Guests share the history of the fur trade, the effects on indigenous peoples

John Payette, White Buffalo Man, spoke about the fur trade from the 1500s to the 1800s and its impact on indigenous nations and settlers at the Tec-We-Gwill Hall in Newton Robinson earlier this month.

He also talked about how the destruction of the beaver population led to changes in the environment that continue today.

Payette is Odawa and a member of the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Indian Reservation. He has a degree in education from Brock University and has worked with youth behaviors in the education system and as a counselor for clients with special needs. He currently resides in Orillia.

He began with an introduction of himself and the indigenous principle of taking only what is necessary.

“Our people have always had the belief that if we’re going to take care of the future, let’s take only what you need and use everything out of respect,” he said.

Throughout the 300 years of the fur trade, Indigenous nations were involved in the trading of goods brought to Canada by the French, British and Dutch.

Payette explained that long before it was discovered by Christopher Columbus, there were several indigenous nations below the St. Lawrence. After many years of war between the southern nations, an oral treaty was reached between these Haudenosaunee peoples – the Treaty of 1142, the Great Law of Peace. The metaphor, One Dish, One Spoon, spoke to the concept that nations can live side by side and not violate each other.

The Wampum Belt confirmed the deal. One of Payette’s presentation slides says, “The Wampum Belt is thought of by Indigenous nations in the same way that we think of the constitution of our government and our Canadian laws.”

Once the Europeans moved into North America, thousands of beavers were killed, skinned and processed to be taken back to Europe to make mostly top hats. According to the Hudson Bay Heritage website, “From the late 16th century to the mid-19th century, beaver hats were an essential aspect of men’s fashion in much of Europe. Not only were they extremely valuable, often treated as a family heirloom passed down from father to son, a hat’s design also denoted an individual’s social status and occupation. Hats were made from a variety of fur felt, but the best quality and most popular felt was made from beaver.”

Payette talked about the nations that were involved in the trade and how the control of land to hunt beaver challenged these ways of being and led to wars between nations, often with the French, Dutch and British.

Killing so many beavers to satisfy a European fashion item has also affected the food chain and areas that depend on beavers to minimize or eliminate flooding.

Payette pointed out that by the end of the Beaver Wars (around the mid-1600s), the many indigenous nations formerly both above and below the St. Lawrence were reduced to only two collective nations: the Confederacy of the Three Fires and the Confederacy of the Six Nations. .

“Other nations were either pushed further west, killed in the beaver wars, died of disease, or absorbed into the conquering nation,” he explained.

When asked by Bradford Today why she feels it’s important for people to understand the history she presents, Payette said: “I was raised to hide my indigeneity, I couldn’t be raised in my father’s customs, traditions and ceremonies. My father’s language was taken from me.

“I now try to allow the legacy I missed to permeate all my thoughts and actions. I do this by studying and researching the complexities of my heritage and passing it on to non-indigenous people so that we can understand each other with compassion and empathy. I am proud to finally have the chance to carry on the teachings and wisdom of my ancestors.” he added.

In addition to his educational presentation, Payette had his fiction novel, Nitam: The first, available for sale that evening. The cover says it is “the story of a disparate trio of Anishinaabe teenagers who find themselves as they try to escape their personal terrors. It soon becomes a spiritual journey of one of those boys, who, through a court sentence and a gathering of unique people and the teaching of his father’s stories, learns the importance of self, others and family.”

Payette is working on his second novel and has three children’s books in the works. A Kindle version of Nitam The First can be found on amazon.ca. For a hard copy or to request a presentation, send an email (email protected).

Payette was hosted by the Tec-We-Gwill Women’s Institute.

Rosaleen Egan is a freelance journalist, storyteller and playwright. She blogs on her website: rosiewrites.com.