“What do we know of the manner of the laws
and customs of the white people?”
-Black Hawk
Sauk
The history of wilderness travel
represented 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. Liquor became one of the main trade items. Many of the fur traders
were of a rough sort, drank plenty, beat on one another and the Indian people
and defied the laws of a civil society. Others delved into the wilder-ness to
barter with the Indian people, adopt their ways and marry their daughters.
Different
classes existed amongst the fur-trading population. There was 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. A lot were
employed by the large fur-trading com-panies.
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 to 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 had 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 threat-ening obstacles such as hostile Indians,
competing fur-traders, starvation and wild animals. Sometimes 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 the 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 being somewhat civilized and part savage with the latter being
the most prominent.
The
fur-trading business ended up being cata-strophic 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 com-munities as they fought one
another and joined forces with European allies to gain control of land bases
and its resources.[ii]
The
stage is set for this chapter in a community currently referred to as Sault
Ste. Marie, Michigan nestled in the eastern northern part of the state. The
Sault is one of the oldest cities in the United States and it is the oldest
city in Michigan. Over 2,000 years ago, Native Americans be-gan to gather at
this location due to its abundance of fish and fur bearing animals found along
the rushing waters of the river which is linked to the Great Lakes of Superior
and Huron. They called the area “Bahweting,” or “the place by the rapids.”
Bahweting
served as a meeting place because of the availability of food. The first
full-time residents lived in lodges framed of wood poles, covered with bark or
animal hides. In the 1600’s, more and more French missionaries and fur traders
began to venture into this beautiful part of the country. The traders began
calling the area Sault du Gastogne. In 1668, the legendary Jesuit missionary
and explorer Fr. Jacques Marquette renamed this settlement Sault Ste. Marie, in
honor of the Virgin Mary as the first city in the Great Lakes region.[iii]
[ii] Conlan,
R. (1994). People of the Lakes: The
Native Americans. Virginia:
Time-Life Education, 133.
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