B. Map - Native-European Encounters Preserved in Native Oral Tradition and
European Written Narrative

Canadian Shield: Ojibwa and Cree

The Canadian Shield First Nations had indirect contact with Europeans through middlemen traders of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Gulf regions. Groups in the Canadian Shield, such as the Algonquians, played a crucial role in the fur trade economy once European traders had established posts in the Hudson Bay region.

Mittens from the Montagnais Nation
Collected at Pointe-Bleue, Quebec in 1911

Courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Civilization
CMC Catalogue Number: III-C-4 a,b

Ojibwa Encounter with Europeans

Oral tradition describes the first encounter between the Anishinabeg, or Ojibwa, and the Europeans. This narrative is an example of how the first encounter often set the tone for future relations between the First Nations peoples and the newcomers. It illustrates the Ojibwa's well-established tradition of trade and negotiation. This narrative is a composite of information from Andrew J. Blackbird's The History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians; J.G. Kohl's Kitrchi-Gami; and William Whipple Warren's History of the Ojibwas.

Strange persons were living on the continent. Possibly spirits in the form of men or just extraordinary people. A council was called to discuss the information and an expedition was planned to seek out the new strangers. The expedition was led by a shaman. The Anishinabeg traveled east from the Great Lakes toward the territories of the Ottawa. It was here they discovered a clearing where the trees were cut cleanly and not from stone axes. Possible explanations for the felled trees was a huge beaver, but they also believed it may have been the work of the strange people they were seeking. The Anishinabeg explored further down river and discovered the remains of a winter village that had been occupied by the strange men in the previous season. They were encouraged to search the river edge further and encountered a settlement. Strange people greeted them. The Anishinabeg liken the foreigners to squirrels because of the way they stored their goods. They did not dig holes in the ground like a squirrel, but they built up a wood case around their provisions in a hollow of a tree. They traded for cloth, metal axes, knives, flint, steel, beads, blankets, and firearms in exchange for furs. Upon returning home the Anishinabeg explorers recounted their encounter with the strangers. The trade goods were prized and the Anishinabeg entered into a commercial initiative, establishing regular trade with the French.

European Encounter with Cree

The European historical record of encounters in the Canadian Shield region also emphasises an economic theme. Henry Hudson explored the Hudson Bay and James Bay regions in the early seventeenth century. In 1611, a lone Cree man approached Hudson and his crew and upon receiving gifts of friendship he returned with furs for trade. The Cree man appeared not to favour the bargain and eventually took his goods and left. This encounter is possibly the first between Europeans and Sub-Arctic First Nations groups. However, understanding a fair price for exchange and willingness to bargain for European goods suggests that the Cree trader was familiar with the custom of trading with Europeans. Cree oral tradition also narrates this first encounter. According to the Cree, Hudson and his crew offered European clothing in exchange for the furs the Cree was wearing.

Pierre Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers were French explorers who sailed under both the French and English flags. They mapped regions of the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi Valley for the French. Radisson and Grossilliers learned from the Cree that the territory between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay was rich in furs. Unable to gain support from the French government, Radisson and Groseilliers solicited the English crown for backing to explore this territory. The Nonsuch and the Eaglet sailed from London on June 3, 1668. A storm forced the damaged Eaglet to return to England, but the Nonsuch continued its voyage to James Bay, arriving there on September 29, 1668. The crew built a shelter against the winter snows and the Cree peoples called it waskaganish. Spring trade between the Cree and English crew was profitable. When the Nonsuch returned to England the court of Charles II recognised the potential of Radisson and Grossilliers' proposal to trade in the Hudson Bay region. Charles II established a Royal Charter that claimed the territories and trading rights of the Hudson Bay region. Title to forty per cent of present-day Canadian boundaries was granted to Charles II's cousin, Prince Rupert. The area became known as Rupert's Land. The European system of sovereignty and land holding was foreign to the political systems of the First Nations groups who now lived in Rupert's Land. English traders broke into established trade routes and alliances, and disrupted traditional sustenance economies.

Rupert's Land
Courtesy of the Hudson Bay Company Archives

Algonquians: Ojibwa and Cree

The territories of the Algonquian groups of Nipissing, Ottawa, Ojibwa, Innu, and Cree bordered on the St. Lawrence region north and west into present-day Ontario. The Algonquin (the First Nation is termed "Algonquin", the linguistic family, "Algonquian") in the St. Lawrence Valley in the early seventeenth century were allies with the Montagnais or Innu, their Algonquian-speaking neighbours to the east, and also with the Hurons. The Algonquin economy was based primarily on hunting, fishing, and the gathering of wild plants. The southern groups did practice the cultivation of corn, but poor soils limited the type and size of crops. The close proximity of Algonquin territories to the settlements and forts of European traders placed the Odawa (Ottawas) in a position to act as trade middlemen between the Europeans and the Nipissing. In turn, Nipissing traders transported corn and European goods north to Cree groups in the James Bay region.

Ojibwa

Hudson Bay Company Flag
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

The Northern Ojibwa peoples inhabited the boreal forest regions from the Manitoba Interlake to Hudson Bay, James Bay, and Lake Superior. There is evidence the Ojibwa travelled to Hudson's Bay Company posts as early as the 1670s and 1680s. Although the annual trade with Europeans did not alter the annual sustenance economy of the Ojibwa, the trips north to trade with the Hudson's Bay Company did involve travel that took the bands out of their traditional seasonal route. The Ojibwa included an annual trip to French settlements to trade beaver skins for firearms, metal goods, blankets, and luxury items. The Ojibwa also acted as middlemen, carrying French goods to the Cree and Assiniboine. Each familial group had its own trading captain and any trade made by a member of the family was transacted in his name. As the number of European traders and their settlements increased, the number of beaver diminished.

In the early part of the seventeenth century the Ojibwa people began to incorporate annual trips to French trading posts into their seasonal migrations. These trips became shorter and shorter as the French moved farther into the Ojibwa territories. Between 1780 and 1782 a smallpox epidemic broke out and it spread widely throughout the Great Lakes region and towards the northwest. Camps and infected territories were entirely abandoned and the fur trade decreased for several years during and after the epidemic. Some Ojibwa moved permanently to more westerly lands, which they felt would offer a new start for a reduced population that had fewer trade goods. This created conflict with groups already in the area such as the Dakota. There is evidence, however, of co-existence with the Cree and Assiniboine.

Western Ojibwa, or Saulteaux, formed from the eighteenth-century migrations to the Red River, to the Interlake area, and to the Assiniboine and North Saskatchewan Rivers. They travelled as far as Edmonton House, Lesser Slave Lake and the Columbia River. Because the Ojibwa were active participants in European trade, it is believed that they migrated in order to maintain an active role in the evolving fur trade. The Ojibwa tended to trade with the North West Company and the XY Company instead of the Hudson's Bay Company. According to fur trade post journals, the Ojibwa purchased firearms and cloth, but expected to receive trinkets of silver, wampum, and beads as gifts.

Cree

In the seventeenth century, Cree peoples occupied hunting territories between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay, and evidence suggests that they travelled as far west as present-day The Pas, Manitoba. Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 Cree were in this region by 1640. They participated in a Parkland and Plains subsistence cycle. During the winter, Cree and Assiniboine bands remained in the Parkland region. In early spring they moved out of the Parkland regions to trap and fish. They also hunted bison in the late summer. Initially, the Cree traded with the Ojibwa for European goods. During the summer they also engaged in Mandan trade. Neither the Cree nor the Assisinboine engaged in trade with their enemies, such as the Dakota Sioux. Eventually, the Cree began to trade directly with Europeans. In exchange for used European goods, the Cree gave beans, corn, and crafts. The Cree peoples traded with both the French at Lake Superior and the English at Hudson Bay. The English established York Factory, Moose Factory, and Fort Albany after 1670. As early as 1682 post journals record the arrival of 300 canoes with 700 people who came to trade at the York Factory. The Cree traders were reputed to be very shrewd in their bargaining tactics. In one instance, a Cree trader purchased a musket for fourteen prime beaver pelts from the Hudson's Bay Company. He then traded this same musket to the Blackfoot for fifty prime beaver pelts.

Portrait of the Great Fur Trade Canoes