“No tribe has the right to sell, even to
each other, much
less to strangers… Sell a country? Why not
sell the air,
the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn’t
the Great
Spirit make them all for the use of his
children?
-Tecumseh
Shawnee
The stories of
many Native American people, who turned their lives over to enterprises such as
the American Fur Company, were filled with financial loss and other hard-ships.
Indian people were coerced into accumulating debt during President Jefferson’s
time in office. Jefferson believed the country was run by the people and during
that time period the general population strived to rid the country of the
“Indian problem.”
To appease the Americans, Jefferson
decided to set up the Indian people to turn over their land holdings by using a
market economy. More and more white settlers were moving to this country and using
more of the land’s rich resources. Trading posts were put up in various locations
to entice the Indian people to get their needs met and at the same time
accumulate debt.
To get an idea of how much beaver
pelts were worth at the trading posts, in 1784 the Hudson Bay Company prepared
a “Table of Equivalents” which listed the number of beavers required to trade
for various items. Throughout history prices have gone up, not down, for items
purchased in stores. It would be safe to note that it would have taken many
more beavers to get the same wares during the early 1800s. In 1784, the
following table was used to place a value on specific items, a concept that was
foreign to the Indian people.
- 1 Beaver = 9 Arrow Heads
- 1 Beaver = 1 yard of cloth
- 4 Beavers = 1 gallon of brandy
- 11 Beavers = 1 gun
- 1 Beaver = ¾ pounds of beads
Moving from a bartering system to a
market economy was difficult for the Native American people. Many were confused
about this concept. Bartering is a form of transaction in which goods or
services are exchanged for other goods or services without mediums of exchange
such as money. This form of exchange was practiced by the Native Americans and
they believed in the concept of reciprocity. Trade was carried out in a
respectful and fair manner. The bartering exchanges were usually considered
reciprocal and immediate by the trusting Indian people.
The beaver they hunted and trapped
for the Euro-peans provided sustenance for the people of their village. In the
past they used all parts of the animals they hunted. For example, the animal
intestines referred to as sinew served as the thread to sew hides together. Before
the fur-trading days the Indian people would exchange furs for things such as
cooking utensils, pots, pans, guns and alcoholic beverages. Brandy and rum were
often the trade items of choice for the British and French. They would trade
vast amounts of alcohol because it was regarded as a cheap commodity in
exchange for furs.
When
the settlers wanted to obtain the land, Indian people did not know how to place
a value on it. They did not know what a stream or a tract of forest was worth
in terms of gunpowder, iron pots or cloth. They went along with the government
treaty negotiators who wrote on paper what specific land holdings were valued.
They did not understand how that could be determined, considering the change of
seasons and the yield of the hunt. The traders often short changed the
unsuspecting Indian people and to back up their claims they would show them a
statement of accounts. These statements resembled a foreign language to them.
They
felt confused, hungry and cold, and they were losing their homelands.
Eventually, they realized they lost by playing by a corrupt set of rules. By
the time they realized they were being cheated, it was too late. Not all of the
white settlers took advantage of the naive Indian people.
John
Johnston became friends with many of the Indian people. Johnston’s life began
on August 25, 1762 in Northern Ireland. In 1790 he moved to what is now
referred to as Canada and he arrived with capital to invest in the fur-trading
business. In 1791, Johnston went on a fur-trading trip to Mackinac Island. He traveled
further north to Bad River in what is currently referred to as Wisconsin.
He
made friends with some of the Ojibwe people at Bad River. He was interested in marrying
the daughter of the Ojibwe war chief, Waubojeeg. The chief told him to come
back in one year and if he was still interested he would allow him to marry his
daughter. Johnston returned after a year and married Ozhaguscodaywayquay, Woman
of the Green Glade. He later named her
Susan. They had four sons and four daughters. When he married his wife, the
couple was considered influential with the trade business and had excellent
connections with the Ojibwe, Europeans, and Americans in the area. They were
welcomed by explorers, politicians, scholars, tribal chiefs and military
officers. Johnston did not take advantage of the Indian people. He was known
for his kindness amongst the tribal people. If they did not have enough furs to
trade for items they needed, Johnston did not carry the debt over in his books.[i]
His relationship with the Americans took a
turn for the worse during the war of 1812. Johnston fought with the British
when they took over Fort Michilimackinac on Mackinac Island. The American
military forces believed Johnston to be on the side of the British and
connected to the British run company, the North West Company, so they burned and
confiscated approximately $40,000 of his business and private property as an
act of revenge. Susan had to pack in a hurry and take her children to her
brother’s home to keep her children safe.
Johnston
was facing financial ruin and was forced to seek employment. He became the fur-trading
agent for the American Fur Company in 1816 and 1817 in Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan and the south shore of Lake Superior. John Jacob Astor was the owner
of the American Fur Trading Company. Instead of being an employee of the
company Johnston decided to take his goods on “shares.” This venture set him up
for risk if the company did not do well in the region.
In
1816 an act of law was passed which granted only U.S. citizens the right to
carry on the fur trade in “Indian Country” in the United States. Johnston found
a loop hole and appointed his U.S. born son George to run the family owned
fur-trading company. Out of loyalty to his home country, Johnston had not
become an American citizen and as a result Johnston was not in a position to
fight for his rights as a shareholder in the American Fur Company. [ii]
The Indian people suffered under the guise of joint business ventures between the Indian people and the white businessmen. Much of the wild game was hunted by the settlers and there wasn't much left for the native inhabitants. The Indian people, depressed and downtrodden, had to rely on charging for goods purchased at the trading companies. They were unfamiliar with transactions that involved money for the exchange of goods. Some of these unfortunate people traded furs for goods. Johnston treated the Indian people with respect and tried to help them whenever he could. That was not the case with many of the other white businessmen.
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