The history of wilderness travel
represents a most enthrall-ling chapter in American history. From 1634 to 1850
the Michigan fur trade was a prominent business and control of such trade
started when the French and the British decided to take part in this profitable
business venture. Many battles were fought between various Indian tribes,
between the British and the French, between the French and Indian tribes
against the British and other Indian tribes, over the fur-trading business.
Everybody wanted a piece of the lucrative market.
At
first the Indian people were duped into trading furs for mere trinkets and
such. Then they demanded to trade for items such as guns and unfortunately rum
and brandy, which became some of the main trade items. Many of the fur traders
were of a rough sort, drinking plenty, beating on one another and the Indian
people and defying the laws of a civil society.
Others delved into the wilderness to barter with the Indian people, adopt
their ways and marry their daughters.
Different
classes existed amongst the fur-trading population. There were the unlicensed
trader, the coureurs de bois, the
lawless trader, and the licensed traders. The number of men in this field
increased considerably and the distinct classes of traders became more evident
and more categories were created: bourgeois, the voyageur, the
mangeurs-de-lard, the clerks, engages, hivernans or winterers. Many were
employed by the large fur-trading companies.
The
Jesuits, or they were referred to as the black robe priests, did not endorse
the use of alcohol as a trade item. Intoxicated Indians were unlikely
candidates to be converted to Christianity. The Jesuits lobbied in Europe
against the use of brandy and rum as trade commodities. Their lobbying efforts
were generally unsuccessful. If French alcohol was prohibited, it would be
substituted with alcoholic beverages supplied by British colonies.
The
Jesuits, followed the fur traders wherever they went. Both were interested in
working with the Indian people. The Jesuits wanted the save the Indian people
by converting them to Christianity and the fur traders wanted to obtain furs
from them at the smallest cost possible. The fur traders were considered a bad
influence on the naive tribal people.
The
daily life of a fur trader was somewhat mono-tonous and often filled with
hardships. Their food and dress, recreation, methods of trade, character, and
relation-ships with the Indian people has been a continuing point of interest.
They had to be of a rugged sort, people who could withstand the elements of
harsh weather, and life threatening obstacles such as hostile Indians,
competing fur-traders, starvation and wild animals. If they had to portage
their canoes, supplies, and packs of fur, they were expected to carry a pack of
furs that weighed up to 90 pounds sometimes for great distances.
Their
food, which was not of variety, consisted of pemmican, pea soup, wild rice and
lyed-corn. To prepare the corn, the corn was boiled in strong lye, then husk
was removed, and the corn was washed and dried. It became soft and could be
fried like rice. Pemmican was a dried meat, usually from deer, elk or bison.
Later on beef was used to make pemmican also. Their daily routines consisted of
paddling, hauling, and portaging for approximately 16 hours and then they would
collapse from exhaustion. At night they slept by some small or large body of
water with a gun by their side. Their coverings would be a blanket and perhaps
some brush to add cushion to the hard surface of the ground. [i]
What
enticed these foreboding individuals into these dangerous hunting exploits? Was
it the money, was it their relationship with the Indian people, or was it the
sheer danger of it all? Men who could paddle, hunt, trap, and speak parts of
the Indian tongue proved to be the heartiest of fur traders. These men were a
combination of civilization and savagery with the latter being the most
prominent.
The
fur-trading business ended up being catastrophic for the Indian people. Not
only was the beaver population depleted, the population of the native people
was decreased considerably by the ravages of traders’ diseases to which they
had no immunity. Smallpox was the number one killer, with measles, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, typhus, whooping cough, and influenza following suit. Also,
the fur trade created an upheaval of tribal communities as they fought one
another and joined forces with European allies to gain control of land bases
and its resources.[ii]
[ii] Conlan,
R. (1994). People of the Lakes: The
Native Americans. Virginia:
Time-Life Education, 133.http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/amherst_jeffery_4E.
Written by Sharon Brunner. This information was taken from the book Shadow Travelers.
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