Essay On Fur Trading

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Recommended: indigenous women in the fur trade

Marquaello A. Futrell
Professor Steven Miller
HIST 2600
26 January 2014

The British Empire for more than one hundred years was involved in fur trading. This fur trading functioned successfully through the forest and mountain areas of North America. The British had little regard to who owned the land. Fur trading on the upper Missouri River now known as present day North Dakota and South Dakota had great economic value for those countries involved, considering animal furs and hides were regarded as the major resource of developing the West. After a meticulous review and reading of the writings of correspondence from John C. Calhoun, William H. Ashley, William Clark, Hugh Glass, Benjamin O’Fallon and others in the beginning of the American fur trade on the upper Missouri River, it is evident that what started out as a potentially evenhanded trade relationship between federally licensed American traders and Indians, ended up in a take-over for settling of scores. The readings provoke one to look at the very fabric of the thoughts, attitudes, and outlooks of the men on the expedition. These mind-sets caused peaceful trade with Natives American groups to turn into violent uproars between al involved. Most Native Americans in that region seem to have welcomed the manufactured goods these intruders brought, but at the same time some objected to the whites' disruption of earlier trade patterns.
Obviously, from the contents of the letter written by Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun to Superintendent of Indian Affairs, William Clark that a assortment of precautions had been taken in order to assure a harmonious relationship between the Native of the land (Indians) and the federal government. For instance, Secretary Calhoun writes that “t...

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...s remarks though perhaps truthful disclose a clear lack of logic because he has not taken into consideration the fact that the events and actions he has attributed to the Indians occurred on Indian land and as a result should be understood in that perspective.
Fur trading on the upper Missouri River provide great economic value to all those involved. The events described in the correspondence of the letters read all display various thought processes and views’ concerning what reveals the true heart feelings of the explorers in this expedition. Peace could have been maintained throughout the fur trade had these men outlooks and attitudes been checked in their dealings with the Indians. The Indians felt the need to attack and protect their way of living and could not avoid participation in the existing trade activities or the violence that seemed to grow out of them.

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