North American fur trade

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).

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.

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.

[9] 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 the sparsely populated New France.

[11] 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.

[13] The subsequent destruction of beaver populations along 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 1659–1660 voyage of French traders Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers into the country north and west of Lake Superior symbolically opened this new era of expansion.

[26] 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 ...".

[21] Starting in 1684, the French repeatedly raided Kanienkeh, burning crops and villages as Louis gave orders to "humble" the Five Nations once and for all, and to teach them to respect the "grandeur" of France.

[28] 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.

While some historians dispute the claims that the competition was predominantly responsible for over-exploitation of stocks,[30] others have used empirical analysis to emphasize the changing economic incentives for Indigenous hunters and role of the Europeans in the matter.

[31] Calvin Martin holds that there was a breakdown of the relationship between man and animal among some Indigenous hunters who, adapting to the ways of the colonists, hunted to feed global fur markets with little consideration of the possibility of extinction.

There 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.

[citation needed] An empirical study done by Ann M. Carlos and Frank D. Lewis shows that apart from 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).

With 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.

[41] 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".

[51] Netnokwa, a charismatic Ojibwe matron living in the Red River region whose dreams were considered to be especially powerful messages from the spirits, traded directly with fur traders.

[45] According to Jameson's 1838 book Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, Oshahgushkodanaqua told her when she was 13, she embarked on her "vision quest" to find her guardian spirit by fasting alone in a lodge painted black on a high hill.

Also, she dreamed of being on a high hill, which was surrounded by water, and from which she beheld many canoes full of Indians, coming to her and paying her homage; after this, she felt as if she was being carried up into the heavens, and as she looked down on the earth, she perceived it was on fire and said to herself, "All my relations will be burned!

[54] Jameson also notes that Oshahgushkodanaqua was considered to be a strong woman among the Ojibwe, writing "in her youth she hunted and was accounted the surest eye and fleetest foot among the women of her tribe".

[58] American anthropologist Richard J. Perry suggests that under the impact of the fur trade that certain misogynistic tendencies that were already long established among the Northern Athabaskan peoples became significantly worse.

[56] In the 18th century, Cree and Ojibwe men could and did travel hundreds of miles to HBC posts on Hudson's Bay via canoe to sell fur and bring back European goods, and in the interim, their women were in largely in charge of their communities.

[56] At York Factory in the 18th century, the factors reported that flotillas of up to 200 canoes would arrive at a time bearing Indian men coming to barter their fur for HBC's goods.

[63]Hearne's chief guide Matonabbee told him that women had to carry everything with them on their long trips across the sub-arctic because "...when all the men are heavy laden, they can neither hunt nor travel any considerable distance".

[67] Significantly, the establishment of fur trading posts inland by the Hudson's Bay Company in the late 19th century led to an improvement in the status of Gwich'in women as anyone could obtain European goods by trading at the local HBC post, ending the ability of Gwich'in leaders to monopolize the distribution of European goods while the introduction of dogs capable of carrying sleds meant their women no longer had to carry everything on their long trips.

[103] Beginning on April 14, 1715, the Yamasee launched numerous raids against white settlements in South Carolina, killing traders and driving settlers back from the frontier to Charles Town.

[102] Due to allying with the British during the Yamasee War, the Cherokee lacked Indigenous trading partners and could not afford to break with Britain in order to negotiate with France or Spain.

It was the topic of books and films, from James Fenimore Cooper via Irving Pichels Hudson's Bay of 1941, the popular Canadian musical My Fur Lady of 1957, till Nicolas Vaniers documentaries.

In contrast to "the huddy buddy narration of Canada as Hudson's country", propagated either in popular culture as well in elitist circles as the Beaver Club, founded 1785 in Montreal[111] the often male-centered scholarly description of the fur business does not fully describe the history.

Her involvement in anti-fur campaigns shortly afterward was in response to a request by the noted author Marguerite Yourcenar, who asked Bardot to use her celebrity status to help the anti-sealing movement.