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A New Challenge to the Fur Trade

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A New Challenge to the Fur Trade VOLUME XXXV NO. 2 SPRING 2015 Enter the Americans: A New Challenge to the Fur Trade hile the American entry into the the fur trade in what was to become W fur trade market west of the the Louisiana Purchase (1803) Mississippi River was rather late in its continued unabated to supply the history, it was never the less significant demand in Europe. in many ways. Preceding them by over Trade Goods two hundred years were the Dutch, th Spanish, French, and British trappers From the 13 century onwards the who had several generations of dealing colored glass trade beads found with the Native Americans in the throughout the world were northeast, the Great Lakes region, the manufactured in Venice, Italy. By the upper Missouri area, and the Pacific 1600s glass beads were also being Northwest, as well as the southwestern created in Bohemia (Czech Republic), part of what became the United States. Holland, France, England, and Sweden. The North American continent (and For a short while there was even a to a lesser extent South America) had bead-making industry at Jamestown, long been a source of raw materials for the various, Virginia. Many styles and colors were manufactured, ever-changing, empires of Europe whose resources with different tribes valuing different colors and in timber and furs had been depleted. Looking west designs and trading accordingly. they found a land rich in the many products they Other trade goods made of metal created a needed: timber for ship-building, pelts for the substantial industry throughout Europe, supplying fashions of the moment, and hides for the leather the growing Indian demand for improved substitutes belts that turned the factory wheels of industry. for their tools and containers made of wood, bone, As the ever-growing colonies and subsequent and stone. Some common items were knives, pipes, states continued their westward march, the Natives tomahawks, pots, arrowheads, and decorative items and the wildlife were pushed further on or such as metal beads, tacks, and bells. destroyed. Trade values for beads varied from time and Two of the key hunting targets were the buffalo place. Records show six Hudson Bay-style, two-tone from the upper Missouri River region and the beaver beads traded for one beaver pelt; three pea-sized pelts from the Rocky Mountain West. Whether it light blue beads were exchanged for one finished was under control of the Spanish or French at any pelt; or two larger, transparent blue beads for one th ‘made’ beaver. given time from the 17th to the early 19 century, [Continued on pages 4-5] 2 Mission Statement Preserving and sharing the From the Director’s Desk... heritage of Jackson Hole This issue of the JHHSM Chronicle can readily be Staff summed up as a sneak preview. What have staff been Dr. Sharon Kahin working on while waiting for the snow to melt? Executive Director Brenda Roberts Up first is an exhibit on the early musical traditions Assistant Director and performers in Jackson Hole which will be ready to go Samantha Ford in time for our second Mud Season Blues concert with Director of Historical Research Jackson guitarist and Friend of the Museum, Byron & Outreach st Jenna Thorburn Tomingas on Saturday, March 21 . Next is an exhibit on Curator of Collections Betty Woolsey and the Trail Creek Ranch which opens on Friday, May 22. The Emily Winters first of a series of gallery and online exhibits on the historical ranches of Director of Archives Jackson Hole, Trail Creek is funded in part through the generosity of Natalie Matt Stirn, M.Sc. Archaeology Initiative, Goss, Betty Woolsey’s niece, and in part by the Community Foundation of Community Outreach, Jackson Hole. Youth Education In August, our second ranch exhibit on the R Lazy S Ranch follows on Rebecca Sgouros, M.Sc. th Archaeology Initiative, Tuesday, the 6 . Flat Creek Ranch comes on board in September, with Community Outreach, Triangle X, Bar B C and others planned for the fall and winter. Youth Education “Beaver, Beads and Bullets” an exhibit on the Fur Trade in Jackson Hole, Steve Roberts, DMS II opens next on Saturday, May 23rd at the Indians of the Greater Yellowstone Retail, Visitor Services, Events, Newsletter editor, Marketing Museum (on the corner of Glenwood and Deloney). The fur trade exhibit allows us to expand our Deloney displays by including some of the museum’s Board of Directors traps and other mountain man artifacts, including its exceptional collection of Steve Ashley, President early North American trade beads. Bill Best, Vice President In April, join us for the launch of our month-long of oral history project. Laurent Roux, Treasurer April is a quiet month for visitation so we have decided this would be an Kathi Davis, Secretary Barbara Carlsberg excellent time for us to reach out to the community and invite folks into the Darrel Hoffman museum to share their stories. Bring your scrapbooks and we’ll also scan Matt Turner selections of any photos you might want to share for our archives. If you’re Sara VanGenderen not able to come in town but would still like to participate, just give us a call and one of our trained staff will come to you – along with our digital recorder, video camera, and scanner (for copying photos or other things you might want to share). P. O. Box 1005 Stay tuned, too, for new history stories featured on the museum’s audio 225 N. Cache Street Jackson, WY 83001-1005 tour partnership with Story Clark’s mobile TravelStorysGPs app. And don’t 307-733-2414 forget to mark your calendars for JHHSM’s second annual Western Heritage E-mail: fund raiser on Sunday, August 2nd at the “Grassy Arena” by the rodeo [email protected] grounds. This year we’ve added “archaic arts” as well – bring the whole family Website: and enjoy activities such as an atlatl-throwing contest, flint-knapping and bow www.jacksonholehistory.org -making, as well as log cabin construction, quilting, and other frontier skills. Lead article compiled from: A Primer of the North American Fur Trade, We look forward to seeing you at all of these – please check out our website James Crutchfield; American and at www.jacksonholehistory.org for a more detailed calendar of events and Canadian Fur Trade Facts and Trivia, O. Ned Eddins; Rocky Mountain other museum activities. Rendezvous, Fred Gowans; Wind River Rendezvous, Ron Mamot, et al., St. Stephens Indian Mission; Fur Trade of Sharon Kahin the American West, David Wishart; Fur, Fortune, and Empire, Eric Dolin. 3 COLLECTIONS CORNER JENNA N. THORBURN Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum’s Bead Collection In preparing for our upcoming exhibit on the fur trade in Jackson Hole, I’ve discovered that the museum has quite the bead collection! There are 240 strands of beads in our collection, the majority of which was acquired from John E. Weida in 1988. A master watch-maker and jeweler from Idaho Falls, ID, Weide spent over 30 years studying and collecting Indian trade beads and Native American beadwork. Our collection includes 90 strands of western North American beads, as well as beaded artifacts: there are beads made from French brass, Cornaline d’Aleppo, Hudson Bay and drawn glass beads, as well as hair pipes, beads with Dutch and, of course, Italian ancestry, Padre beads and many more – even one just like those that came West with Lewis and Clark (maybe ours did?). In fact, this is a first class collection. A very small portion of the bead collection has been on display at JHHSM’s Indians of the Greater Yellowstone museum since 2013. However, because the collection is so large and comprehensive, more will be added beginning in May for the opening of the upcoming “Beavers, Beads and Bullets” exhibit. As Curator of Collections, I’ve been sorting and organizing all of the trade beads: the collection is being re-housed in order to better preserve the beads, but I am also sorting it into categories and sub-categories in order to get a better sense of what we have and which strands will fit best with “Beavers, Beads & Bullets”. Categories include shape, color and region or origin. Sub-categories range from “rare” to “skunk” or spotted strands. In addition to trade beads, our upcoming exhibit will include traps, furs, tools, early guns and other artifacts. We are look forward to sharing the new display with the community – especially our exceptional bead collection- which I understand has not been on display for several decades. Do You Know….? With the passage of time and the changing staff at the Museum sometimes the background on an item we have is forgotten, especially if it came to us before we began adding our artifacts into our computer. One such item that we continue to try to discover the origin of is the dugout canoe stored in the Wylie addition behind the cabin at Mercill. If you have any information about it we would love to know more. Please call the office and share your insights so we can update our collections database (307-733-2414). 4 [Continued from page 1] Trading Post on Wheels From the earliest times in the colonization of the North American continent the trading model most often used by the French, British, and Spanish traders was the establishment of trading posts, oftentimes referred to as ‘forts’. This provided a secure and central location, usually along a key waterway or trail network, to encourage the Indians in the region to bring finished furs to trade for the many manufactured goods from Europe that the natives often found enticing and, frequently, a useful replacement for their traditional implements.
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