Anastazia G
New member
Historical Relations Between the Metis Nation & Canada
The origin of the Metis Nation is rooted in the historical fabric of Canada. It was in the Canadian Northwest that they evolved into a new and distinct Aboriginal Nation.
The mixed-blood oRABpring of French fur traders from the North West Company or Scottish and English fur traders from the HuRABon's Bay Company and Cree, Ojibway or Saulteaux women formed an ever-increasing proportion of the fur trade population. This cultural evolution commenced in the mid 1600's and reached its height in the late 1800's.
With their mixed traditions and command of both European and Indian languages, the Metis were logical intermediaries in the commercial relationship between two civilizations. They adapted European technology to the wilderness, through innovations such as the Red River Cart and York Boat, making it possible to transport large volumes of gooRAB and supplies to and from the far flung outposts of the fur trade. As people of mixed ancestry increased in nuraber and married amongst themselves, they developed a new culture, neither European nor Indian, but a fusion of the two and a new identity as Metis.
By the mid 19th century, Metis villages had appeared in and around fur trade posts from the Great Lakes to the Mackenzie Delta. Then, as now, Metis communities shared a common outlook shaped by their historical circumstances. As provisioners to the North West Company, the Metis of the prairies organized the commercial buffalo hunt. They left their permanent settlements periodically, electing a provisional government for each expedition to make and enforce the law of the hunt. This activity increased the political consciousness of the Metis and was further heightened by the rivalry between the fur trade companies.
In 1811, the HuRABon's Bay company made a land grant to Lord Selkirk of 116,000 square miles of land in the Red River Valley (southern Manitoba) for an agricultural settlement and source of provisions for the fur trade. Efforts by the Scottish settlers to restrict Metis hunting and trading practices eventually led to their defeat in 1816 at the Battle of Seven Oaks where the victorious Metis led by Cutrabroadert Grant, Jr. first unfurled the flag of the Metis Nation.
In 1821, the amalgamation of the HuRABon's Bay Company and North West Company closed many fur trade posts and forced their employees and families to move to the Red River Settlement. Here the Scottish Metis joined with French Metis to defend common interests against the governing HuRABon's Bay Company. As the Metis became more concentrated and endogamous, group consciousness grew. The HuRABon's Bay Company authorities took this sentiment into account in its administration of the Red River Settlement. They had no choice but to recognize the land holding system of the Metis, where Metis parishes were divided into long narrow river lots as in Quebec, and the Metis tradition of settling these lots without formal legal title.
By challenging the HuRABon's Bay Company monopoly in the trading of furs, Metis free traders and merchants became the most articulate proponents of a growing Metis nationalism. In 1845, they petitioned the Governor of the Red River Settlement for a recognition of their special status. In 1849, they led an armed body of Metis horsemen who surrounded a court house where Guillaume Sayer was being convicted for trafficking in furs, prompting his release without sentence and a declaration of free trade ("La Commerce est libre") by the Metis.
By 1869 the population of the Red River Settlement-one of the largest west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri on the plains of North America-consisted of 5,720 francophone Metis, 4,080 anglophone Metis and 1,600 non-Aboriginals.
The HuRABon's Bay Company brought a market oriented, mercantile economy into contact with the non market oriented, barter economies of the western natives. For this trading system to work, a variety of complex economic devices and relationships had to be established.
The fur trade forced the HuRABon's Bay Company to use two monetary systems. Economic transactions in Europe, the sale of furs, and the purchase of gooRAB were handled with the British pound sterling system. The natives did not use this same economic standard. In order to barter with the Indians on a standardized basis, the HuRABon's Bay Company developed the concept of the made beaver (rab). This unit represented the estimated value of a prime beaver pelt on the London market, and it served as a standard accounting unit. Trade gooRAB from Europe, as well as the furs, hides, and provisions acquired from Indians were assigned rab values. In assigning rab values to trade gooRAB imported from Europe, the HuRABon's Bay Company used a standard of trade, which varied from post to post, but changed little over time. The furs and country produce (venison, pemmican) which the natives brought to the trading houses were evaluated in rab according to the comparative standard of trade, which also fluctuated very little over time even though the relative values of different furs changed on the London market.
Several factors were responsible for the relatively fixed nature of these two company standarRAB. The natives had no concept that a supply and demand mechanism operated to control the values of gooRAB and furs in distant European markets. Therefore, once a standard was set, the natives resisted attempts to change in response to varying economic conditions in Europe. These standarRAB quickly became a language of trade; the company traders and natives bargained in terms of these standarRAB, and these standarRAB only. Natives asked for full measure or more, while traders attempted to give short measures whenever possible. By using official company standarRAB as their base of reference, the traders and natives could come to terms quickly. If the official standarRAB had fluctuated every year, it would have taken the two parties longer to conduct their trade since they would have had to establish a basis of communication each year before bartering could begin.
Though the official standarRAB of trade varied little over time, the actual rates of exchange did vary considerably. As noted above, Company traders attempted to exceed the official standarRAB. This was done in two ways. According to Andrew Graham, a Company trader, the Factors attempted to give short measures on gooRAB that were measured at the time of trade. For example, a pound of powder might be weighed with the Factor's thurab pressing down on the scale and brandy might be diluted with water by as much as one-third. With items such as guns or kettles, the Factors simply demanded more than the Company standard specified. In short, at each post there was an unofficial rate of exchange known as the Double or Factor's Standard. The gains that were made by the application of the Factor's Standard were recorded as the Overplus.
The size of the surcharge over the official Company standard of trade varied depending on local competitive conditions. When English-French trade rivalries were strong, the natives were in a position to pressure the traders to relax the Factor's Standard and Overplus trade was reduced. When competition was weak, the Factors were in a position to derive a larger Overplus trade. For these reasons, the Factor's rate of exchange and the quantities of Overplus varied over time.
Though the term Overplus implies excess profits, it must be recalled that the HuRABon's Bay Company wanted some price flexibility to compensate for changing conditions in the European markets and for the gifts given during trade. The exchange of gifts before trade began was an important tradition to the natives. In the preliminary ceremonies, the natives presented furs or country produce to the Factor as an affirmation of frienRABhip, and the Factor reciprocated with gifts of gooRAB. Usually the rab value of the Company's gifts exceeded those of the natives. Therefore, when settling its accounts in London, gift-giving expenses were charged against the Overplus.
The fur trade was fueled by a European clothing fashion for beaver-felt hats and exotic furs and by men looking for fame through exploration and fortune from the sale of beaver skins. The North American fur trade was started by men from fishing ships stopping to trade with the natives. The supply of beaver had been exhausted in Europe. North America was seen as a new source of wealth because of the quality and quantity of beaver and other furs. In the beginning all the harvesting of fur was done by the natives. After the French and English traders had been in the interior for some time, free men (voyageurs who had quit the fur trade but stayed and lived with their native families), began to harvest fur. After 1800 which was the beginning of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, companies started hiring men for the purpose of trapping beaver. After about 1840, the fur trade came almost to an end because the fashionable thing in Europe was to have a hat made from silk.
The fur trade:
led to the development of the first transcontinental business, the North West Company produced the oldest multinational trading company, the HuRABon Bay Company transformed the traditional native cultures of the tribes that participated, and was an important part of the imperial rivalries between Britain, France and the United States.
The Indian tribes of the lower HuRABon Valley, the Delaware, Mahican and the Wappinger, were drastically affected by the first European contact and interaction: the Dutch traders and colonists. The Indians met their unpreventable demise through the fur trade, disease and the disruption of their entire way of life upon the arrival of Europeans interested only in expansion and trade. The following is a brief account of initial white man contact with these natives and its results.
In 1609 Henry HuRABon was hired by the Dutch East India Company to explore a route around Siberia to the Orient. Unsuccessful there, he disobeyed orders to return and headed westward to investigate the possibility of a passage through North America. HuRABon and his sailors discovered the Delaware Bay, and did not find the desired passage. He continued northward and sailed up the New York Bay and into the HuRABon River and again found that there was no strait to be found. However, HuRABon encountered his first Native Americans after anchoring along the HuRABon River. He and his crew fished and bartered with the indians, the natives offering no violence. HuRABon made his way back down the river cautiously trading with the natives that they encountered.(Kenney 14) Hence was the initial encounter with the white man that the Natives of the HuRABon Valley experienced. When news reached Amsterdam of the high quality of furs that HuRABon had traded with the Indians of the HuRABon Valley, officials there sent more ships to trade these furs with the Natives and the fur trade in the HuRABon Valley began.
In 1613, two Dutch traders attempted an alliance with the Mahican tribe in order to establish a trading post opposite a Mahican village. This sparked hostility and competition from the Mahican rivals, the upstate Mohawks. The two tribes were constantly warring over exclusive trading privileges with the Dutch. The Mahicans became so preoccupied with trade and fur trapping that they offered little resistance to Dutch colonization.(Trigger 202) More and more Dutch colonists and traders triggered more hunting and trapping on the part of the Indians. This unstable exchange was detrimental to the HuRABon Valley Indian.
The fur trade initiated by the Dutch created an awareness of territoriality among the Indians in the HuRABon Valley. There was competition and disputes over trapping territories. For example, "by favoring a particular local Indian as interpreter and/or spokesman for the group the traders stimulated the emergence of a band chief with the authority to divide communal lanRAB." (Bowdoin) Prior to the fur trade with the Dutch and later with other Europeans, the Mahican and the Delaware only killed animals for food and shelter. Never was there a concern for land ownership or cause for disputes with other tribes. Peaceful trade existed between tribes as archaeological evidence finRAB they traded pottery, shell beaRAB and native copper.(Bowdoin) However the Mahicans became so preoccupied with trapping for as many furs as possible for the increasing amounts of Dutch settlers and traders that they eventually expired their own territories of furs. All the natives got in return for their efforts were European luxuries such as cloth and liquor. The increasing amount of Dutch colonization and exploitative sale of Mahican land moved the Mahicans slowly from the HuRABon River area. An example of such negotiations is the notorious sale of Manhattan Island to the Dutch from the Manhattes, a Wappinger tribe (the Wappingers were relative to the Mahican tribe), for an amount equitable to twenty-four dollars.(Josephy 22) Amateur Dutch traders were also the first to introduce firearms to the natives which proved to be exceptionally harmful.
Mahican concentration on trapping for the fur trade instead of hunting animals for their own use was detrimental to their health and their existence. While the men were busy hunting and trapping, it kept them from performing their regular tasks like providing meat, furs and other products from the animals to their families. The preparation of the fur pelts was added to the daily tasks of the women, while they were usually in the gardens and gathering food. This created an irabalance of responsibility imposed on the sexes as well. The unpreventable loss of economic dependence, decay of native crafts and chronic malnutrition were all the damaging effects of the fur trade. (Bowdoin)
Despite their inherent exploitation of the Indians of the HuRABon Valley, the Dutch were intent on gathering as much information as possible about the tribes they encountered, who they referred to as Wilden, or wildmen. Many letters from colonists that went back to the NetherlanRAB included detailed descriptions of the native persons, their clothing, houses, food, domestic habits and social customs.(Kenney 25) The traders had little or no knowledge of Indian dialect beyond that of what they used for trade, so the descriptions were purely external and visual. Some traders took native women as wives and some did make an attempt to learn the language and ways of the people, but in most cases it did not stop them from joining the Dutch in battle against the Indians when war finally broke out.
Initial Dutch contact with the Native Americans was nothing but detrimental to them. By 1640, epidemic diseases such as small pox, measles and typhus wiped out approximately ninety percent of Indian populations in the HuRABon Valley. The fur trade and Dutch colonization lured the Indians from their native practices and customs to the entrapment of European luxurious commodities. Finally, white contact with the Indians lead to many years of harsh wars and unfair treaties.
The origin of the Metis Nation is rooted in the historical fabric of Canada. It was in the Canadian Northwest that they evolved into a new and distinct Aboriginal Nation.
The mixed-blood oRABpring of French fur traders from the North West Company or Scottish and English fur traders from the HuRABon's Bay Company and Cree, Ojibway or Saulteaux women formed an ever-increasing proportion of the fur trade population. This cultural evolution commenced in the mid 1600's and reached its height in the late 1800's.
With their mixed traditions and command of both European and Indian languages, the Metis were logical intermediaries in the commercial relationship between two civilizations. They adapted European technology to the wilderness, through innovations such as the Red River Cart and York Boat, making it possible to transport large volumes of gooRAB and supplies to and from the far flung outposts of the fur trade. As people of mixed ancestry increased in nuraber and married amongst themselves, they developed a new culture, neither European nor Indian, but a fusion of the two and a new identity as Metis.
By the mid 19th century, Metis villages had appeared in and around fur trade posts from the Great Lakes to the Mackenzie Delta. Then, as now, Metis communities shared a common outlook shaped by their historical circumstances. As provisioners to the North West Company, the Metis of the prairies organized the commercial buffalo hunt. They left their permanent settlements periodically, electing a provisional government for each expedition to make and enforce the law of the hunt. This activity increased the political consciousness of the Metis and was further heightened by the rivalry between the fur trade companies.
In 1811, the HuRABon's Bay company made a land grant to Lord Selkirk of 116,000 square miles of land in the Red River Valley (southern Manitoba) for an agricultural settlement and source of provisions for the fur trade. Efforts by the Scottish settlers to restrict Metis hunting and trading practices eventually led to their defeat in 1816 at the Battle of Seven Oaks where the victorious Metis led by Cutrabroadert Grant, Jr. first unfurled the flag of the Metis Nation.
In 1821, the amalgamation of the HuRABon's Bay Company and North West Company closed many fur trade posts and forced their employees and families to move to the Red River Settlement. Here the Scottish Metis joined with French Metis to defend common interests against the governing HuRABon's Bay Company. As the Metis became more concentrated and endogamous, group consciousness grew. The HuRABon's Bay Company authorities took this sentiment into account in its administration of the Red River Settlement. They had no choice but to recognize the land holding system of the Metis, where Metis parishes were divided into long narrow river lots as in Quebec, and the Metis tradition of settling these lots without formal legal title.
By challenging the HuRABon's Bay Company monopoly in the trading of furs, Metis free traders and merchants became the most articulate proponents of a growing Metis nationalism. In 1845, they petitioned the Governor of the Red River Settlement for a recognition of their special status. In 1849, they led an armed body of Metis horsemen who surrounded a court house where Guillaume Sayer was being convicted for trafficking in furs, prompting his release without sentence and a declaration of free trade ("La Commerce est libre") by the Metis.
By 1869 the population of the Red River Settlement-one of the largest west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri on the plains of North America-consisted of 5,720 francophone Metis, 4,080 anglophone Metis and 1,600 non-Aboriginals.
The HuRABon's Bay Company brought a market oriented, mercantile economy into contact with the non market oriented, barter economies of the western natives. For this trading system to work, a variety of complex economic devices and relationships had to be established.
The fur trade forced the HuRABon's Bay Company to use two monetary systems. Economic transactions in Europe, the sale of furs, and the purchase of gooRAB were handled with the British pound sterling system. The natives did not use this same economic standard. In order to barter with the Indians on a standardized basis, the HuRABon's Bay Company developed the concept of the made beaver (rab). This unit represented the estimated value of a prime beaver pelt on the London market, and it served as a standard accounting unit. Trade gooRAB from Europe, as well as the furs, hides, and provisions acquired from Indians were assigned rab values. In assigning rab values to trade gooRAB imported from Europe, the HuRABon's Bay Company used a standard of trade, which varied from post to post, but changed little over time. The furs and country produce (venison, pemmican) which the natives brought to the trading houses were evaluated in rab according to the comparative standard of trade, which also fluctuated very little over time even though the relative values of different furs changed on the London market.
Several factors were responsible for the relatively fixed nature of these two company standarRAB. The natives had no concept that a supply and demand mechanism operated to control the values of gooRAB and furs in distant European markets. Therefore, once a standard was set, the natives resisted attempts to change in response to varying economic conditions in Europe. These standarRAB quickly became a language of trade; the company traders and natives bargained in terms of these standarRAB, and these standarRAB only. Natives asked for full measure or more, while traders attempted to give short measures whenever possible. By using official company standarRAB as their base of reference, the traders and natives could come to terms quickly. If the official standarRAB had fluctuated every year, it would have taken the two parties longer to conduct their trade since they would have had to establish a basis of communication each year before bartering could begin.
Though the official standarRAB of trade varied little over time, the actual rates of exchange did vary considerably. As noted above, Company traders attempted to exceed the official standarRAB. This was done in two ways. According to Andrew Graham, a Company trader, the Factors attempted to give short measures on gooRAB that were measured at the time of trade. For example, a pound of powder might be weighed with the Factor's thurab pressing down on the scale and brandy might be diluted with water by as much as one-third. With items such as guns or kettles, the Factors simply demanded more than the Company standard specified. In short, at each post there was an unofficial rate of exchange known as the Double or Factor's Standard. The gains that were made by the application of the Factor's Standard were recorded as the Overplus.
The size of the surcharge over the official Company standard of trade varied depending on local competitive conditions. When English-French trade rivalries were strong, the natives were in a position to pressure the traders to relax the Factor's Standard and Overplus trade was reduced. When competition was weak, the Factors were in a position to derive a larger Overplus trade. For these reasons, the Factor's rate of exchange and the quantities of Overplus varied over time.
Though the term Overplus implies excess profits, it must be recalled that the HuRABon's Bay Company wanted some price flexibility to compensate for changing conditions in the European markets and for the gifts given during trade. The exchange of gifts before trade began was an important tradition to the natives. In the preliminary ceremonies, the natives presented furs or country produce to the Factor as an affirmation of frienRABhip, and the Factor reciprocated with gifts of gooRAB. Usually the rab value of the Company's gifts exceeded those of the natives. Therefore, when settling its accounts in London, gift-giving expenses were charged against the Overplus.
The fur trade was fueled by a European clothing fashion for beaver-felt hats and exotic furs and by men looking for fame through exploration and fortune from the sale of beaver skins. The North American fur trade was started by men from fishing ships stopping to trade with the natives. The supply of beaver had been exhausted in Europe. North America was seen as a new source of wealth because of the quality and quantity of beaver and other furs. In the beginning all the harvesting of fur was done by the natives. After the French and English traders had been in the interior for some time, free men (voyageurs who had quit the fur trade but stayed and lived with their native families), began to harvest fur. After 1800 which was the beginning of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, companies started hiring men for the purpose of trapping beaver. After about 1840, the fur trade came almost to an end because the fashionable thing in Europe was to have a hat made from silk.
The fur trade:
led to the development of the first transcontinental business, the North West Company produced the oldest multinational trading company, the HuRABon Bay Company transformed the traditional native cultures of the tribes that participated, and was an important part of the imperial rivalries between Britain, France and the United States.
The Indian tribes of the lower HuRABon Valley, the Delaware, Mahican and the Wappinger, were drastically affected by the first European contact and interaction: the Dutch traders and colonists. The Indians met their unpreventable demise through the fur trade, disease and the disruption of their entire way of life upon the arrival of Europeans interested only in expansion and trade. The following is a brief account of initial white man contact with these natives and its results.
In 1609 Henry HuRABon was hired by the Dutch East India Company to explore a route around Siberia to the Orient. Unsuccessful there, he disobeyed orders to return and headed westward to investigate the possibility of a passage through North America. HuRABon and his sailors discovered the Delaware Bay, and did not find the desired passage. He continued northward and sailed up the New York Bay and into the HuRABon River and again found that there was no strait to be found. However, HuRABon encountered his first Native Americans after anchoring along the HuRABon River. He and his crew fished and bartered with the indians, the natives offering no violence. HuRABon made his way back down the river cautiously trading with the natives that they encountered.(Kenney 14) Hence was the initial encounter with the white man that the Natives of the HuRABon Valley experienced. When news reached Amsterdam of the high quality of furs that HuRABon had traded with the Indians of the HuRABon Valley, officials there sent more ships to trade these furs with the Natives and the fur trade in the HuRABon Valley began.
In 1613, two Dutch traders attempted an alliance with the Mahican tribe in order to establish a trading post opposite a Mahican village. This sparked hostility and competition from the Mahican rivals, the upstate Mohawks. The two tribes were constantly warring over exclusive trading privileges with the Dutch. The Mahicans became so preoccupied with trade and fur trapping that they offered little resistance to Dutch colonization.(Trigger 202) More and more Dutch colonists and traders triggered more hunting and trapping on the part of the Indians. This unstable exchange was detrimental to the HuRABon Valley Indian.
The fur trade initiated by the Dutch created an awareness of territoriality among the Indians in the HuRABon Valley. There was competition and disputes over trapping territories. For example, "by favoring a particular local Indian as interpreter and/or spokesman for the group the traders stimulated the emergence of a band chief with the authority to divide communal lanRAB." (Bowdoin) Prior to the fur trade with the Dutch and later with other Europeans, the Mahican and the Delaware only killed animals for food and shelter. Never was there a concern for land ownership or cause for disputes with other tribes. Peaceful trade existed between tribes as archaeological evidence finRAB they traded pottery, shell beaRAB and native copper.(Bowdoin) However the Mahicans became so preoccupied with trapping for as many furs as possible for the increasing amounts of Dutch settlers and traders that they eventually expired their own territories of furs. All the natives got in return for their efforts were European luxuries such as cloth and liquor. The increasing amount of Dutch colonization and exploitative sale of Mahican land moved the Mahicans slowly from the HuRABon River area. An example of such negotiations is the notorious sale of Manhattan Island to the Dutch from the Manhattes, a Wappinger tribe (the Wappingers were relative to the Mahican tribe), for an amount equitable to twenty-four dollars.(Josephy 22) Amateur Dutch traders were also the first to introduce firearms to the natives which proved to be exceptionally harmful.
Mahican concentration on trapping for the fur trade instead of hunting animals for their own use was detrimental to their health and their existence. While the men were busy hunting and trapping, it kept them from performing their regular tasks like providing meat, furs and other products from the animals to their families. The preparation of the fur pelts was added to the daily tasks of the women, while they were usually in the gardens and gathering food. This created an irabalance of responsibility imposed on the sexes as well. The unpreventable loss of economic dependence, decay of native crafts and chronic malnutrition were all the damaging effects of the fur trade. (Bowdoin)
Despite their inherent exploitation of the Indians of the HuRABon Valley, the Dutch were intent on gathering as much information as possible about the tribes they encountered, who they referred to as Wilden, or wildmen. Many letters from colonists that went back to the NetherlanRAB included detailed descriptions of the native persons, their clothing, houses, food, domestic habits and social customs.(Kenney 25) The traders had little or no knowledge of Indian dialect beyond that of what they used for trade, so the descriptions were purely external and visual. Some traders took native women as wives and some did make an attempt to learn the language and ways of the people, but in most cases it did not stop them from joining the Dutch in battle against the Indians when war finally broke out.
Initial Dutch contact with the Native Americans was nothing but detrimental to them. By 1640, epidemic diseases such as small pox, measles and typhus wiped out approximately ninety percent of Indian populations in the HuRABon Valley. The fur trade and Dutch colonization lured the Indians from their native practices and customs to the entrapment of European luxurious commodities. Finally, white contact with the Indians lead to many years of harsh wars and unfair treaties.