Keywords

Iroquois, Metis, Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, fur trade, Mountain Men

Abstract

This article challenges Iroquoian stereotypes portrayed in existing fur trade records by contrasting the failure of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) to integrate Iroquois and Métis trappers as successfully as the North West Company (NWC) had. The article also compares that to the successful integration and positive portrayal of Iroquois and Métis (mixed-desent) trappers within the American Rocky Mountain fur trade. Racial and economic discrimination by the HBC toward the Iroquois caused a negative impact on the financial success of the Snake Country expeditions under HBC’s Alexander Ross. Additionally, behaviors resulting from such discrimination received negative portrayals in Peter Skene Ogden’s HBC reports. To some extent, the desertions sparked by Iroquois and followed by other freeman trappers on the Weber River in 1825 was a strike for better pay, yet it also reflected a reaction to management styles. American Robert Campbell used a more flexible approach in working with the solidarity of the Iroquoian and Métis trappers and their families.

Original Publication Citation

Buckley, Jay H., and Lyn S. Clayton. “The Spark in the Powder: Iroquois Freemen and Métis Trappers in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade.” Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal 12 (2018): 74-95.