My First Years in the Fur Trade

My First Years in the Fur Trade PDF Author: George Nelson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773570292
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
Captivated by tales of adventure, fifteen-year-old George Nelson left his family in Quebec in 1802 and headed to the Northwest Territory to work for Sir Alexander Mackenzie's XY Company, one of the major fur trade companies of the time. Required to keep a daily log as a fur trade clerk, his growth from homesick lad to experienced fur trader forms the heart of this unique and fascinating journal. He recorded his feelings and thoughts, and was a vital witness to all that went on around him. Nelson's journals are particularly valuable for their candid observations on the customs and culture of the Ojibwa people and provide some of the most detailed descriptions available of Ojibwa spiritual practices. Long treasured by fur trade historians, the early journals of George Nelson are published here in their entirety for the first time. Careful editing and annotation by Laura Peers and Theresa Schenck explain references to people and Ojibwa culture and provide context on the North American fur trade.

My First Years in the Fur Trade

My First Years in the Fur Trade PDF Author: George Nelson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773570292
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
Captivated by tales of adventure, fifteen-year-old George Nelson left his family in Quebec in 1802 and headed to the Northwest Territory to work for Sir Alexander Mackenzie's XY Company, one of the major fur trade companies of the time. Required to keep a daily log as a fur trade clerk, his growth from homesick lad to experienced fur trader forms the heart of this unique and fascinating journal. He recorded his feelings and thoughts, and was a vital witness to all that went on around him. Nelson's journals are particularly valuable for their candid observations on the customs and culture of the Ojibwa people and provide some of the most detailed descriptions available of Ojibwa spiritual practices. Long treasured by fur trade historians, the early journals of George Nelson are published here in their entirety for the first time. Careful editing and annotation by Laura Peers and Theresa Schenck explain references to people and Ojibwa culture and provide context on the North American fur trade.

My First Years in the Fur Trade

My First Years in the Fur Trade PDF Author: George Nelson
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
ISBN: 9780873514125
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
A detailed and perceptive account of the fur trade seen through the eyes of a teenaged boy.

Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America

Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America PDF Author: Eric Jay Dolin
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393079244
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
A Seattle Times selection for one of Best Non-Fiction Books of 2010 Winner of the New England Historial Association's 2010 James P. Hanlan Award Winner of the Outdoor Writers Association of America 2011 Excellence in Craft Award, Book Division, First Place "A compelling and well-annotated tale of greed, slaughter and geopolitics." —Los Angeles Times As Henry Hudson sailed up the broad river that would one day bear his name, he grew concerned that his Dutch patrons would be disappointed in his failure to find the fabled route to the Orient. What became immediately apparent, however, from the Indians clad in deer skins and "good furs" was that Hudson had discovered something just as tantalizing. The news of Hudson's 1609 voyage to America ignited a fierce competition to lay claim to this uncharted continent, teeming with untapped natural resources. The result was the creation of an American fur trade, which fostered economic rivalries and fueled wars among the European powers, and later between the United States and Great Britain, as North America became a battleground for colonization and imperial aspirations. In Fur, Fortune, and Empire, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin chronicles the rise and fall of the fur trade of old, when the rallying cry was "get the furs while they last." Beavers, sea otters, and buffalos were slaughtered, used for their precious pelts that were tailored into extravagant hats, coats, and sleigh blankets. To read Fur, Fortune, and Empire then is to understand how North America was explored, exploited, and settled, while its native Indians were alternately enriched and exploited by the trade. As Dolin demonstrates, fur, both an economic elixir and an agent of destruction, became inextricably linked to many key events in American history, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, as well as to the relentless pull of Manifest Destiny and the opening of the West. This work provides an international cast beyond the scope of any Hollywood epic, including Thomas Morton, the rabble-rouser who infuriated the Pilgrims by trading guns with the Indians; British explorer Captain James Cook, whose discovery in the Pacific Northwest helped launch America's China trade; Thomas Jefferson who dreamed of expanding the fur trade beyond the Mississippi; America's first multimillionaire John Jacob Astor, who built a fortune on a foundation of fur; and intrepid mountain men such as Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith, who sliced their way through an awe inspiring and unforgiving landscape, leaving behind a mythic legacy still resonates today. Concluding with the virtual extinction of the buffalo in the late 1800s, Fur, Fortune, and Empire is an epic history that brings to vivid life three hundred years of the American experience, conclusively demonstrating that the fur trade played a seminal role in creating the nation we are today.

Birchbark Brigade

Birchbark Brigade PDF Author: Cris Peterson
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
ISBN: 159078426X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
A history of the North American fur trade, based on primary sources. The North American fur trade, set in motion by the discovery of the New World in the fifteenth century, was this continent's biggest business for over three hundred years. Furs harvested by Ojibwa natives in the north woods ended up on the sleeves and hems of French princesses and Chinese emperors. Felt hats on the heads of every European businessman began as beaver pelts carried in birchbark canoes to trading posts dotting the wilderness. Iron tools, woolen blankets, and calico cloth manufactured in England found their way to wigwams along the remote rivers of North America. The fur trade influenced every aspect of life—from how Europeans related to the Indians, how and where settlements were built, to how our nation formed. Drawing on primary sources, including the diaries of Ojibwa, American, and French traders of the period, this Society of School Librarians International Honor Book gives readers a glimpse of a little-known story from our past.

The Chouteaus

The Chouteaus PDF Author: Stan Hoig
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 082634349X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
In the late eighteenth century, the vast, pristine land that lay west of the Mississippi River remained largely unknown to the outside world. The area beckoned to daring frontiersmen who produced the first major industry of the American West--the colorful but challenging, often dangerous fur trade. At the lead was an enterprising French Creole family that founded the city of St. Louis in 1763 and pushed forth to garner furs for world markets. Stan Hoig provides an intimate look into the lives of four generations of the Chouteau family as they voyaged up the Western rivers to conduct trade, at times taking wives among the native tribes. They provided valuable aid to the Lewis and Clark expedition and assisted government officials in developing Indian treaties. National leaders, tribal heads, and men of frontier fame sought their counsel. In establishing their network of trading posts and opening trade routes throughout the Central Plains and Rocky Mountains, the Chouteaus contributed enormously to the nation's westward movement.

Harmon's Journal

Harmon's Journal PDF Author: Daniel Williams Harmon
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
ISBN: 1926971213
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The first real look at the Canadian West Harmon's Journal—the first published English-language journal written in B.C.-is a lively, engaging story that, unlike other early journals, captures the rough-and-tumble life of a fur trader and explorer in the western Canada of 200 years ago. Harmon's descriptions of the cultures and customs of the people he met provide important observations of various First Nations almost before they were touched by European culture. He also details activities of the traders and explorers with whom he exchanged letters—such notable personalities as David Thompson, Simon Fraser and John Stuart. Harmon writes with honesty and often raw emotion in his accounts of his travels and adventures, and his reflections are often profound. Harmon's Journal is the authentic 1957 edition of the journal edited by esteemed historian William Kaye Lamb.

Before Canada

Before Canada PDF Author: Allan Greer
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228023521
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Long before Confederation created a nation-state in northern North America, Indigenous people were establishing vast networks and trade routes. Volcanic eruptions pushed the ancestors of the Dene to undertake a trek from the present-day Northwest Territories to Arizona. Inuit migrated across the Arctic from Siberia, reaching Southern Labrador, where they met Basque fishers from northern Spain. As early as the fifteenth century, fishing ships from western Europe were coming to Newfoundland for cod, creating the greatest transatlantic maritime link in the early modern world. Later, fur traders would take capitalism across the continent, using cheap rum to lubricate their transactions. The contributors to Before Canada reveal the latest findings of archaeological and historical research on this fascinating period. Along the way, they reframe the story of the Canadian past, extending its limits across time and space and challenging us to reconsider our assumptions about this supposedly young country. Innovative and multidisciplinary, Before Canada inspires interest in the deep history of northern North America.

Every Trail Has a Story

Every Trail Has a Story PDF Author: Bob Henderson
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1554881587
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Canada is packed with intriguing places for travel where heritage and landscape interact to create stories that fire our imagination. Scattered across the land are incredible tales of human life over the centuries. From the Majorville rock formation (dated as being older than Stonehenge), through the systems of walking trails developed by pre-contact Native Peoples, and the fur trade routes, to the more recent grand stories of the Chilkoot Gold Rush of 1897, Bob Henderson, the traveller, captures our living history in its relationship to the land – best expressed through the Norwegian quote "nature is the true home of culture." The diversity of fascinating content includes the ancient James Bay landmark (the "Wonderful" Stone); the mountain treks of naturalist Mary Schaffer Warren; the west coast observations of George Vancouver; practices such as dog sledding, warm winter camping and canoeing that allow for heritage insights; the trails of Dundas, Ontario; the exploits of missionary Gabriel Sagard; the recluse Louis Gamache of Anticosti Island; the abandoned gravesites along the coast of Newfoundland – to name but a few. As historian Michael Bliss once said, "We have to find a way to make history smell again." Author Bob Henderson brings the "fragrance of the past" into the present and invites us to imagine and participate. "Like an enthused hummingbird too eager to land, Bob Henderson leads a wide-ranging tour of the vast garden of Canadian history and landscape. Once entrusted with the scent of intrigue we are invited to follow these stories and trails deeper, make them speak and inform our own travels and impressions. Here are stepping stones and touchstones, paths toward richer engagements via a storied and fabulous past." — Alexandra & Garrett Conover, co-authors of The Snow Walker’s Companion "I pulled off the river; a log cabin set back in the woods had caught my eye. Though very old it was in good shape — there was no lock on the door. A framed note beside it read, ’Leave as you found it.’ The interior was neat and tidy, a complete set of blackened pots hung on the walls, a small stack of kindling by the open door of a Findlay stove. ’A perfect place,’ I thought to myself. As I turned to take in the rest of the cabin I saw before me Canada/Yukon rivers, Labrador fiords, Prairie medicine wheels, Superior’s north shore, portage and trail - it was all there before me, across space and time. As I stood there ghosts emerged from the walls, trappers, cowboys, ill-fated explorers, lucky canoeists — all in the same room, all eager to tell their stories. Such is the nature of Bob Henderson’s wonderful book." - Ian Tamblyn, songwriter

An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land

An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land PDF Author: Jennifer S. H. Brown
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
ISBN: 1771991712
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In 1670, the ancient homeland of the Cree and Ojibwe people of Hudson Bay became known to the English entrepreneurs of the Hudson’s Bay Company as Rupert’s Land, after the founder and absentee landlord, Prince Rupert. For four decades, Jennifer S. H. Brown has examined the complex relationships that developed among the newcomers and the Algonquian communities—who hosted and tolerated the fur traders—and later, the missionaries, anthropologists, and others who found their way into Indigenous lives and territories. The eighteen essays gathered in this book explore Brown’s investigations into the surprising range of interactions among Indigenous people and newcomers as they met or observed one another from a distance, and as they competed, compromised, and rejected or adapted to change. While diverse in their subject matter, the essays have thematic unity in their focus on the old HBC territory and its peoples from the 1600s to the present. More than an anthology, the chapters of An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land provide examples of Brown’s exceptional skill in the close study of texts, including oral documents, images, artifacts, and other cultural expressions. The volume as a whole represents the scholarly evolution of one of the leading ethnohistorians in Canada and the United States.

Holding Our World Together

Holding Our World Together PDF Author: Brenda J. Child
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101560258
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
A groundbreaking exploration of the remarkable women in Native American communities. Too often ignored or underemphasized in favor of their male warrior counterparts, Native American women have played a more central role in guiding their nations than has ever been understood. Many Native communities were, in fact, organized around women's labor, the sanctity of mothers, and the wisdom of female elders. In this well-researched and deeply felt account of the Ojibwe of Lake Superior and the Mississippi River, Brenda J. Child details the ways in which women have shaped Native American life from the days of early trade with Europeans through the reservation era and beyond. The latest volume in the Penguin Library of American Indian History, Holding Our World Together illuminates the lives of women such as Madeleine Cadotte, who became a powerful mediator between her people and European fur traders, and Gertrude Buckanaga, whose postwar community activism in Minneapolis helped bring many Indian families out of poverty. Drawing on these stories and others, Child offers a powerful tribute to the many courageous women who sustained Native communities through the darkest challenges of the last three centuries.