In one way, it changed the way they lived, they had better opportunities by selling their stuff to the traders but in the other hand, they were forced to move from their lands because they were forced to leave and abandon their culture. After they started to trade, although they did gain money from selling the furs, some of them were very dependant on the traders which eventually will end up with alcoholism or violence. In the Hudson’s bay video, they mentioned how only people that lived in the reserved and get money, but those who don’t live on the reserved land did not get any money. Moreover, if they went back to the land, there won’t be as much opportunity as there is in the city.
What did they believe they were signing up for in their alliances?
They believed that good things were about to come, they thought that if they sign up for alliance, they would offer protection or trading partners where they could have income from them. In the case of Huron and the Iroquois, if huron didn’t become partners with the traders, iroquois wouldn’t feel threatened and start killing them that nearly wiped the entire community out. In other words, if the europeans did not come to make contact to them, they wouldn’t have wiped out the entire community of huron out, although they did “hated” each other before, but the trade was the reason where they took advantage and decided to fight each other.
How different does the Fur Trade look through Indigenous eyes?
At first, the fur trade was a good trade, until the Europeans started to take even more advantage and wanted more, which is a good thing, but the Indigenous people will fight to have that change to trade furs, it was mentioned in the video that they were paid per fur, almost 500 dollars a year, which is a lot, but at the same time, products that they needed for the household were getting even more expensive, although the lowest income payed even more and the products that were selling fast are normally the most expensive one.