The late Arthur Silver Morton has contributed immensely to our understanding and preservation of western Canadian history. One of Mortons joys was locating remains of long forgotten fur trade posts. As a result, a large number of the Saskatchewan fur trade posts that we know of were located and recorded by Morton. The majority of Mortons investigations took place throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Morton consulted whatever historic sources were available to him at the time: numerous historic documents, ethnographic accounts and local histories.<p> There has been archaeological evidence that suggests Morton misidentified numerous fur trade post sites. For example, research at the Hudsons Bay Companys South Branch House (1786-1794), which Morton identified in 1944, has sparked some controversy as to whether or not it is that particular post. As a result, this provides the author with an excellent chance to examine how Morton identified Saskatchewan fur trade posts and to determine through archaeological excavations and historical documents the accuracy of Mortons historical site designation at South Branch House.<p> A critical approach to Mortons work will determine how accurate his work is for contemporary archaeological investigations of fur trade posts. Furthermore, this thesis may provide historical archaeologists with insights as to how to go about identifying fur trade posts, which will contribute to our overall understanding of the western Canadian fur trade.

In 1997 a group of archaeologists from Texas A&M University's Nautical Archaeology Program traveled to Wasaga Beach, Ontario to document the hull remains of the eighteenth-century schooner Nancy. In 1927, the schooner was recovered from the banks of an island in the Nottawasaga River, near its confluence with Lake Huron. The hull is now on display in the Nancy Island Historic Site. Despite being available to the public for more than 75 years, the 1997 documentation was the first to thoroughly record the construction of the vessel. In addition to archaeological investigation, historical research was carried out to further our understanding of Nancy's commercial and naval career. The archaeological data reveal a schooner that was built by talented shipwrights using the fine timber harvested around the Great Lakes in the eighteenth-century. This study adds a considerable amount of new information to the otherwise scanty base of knowledge available on the construction of early Great Lakes sailing vessels. Historical research shows that Nancy and her crews were participants in many important events that shaped the Great Lakes Region. From her construction in Detroit in 1789, Nancy was employed in the fur trade. As tensions flared between Great Britain and the United States in 1812, Nancy was utilized as an armed transport for the British forces around the lakes. in August of 1814, the schooner was trapped in the Nottawasaga River by a strong American naval force. Nancy's commander set fire to the vessel to deny it to the enemy. This thesis examines the construction details and history of the schooner Nancy in detail. Preliminary chapters will provide the historical context for the vessel and describe Nancy's long journey that ended at the Nancy Island Historic Site. The second half of the thesis describes the construction of the schooner and compares it with other contemporary vessels. The study concludes that Nancy's hull represents an eighteeth-century construction tradition modified for use on the Great Lakes, and also demonstrates the vessel's dual roles as trader and military transport.

The question of the origins of a Metis identity in Canada is one that has been contemplated by several scholars. These scholars have taken various approaches to the question, many focusing solely on the social and political aspects of Metis history. While such approaches can be useful, they ignore the crucial influence of the economic and labour relations of the Rupertsland fur trade in the development and expression of a distinct Metis identity in western Canada. The unique economic and labour relations of the Rupertsland fur trade, identified by H. Clare Pentland as personal labour relationships, allowed a cohesiveness and inter-connectedness to develop between the Aboriginal labourers and their European employers which emphasized the interdependencies inherent in the industry. However, while personal labour relations were an important catalyst for the development and expression of a distinct Metis identity, it is too simplistic to suggest that it was these relations alone that encouraged such a phenomenon. The northern Australian cattle industry utilized similar economic and labour relations and yet a distinct mixed descent identity did not develop in Australia. Therefore, the external influences in the industry must also be examined. The four most important external influences that encouraged the development of a Metis identity in Canada and discouraged a similar event in Australia were: the needs of the colonial employers in regards to land tenure; the economic opportunities available to the people of mixed descent; the educational opportunities available to the people of mixed descent; and, the time depth of contact in both industries. These four external influences combined with the use of personal labour organization in the Rupertsland fur trade encouraged the development and expression of a distinct Metis identity in Canada.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, 1937. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 318-338).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Dec. 1922. / Typewritten (carbon copy). eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: p. 240-280.

No description available.

Fur trapping, for generations the chief source of income for native people in northern Canada, has seriously declined in recent years. An outstanding exception is the community of Sachs Harbour, Banks Island, N. W. T., where several thousand white fox pelts are harvested annually by 15 to 20 trappers. The thesis analyzes two topics: the cultural ecology of the colonization of Banks Island as a trapping frontier, and the economic geography of trapping and hunting there. Its purposes are to investigate the ecological, economic and social basis of trapping, to understand trapping as an adaptive strategy in particular historical circumstances, and to analyze it as a viable resource system. The study is based on 14 months of field research in the Western Arctic, chiefly at Sachs Harbour, N.W.T. The primary research method was participant observation, although most quantitative data were obtained through semi-formal interviews. Archival research provided additional historical information and statistics. The relative success of the various groups of settlers was strongly related to their previous orientation to white fox trapping, and hence to their place of origin within the Western Arctic. The development of inland trapping was critical to the successful exploitation of the Island, and despite subsequent centralization of settlement, the trappers have expanded their resource hinterland. This is in contrast to developments in other parts of the north. The ecology of the Arctic fox on Banks Island is discussed, and a means of measuring areal exploitation in trapping is devised. The relationship between effort inputs and trapping success are examined. The number of trap checks is the input factor most strongly correlated with the number of foxes caught, with the number of traps set showing the second best correlation. Tentative predictor equations for trapping success are derived for various levels of fox abundance within the population cycle, and for the cycle as a whole. Quantitative analyses of seal, caribou, polar bear and other types of hunting show how these activities are integrated with the total resource system, and provide data for comparison with other Arctic regions. Methods are developed for the calculation of production costs of fur pelts and animal foods (and hence the profitability of trapping and hunting), as well as for the calculation of income in kind. The discussion includes the role of marketing, credit and savings. In conclusion, the resource system on Banks Island is discussed in terms of its ecologic, economic, and social viability - both in relation to the future of trapping on Banks Island itself and to the possibility of this system as a generic type being instituted elsewhere. There is no evidence of overharvesting of any major biological resources on Banks Island, and the number of trappers and the spatial arrangement of their activities appear to be optimal. Trapping provides a good standard of living on Banks Island, and reasonable stability of income seems assured. The Banks Island resource system would thus be ecologically stable and economically viable in other parts of the Arctic with similar resources. Social forces however make such a development unlikely. Social values and occupational aspirations are rapidly changing, especially among young people, and trapping is increasingly devalued as a life style despite its economic potential. The difficulties of recruiting young trappers at Sachs Harbour are noted, and the trapping system is seen as one of decreasing social acceptability all across the north. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The history of trade among Indian groups of the Canadian Yukon has included changes in the quantity and type of goods involved and, more importantly, changes in the social relations between the people who conducted this trade. These relations were between distinct native groups at first, and later directly between Indians and White traders. In this study historical data on the changes in trade is organized into convenient stages by identifying types of trade institutions. Four such stages are described and analyzed with reference to the major conditioning factors for trade in the area and at the time. These stages are (1) Inter-tribal trade, when exchanges were conducted between partners of different native groups; (2) Trading chief trade, m which an Indian group leader handled relations with White traders; (3) Monopoly trade, in which a quasi-debt relationship handled trade between traders and individual trappers; and (4) Market trade, in which trade is handled through separate fur market and retail market institutions. Institutions are treated in this study as having a set of several purposes related to the complementary aims of participants. Changes between one stage and the next are seen as a regrouping of these purposes into new sets, which become the focus of hew institutions. This view of institutional change arises from an analysis of the changes in trade relations in the Yukon, and is compared with a somewhat similar analysis of social change developed "by Talcott Parsons and Neil Smelser. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines the study and management of Alaskan fur seals from 1867 to 1914. Government involvement in resource conservation expanded during this period, as did the role of experts. Federal officials charged with managing fur seals often sought advice from scientists, and over the years naturalists studied the animals regularly. Despite this apparent cooperation, scientific recommendations rarely took precedence over other considerations. Fur seal history illuminates obstacles facing scientists as they tried, and failed, to control resource use. Scientists often lost credibility as a result of the changing nature of their profession, but, as this study shows, the most important barriers to expert influence were entrenched economic, political, and diplomatic agendas within the federal government. / Master of Arts