With this established, Ray offers what he believes to be the impact of the fur trade on native life. Ray argues that increased European competition between the years 1763 and 1821 for furs lead to over trapping of native lands which resulted in negative consequences for their economic survival (Ray, 2002, p58). The over trapping and hunting by natives was particularly devastating for the natives, as they lacked a surplus to carry them through difficult times. Ray contends that “the Indians seem to have engaged in trade primarily to satisfy their own immediate requirements for goods”. As a result, once over-trapping occurred the natives became more than ever dependent on their European counter parts for survival. Ray attributes this practice to their “mobile life…their ability to accumulate wealth was limited”. Ray also adds that the lack of accumulated wealth can also be attributed to social sanctions which were placed against the natives (Ray, 2002, p57). The trader’s response to these sanctions according to Ray was to introduce new commodities that the natives could easily transport and or consume. These commodities included alcohol and tobacco. Both of which (especially alcohol) had devastating effects of the native economy and their way of life.
Sylvia Van Kirk offers the impact of the fur trade on native life with a native female perspective. She begins her assessment by stating that “it was a generally held opinion of the traders that the status of women in Indian society was deplorably low”. Like Ray she proposes that the history of the Fur trade in Canada has taken on the perspective white European culture, and in doing so does harm to the sprit and history of native heritage. Van Kirk proposes that while the fur trade did offer short term advantages to native women, ultimately the impact of the fur trade had an “adverse effect on Indian women”. In Van Kirk assessment, she lays forth the short term positive affects the fur trade had on native life.
Van Kirk argues that native women where seen as valuable assets to European traders and uses the example of Chipewyan and Chinook women to illustrate this. She states that native women with their knowledge of language, land, and their ability to negotiate were vital for European survival, and therefore “may have enhanced the status of Chipewyan women”. Van Kirk claims that native women were viewed as a “beast of burden”, and enjoyed an easier more stable life with the Traders. (Van Kirk, 2002, p66.) This improvement in lifestyles is explained by Van Kirk as stemming from a stereotype of women being viewed as the weaker of the two sexes (Van Kirk, 2002, p66). Another factor that impacted native life according to Van Kirk was the establishment of trading posts. Trading posts as she states were “a source of medical aid and succour”. Furthermore Van Kirk contends that these trading posts also took the form of welfare centre, as native women were usually the first to feel the impact of hard economic times in native society (Van Kirk, 2002, p65).
Long term effects of the fur trade, introduced natives to European diseases such as smallpox which wiped out large percentages of the native population. Wives of fur traders also suffered more than in typical native society as they were expected to produce more children, which exposed them to diseases and disorders (Van Kirk, 2002, p67). The traditional native way of life was demolished as native people turned to new ways of living, which resulted in a dependency of the white man. By the turn of the century native women were no longer seen as ‘women in between’ as traders now preferred women of mixed blood, therefore losing their status in the fur trade society (Van Kirk, 2002 p 70.) Lastly Van Kirk argues that the position of the mixed blood women became particularly vulnerable because in the attempts to assimilate into white culture, these women moved away from a position of autonomy and purpose which they enjoyed in native society, to a position of male dependency.
In summary, though the two authors differ some what in their focus, as it has been shown Van Kirk is primarily concerned with the status of native women, this essay has looked to explore the similarities in the works of A. J. Ray and S. Van. Kirk, and in doing so has found a common trend in their research. The impact of the fur trade on native life according to both Ray and Van Kirk is misrepresented by many historians who have focused their research on European egocentrism, and stereotypical native imagines. Both Ray and Van Kirk argue that natives during the fur trade had as much to offer to the traders as they had to gain. They point out that the introduction of new technologies, commodities, and ways of living, resulted in a dependency of natives to Europeans which ultimately changed their traditional ways of life.
References
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 53.
H. M, Laing, Canada as She is No. , Canadian Magazine, LVIII (February, 1922), p, 292.
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 53.
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 57
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 57.
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 63.
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 67.
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 64.
R. Douglas Francis, Donald B. Smith, Readings in Canadian History Pre-Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Canada, 2002), p. 65.