II.

King Beaver

The earliest exchanges along the coast were a casual affair because Western Europeans were less interested in North American furs than in the luxury furs then being imported from Russia. But in the 1580s fashions changed, and European men and women started wearing felt hats with broad stiff brims. The best felt was made by matting together the woolly inner hair of the beaver, an animal that thrived in the numerous ponds and streams of northern North America. As a result, ships began visiting the Atlantic coast and specifically the St. Lawrence River to trade. When the Dutch, English, and French later settled this area, colonists particularly the French settlers in Canada took over this lucrative exchange. Beaver remained the most important fur until silk hats came into style in the 1830s, though the furs of muskrat, mink, marten, and other animals were also sought.

The popular image of the fur trapper is that of a bearded white man in fringed buckskin, but the fur harvest with few exceptions was the work of indigenous peoples. The men hunted the beaver, relying on traditional traps and snares as well as guns and, in recent times, steel traps. Women cleaned, stretched, and preserved the skins. The role of white men was usually restricted to trading and transporting goods; even so, they often depended on the help of country wives, indigenous women whom they married or lived with.

The indigenous peoples used the fur trade to get goods they could not make for themselves. These included metal products, especially pots and cutting tools, but also blankets and decorative items such as glass beads. The fur trade gave them access to European technology without forcing them to abandon their homes or way of life. However, it also exposed them to disease, alcohol addiction, and, in the long run, economic dependency.