An important milestone in the history of Aboriginal people was marked in 1821. By that date the fur trade had linked the Native world to that of the European in all areas of Canada except for the more remote sections of the lower Mackenzie valley and the Yukon. In 1821, a half-century of ruthless competition was brought to an end by the merger of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company. The English Parliament gave the new concern, still called the Hudson’s Bay Company despite the merger, monopoly control over the trade of Rupert’s Land, the north-west, and the Pacific slope, believing that the company would best serve the interests of the people of these areas by eliminating the evils of unbridled competition.
Competition had, in fact, already ruined the Native economies of much of the Subarctic between the Churchill River and James Bay. In Rainy River, to take one example, the hbc had to import leather from the prairies so local Native people could make moccasins. Even more disastrous, the wanton trade in alcohol was leading to widespread demoralization. English politicians were determined to bring an end to this traffic. Even the traders themselves were aware that the struggle could not be continued much longer.
At the same time, the fur traders had to face the fact that the only new areas left to develop—the Yukon, sections of the northern interior of British Columbia, and the Arctic—were remote and costly to reach. The time had come when an effort had to be made to limit the fur trade to a level the ecosystem could support. In the absence of a strong governmental authority, there was no way to impose conservation measures other than through a monopoly. A monopoly would also lower the costs of the industry because duplicate posts could be eliminated, as could many of the jobs.
Although the motives that led to the granting of the monopoly may generally have been well intended, centralized control signalled an abrupt shift in the relationship between the Native people and the intruders. What had begun as a mutually advantageous partnership of equals became one in which the Europeans increasingly called the shots. Except on the Great Lakes, prairies, and west coast, where competition continued from the Americans, the hbc completely dominated the trade, and created a social and economic order in which Aboriginal people were placed in a more and more subservient position.
For the Inuit the experience was very different, if equally destructive in the end. Prior to 1821 regular contact between Inuit and Europeans was largely limited to the Labrador coast, Hudson Strait, and western Hudson Bay. The whalers did not seriously move into the western and central Arctic until the closing decades of the nineteenth century. But on the Labrador coast the Inuit developed trading contacts with European whalers in the early eighteenth century, and by the middle of the century this trade was centred in the vicinity of Hamilton Inlet. There Inuit middlemen sold baleen—the stiff, flexible whalebone which hangs in long, curtain-like strips from the bowhead whale’s mouth—which they obtained from groups located farther north. But in the late eighteenth century British traders established trading posts to the north of Hamilton Inlet at Hopedale, and in 1771 the Moravian Brethren moved into the area to do missionary and social work, and established missions at Nain, Okak, and Hopedale. The Moravians wanted to make their missions self-sufficient and to discourage Inuit from travelling south to meet whalers. To realize these goals, they operated trading stores—stores that until the 1860s were the most important source of European goods for the Labrador Inuit. By the time the rapid expansion of the cod-fishing industry into the region broke the Moravian monopoly, as fishermen began to trade extensively with the Natives, alcohol had become an important trading item here too, to the considerable detriment of the Inuit. And since a very large number of outsiders, up to thirty thousand fishermen, visited the area each year by the late
Portrait of Joseph Brant. Mohawk chief, military leader, and Loyalist, Brant (1742-1807) symbolizes the problems later Native leaders would face in reconciling Native and European ways. A man of two worlds—as his dress suggests—he was well versed in Iroquoian customs but also Christian and highly literate. Oil (c. 1807) by William Berczy, Sr.
Nineteenth century, alien diseases were introduced—epidemics of measles, typhus, and scarlet fever swept through the Inuit communities. These, and a shift in the traditional diet, soon brought about a sharp decline in the Inuit population.
In 1825 Shawnawdithit was the last Beothuk still living. Those who had not died of new diseases brought from Europe were killed off. In 1829 she too succumbed to tuberculosis and an entire race vanished.
In the Hudson Strait and around Hudson Bay,
Inuit only occasionally encountered and traded with the yearly supply ships from the hbc. More important was the trade the company conducted with the Inuit at Fort Churchill after 1717. Initially, it sent sloops northward from this post in search of Inuit living inland from the west coast of Hudson Bay—a necessary move because the Chipewyan used armed force to prevent the Inuit from visiting Fort Churchill on a regular basis. By the late eighteenth century the company had managed to arrange a lasting peace between the Inuit and the Chipewyan, making it possible finally for the Caribou Inuit to visit Fort Churchill in safety, and as a result the sloops no longer needed to be sent out. Some Caribou Inuit traders were able to find
Employment at Fort Churchill, hunting seal and whales for oil, until the whaling industry collapsed in 1813. This contact was very important: the firearms, fish hooks, and nets the Inuit acquired from the company made it possible for them to occupy the inland tundra at all seasons of the year. After 1820 they expanded southward, displacing the Chipewyan, and by 1860 the Caribou Inuit had become the dominant population in the southern Barren Grounds.
On the east side of Hudson Bay, Inuit contact with the company was more tenuous. Not until 1750 did the company build a small post—Fort Richmond—on the southern edge of Inuit territory. It was intended to serve as a base for mineral exploration and the development of a fur trade, but it was a commercial failure, and closed in 1756. Operations were moved to Little Whale River, where the company had been conducting a small summer beluga-whaling enterprise for some time. However, it soon became apparent that the local Inuit population was not sufficiently large to support a profitable operation here either, and the new post too closed after three
Indian treaties before 1930. These were generally prompted by a demand for land and mineral riches, and the dates of signing reflect that pressure in different areas. Since 1850, Indian treaties have included certain key provisions: an exchange of gifts during negotiations, once-and-for-all payments at the time of signing; annuities in perpetuity as deferred payment for the lands sold; and the rights to hunt and fish on undeveloped Crown lands. Government agents usually arrived with the treaty already drawn up. Indians forced them to negotiate, but many of the concessions were never written down. These “outside promises” are the focus of some Native claims today.
Years. This time the company moved to Great Whale River where a trading post was operated intermittently until 1855 when it became permanent. But everywhere, the whalers and fishermen brought with them alcohol and diseases that devastated the Inuit. Looking back, it is clear that the Native peoples of Canada shared many common experiences in their early encounters with Europeans and their descendants. In the earliest years, the Native people usually held the whip hand. They outnumbered the intruders; they had the manpower and the skills to produce the materials the Europeans sought, at cheaper rates; and they were technologically self-sufficient in the difficult northern environment.
Metis fishermen at Sault Ste. Marie. By the early nineteenth century, there were over fifty Metis communities in the Great Lakes region. The mixed economies of these communities included commercial and subsistence fishing, hunting and trapping, farming, wage labour, and trading.
Unfortunately for the Native people, their superior position was quickly eroded. Their populations were decimated by imported diseases while the intruders increased steadily in number through immigration and natural growth. And when the Native people became involved in the fur trade, their economic way of life no longer revolved around local needs. Instead, they were drawn into international commodity marketing systems—systems that made demands on local resources far beyond what the ecosystems could bear. Depletion was the widespread result. Furthermore, the new technologies often improved the efficiency of the hunter and fisherman, thereby adding to the toll on local game and fish.
Making matters worse for Native people, their political power began to ebb also. Until the end of the War of 1812 they had been important military allies of the British. The desire to curry their favour had led the British government to issue the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal title and established the Crown as protector of that title. Beyond the 1763 boundaries of Quebec, Aboriginal title could be transferred only to the Crown in public treaty-making ceremonies; the intention was to protect Native peoples from unscrupulous land speculators and so minimize the risk of alienating them.
After the War of 1812, colonial officials decided that the Native people were no longer needed as allies. They became more interested in the agricultural, timber, and mineral potential of Native lands than in the welfare of the people. Their prime concern now was to obtain access to the riches of the land as cheaply as possible and without bloodshed. In most areas of Canada covered by treaty, development pressures largely determined when agreements were concluded. (Lands not covered by treaty have experienced these development pressures only recently and in many of these areas negotiations are in process. The principal exception is British Columbia, where, in 1987, the provincial government still refuses to recognize Aboriginal title.)
Overwhelmed by the depletion of their resources, and by the adoption of new lifestyles, the Native peoples began to move from independence, through interdependence with the European traders, towards economic dependence. By 1821 this shift was well under way in most of Canada; only the most remote groups remained relatively unaffected.
World History
