Indians and trade

• Two broad phases of trade between Native Americans and Europeans

• Initial phase favored Native American

• Second phase favored European

• Difficult to put a date on break point

• occurred at different times in different locations

• Basic factor to look for • decrease in number of fur’s and

skins• Animal pelts provide a good a

clear marker • Primary trade item from America

to Europe• There were three main types of

pelt traded

• Beaver• Primary region • Northeast

America– Although Russia

also took beaver from Northwest

• A best seller in Europe

• Soft, microscopically barbed under fur used in felt hats

• Second category • Smaller more exotic

furs• Marten• Otter• Black Fox• Used for gowns of

aristocrats

• Third main pelt• From the

southeast• Began later

– Last quarter 17th C• White tail deer

• Breeches• Saddlebags• Bookbindings• aprons

• The availability of such fur and skins ensured that natives had plentiful supply for trade

• Huge volume pelts• Mohicans and eastern Iroquois• 8000 beaver and otter skins to

Fort Orange and New Amsterdam in 1626

• 1650, 46,000 to Fort Orange alone

• For France in 1620s Quebec• 200 Huron in 60 -70 canoes

brought 10,000 skins a year• 1640s

–Despite 50% reduction in population due to disease and warfare

• Huron provided 30,000 skins a year

• Plymouth colony able to pay of its debts

• Only because of Abenaki • Between 1631 – 1636• 8,000 Beaver• 1,156 Otter• Despite these number

majority of Abenaki pelts went to French

Southeast• Deer skin trade started later

– Became huge• 1700 – 1715 • 54,000 skins/ year through

Charleston• 1740 – 1762 • 152,000 skins/ year• Between 1739 and 1759• Cherokee Hunters alone reduced the

deer population by 1.25 million

• The primary animal to sustain Cherokee life – white-tailed deer

• Valuable food source • also provided non-food products • hides for clothing • Bones fashioned into tools and

other instruments • Horns ‘pounded boiled &c’ to

make glue

• Bottles were made from deer skins in the following manner.

• “They first cut off the deers feet and head, and then drew the ears through the skin of the neck, they then sewed up the feet, having the neck for the nose of the bottle &c.”

• Ceremonies surrounding hunting and killing of the deer indicative of animal’s importance

• Cherokee hunter, had to perform the correct ritual. The first part consisted of the singing of a deer song such as the one below:• O Deer, you stand close by the tree,• You sweeten your saliva with acorns,

• Now you are standing near,• You have come to where your food

rests on the ground 

• This and similar songs would be sung repeatedly before starting on the hunt – or upon reaching the hunting

ground • to attract deer • Second part of the ritual

– which took place after the kill • consisted of a ceremonial prayer

to ‘Little Deer’ • chief of the deer tribe  

• “Little Deer” instantly aware of any deer’s death

• appears at the scene where he asks

• ‘the blood stains upon the ground if they have heard’ the prayer

• If the hunter has intoned the prayer before the kill, then all is well

• if not “Little Deer” follows the hunter home and places the ‘spirit of rheumatism’ into the hunter’s body.

• Relationship between Indian and animal a contract of mutual obligation

• European epidemic disease began to ravage them

• Indians took it to be a 'conspiracy' by animals against them.

• When their own medicine man unable to cure these diseases, the stage was set for

• 'war of retaliation’• sacred agreement with the

Keepers of the Game having been broken

• Native Americans smart negotiators

• Montagnais hunter• “The Beaver does

everything perfectly well, it makes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread, in short it makes everything”

• Roger Williams 1642 Narragansetts• “willbeate all markets and try all places, and

runne twenty, thirty, yea, forty mile[s] and more, and lodge in the Woods, to save six pence.”

• Late 1600’s William Byrd noted that Indians would not take

• “large white beads”– Instead of small ones

• “Light Blue Blankets”– Instead of dark blue

• “small hoes”– Instead of large

Deerskin and duffels• Common Native American name for

early Europeans• “cloth makers” or “Coat-men”• Why did Native Americans exchange • Skins

– Which the Europeans wanted for clothing

• For blankets– Which the natives used as clothing

Theyanoquin “King hendrick”• Several reasons

• Lighter and as warm• Dried faster• Remained suppler

and softer when wet• Came in brighter

colors than could be made in America

• With knives or scissors easily made into clothing

Deadly MedicineNative Americans and

Alcohol• Cadwaller Colden• Drunkeness• “has destroyed

greater numbers, than all their Wars and Diseases put together”

• Not true in the numbers but does suggest the impact

• Alcohol Saturated Native America• Hudson Bay Company• Fort Albany• 1700 – 70 Gallons• 1753 – 2,300 Gallons• Sir William Johnson estimated• 1764 50,000 gallons of rum• John Stuart• 30,000 gallon in 3 months in 1776• 120,000 gallons per year

•No experience with alcohol•Drank to get drunk•Excuse for bad behavior• Led to deaths•Drink related murders•Exposure•Weakness to other diseases