Intimacy and family have been pillars of the North American fur trade since its conception. This is especially true for fur trading companies centered in Canada, specifically the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company. Kinship ties formed through intimate relations between European fur traders and indigenous women allowed the fur trade to flourish and created an environment for stable, mixed heritage family units to emerge. As mixed heritage children grew into adulthood, they learned to identify with both sides of their parental cultures. However, the connections they formed with each other proved the most valuable and a separate, distinct culture emerged. In Canada this group of people are known as the Métis, a French word meaning mixed. The fur trade continued its move west and eventually reached the Pacific Ocean. This region known as the Pacific Northwest was the farthest removed from fur trade headquarters in Montreal and was home to many different Indigenous Nations. These nations, in combination with fur traders many of whom where Métis, also created families and a new culture once again came into being. It shared aspects of Métis, European, and indigenous cultures, but was something distinctly new. Through the examination of education, kinship ties, language and borders, this groups understanding of self and community came into focus.

Contemporary resource use on Indigenous lands is not often well understood by the general public. In particular, there is a perception that traditional and commercial resource use are mutually exclusive, and therefore there is often an assumption that Indigenous communities are abandoning their traditional economy when they participate in the commercial sector of the larger regional economy. This perceived tension between traditional and commercial resource use is caused in part by a limited understanding of the participation of Indigenous peoples in commercial industries historically and the subsequent process of the commercialization of some aspects of Indigenous peoples pre-contact economies. This dissertation examines the seasonal cycle of activities and the patterns of consumption and production of the Indigenous peoples who participated in the fur trade at Ile a la Crosse in northwestern Saskatchewan and the whaling industry at the Otakou shore station in southern New Zealand. A systematic analysis of the daily journals and accounting records kept by company employees in these two regions demonstrate that participation in these industries allowed the Indigenous economies to be transformed from pre-contact times. While this participation did not completely subsume the Indigenous economies, the changes that were made created a need for the Indigenous people to continue accessing the European-style goods that had been incorporated into their livelihoods, a need that was exacerbated as local resources declined as a result of over-use. Thus, there is a need to re-conceptualize what is generally thought of as the traditional economy. The traditional economy in contemporary Indigenous communities is often perceived as an Indigenous approach to resource use that has changed little, except perhaps in the technology used, from pre-contact times. This dissertation, however, clearly demonstrates that participation in commercial industries historically encouraged the adaptation of Indigenous economies in response to changing opportunities and circumstances. It becomes clear then that the so-called traditional economy of today, is an Indigenous economy that has already been shaped and influenced by participation in historical commercial economies. Understanding the adaptability of Indigenous economies has important implications for economic development initiatives in Indigenous communities today. / Comparative Indigenous Economic History

No description available.

This dissertation begins in 1821, when the Hudson's Bay Company took over the Columbia Department from the North West Company, which since 1813 had exported a single commodity (peltries) from the watersheds of two great rivers (the upper Fraser and lower Columbia) to two markets (London and Canton). This fur trade appeared at first so unpromising that the Hudson's Bay Company considered abandoning the lower Columbia region in 1821. Instead of doing so, between 1821 and 1843, the Hudson's Bay Company consolidated its operations in the Columbia Department through the application of a number of venerable commercial policies of the Canadian fur trade. The company extended its fur trading activities to all the major rivers of the region, from the Taku in the north to the Sacramento in the south. To support this massive trade extension the company developed large-scale provision trades in agricultural produce and salmon on the lower Columbia and Fraser rivers. Environmental and cultural conditions favoured these developments. The company also took advantage of the possibility of seaborne transport to develop markets at Oahu (Hawaii), Yerba Buena (San Francisco), and Sitka. To these places the company exported, on its Pacific fleet of ships, a range of country produce from the west coast, especially lumber and salmon. By 1843 the company had developed a new regional economy based on local commodities and Pacific markets; fur continued to be sent to London on an annual vessel. These new exports, and this new regional economy, depended on Native labour in addition to a permanent non-Native workforce of about 600. The company in several places colonized the Native economy and redirected its produce to foreign markets. In 1843 the trade in fur remained—despite the emergence of profitable new export trades—the company's major source of profit from the Columbia Department. The dissertation ends in 1843 when, fearing the possibility of an unfavourable boundary settlement, the company established Fort Victoria to serve as new departmental headquarters, at the same time inaugurating a considerable northward realignment of company activities on the Pacific. At this new post the fur trade would be a minor activity; company officials intended to develop a wide range of resources on Vancouver Island, all of them involving the hiring of Native workers. Increasingly, with the help of Native labour and trade, the company embarked on policies of resource development and extension of commerce on the coast, while the interior districts produced only fur. Difficulties of transport and distance from market prevented similar developments in the company's districts east of the Rocky Mountains.

No description available.

Prior investigations in the early contact era have not extensively analyzed the Miami Indian tribe. This time period offers a classic interaction between a pre-industrial economy and a more advanced industrial economy. The vehicle linking the Miami economic system with the European system was the far reaching fur trade. This investigation was undertaken to examine the impact of the European fur trade upon the Miami Indian economic system and subsequently the Miami Indian culture. The economic system was the most influential component in the Miami culture during that time period. Changes to other cultural components were directed through the changing Miami economic system. The changes to the Miami culture during the latter half of the seventeenth century helped establish a foundation for later Miami Indian cultural changes, which occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 531-592). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Acadia University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-139). Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript (photocopy). "December 1998." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-286). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-315). Also available on the Internet.