a fur trader into a member of these networks, thereby ensuring that Indians belonging to whatever clan the trader had married into were more likely to deal only with him. Furthermore, the fur traders discovered that the Indians were more likely to share food, especially during the hard months of winter, to those fur traders who were regarded as part of their communities. One fur trader who married an 18-year old Ojibwe girl describes in his diary his "secret satisfaction at being compelled to marry for my safety". The converse of such marriages
7227-498: Is a lack of critical discussion on other factors such as beaver population dynamics, the number of animals harvested, nature of property rights, prices, role of the English and the French in the matter. The primary effect of increased French competition was that the English raised the prices they paid to the Aboriginals to harvest fur. The result of this was greater incentive for Aboriginals to increase harvests. Increased price will lead to
7446-417: Is likely that the women were in fact acting with the approval of their menfolk. Henry claims that he had left at once out of the fear of violence from jealous Ojibwe men, but it seemed more likely that he was afraid that his French-Canadian voyageurs might enjoy themselves too much with the Ojibwe women at this one village and would not want to travel further west. American historian Bruce White describes
7665-532: Is now southern Ontario being bordered on three sides by Lake Ontario , Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay , and it was through Wendake that the Ojibwe and Cree who lived further north traded with the French. In 1649, the Iroquois made a series of raids into Wendake that were intended to destroy the Wendat as a people with thousands of Wendat taken to be adopted by Iroquois families with the rest being killed. The war against
7884-554: The Métis people whose culture was a fusion of French and Indian elements. Indian men were the trappers who killed the animals for their furs, but normally it was the women who were in charge of the furs that their menfolk had collected, making women into important players in the fur trade. Indian women normally harvested the rice and made the maple sugar that were such important parts of the traders' diets, for which they were usually paid with alcohol. Henry mentions how at one Ojibwe village,
8103-588: The Central Plains . While some historians dispute the claims that the competition was predominantly responsible for over-exploitation of stocks, others have used empirical analysis to emphasize the changing economic incentives for Indigenous hunters and role of the Europeans in the matter. Calvin Martin holds that there was a breakdown of the relationship between man and animal among some Indigenous hunters who, adapting to
8322-697: The Compagnie des Cent-Associés went bankrupt, New France was taken over by the French Crown. King Louis XIV wanted his new Crown colony to turn a profit and dispatched the Carignan-Salières Regiment to defend it. In 1666, the Carignan-Salières Regiment made a devastating raid upon Kanienkeh, which led the Five Nations to sue for peace in 1667. The era from roughly 1660 through 1763 saw
8541-524: The Company of Habitants in the 1640s and 1650s, permitting a small group of investors within Canada an initial hold on the monopoly but then quickly pulling back and limiting trading and investment within the colony. While the monopolies dominated the trade, their charters also required payment of annual returns to the national government, military expenditures, and expectations that they would encourage settlement for
8760-462: The Dakota , who were the enemies of the Ojibwe at the time. Likewise, the fur trader Alexander Henry in visiting an Ojibwe village in what is now Manitoba in 1775 described the "facility with which the women abandoned themselves to my Canadiens " to such an extent that he believed it would cause violence as the Ojibwe men would become jealous, causing him to order his party to leave at once, though it
8979-782: The Fox River , then to the Wisconsin River via a two-mile portage trail . On the Wisconsin River, he found a tiny stern-wheel steamboat which took him to Prairie du Chien . After spending several days at the American Fur Company 's Western Outfit headquarters at Prairie du Chien, Sibley traveled the remaining 300 miles of wilderness by horseback. According to his letter to company president Ramsay Crooks dated November 1, Sibley finally arrived in St. Peters (now known as Mendota, Minnesota ) on October 28, 1834. During his journey to St. Peters, Sibley
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9198-505: The Fur Institute of Canada , there are about 60,000 active trappers in Canada (based on trapping licenses), of whom about 25,000 are indigenous peoples . The fur farming industry is present in many parts of Canada. The largest producer of mink and foxes is Nova Scotia which in 2012 generated revenues of nearly $ 150 million and accounted for one quarter of all agricultural production in
9417-708: The Grand Banks of the North Atlantic in the 16th century. The new preservation technique of drying fish allowed the mainly Basque fishermen to fish near the Newfoundland coast and transport fish back to Europe for sale. The fishermen sought suitable harbors with ample lumber to dry large quantities of cod. This generated their earliest contact with local Indigenous peoples, with whom the fisherman began simple trading. The fishermen traded metal items for beaver robes made of sewn-together, native-tanned beaver pelts. They used
9636-595: The Kama and to subjugate and enserf the Komi living there. The Stroganov family soon came into conflict in 1573 with the khan of Sibir whose land they encroached on. Ivan told the Stroganovs to hire Cossack mercenaries to protect the new settlement from the Tatars. From c. 1581 the band of Cossacks led by Yermak Timofeyevich fought many battles that eventually culminated in
9855-549: The Mohawk and Mohican . By 1614 the Dutch were sending vessels to secure large economic returns from fur trading. The fur trade of New Netherland, through the port of New Amsterdam , depended largely on the trading depot at Fort Orange (now Albany) on the upper Hudson River . Much of the fur is believed to have originated in Canada, smuggled south by entrepreneurs who wished to avoid the colony's government-imposed monopoly there. England
10074-567: The Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta , which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta . The papers from the North American Fur Trade conferences, which are held approximately every five years, not only provide a wealth of articles on disparate aspects of the fur trade, but also can be taken together as a historiographical overview since 1965. They are listed chronologically below. The third conference, held in 1978,
10293-457: The Ojibwe of St. Croix valley to cut timber along the Upper St. Croix and Snake Rivers . Under the terms of the contract, the 47 Ojibwe signatories agreed not to harass any lumbermen working for the three traders. In return, the traders would provide specified goods to the Ojibwe, including gunpowder, lead, scalping knives and tobacco, every year for ten years. After the contract was superseded by
10512-493: The Pennsylvania General Assembly , and built a paper- and cotton-milling business with one of his brothers. Her three sisters eventually moved west with their mother following the death of their father in 1845. In 1847, her sister Abbian Steele married Dr. Thomas R. Potts of Galena, Illinois , and moved with him to Saint Paul, Minnesota , where Potts became one of the town's first physicians, its first mayor, and
10731-548: The Russian-American Company . The term "maritime fur trade" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and the American Fur Company . Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the "North West Coast trade" or "North West Trade". The term "North West"
10950-563: The Sisseton Dakota between the headwaters of the Des Moines and Big Sioux Rivers ; these posts were staffed by hired clerks. In addition, the Sioux Outfit had two independent subsidiary traders, including Jean-Baptiste Faribault , Alexis Bailly 's father-in-law, who ran a post at Little Rapids (near present-day Chaska ), and Joseph Renville , who ran a trading post at Lac qui Parle on
11169-590: The Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota had become more protective of their hunting zones, even refusing access to the Mdewakanton Dakota , who had been hardest hit and now depended entirely on the western hunting grounds. Sibley, whose business relied heavily on collecting furs from the Mdewakantons, made an emergency trip to Traverse des Sioux to broker a solution. He threatened to withdraw all American Fur Company men if
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#173285605744111388-512: The Upper Minnesota River . Sibley had arrived in the fur traders' "frontier" with a sense of adventure, hoping to earn a quick fortune before triumphantly returning to "civilization." Unfortunately for Sibley, as Bailly had warned, it had already become difficult for traders to turn a profit through the traditional fur trade . Nevertheless, Sibley worked diligently to try to maximize profits, and according to American Fur Company records,
11607-723: The Western world ), Europe, and the United States (especially New England ). The trade had a major effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut , Tlingit , Haida , Nuu-chah-nulth , and Chinook peoples . There was a rapid increase of wealth among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching , slaving, depopulation due to epidemic disease, and enhanced importance of totems and traditional nobility crests. The indigenous culture
11826-481: The White Pine Treaty of 1837 , Sibley and Warren joined with Hercules L. Dousman in building a sawmill at Chippewa Falls. The Chippewa Mills went into operation in 1840 but was sold in 1845, much to the relief of Dousman. In the 1840s, Hercules Dousman became interested in the steamboat industry and often bought shares in boats on behalf of Henry Sibley as well as himself. In 1844, Sibley acquired one-eighth of
12045-474: The first decades of its existence . Many Indigenous peoples would soon come to depend on the fur trade as their primary source of income and method of obtaining European-manufactured goods (such as weaponry, housewares, kitchenwares, and other useful products). However, by the mid-19th century, changing fashions in Europe brought about a collapse in fur prices and led to the crashing of several fur companies. Many Indigenous (and European) communities that relied on
12264-543: The pays d'en haut . Champlain supported the northern groups in their preexisting military struggle with the Iroquois Confederacy to the south. He secured the Ottawa River route to Georgian Bay , greatly expanding the trade. Champlain also sent young French men to live and work among the natives, most notably Étienne Brûlé , to learn the land, language, and customs, as well as to promote trade. Champlain reformed
12483-433: The "nations of the north" which was attended by Ojibwe, Dakota, and Assiniboine leaders, where it was agreed that the daughters and sons of the various chiefs would marry each other to promote peace and ensure the flow of French goods into the region. The French fur trader Claude-Charles Le Roy writes that the Dakota had decided to make peace with their traditional enemies, the Ojibwe, in order to obtain French goods that
12702-529: The 10th century, merchants and boyars of the city-state of Novgorod had exploited the fur resources "beyond the portage", a watershed at the White Lake that represents the door to the entire northwestern part of Eurasia. They began by establishing trading posts along the Volga and Vychegda river networks and requiring the Komi people to give them furs as tribute . Novgorod, the chief fur-trade center prospered as
12921-598: The 1620s and 1630s. London merchants tried to take over France's fur trade in the St Lawrence River valley. Taking advantage of one of England's wars with France, Sir David Kirke captured Quebec in 1629 and brought the year's produce of furs back to London. Other English merchants also traded for furs around the Saint Lawrence River region in the 1630s, but these were officially discouraged. Such efforts ceased as France strengthened its presence in Canada. Much of
13140-427: The 1620s, the Iroquois had become dependent upon iron implements, which they obtained by trading fur with the Dutch at Fort Nassau (modern Albany, New York ). Between 1624 and 1628, the Iroquois drove out their neighbors, the Mahican, to allow themselves to be the one people in the Hudson river valley able to trade with the Dutch. By 1640, the Five Nations had exhausted the supply of beavers in Kanienkeh ("the land of
13359-530: The 17th through the second half of the 19th century, Russia was the world's largest supplier of fur. The fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia , the Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas . As recognition of the importance of the trade to the Siberian economy, the sable is a regional symbol of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Urals and Novosibirsk , Tyumen and Irkutsk Oblasts in Siberia. European contact with North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly
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#173285605744113578-424: The 1850s, Henry Sibley began a series of alterations to his house to accommodate his growing family and transform it from a hunting lodge into a Victorian family home. During his bachelor years, Sibley hosted many famous travelers in his home, including French geographer Joseph Nicollet , who spent the winter of 1836–37 with Sibley. Over the years, questions have been raised as to whether Sibley's cook, Joe Robinson,
13797-408: The 20-year-old sister of Franklin Steele , an entrepreneur from Pennsylvania who had staked the first claim to the east bank of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls and had operated the sutler's store at Fort Snelling since 1839. Sarah Jane was the eldest daughter of James Steele, who had served as Inspector General of Pennsylvania Troops during the War of 1812 and as a legislator in
14016-411: The American Fur Company from Michigan Territorial Governor George Bryan Porter . From 1832 to 1833 and again from 1833 to 1834, Sibley was charged with the responsibility of buying supplies for the company via its offices in Cleveland , which required him to canvass rural Ohio and Pennsylvania on horseback in winter. In 1834, as American Fur Company founder John Jacob Astor prepared to retire,
14235-455: The American Fur Company partners aimed to collect payment from the government to cover a substantial portion of their business losses, which appeared on their books as "Indian debts." In December 1836, Sibley had written to American Fur Company president Ramsay Crooks urging him to lobby his Washington connections to prevent Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro , a long-time political enemy of the traders, from being appointed as treaty commissioner
14454-404: The Americas onward, bringing the financial and material gains of the trade to Europe. European merchants from France , England and the Dutch Republic established trading posts and forts in various regions of eastern North America, primarily to conduct trade transactions with First Nations and local communities. The trade reached its peak of economic prominence in the 19th century, by which time
14673-451: The Bay and market trade in London." Arthur J. Ray permanently changed the direction of economic studies of the fur trade with two influential works that presented a modified formalist position in between the extremes of Innis and Rotstein. "This trading system," Ray explained, "is impossible to label neatly as ‘gift trade', or ‘administered trade', or ‘market trade', since it embodies elements of all these forms." Indians engaged in trade for
14892-405: The British, Solomon Sibley secured permission to leave. The family then left their home with only a few belongings, traveling "by a dim trail through the forests from Detroit to Marietta, camping out most of the way." They returned to Detroit one year later after its recapture by U.S. General William Henry Harrison and his defeat of the British in the Battle of the Thames . As a boy, Henry Sibley
15111-558: The Browns to support Helen, and financed her education, including boarding school in the eastern U.S. As a young woman living in St. Paul , she was said to be fully acculturated and accepted by white society, with a considerable income as a result of Sibley's investment of her treaty annuities. Henry Sibley maintained a congenial and public relationship with Helen, although this reportedly upset his wife Sarah Jane; Henry's past relationship with Helen's mother fueled criticism in Republican newspapers, which questioned his character and called him
15330-435: The Dakota. However, the sutler's store proved to be a headache for Henry Sibley, who did not get along with Stambaugh. Business was also highly dependent on the number of troops garrisoned at Fort Snelling. By 1837, the garrison was drastically reduced due to the Second Seminole War in Florida Territory , and many soldiers in the First Infantry Regiment left the fort with unpaid credits. In 1835, Sibley started lobbying for
15549-403: The English and the French was disastrous on the beaver population. The status of beavers changed dramatically as it went from being a source of food and clothing for Indigenous peoples to a vital good for exchange with the Europeans. The French were constantly in search of cheaper fur and trying to cut off Indigenous middleman which led them to explore the interior all the way to Lake Winnipeg and
15768-767: The European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Its trade developed in the Early Middle Ages (500–1000 AD/CE), first through exchanges at posts around the Baltic and Black seas. The main trading market destination was the German city of Leipzig . Kievan Rus' was the first supplier of the Russian fur trade. Originally, Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of
15987-738: The European settlers. Their resentment of the forced sales contributed to future wars. After the United States became independent, it regulated trading with Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act , first passed on July 22, 1790. The Bureau of Indian Affairs issued licenses to trade in the Indian Territory . In 1834 this was defined as most of the United States west of the Mississippi River , where mountain men and traders from Mexico freely operated. Early exploration parties were often fur-trading expeditions, many of which marked
16206-515: The First Nations in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and along the Saint Lawrence River . He concentrated on trading for furs used as trimming and adornment. He overlooked the fur that would become the driving force of the fur trade in the north, the beaver pelt, which would become fashionable in Europe. The earliest European trading for beaver pelts dated to the growing cod fishing industry that spread to
16425-473: The Five Nations once and for all, and to teach them to respect the "grandeur" of France. The repeated French raids took their toll with the Mohawk who could field about 300 warriors in the 1670s to able to field only 170 warriors in the summer of 1691. The Iroquois struck back by making raids into New France with the most successful being a raid on Lachine in 1689 that killed 24 Frenchmen while taking 80 captives, but
16644-734: The French felt-hatters. Hat makers began to use it in England soon after, particularly after Huguenot refugees brought their skills and tastes with them from France. Captain Chauvin made the first organized attempt to control the fur trade in New France . In 1599 he acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and tried to establish a colony near the mouth of the Saguenay River at Tadoussac . French explorers, like Samuel de Champlain , voyageurs , and Coureur des bois , such as Étienne Brûlé , Radisson , La Salle , and Le Sueur , while seeking routes through
16863-434: The French took an ambivalent attitude towards the Iroquois push west. On one hand, having the Five Nations at war with other nations prevented those nations from trading with the English at Albany, while on the other hand, the French did not want the Iroquois to become the only middlemen in the fur trade. But as the Iroquois continued to win against the other nations, they prevented French and Algonquin fur traders from entering
17082-515: The Hudson Bay. Their success led to England's chartering of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670, a major player in the fur trade for the next two centuries. French exploration and expansion westward continued with men such as La Salle and Jacques Marquette exploring and claiming the Great Lakes as well as the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. To bolster these territorial claims, the French constructed
17301-572: The Hudson's Bay Company competition. At the same time, the English presence in New England grew stronger, while the French were occupied with trying to combat the coureurs de bois and allied Indians from smuggling furs to the English for often higher prices and higher quality goods than they could offer. In 1675, the Iroquois made peace with the Machian while finally defeating the Susquenhannock . In
17520-475: The Hudson's Bay Company show this trend. The English and French had very different trading hierarchical structures. The Hudson's Bay Company had a technical monopoly of the beaver trade within the drainage basin of Hudson Bay while the Compagnie d'Occident was given a monopoly of the beaver trade farther south. The English organized their trade on strictly hierarchical lines while the French used licenses to lease
17739-612: The Indians in Canada, following the British takeover of the territory after it defeated France in the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War in North America). Following the British take over of Canada from France, the control of the fur trade in North America became consolidated under the British government for a time, until the United States was created and became a major source for furs being shipped to Europe as well in
17958-447: The Iroquois finally made peace with the French in 1667, one of the terms was the French had to hand over all of the Wendat who had fled to New France. The Iroquois had already clashed with the French in 1609, 1610 and 1615, but the "beaver wars" caused a lengthy struggle with the French who had no intention of allowing the Five Nations to set themselves up as the only middlemen in the fur trade. The French did not fare well at first, with
18177-456: The Iroquois inflicting more casualties then they suffered, French settlements frequently cut off, canoes bringing fur to Montreal intercepted, and sometimes the Iroquois blockaded the Saint Lawrence. New France was a proprietary colony run by the Compagnie des Cent-Associés who went bankrupt in 1663 because of the Iroquois attacks which made the fur trade unprofitable for the French. After
18396-495: The Iroquois, who had a predatory attitude towards their neighbors even at the best of times, constantly raiding neighboring peoples in "mourning wars" in search of captives who would become Iroquois, were determined to be the only middlemen between the Europeans and the other Indians who lived in the West, and quite consciously set about eliminating any rivals as such as the Huron (Wendat). By
18615-622: The Komi and Yugra, by recruiting men of one tribe to fight in an army against the other tribe. Campaigns against native tribes in Siberia remained insignificant until they began on a much larger scale in 1483 and 1499–1500. Besides the Novgorodians and the indigenes, the Muscovites also had to contend with the various Muslim Tatar khanates to their east. In 1552, Ivan IV , the tsar of all Russia , took
18834-471: The Middle East in exchange for silk, textiles, spices, and dried fruit. The high prices that sable, black fox, and marten furs could generate in international markets spurred a "fur fever" in which many Russians moved to Siberia as independent trappers. From 1585 to 1680, tens of thousands of sable and other valuable pelts were obtained in Siberia each year. The primary way for the Russian state to obtain furs
19053-522: The Mississippi River valley, and the Ottawa showed signs of finally making an alliance with the Five Nations, in 1684, the French declared war on the Iroquois. Otreouti in an appeal for help correctly noted: "The French will have all the beavers and are angry with us for bringing you any". Starting in 1684, the French repeatedly raided Kanienkeh, burning crops and villages as Louis gave orders to "humble"
19272-490: The Native Americans in debt. Traders would rig the weighing system that determined the value of the deerskins in their favor, cut measurement tools to devalue the deerskin, and would tamper with the manufactured goods to decrease their worth, such as watering down the alcohol they traded. To satisfy the need for deerskins, many males of the tribes abandoned their traditional seasonal roles and became full-time traders. When
19491-559: The North West with Montreal . The old system of native middlemen and coureurs de bois traveling to trade fairs in Montreal or illegally to English markets was replaced by an increasingly complex and labor-intensive trade network. Licensed voyageurs , allied with Montreal merchants, used water routes to reach the far-flung corners of the North West with canoe loads of trade goods. These risky ventures required large initial investments and had
19710-415: The Ojibwe treaty was signed at Fort Snelling , moved the Mdewakanton Dakota treaty negotiations to Washington, D.C. On August 18, Taliaferro managed to leave the St. Peter's Indian Agency with twenty-six Mdewakanton chiefs and headmen on a steamboat without tipping off the traders and without telling the chiefs the real reason for the trip. Soon after their departure, however, Taliaferro's covert operation
19929-632: The Ojibwe were blocking them from receiving. Le Roy writes the Dakota "could obtain French merchandise only through the agency of the Sauteurs [Ojibwe]" so they made "a treaty of peace by which they were mutually bound to give their daughters in marriage on both sides". Indian marriages usually involved a simple ceremony involving the exchange of valuable gifts from the parents of the bride and groom and, unlike European marriages, could be dissolved at any time by one partner choosing to walk out. The Indians were organized into kinship and clan networks, and marrying
20148-597: The Province. In 2000 there were 351 Mink farms in the U.S. As of 2015 there were 176,573 trappers in the U.S. with most being in the midwest. California was the first (and only) state to ban trapping for commercial and recreation purposes in 2015. The North American Fur Auction (NAFA) occurs four times a year and attracts buyers from around the world. According to the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, at present approximately 270,000 families in
20367-596: The Saint Lawrence heightened the fierce competition between the Iroquois and Huron for access to the rich fur-bearing lands of the Canadian Shield . The competition for hunting is believed to have contributed to the earlier destruction of the Saint Lawrence Iroquoians in the valley by 1600, likely by the Iroquois Mohawk tribe, who were located closest to them, were more powerful than the Huron, and had
20586-466: The Sissetons and Wahpetons did not allow the Mdewakantons to hunt there. Sibley worked to secure government contracts for the American Fur Company, in part to eliminate potential competition. From 1836 to 1839, Sibley was in charge of operating the army sutler's store at Fort Snelling , in partnership with Pennsylvania newspaper editor and former Indian agent Samuel C. Stambaugh, who had been appointed to
20805-543: The U.S. government signed the "Treaty with the Sioux." The Mdewakanton gave up "all their land, east of the Mississippi river, and all their islands in the said river" to the United States for $ 16,000 in cash and goods up front, plus an annual distribution worth up to $ 40,000 per year. Meanwhile, mixed-blood "relatives and friends" would receive $ 110,000 up front (because they were ineligible for annuities), and $ 90,000 would be paid to
21024-617: The United States , increasing the demand for cotton and helping make possible the rapid expansion of the cotton plantation system across the Deep South . The most profitable furs were those of sea otters , especially the northern sea otter, Enhydra lutris kenyoni , which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River to the south and Cook Inlet to the north. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter, E. l. nereis ,
21243-523: The United States and Canada derive some of their income from fur trapping. The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska . The furs were mostly traded in China for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and
21462-519: The United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia . The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted,
21681-404: The Wendat was at least just as much a "mourning war" as a "beaver war" as the Iroquois obsessively raided Wendake for ten years after their great raids of 1649 to take single Wendat back to Kanienkeh, even though they did not possess much in the way of beaver pelts. The Iroquois's population had been devastated by losses because of European diseases like smallpox for they had no immunity, and when
21900-471: The Western Outfit to Pierre Chouteau Jr. and Company. The American Fur Company declared bankruptcy on September 10, 1842. Independent of American Fur, Sibley was subject to fewer restrictions and was able to trade freely with both the Ojibwe and the Dakota. When Henry Sibley first arrived in St. Peters (in present-day Mendota, Minnesota ) on October 28, 1834, he was "struck with the picturesque beauty of
22119-404: The Western Outfit. Sibley was also reportedly concerned about the power and influence of mixed-blood trader Joseph Renville , who had his own stockade and soldiers' lodge at Lac qui Parle, and asked Brown to keep an eye on him. The steady decline in the wild animal population in the region meant that more and more hunters were competing for scarcer game, and driving herds further north. By 1836,
22338-478: The Winnebago, also negotiated in Washington. The treaty was potentially the most lucrative for the American Fur Company, with $ 200,000 set aside for individual compensation and settlement of "debts of the nation" to traders. The traders were "jubilant" over the terms of the treaty, and Sibley wrote to his father saying that once his debts were paid, he hoped to end his relationship with American Fur and return to Detroit
22557-422: The active approach involved the use of hunting-dogs and of bows-and-arrows. Occasionally, hunters also followed sable tracks to their burrows, around which they placed nets, and waited for the sable to emerge. The hunting season began around the time of the first snow in October or November and continued until early spring. Hunting expeditions lasted two to three years on average but occasionally longer. Because of
22776-462: The age of 24. The Sioux Outfit was headquartered at St. Peters (now Mendota ). The main store in St. Peters served five nearby Mdewakanton Dakota villages, the "mixed-blood" community around Fort Snelling , and groups of Dakota coming from the Cannon and Cedar River valleys to the southwest. Sibley also managed three distant posts at Traverse des Sioux , Lake Traverse , and a third location serving
22995-598: The age of 46. When Helen was about six years old, Henry Sibley arranged to have Helen adopted by William Reynolds Brown, an Anglo-American farmer, and his wife Martha. They had both worked at the Methodist mission in Kaposia — William as a carpenter and Martha as a teacher. Martha Brown reported that Helen spoke French when she came to live with them, suggesting that she learned the language from her Mdewakanton family and relatives. Sibley provided for his daughter financially, paying
23214-581: The age of twenty, after which she moved to Detroit. Henry was the fourth of eight children and second son of Solomon and Sarah Sibley. During the War of 1812 , when Henry was just 18 months old, Fort Detroit was surrounded by forces led by British Major General Isaac Brock and Shawnee chief Tecumseh . According to the Daughters of the American Revolution , Sarah Sibley and her children had been placed inside
23433-446: The authors searched for connections on a global stage that revealed its "high political and economic importance." E.E. Rich brought the economic purview down a level, focusing on the role of trading companies and their men as the ones who "opened up" much of Canada's territories, instead of on the role of the nation-state in opening up the continent. Rich's other work gets to the heart of the formalist/substantivist debate that dominated
23652-453: The basic values of the European approach" and that "English economic rules did not apply to the Indian trade." Indians were savvy traders, but they had a fundamentally different conception of property, which confounded their European trade partners. Abraham Rotstein subsequently fit these arguments explicitly into Polanyi's theoretical framework, claiming that "administered trade was in operation at
23871-414: The beaver returns from each trading post, biological evidence on beaver population dynamics and contemporary estimates of beaver population densities. While the view that increased competition between the English and the French led to over-exploitation of beaver stocks by the Aboriginals does not receive uncritical support, most believe that Aboriginals were the primary actors in depleting animal stocks. There
24090-416: The beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur felt hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe. Fur was relied on to make warm clothing, a critical consideration prior to the organization of coal distribution for heating. Portugal and Spain played major roles in fur trading after the 15th century with their business in fur hats. From as early as
24309-508: The best fur country was far to the north and west, and could best be reached by ships sailing into Hudson Bay . Their treatment in Canada suggested that they would not find support from France for their scheme. The pair went to New England, where they found local financial support for at least two attempts to reach Hudson Bay, both unsuccessful. Their ideas had reached the ears of English authorities, however, and in 1665 Radisson and Groseilliers were persuaded to go to London . After some setbacks,
24528-480: The business of the trade, creating the first informal trust in 1613 in response to increasing losses because of competition. The trust was later formalized with a royal charter, leading to a series of trade monopolies during the term of New France. The most notable monopoly was the Company of One Hundred Associates based back in France, with a period of attempted transition towards other share trading companies, such as
24747-579: The children of slaves. The Métis in the Canadian Red River region were so numerous that they developed a creole language and culture. Since the late 20th century, the Métis have been recognized in Canada as a First Nations ethnic group. The interracial relationships resulted in a two-tier mixed-race class, in which descendants of fur traders and chiefs achieved prominence in some Canadian social, political, and economic circles. Lower-class descendants formed
24966-553: The community around it were technically part of the Fort Snelling military reservation. Henry Sibley lived with his family in Mendota until 1862, when he sold his home to St. Peters Catholic Parish and moved to St. Paul . During the winter of 1840–41, Sibley entered a relationship with Red Blanket Woman (Tahshinahohindoway), daughter of Bad Hail (Wasuwicaxtaxni), a Mdewakanton sub-chief, and of partly French descent. They were part of
25185-522: The company reorganized in 1834. Even before the treaties were ratified, however, the area around the Upper Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers changed quickly. Hundreds of timber speculators and squatters began moving into the area, also on land that still belonged to the Dakota , causing Chief Big Thunder Little Crow to complain to Agent Taliaferro that the influx of squatters seemed "hasty" and premature. Meanwhile, many Mdewakanton , convinced that
25404-478: The company was in the midst of reorganization as a partnership , with Astor's chief lieutenant Ramsay Crooks as president and senior partner. Sibley approached Crooks directly and asked to be released from his employment contract with Astor, which ran until 1835, one year early. He explained that his parents "were strongly opposed to [his] longer sojourn in what was little better than a wild Indian country," and that he had been offered much better paying positions as
25623-543: The continent, established relationships with Amerindians and continued to expand the trade of fur pelts for items considered 'common' by the Europeans. Mammal winter pelts were prized for warmth, particularly animal pelts for beaver wool felt hats, which were an expensive status symbol in Europe. The demand for beaver wool felt hats was such that the beaver in Europe and European Russia had largely disappeared through exploitation. In 1613 Dallas Carite and Adriaen Block headed expeditions to establish fur trade relationships with
25842-426: The continual supply of European goods to their communities and discourage fur traders from dealing with other Indian tribes. The fur trade did not involve barter in the way that most people presuppose but was a credit/debit relationship when a fur trader would arrive in a community in the summer or fall, hand out goods to the Indians who would pay him back in the spring with the furs from the animals they had killed over
26061-465: The country north and west of Lake Superior symbolically opened this new era of expansion. Their trading voyage proved extremely lucrative in furs. More importantly, they learned of a frozen sea to the north that provided easy access to the fur-bearing interior. Upon their return, French officials confiscated the furs of these unlicensed coureurs des bois . Radisson and Groseilliers went to Boston and then to London to secure funding and two ships to explore
26280-488: The course of the 15th century and proceeded with the " gathering of the Russian lands ", the Muscovite state began to rival the Novgorodians in the north for the Russian fur trade; ultimately, Novgorod would lose its autonomy and be absorbed by the authorities in Moscow along with its vast hinterland. At the same time, Moscow began subjugating many native tribes. One strategy involved exploiting antagonisms between tribes, notably
26499-529: The dead Iroquois; thus a cycle of violence and warfare escalated. More significantly, new infectious diseases brought by the French decimated Native communities . Combined with warfare, disease led to the near destruction of the Huron by 1650. During the 1640s and 1650s, the Beaver Wars initiated by the Iroquois forced a massive demographic shift as their western neighbors fled the violence. They sought refuge west and north of Lake Michigan . The Five Nations of
26718-450: The decline in fur animals and realized the market was changing, as beaver hats went out of style. Expanding European settlement displaced native communities from the best hunting grounds. European demand for furs subsided as fashion trends shifted. The Native Americans' lifestyles were altered by the trade. To continue obtaining European goods on which they had become dependent and to pay off their debts, they often resorted to selling land to
26937-473: The deer populations declined and the government pressured tribes to switch to the European settler's way of life, animal husbandry replaced deer hunting both as an income and in the diet. Rum was first introduced in the early 16th century as a trading item and quickly became an inelastic good . While Native Americans for the most part acted conservatively in trading deals, they consumed a surplus of alcohol. Traders used rum to help form partnerships. Rum had
27156-405: The deerskin trade collapsed, Native Americans found themselves dependent on manufactured goods, and could not return to the old ways because of lost knowledge. It was a common practice on the part of the Indian women to offer marriage and sometimes just sex in exchange for fur traders not trading with their rivals. Radisson describes visiting one Ojibwe village in the spring of 1660 where during
27375-562: The early history of contact between Europeans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada . Dr. S. E. Dawson's admirable "The Saint Lawrence Its Basin & Border-Lands" covers in detail the twenty-or-so main "gateways" connecting the St. Lawrence River with its neighbouring basins. Though these were all once canoe routes, not all were trade routes. In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland . Sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for
27594-761: The easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League . Novgorodians expanded farther east and north, coming into contact with the Pechora people of the Pechora River valley and the Yugra people residing near the Urals . Both of these native tribes offered more resistance than the Komi, killing many Russian tribute-collectors throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries. As the Grand Principality of Moscow increased in power over
27813-431: The entire operation was fueled by seasoned trails, the knowledge and experiences of numerous frontiersmen and the system of elaborate trade networks. The trade soon became one of the main economic drivers in North America, attracting competition amongst European nations, whom maintained trade interests in the Americas. The United States sought to remove the substantial British control over the North American fur trade during
28032-506: The establishment of a post office at Fort Snelling with regular service from Prairie du Chien , contacting his political connections in Michigan Territory for support. He succeeded, and the American Fur Company's Western Outfit secured the contract for mail delivery from 1837 to 1839. Mail was carried by steamboats during the summer, but during the long winter, Sibley and his partners had to hire runners, and found it difficult to deliver
28251-512: The expansion while centralizing the French efforts. As native peoples had the primary role of suppliers in the fur trade, Champlain quickly created alliances with the Algonquin , Montagnais (who were located in the territory around Tadoussac), and most importantly, the Huron to the west. The latter, an Iroquoian -speaking people, served as middlemen between the French on the Saint Lawrence and nations in
28470-709: The field or, as some came to believe, muddied it. Historians such as Harold Innis had long taken the formalist position, especially in Canadian history, believing that neoclassical economic principles affect non-Western societies just as they do Western ones. Starting in the 1950s, however, substantivists such as Karl Polanyi challenged these ideas, arguing instead that primitive societies could engage in alternatives to traditional Western market trade; namely, gift trade and administered trade. Rich picked up these arguments in an influential article in which he contended that Indians had "a persistent reluctance to accept European notions or
28689-429: The final page of his unfinished autobiography, Sibley recounted that "an Indian sub-chief" had brought his daughter to his log house in the middle of the night for protection during the winter of 1835–36. Sibley wrote that he had declined to take her in as his wife, and that the two visitors had left his house "disappointed, and mortified, at the ill success of their mission." Although Sibley did not specify whether that man
28908-518: The first general store in Mendota together with his clerk and business partner Hypolite Dupuis . In 1842, the American Fur Company 's Western Outfit was sold to Pierre Choteau Jr. and Company, forming their new Upper Mississippi Outfit. In the original contract, the Upper Mississippi Outfits's trade was described as "trade with whites and Indians," reflecting the changing demographics of the region. As part of Choteau Company, Henry Sibley
29127-516: The first permanent settlement of Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay River on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, up the Saint Lawrence River and into the pays d'en haut (or "upper country") around the Great Lakes . What followed in the first half of the 17th century were strategic moves by both the French and the Indigenous groups to further their own economic and geopolitical ambitions. Champlain led
29346-567: The first recorded instances of Europeans' reaching particular regions of North America. For example, Abraham Wood sent fur-trading parties on exploring expeditions into the southern Appalachian Mountains, discovering the New River in the process. Simon Fraser was a fur trader who explored much of the Fraser River in British Columbia. Economic historians and anthropologists have studied
29565-510: The first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudson's Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and
29784-457: The flint," the Iroquois name for their homeland in what is now upstate New York ), and moreover Kanienkeh lacked the beavers with the thick pelts that the Europeans favored and would pay the best price for, which were to be found further north in what is now northern Canada. The Five Nations launched the "Beaver Wars" to take control of the fur trade from other middlemen who would deal with the Europeans. The Wendat homeland, Wendake, lies in what
30003-408: The following year. It took many months for the treaties to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, which was reluctant to approve the treaty expenditures in the midst of an economic depression. Special commissioners were appointed to examine the books of each claimant and allocate funds. Disputes also arose among American Fur Company traders, complicated by the fact that some debts had been incurred before
30222-586: The following year. In 1836, Sibley hired John Mueller to start building work in St. Peters at what is now known as the Sibley House Historic Site . The Sibley House has historically been referred to as "the oldest stone house in Minnesota." The first new building built by Sibley was actually a stone warehouse, completed in 1836. Work on his actual residence most likely started in 1837 or 1838 and may not have been fully completed until 1839. Immediately following his marriage to Sarah Jane Steele and well into
30441-583: The following year. Taliaferro nevertheless prevailed. On July 29, 1837, Henry Sibley was a signatory to the U.S. treaty with the Ojibwe, also known as the Treaty of St. Peters , the Treaty with the Chippewa, or the "White Pine Treaty". The Ojibwe treaty named his business partner Hercules L. Dousman as one of three fur traders to receive debt payments. Agent Taliaferro , infuriated by what he viewed as trader meddling when
30660-403: The fort for safety with other families, while Solomon was out in the field commanding a company of militia. Mrs. Sibley was found holding baby Henry in her arms "while with her busy hands she was making cartridges for the soldiers," and four officers, including her cousin, were killed by a cannonball in the adjoining room. After American General William Hull surrendered and Detroit was occupied by
30879-607: The funds and supplies failed to arrive, and many eastern Ojibwe and Dakota faced near starvation. In April 1838, couriers from Lake Traverse informed Sibley that angry Sisseton and Wahpeton had assaulted several American Fur Company traders, killing Louis Provencalle Jr., wounding Joseph R. Brown , and killing and stealing horses and oxen. Sibley retaliated immediately by closing all trading posts west of Fort Renville on Lac qui Parle . The treaties were finally ratified in June 1838, but it would take many more months before payments reached
31098-406: The fur trade also brought profound changes to the Indigenous communities living along the Saint Lawrence. European wares, such as iron axe heads, brass kettles, cloth, and firearms were bought with beaver pelts and other furs. The widespread practice of trading furs for rum and whiskey led to problems associated with inebriation and alcohol abuse. The subsequent destruction of beaver populations along
31317-434: The fur trade extremely profitable for the Europeans. The Natives used the iron axe heads to replace stone axe heads which they had made by hand in a labor-intensive process, so they derived substantial benefits from the trade as well. The colonists began to see the ill effects of alcohol on Natives, and the chiefs objected to its sale and trade. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited sale by European settlers of alcohol to
31536-666: The fur trade in Minnesota "was in its most flourishing condition" in the years leading up to 1837. Whereas fur traders such as Joseph Renville and Hazen Mooers had traditionally rewarded loyal Dakota hunters with generous gift-giving and access to credit, Sibley "sought to transform the fur trade into a completely modern business." He instructed the traders and clerks in his territory to limit credits to powder, lead and shot. Many Dakota hunters complained to Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro about these changes. Hunters from Shakopee 's band reported that ever since Sibley had taken over, "they could get 'nothing' from their traders, 'not even
31755-520: The fur trade in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries was dominated by the Canadian fur shipping network that developed in New France under the fur monopoly held first by the Company of One Hundred Associates , then followed in 1664 by the French West India Company , steadily expanding fur trapping and shipping across a network of frontier forts further west that eventually went all
31974-432: The fur trade of that colony (now called New York) fell into English hands with the 1667 Treaty of Breda . In 1668 the English fur trade entered a new phase. Two French citizens, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers , had traded with great success west of Lake Superior in 1659–60, but upon their return to Canada, most of their furs were seized by the authorities. Their trading voyage had convinced them that
32193-586: The fur trade through two taxes, the yasak (or iasak) tax on natives and the 10% "Sovereign Tithing Tax" imposed on both the catch and sale of fur pelts. Fur was in great demand in Western Europe, especially sable and marten, since European forest resources had been over-hunted and furs had become extremely scarce. Fur trading allowed Russia to purchase from Europe goods that it lacked, like lead, tin, precious metals, textiles, firearms, and sulphur. Russia also traded furs with Ottoman Turkey and other countries in
32412-531: The fur trade were suddenly plunged into poverty and, consequently, lost much of the political influence they once held. The number of beavers and river otters killed during the fur trade was devastating for the animals' North American populations. The natural ecosystems that came to rely on the beavers for dams , river and water management and other vital needs were also ravaged, leading to ecological destruction , significant environmental change, and even drought in certain areas. Following this degradation, both
32631-408: The fur trade's important role in early North American economies, but they have been unable to agree on a theoretical framework to describe native economic patterns. John C. Phillips and J.W. Smurr tied the fur trade to an imperial struggle for power, positing that the fur trade served both as an incentive for expanding and as a method for maintaining dominance. Dismissing the experience of individuals,
32850-442: The fur trade; they made marriages or cohabited with high-ranking Indian women of similar status in their own cultures. Fur trappers and other workers usually had relationships with lower-ranking women. Many of their mixed-race descendants developed their own culture, now called Métis in Canada, based then on fur trapping and other activities on the frontier. In some cases both Native American and European-American cultures excluded
33069-693: The granddaughter of Commodore Abraham Whipple of the Continental Navy . Both Sproat and Whipple had received land grants after they lost their fortunes in the American Revolutionary War and were early pioneers in Marietta, Ohio . Sarah was born in Providence, Rhode Island , and attended boarding schools in Bethlehem and Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . She married Solomon Sibley in Marietta in 1802 at
33288-568: The growing demand for furs, driving the creation and expansion of the fur trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, although new trends as well as occasional revivals of prior fashions would cause the fur trade to ebb and flow right up to the present. Often, the political benefits of the fur trade became more important than the economic aspects. Trade was a way to forge alliances and maintain good relations between different cultures. The fur traders were men with capital and social standing. Often younger men were single when they went to North America to enter
33507-479: The growth of the general mercantile trade. Henry Sibley sought to diversify his own business activities into other areas, even as he worked for American Fur Company and later for Pierre Chouteau Jr. and Company. However, Sibley never achieved great commercial success as an entrepreneur, and would later lament his "want of success in business." As early as 1837, Sibley, together with traders William Aitken and Lyman Warren, had entered into an exclusive contract with
33726-409: The importance of personal contacts and experience in the fur trade, gave an edge to independent traders over the more bureaucratic monopolies. The newly established English colonies to the south quickly joined the lucrative trade, raiding the Saint Lawrence River valley and capturing and controlling Quebec from 1629 to 1632. While bringing wealth to a few select French traders and the French regime,
33945-527: The land from the Urals eastward to the Yenisey valley and to the Altai Mountains in the south, comprising about 1.25 million square miles of land. Furs would become Russia's largest source of wealth during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Keeping up with the advances of Western Europe required significant capital and Russia did not have sources of gold and silver, but it did have furs, which became known as "soft gold" and provided Russia with hard currency. The Russian government received income from
34164-472: The late 1670s and early 1680s, the Five Nations started to raid what is now the Midwest , battling the Miami and the Illinois while alternatively fighting against and attempting to make an alliance with the Ottawa. One Onondaga chief, Otreouti, whom the French called La Grande Gueule ("the big mouth"), announced in a speech in 1684 that the wars against the Illinois and Miami were justified because "They came to hunt beavers on our lands ...". Initially,
34383-407: The long hunting season and the fact that passage back to Russia was difficult and costly, beginning around the 1650s–1660s, many promyshlenniki chose to stay and settle in Siberia. From 1620 to 1680, a total of 15,983 trappers operated in Siberia. The North American fur trade began as early as the 1500s between Europeans and First Nations (see: Early French Fur Trading ) and was a central part of
34602-623: The loss of his first-born child Helen "sincerely and truly." Henry and Sarah Jane Sibley had at least nine children, four of whom survived until adulthood, including Augusta Ann, born in 1844; Sarah Jane, born in 1851; Charles Frederic, born in 1860; and Alfred Brush, born in 1866. Five died as young children: Henry Hastings (1846), Henry Hastings (1847–51), Franklin Steele (1853–63), Mary Steele (1855–63), and Alexander Hastings (1864). In 1868, their eldest daughter Augusta married Captain Douglas Pope, Sibley's former aide-de-camp who had been based at Fort Snelling . When his wife Sarah died in 1869, Henry
34821-416: The mail on time. The financial panic of 1837 nearly resulted in a collapse of the U.S. banking and monetary system, triggering an economic depression which lasted until the mid-1840s. Fur prices fell sharply and muskrat pelts, which made up the bulk of the fur trade in Sibley's region, were no longer in demand. By February 1838, Crooks reported to Sibley that the previous year's pelts were still sitting in
35040-420: The majority of the separate Métis culture based on hunting, trapping and farming. Because of the wealth at stake, different European-American governments competed with various native societies for control of the fur trade. Native Americans sometimes based decisions of which side to support in times of war in relation to which people had provided them with the best trade goods in an honest manner. Because trade
35259-407: The maritime fur trade diversified and was transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska saw fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels. The British were
35478-418: The maximum benefit from the presence of the English and the French. Additionally, the problem of the commons is also glaringly visible in this matter. Open access to resources leads to no incentive to conserve stocks, and actors which try to conserve lose out compared to the others when it comes to maximizing economic output. Therefore, there appeared to be a lack of concern by tribes of the First Nations about
35697-399: The men only wanted alcohol in exchange for furs while the women demanded a wide variety of European goods in exchange for rice. Fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur . Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period , furs of boreal , polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been
35916-414: The mixed-race descendants. If the Native Americans were a tribe with a patrilineal kinship system, they considered children born to a white father to be white, in a type of hypodescent classification, although the Native mother and tribe might care for them. The Europeans tended to classify children of Native women as Native, regardless of the father, similar to the hypodescent of their classification of
36135-426: The most to gain by controlling this part of the valley. Iroquois access to firearms through Dutch and later English traders along the Hudson River increased the casualties in the warfare. This greater bloodshed, previously unseen in Iroquoian warfare, increased the practice of " Mourning Wars ". The Iroquois raided neighboring groups to take captives, who were ceremonially adopted as new family members to replace
36354-588: The most valued. Historically the trade stimulated the exploration and colonization of Siberia , northern North America , and the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands . Today the importance of the fur trade has diminished; it is based on pelts produced at fur farms and regulated fur-bearer trapping , but has become controversial. Animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, citing that animals are brutally killed and sometimes skinned alive. Fur has been replaced in some clothing by synthetic imitations, for example, as in ruffs on hoods of parkas . Before
36573-431: The natives' well-worn pelts. The first pelts in demand were beaver and sea otter, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk. Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts. The pelts were called castor gras in French and "coat beaver" in English, and were soon recognized by the newly developed felt-hat making industry as particularly useful for felting. Some historians, seeking to explain
36792-460: The new English Hudson's Bay Company trade was felt as early as 1671, with diminished returns for the French and the role of the native middlemen. This new competition directly stimulated French expansion into the North West to win back native customers. What followed was a continual expansion north and west of Lake Superior. The French used diplomatic negotiations with natives to win back trade and an aggressive military policy to temporarily eliminate
37011-403: The new cattle herds roaming the hunting lands, and a greater emphasis on farming due to the invention of the cotton gin , Native Americans struggled to maintain their place in the economy. An inequality gap had appeared in the tribes, as some hunters were more successful than others. Still, the creditors treated an individual's debt as debt of the whole tribe and used several strategies to keep
37230-401: The nineteenth century, along with the largely unsettled territory of Russian America , which became a significant source of furs also during that period. The fur trade began to significantly decline starting in the 1830s, following changing attitudes and fashions in Europe and America which no longer centered around certain articles of clothing as much such as beaver skin hats, which had fueled
37449-448: The pelts of martens , beavers , wolves , foxes , squirrels and hares . Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia , a region rich in many mammal fur species, such as Arctic fox , lynx , sable , sea otter and stoat ( ermine ). In a search for the prized sea otter pelts, first used in China, and later for the northern fur seal , the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska . From
37668-409: The post but had no interest in moving there. By controlling the army sutler's store, the fur traders were confident that they could maintain their local monopoly ; otherwise, there would be nothing to stop the Dakota from patronizing the sutler's store at Fort Snelling and using fur pelts to pay for goods. Any losses incurred by the traders would be more than offset by the higher prices they could charge
37887-686: The prized sables that the natives did not value, but greater demand for furs led to violence and force becoming the primary means of obtaining the furs. The largest problem with the yasak system was that Russian governors were prone to corruption because they received no salary. They resorted to illegal means of getting furs for themselves, including bribing customs officials to allow them to personally collect yasak , extorting natives by exacting yasak multiple times over, or requiring tribute from independent trappers. Russian fur trappers, called promyshlenniki , hunted in one of two types of bands of 10–15 men, called vatagi [ ru ] . The first
38106-436: The promised payments and provisions would soon arrive, refused to join the winter hunt and insisted that all past debts to traders had been settled by the treaty. In December 1837, Hercules Dousman complained to Henry Sibley that the Mdewakanton "say it is not necessary to work for the traders anymore as they will now have plenty to live on independent of the traders' goods." Tensions in the region grew to unprecedented levels as
38325-499: The regional manager for fur trade with the Dakota north and west of Lake Pepin , based at the mouth of the Minnesota River (then called St. Peter's). Sibley later wrote that he was finally persuaded by Dousman's glowing description of the Minnesota Valley as a hunter's paradise where "woods abounded with bear, deer and other game animals, and the numerous lakes with aquatic fowl of every variety." In October 1834, 23-year-old Henry Sibley left Mackinac , traveling to Green Bay and up
38544-479: The river otter and beaver populations in North America would continue to decline, without much noticeable improvement until around the mid-twentieth century. French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with 16th century and later explorations in North America. Cartier attempted limited fur trading with
38763-422: The robes to keep warm on the long, cold return voyages across the Atlantic. These castor gras (in French) became prized by European hat makers in the second half of the 16th century, as they converted the pelts to felt . The discovery of the superior felting qualities of beaver fur, along with the rapidly increasing popularity of beaver felt hats in fashion, transformed the incidental trading of fishermen into
38982-437: The room where discussions took place between Secretary of War Joel Roberts Poinsett , Commissioner Carey A. Harris, and the Mdewakanton chiefs, starting September 21. Only "mixed-blood" American Fur employee Alexander Faribault and former AFC trader Alexis Bailly were allowed in the meetings as staff assistants who could also serve as interpreters. On September 29, 1837, twenty-one Mdewakanton leaders and representatives of
39201-457: The scene" looking out at Fort Snelling perched high above the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers . However, as he descended the hill, he was "disappointed to find only a group of log huts" occupied by the fur traders and staff, and included an urgent request for new buildings in his first letter to Ramsay Crooks on November 1. Sibley stayed at the largest log house, which belonged to Alexis Bailly , whose business Sibley took over
39420-409: The settling to a lower level of stable population, further declines were caused by over-harvesting in two of the three English trading posts (Albany and York). The data from the third trading post are also very interesting in that the post did not come under French pressure and was therefore shielded from the kind of over-exploitation of stocks which resulted at the other trading posts. At Fort Churchill,
39639-440: The sparsely populated New France. The vast wealth in the fur trade created enforcement problems for the monopoly. Unlicensed independent traders, known as coureurs des bois (or "runners of the woods"), began to do business in the late 17th and early 18th century. Over time, many Métis were drawn to the independent trade; they were the descendants of French trappers and native women. The increasing use of currency , as well as
39858-512: The stocks of beaver adjusted to the maximum sustained yield level. The data from Churchill further reinforce the case of over-exploitation of stocks caused by the French-English competition. Indigenous North American beliefs in the affected region incorporate respect for the environment. Traditionally, many tribes in the region believe in a spiritual relationship between the people and the animals they rely on for food, clothing, and medicines, and many tribes have traditional protocols surrounding how
40077-412: The summer of 1830. In 1832, AFC manager Robert Stuart selected Sibley to transact important business for the company, and sent him on a perilous journey back to Detroit in a bark canoe paddled by nine voyageurs . Despite a severe storm, damage to the canoe, and news of a cholera outbreak in Detroit which killed his grandmother, Sibley successfully completed the journey and secured several licenses for
40296-628: The summer, promyshlenniki would set up a summer camp to stockpile grain and fish, and many engaged in agricultural work for extra money. During late summer or early fall the vatagi left their hunting grounds, surveyed the area, and set up a winter camp. Each member of the group set at least 10 traps and the vatagi divided into smaller groups of two to three men who cooperated to maintain certain traps. Promyshlenniki checked traps daily, resetting them or replacing bait whenever necessary. The promyshlenniki employed both passive and active hunting-strategies. The passive approach involved setting traps, while
40515-504: The superior resources of the French state proceeded to grind them down until they finally made peace in 1701 . The settlement of native refugees from the Beaver Wars in the western and northern Great Lakes combined with the decline of the Ottawa middlemen to create vast new markets for French traders. Resurgent Iroquoian warfare in the 1680s also stimulated the fur trade as native French allies bought weapons. The new more distant markets and fierce English competition stifled direct trade from
40734-455: The sustainability of the fur trade. The problem of over-exploitation is not helped by the fact that the efforts by the French to remove the middlemen such as the Huron who increasingly resented their influence meant that stocks were put under more pressure. All these factors contributed to an unsustainable trade pattern in furs which depleted beaver stocks very fast. An empirical study done by Ann M. Carlos and Frank D. Lewis shows that apart from
40953-410: The term castor gras , have assumed that coat beaver was rich in human oils from having been worn so long (much of the top-hair was worn away through usage, exposing the valuable under-wool), and that this is what made it attractive to the hatters. This seems unlikely, since grease interferes with the felting of wool, rather than enhancing it. By the 1580s, beaver "wool" was the major starting material of
41172-521: The time. In July 1859, she sent MVLA Regent Ann Pamela Cunningham a letter of resignation which was declined. In 1860, Henry also wrote to Cunningham on Sarah's behalf, but his plea to allow her to resign due to ill health was ignored. In 1862, the Sibley family moved to their new home at 417 Woodward Street in St. Paul – a move that Sarah had longed for during many years but reportedly was unable to enjoy due to depression and illness. Sarah Jane Sibley died of complications from pneumonia on May 21, 1869, at
41391-430: The traders and the Native American tribes. Hearings on the Winnebago claims in particular dragged on through 1839, mired in public scandal and charges of corruption. In November 1839, the Western Outfit partners including Henry Sibley agreed with Ramsay Crooks to extend their original contract with American Fur Company for another year, until August 1, 1841. On August 1, 1842, the American Fur Company sold its interest in
41610-508: The traders to settle Mdewakanton debts – a little more than one-third of the debts they had claimed. Sibley wrote to Ramsay Crooks that the whole treaty was "but one series of iniquity and wrong," which had left Faribault and Bailly "so exasperated, that they seriously considered traveling home without the delegation... This is the boasted paternal regard for the poor Indian. 'O Shame where is thy blush!" Historian Gary Clayton Anderson writes that "Self-interest on their part underlay this opposition:
41829-403: The traders wanted the government to spend more money." Sibley was also irritated that the treaty named Taliaferro's interpreter, Scott Campbell, as an annuity recipient with title to part of the land then occupied by Sibley's trading establishment — a personal concession which was later struck out by the United States Congress . On November 1, 1837, Henry Sibley was a signatory to the Treaty with
42048-531: The use of their posts. This meant that the French incentivized the extension of trade, and French traders did indeed infiltrate much of the Great Lakes region. The French established posts on Lake Winnipeg, Lac des Praires and Lake Nipigon which represented a serious threat to flow of furs to the York Factory . The increasing penetration near English ports meant that the Native Americans had more than one place to sell their goods. The simulation of beaver populations around trading posts are done by taking into account
42267-546: The way in which the Ojibwe and the other Indian peoples sought to "use sexual relations as a means of establishing long-term relationships between themselves and people from another society was a rational strategy, one that has been described in many parts of the world". One fur trader who married an Ojibwe woman describes how the Ojibwe would initially shun a fur trader until they could give gauge his honesty and provided he proved himself an honest man, "the chiefs would take together their marriageable girls to his trading house and he
42486-433: The way to modern day Winnipeg in Western Canada by the mid-1700s, coming into direct contact and opposition with the English fur trappers stationed out of York Factory at Hudson Bay . Meanwhile, the New England fur trade expanded as well, not only inland, but northward along the coast into the Bay of Fundy region. London 's access to high-quality furs was greatly increased with the takeover of New Amsterdam, whereupon
42705-403: The ways of the colonists, hunted to feed global fur markets with little consideration of the possibility of extinction. As competition increased between the English and French in the 16th century, fur also continued to be harvested by Aboriginal tribes, both for their own use and as middleman. All of this combined to cause a severe over-harvesting of beavers. Data from three of the trading posts of
42924-439: The welcoming ceremony: "The women throw themselves backwards on the ground, thinking to give us tokens of friendship and wellcome [welcome]". Radisson was initially confused by this gesture, but as the women started to engage in more overtly sexual behavior, he realized what was being offered. Radisson was informed by the village elders that he could have sex with any unmarried women in the village provided that he did not trade with
43143-421: The winter; in the interim, further exchanges often involved both Indian men and women. Fur traders found that marrying the daughters of chiefs would ensure the co-operation of an entire community. Marriage alliances were also made between Indian tribes. In September 1679, the French diplomat and soldier Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut , called a peace conference at Fond du Lac (modern Duluth, Minnesota ) of all
43362-407: The years after the 1837 treaties were signed, the fur trade itself changed significantly. In local parlance, it became known as the "Indian trade," reflecting the industry's increasing reliance on U.S. government annuities paid to, or on behalf of, the Native American tribes in the region. The growing white population in the Upper Mississippi — including lumbermen, speculators and farmers — also spurred
43581-413: Was Bad Hail, researcher Bruce A. Kohn states that it may well have been. On August 28, 1841, Red Blanket Woman gave birth to their daughter Helen Hastings Sibley, also known as Wakiye (Bird). Monsignor Augustin Ravoux , a Catholic missionary, baptized "Hélène," daughter of Tahshinahohindoway and an unnamed father, with fur trader William Henry Forbes named as her godfather. In February 1842, Forbes sent
43800-426: Was a slave or a free man. Evidence suggests that if Robinson was in fact a slave at this time, he belonged to Hercules L. Dousman and may have been "on loan" to Sibley. Sibley famously wrote, "It may seem paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true, that I was successively a citizen of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota Territories, without changing my residence at Mendota." Until 1857, the site of Sibley's home and
44019-408: Was accompanied by Alexis Bailly , whose four trading posts Sibley would take over as head of the company's "Sioux Outfit" the following year. They spent six months together, during which Bailly warned Sibley that "the American Fur Company squeezed its small traders dry then dropped them like useless rinds." Henry Sibley officially took over as head of the American Fur Company's Sioux Outfit in 1835 at
44238-496: Was an independent band of blood relatives or unrelated people who contributed an equal share of the hunting-expedition expenses; the second was a band of hired hunters who participated in expeditions fully funded by the trading companies which employed them. Members of an independent vataga cooperated and shared all necessary work associated with fur trapping, including making and setting traps, building forts and camps, stockpiling firewood and grain, and fishing. All fur pelts went into
44457-425: Was born in Detroit , Michigan Territory . His father, Solomon Sibley (1769–1846), was from Sutton, Massachusetts , and a direct descendant of John Sibley, who had immigrated from England to America in 1629. Solomon had moved to Detroit from Marietta, Ohio , in 1798. Henry's mother, born Sarah Whipple Sproat, was the only daughter of Colonel Ebenezer Sproat , a distinguished officer in the Continental Army , and
44676-621: Was bought mainly for the English hat-making trade, while the fine furs went to the Netherlands and Germany . Meanwhile, in the Southern colonies , a deerskin trade was established around 1670, based at the export hub of Charleston, South Carolina . Word spread among Native hunters that the Europeans would exchange pelts for the European-manufactured goods that were highly desired in native communities. Carolinan traders stocked axe heads, knives, awls, fish hooks, cloth of various type and color, woolen blankets, linen shirts, kettles, jewelry, glass beads, muskets , ammunition and powder to exchange on
44895-459: Was by exacting a fur tribute from the Siberian natives, called a yasak . Yasak was usually a fixed number of sable pelts which every male tribe member who was at least fifteen years old had to supply to Russian officials. Officials enforced yasak through coercion and by taking hostages, usually the tribe chiefs or members of the chief's family. At first, Russians were content to trade with the natives, exchanging goods like pots, axes, and beads for
45114-444: Was discovered, and nearly a dozen traders, including Henry Sibley and Joseph R. Brown , arrived in Washington close behind them. It was Sibley's first time in Washington. In early September, Hercules Dousman wrote to Sibley, instructing him "leave no stone unturned to get something handsome for us" when the U.S. government was negotiating with the Dakota. However, Taliaferro prevented most of the American Fur Company traders from entering
45333-435: Was educated at the Academy of Detroit, after which he was tutored privately in Latin and Greek for two years by Reverend Richard Fish Cadle , an Episcopal clergyman and classics scholar. Around the age of sixteen, Henry started studying law, because Judge Sibley had hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps. After two years, Henry confessed to his father that he found the study of law "irksome" and that he "longed for
45552-425: Was given away by Governor Sibley at her wedding in the front parlor of the Browns' house in St. Paul. They agreed that Helen would not use Sibley as her surname on the couple's marriage certificate, but Henry signed the certificate "H.H. Sibley" as a witness. Tragically, Helen died less than a year later of scarlet fever after giving birth to a baby girl who also died. In 1860, Sawyer wrote that Governor Sibley mourned
45771-418: Was given the choice of the lot". If the fur trader married, the Ojibwe would trade with him as he became part of the community, and if he refused to marry, then the Ojibwe would not trade with him as Ojibwe only traded with a man who "took one of their women for his wife". Virtually all Indian communities encouraged fur traders to take an Indian wife in order to build a long-term relationship that would ensure
45990-539: Was left with two young sons, including Freddie who was eight years old and Allie who was not yet three, as well as 18-year-old Sallie (Sarah Jane). Sallie married Elbert A. Young, a Saint Paul wholesale merchant, in 1875. Henry Sibley did not remarry, but his sister-in-law Abbie Potts helped to take care of the boys and served as his housekeeper and hostess, and in later years as his nurse. After Douglas Pope died suddenly in 1880, Sibley's daughter Augusta (Gussie) moved into his house in St. Paul with her three daughters. In
46209-434: Was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction , maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton System . Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via
46428-409: Was minimal. For New England, the maritime fur trade and the significant profits it made helped revitalize the region, contributing to the transformation of New England from an agrarian to an industrial society. The wealth generated by the maritime fur trade was invested in industrial development, especially textile manufacturing . The New England textile industry in turn had a large effect on slavery in
46647-402: Was no longer bound by the American Fur Company's agreement with the British Hudson's Bay Company to refrain from trading along the border with Canada . In response to market demand, Sibley also shifted his focus to trading for buffalo robes . North American fur trade Europeans began their participation in the North American fur trade from the initial period of their colonization of
46866-440: Was not a business, and such simplifications only distort the past." White argued instead that the fur trade occupied part of a "middle ground" in which Europeans and Indians sought to accommodate their cultural differences. In the case of the fur trade, this meant that the French were forced to learn from the political and cultural meanings with which Indians imbued the fur trade. Cooperation, not domination, prevailed. According to
47085-402: Was not however overwhelmed, it rather flourished, while simultaneously undergoing rapid change. The use of Chinook Jargon arose during the maritime fur trading era and remains a distinctive aspect of Pacific Northwest culture. Native Hawaiian society was similarly affected by the sudden influx of Western wealth and technology, as well as epidemic diseases. The trade's effect on China and Europe
47304-441: Was rarely spelled as the single word "Northwest", as is common today. The maritime fur trade brought the Pacific Northwest coast into a vast, new international trade network, centered on the north Pacific Ocean, global in scope, and based on capitalism but not, for the most part, on colonialism . A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands (only recently discovered by
47523-410: Was slower to enter the American fur trade than France and the Dutch Republic , but as soon as English colonies were established, development companies learned that furs provided the best way for the colonists to remit value back to the mother country. Furs were being dispatched from Virginia soon after 1610, and the Plymouth Colony was sending substantial amounts of beaver to its London agents through
47742-415: Was so politically important, the Europeans tried to regulate it in hopes (often futile) of preventing abuse. Unscrupulous traders sometimes cheated natives by plying them with alcohol during the transaction, which subsequently aroused resentment and often resulted in violence. In 1834 John Jacob Astor , who had created the huge monopoly of the American Fur Company , withdrew from the fur trade. He could see
47961-407: Was that a fur trader was expected to favor whatever clan/kinship network that he had married into with European goods, and a fur trader who did not would ruin his reputation. The Ojibwe, like other tribes, saw all life in this world being based upon reciprocal relationships, with "gifts" of tobacco left behind when harvesting plants to thank nature for providing the plants, while when a bear was killed,
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