During the first part of the nineteenth century, the European fur trade increased the contact between Europeans and Indians in what is now the state of Washington. From 1800 to about 1835, beaver was of primary importance, driven in large part by European fashion. In Washington, the fur trade was dominated by two rival corporations: the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) headquartered in London and the North West Company (Nor’westers) headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Both of these companies established trading posts in Washington. In addition, the companies brought in their own trappers to circumvent having to trade with the Indian nations. These trappers included Iroquois Indians from the East, Métis (people of mixed Indian-European heritage), Hawaiians, French, and others.
In establishing trade with the Indians, the traders followed Native traditions which were centered on gift-giving and ceremonial exchange. The traders soon learned that if they didn’t participate in the ceremonies and provide the Indians with gifts, the Indians wouldn’t trade with them. In general, the “Opening Trade Ceremonies” began with the traders dispensing “high wine” or “Indian rum” (a diluted alcohol). Next would come the passing of the pipe which would be accompanied by speeches. Intermarriage with the Indians was encouraged as a way of building trade relationships.
The traders brought with them European manufactured goods, including glass beads, metal knives and axes, cloth, and mirrors, as well as some Indian-made items such as stone pipes. With regard to the Plateau area, historian Larry Cebula, in his book Plateau Indians and the Quest for Spiritual Power, 1700-1850, writes:
“Euro-American traders arrived on the plateau with definite ideas on how the fur trade would develop. The traders would display their wares and exhort the Indians to trap beaver.”
The Indians would then become addicted to and dependent on the European manufactured goods which would result in more zealous hunting and trapping. Larry Cebula writes:
“It was the policy of the fur traders to create dependency as a spur to native productivity.”
In their book Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest, Clifford Trafzer and Richard Scheuerman report:
“The trappers and traders entered the region to exploit the bountiful resources, but most did not wish to transform the Indians. Inadvertently, however, they laid foundations for great changes.”
Another approach used for the beaver trade was to use trappers—both non-Indians and Indians—to circumvent the local Indians. The naïve assumption was that these trappers could operate in Indian country without Indian approval or cooperation. As a result, many trappers were killed, and their furs confiscated by the Indians.
A Short History
The Nor’westers under the leadership of David Thompson entered what is now Washington in 1809. At a Kalispel camp near present-day Cusick, Thompson noted that the Indians had many beaver pelts. At this time, the Nor’westers established trading posts in Idaho and Montana. The following year, the Nor’westers established the Spokane House at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers. The trading post was intended to serve the Spokan Indians and other Salish-speaking tribes in the area.
In 1811, a group of seven Nor’westers under the leadership of David Thompson traveled down the Columbia River, stopping at Indian camps, smoking with the people, and making friends. At a Wenatchee village of about 120 people, the traders noted that there were large longhouses. In his book Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America, Jack Nisbet writes:
“Many of the Wenatchee wore shells in their noses and sported fine goat-hair blankets.”
At the mouth of the Columbia River, the Nor’westers encountered American traders with the Pacific Fur Company who were establishing Fort Astoria. In order to compete with the Nor’westers, the Astorians established Fort Okanogan on the Upper Columbia. The following year, traders at the post acquired 2,500 beaver pelts.
In 1812, the Pacific Fur Company established Fort Spokane next door to the Nor’westers’ Spokane House.
In 1813, the United States and Britain were at war and a British warship was sailing to attack the American fur trading post at Fort Astoria. The Nor’westers made the Americans an offer they couldn’t refuse and the Pacific Fur Company’s forts were transferred to the North West Company. Fort Spokane is taken over by the Nor’westers’ Spokane House.
By 1814, the Hudson’s Bay Company had established the Colville House on the Columbia River and was encouraging Indian dependency on European manufactured goods.
In 1816, Donald McKenzie was appointed the leader of the North West Company’s new Columbia Department. While the company had traditionally gone into Indian country and opened posts for Indian trade, McKenzie decided to change this approach. Geographer John Allen, his chapter on the Canadian fur trade in North American Exploration. Volume 3: A Continent Comprehended, reports:
“McKenzie, however, concluded that the fur trade could be made more profitable by eliminating the middlemen, that is, the Indians. Instead of building posts for trading purposes, the North West Company decided to trap rather than trade.”
As a result, large numbers of non-Indian trappers—French-Canadian, American, English, Hawaiian—began to invade Indian country. Also included in the trapping brigades were a number of Iroquois.
In 1813, the North West Company established Fort Nez Perce at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers to establish trade with the Nez Perce, Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Palouse.
In 1821, the British government forced the merger of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company. With regard to the impact of the merger on trade, Theodore Binnema, in an article in Western Historical Quarterly, writes:
“With competition reduced, the HBC closed posts, reduced the range of trade goods offered to Indians, and drove a harder bargain.”
In 1825, Governor George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company was besieged by Indians seeking Christianity. At Fort Okanagon he spoke with a Thompson chief who asked for a missionary. A few days later, a delegation of Flathead, Spokan, and Kootenai, asked for a missionary. This delegation is followed by two Nez Perce chiefs who were asking about Christianity.
Governor George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company conceived the idea of selecting some Indian boys from the Columbia River tribes and sending them east to the Anglican mission school at Red River in Manitoba (Canada) to be educated. His idea was that these boys could help in “civilizing” the tribes upon their return. Two teenage Indian boys – one from the Spokan in Washington and the other from the Kootenai in Idaho – were sent to the Red River School in Canada. The boys were renamed Kootenai Pelly and Spokan Garry.
In 1825, the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Colville at Kettle Falls, a traditional fishing site for the Colville. A verbal treaty with the Indians prevented the traders from interfering with the Indian fishery. The Indians provided the traders with goods, labor, and wives. The traders provided the Indians with iron tools, guns, clothes, and tobacco. The pelts traded at Fort Colville included badger, bear, beaver, fox, lynx, martin, mink, muskrat, raccoon, and wolf.
In 1825, Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver 100 miles above the mouth of the Columbia River. The new location was intended to let them control the fur trade in the Columbia Basin. The Company brought in Métis and Iroquois from Canada as well as Kanakas from Hawaii. The new post was described as a “cedar castle”.
Shown above is the Fort Vancouver fur warehouse.
Fur warehouse in Fort Vancouver.
In 1826, HBC established a new trading post at Kettle Falls. The buildings at the old Spokane House were dismantled and the site abandoned.
In 1828, the Dungeness Klallam killed five members of a Hudson’s Bay Company party because the traders were treating the Indians like slaves. They also captured a native woman from the party. Expecting Hudson Bay to react to the event like other Puget Sound tribes, the Klallam assumed that HBC would request payment to cover the dead and that an offer to release the captured woman would facilitate the transaction. However, HBC trappers killed two Klallam families in retaliation for the killings, destroyed a number of canoes, and burned several houses. Hudson’s Bay Company factor John McLoughlin wrote:
“This is a Deed that loudly calls on us to punish the perpetrators if we do not these barbarians will take Courage and murder any one of our people when ever they have an opportunity—and indeed not only them but all those round about when they learn at the same time that we allowed it pass over with impunity.”
In 1833, the Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Nisqually to trade with the Southern Coast Salish. Seattle, a Suquamish leader, was a frequent visitor and was known to the traders as Le Gros or See Yat. In his biography of Seattle in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Jay Miller writes:
“By this time, Seattle had led many successful raids and gained prestige throughout southern Puget Sound. At the fort, he familiarized himself with European ways while insisting on his prerogatives as the leader of a loose Lushootseed confederacy.”
In 1835, HBC assigned William Fraser Tolme, a Scottish physician, as the factor for Fort Nisqually. In his book The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native America, Richard Kluger reports:
“A gifted communicator and anything but aloof, Tolme soon learned the local Indians’ Salish dialect and spoke it regularly to the natives trading or working at the fort. He inquired into their customs and beliefs, ate their food and immersed himself as time allowed in their milieu.”
In 1835, Dr. Meredith Gairdner, a physician with the HBC at Fort Vancouver, decided that he wanted to send back to England the skull of Chinook chief Comcomly who had died of measles some five years earlier. He robbed Comcomly’s grave, decapitated the corpse, and had the skull shipped to England.
In 1846, a treaty between the United States and Great Britain sets the boundary between the United States and Canada at 49°. With regard to the Hudson’s Bay Company which is operating a number of posts in the area, Richard Kluger reports:
“The treaty provided that the Bay’s lucrative trading posts at Fort Vancouver and Fort Nisqually could continue to operate until the U.S. government made an acceptable offer to the company for its properties.”
Museum Display
The Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center in Wenatchee, Washington, has a small display on the fur trade.
The fur trade in North America, particularly the trade in beaver pelts, was driven by European fashion. Top hats, such as the one shown above, were made from beaver pelts.
Shown above is a beaver pelt.
Shown above is a display of traps. These were often made by the blacksmiths at major trading posts, such as Fort Vancouver.
Indians 101
Twice each week Indians 101 looks at different American Indian topics. More from this series:
Indians 201: Natawista, a Trader's Wife
Indians 101: Fur Trade in the Rockies, 1801 to 1806
Indians 101: The Pacific Fur Company
Indians 101: The Fur Trade in Northwestern Montana, 1807-1835
Indians 101: The Fur Trade in 1816
Indians 101: The Fur Trade in 1818
Indians 201: The Puget Sound War
Indians 101: The Cayuse Indian War